How to gain "investment" experience

From the Wall Street Journal, we have Speculators helped fuel Florida housing boom.

NAPLES, Fla. — In 2005, this once-sleepy retirement haven on Florida's west coast was arguably the hottest housing market in the country.

Builders held lotteries to determine who could purchase homes in new gated communities. In the older neighborhoods, buyers were snapping up modest ranch houses and cottages soon after they were listed for sale. The median home price more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, to about $482,400.

Such a crescendo of activity might have prompted some to pull back. But plenty of investors, who purchased homes to rent or flip, continued to buy and sell through the height of the boom. One of them was Marjorie Dresner. The Canadian native believed that Naples, with its laid-back, balmy atmosphere, would long be an attractive market. A prolific investor, she purchased dozens of houses in recent years, many of them with a partner. One of them cost her $1.7 million.

In late October, Ms. Dresner tried auctioning off 28 of her properties, but some bids were as much as 40 percent lower than what she paid. One three-bedroom ranch house she purchased in July 2005 in the middle-class Lake Park neighborhood fetched a high bid of $400,000; Ms. Dresner and a partner paid $690,000 for the house, according to county records.

Ms. Dresner won't talk much about her investment experience, but prefers to focus on the positive. "I did very well in the beginning," she says. "I look at the overall picture. You don't just look at one year."

Yes, you don't look at it when you've lost your proverbial pants. You look at the "overall picture" which still looks negative to me!

Mr. Krecicki says he met Ms. Dresner a few months after he sold her his home on 10th Avenue in Lake Park in September 2004 for $435,000, more than double what he paid for it.

After that deal, Mr. Krecicki served as her real-estate agent on multiple sales in Lake Park. Soon after homes went on the market, "Marjorie was on the top of my list" to call, he says.

Ms. Dresner says she was growing tired of the burdens of being a landlord. Many of her properties were listed for sale in early 2006, but some were slow to move. In late October, she tried a new tactic and auctioned off the houses.

Mr. Krecicki says he went to the auction out of curiosity and jumped into the bidding when he saw the low prices. "After about two hours, a house came up for bid that I knew very well," Mr. Krecicki recounted in a monthly newsletter he distributes, called the Lake Park Journal.

"I looked at my friend next to me with a bidding card and check in his hand and asked him, 'Aren't you going to bid on this one? C'mon, man, 50/50 split. Bid on this one.'"

They put up the highest bid, which was $275,000.

First he sold the house to her for double the price, and then he bought it again from her at auction at half the price!

And each time, he pocketed the transaction fee as realtor too, and on 27 other houses as well.

Fuckin' awesome!!!

A fool and her money are soon parted!