Real estate speculation

“ When the turn comes and a severe collapse takes place, its effects are extremely disastrous, because, unlike speculation in stocks or commodities, no short selling exists in real estate to temper the fall, and the immobile form of capital makes liquidation impossible. These considerations serve to show the need for great prudence in the purchase of real-estate mortgages. If the investor exercises due care in these particulars, he is reasonably sure of [56] obtaining a very high-grade security; if he neglects these precautions, he may suffer severe loss of principal. ”

“ He may change from one line of business to another, but may not buy or sell real estate for mere speculation. He may not acquire property other than his earnings until he reaches maturity, and designs to marry and become the head of a family. If his intent fail, or remains unfulfilled for three years, the home thus acquired becomes public property, and may be sold to another who assumes the marital relation, and the proceeds divided equally between the municipal treasury or bank and the former owner. ”

“ Powderly’s opinion that no material good can come out of speculation, and thus adding immense wealth in real estate to the country, besides conferring incalculable benefits on trade and commerce, and preparing comfortable homes not only for the pioneers and surplus population of the Eastern States, but a teeming soil that has attracted the down-trodden of every nation to come and partake of the blessings of freedom and prosperity.
One of Jacob Little’s speculative ventures has been rendered historically famous through the rule of limitation of sixty days for option contracts. ”

“ It is cheaper to rent, they find. “Why not keep your money in your business, where you can turn it?” they argue. “Real estate is a poor investment generally,—so hard to sell, when you want to, without a sacrifice.” ”

“ Much more so is this true when the effort is to ascertain the value of real estate in the country, where sales are few, and where the elements which enter into and determine the value are so varied in character. ”

“ Nobody wants you, except the real estate speculator, and he wants you only to empty your light pockets for you, and to leave you to die of cheap plumbing in the poor little sham of a house that he builds to suit your moderate means and his immoderate greed. ”

“ Money was plentiful and easy to borrow, and was invested in all sorts of schemes by which people expected to make fortunes. Millions of acres of the public land were bought and held for a rise in price. Real estate in the cities sold for fabulous prices. Cotton, timber lands in Maine, railroad, canal, bank, and state stocks, and lots in Western towns which had no existence save on paper, all were objects of speculation.
[Illustration: NEW YORK MERCHANT, 1837.] ”

“ With reference to the effect of colored residents on real estate values, there are two points of view. it is asserted, on one hand, that in all cases where the property owner has kept up the improvements and refused to sell to speculators, his real estate has risen in value. ”

“ They know that when that day comes it will not be best for them to have their enormous fortunes in such get-at-able property as real estate, in which so many of the legitimately acquired American fortunes are invested. ”

“ More than once had I seen the values of all city property, improved and unimproved, apparently disappear;—lots without purchasers, and houses without tenants, the community so poor and panic-stricken that real estate became the merest drug. ”

“ While a much longer time might be allowed to assert this right in regard to real estate whose value is fixed, on which no outlay is made for improvement, and but little change in value, the class of property here considered, subject to the most rapid, frequent, and violent fluctuations in value of any thing known as property, requires prompt action in all who hold an option, whether they will share its risks, or stand clear of them. ”

“ His interest leads to an overestimate of the borrower's ability, and cases are not infrequent where appraisers of real estate have been hired by brokers to misrepresent the value of property, for the sake of securing improper loans. ”

“ REAL ESTATE OPERATIONS. Many capitalists have made their fortunes by successful operations in real estate. This must not be classed with speculations in bonds or stocks. Of course, one may be cheated in buying real estate, as well as in any other purchase; but as a general rule, he who invests his money in houses or lands, gets the full value of it. ”

“ To escape it, the owners of every class of property, no matter what their intelligence, their religious professions, or their social standing, resort to every possible subterfuge. With the cries of the tortured fowl ringing in sympathetic ears, complaisant officials refuse to assess real estate, as required by law, at its full value. ”

“ Comparatively little real estate is sold without personal inspection. The exceptions are offerings of low-priced building sites in distant sections of the country. These are sold sight unseen—else, as a rule, they would never be sold at all. But such real estate selling is more apt to be in the class with fake mining stock than with legitimate buying and selling, and therefore has no place here. ”

“ Five years from now those who fail to invest in this class of residence property will be regretting it as keenly as do those now who made the same mistake about $50 and $100 lots five years ago. The increase in real estate values is best shown by the city assessment roll. ”

“ Improvement Company. We’ve decided not to confine ourselves to our flat scheme alone. We’re going to handle big real estate schemes wherever we see anything good enough and big enough to make it worth while. ”

“ People are now flocking in here in considerable numbers, either to settle or to make investments in real estate, in the hope and expectation [Pg 225] of realizing a fortune by the rise in the value of property. We have dally stages from the east and south, and they generally come loaded inside and out to the extent of their capacity. The land-office is crowded both by settlers and speculators eager to enter the choicest lands remaining unsold. ”

“ Real estate—lands, lots and improvements, the foundation of all wealth—has gone down year after year in value, while the mortgages have devoured it, wiping out equities and all that had been paid thereon, and annihilating multitudes of fortunes. ”

“ The value of real estate is increasing in the large cities. The landlords are unwilling to sell unless at an exorbitant price; accordingly, foreigners intending to engage in trade or manufacturing will do well to lease property for long terms, instead of purchasing it. ”

“ That the trustees had full knowledge of the future value of the property and desired to possess themselves of it at the lowest possible price, and therefore determined not to divide by partition, but to sell; and purposely sold at a time when the real-estate market was prostrated, and the building business so depressed that there was no demand for bricks, not withstanding they had ample power to change the time of sale if circumstances rendered it necessary or desirable ”

“ A city which for any reason had to dispose of a parcel of land would find itself safeguarded in some measure by the fact that a large number of its citizens were familiar with real estate values and methods. ”

“ I should like to sell the plot if I could get a purchaser."
"If the Northern Pacific Railroad is ever completed, the land will be valuable," replied the other.
"True; but will it ever be completed? That date will be very remote, I fancy."
"I don't think so. I would buy the land myself if I had the money, but just at present I have none to spare. How much did you invest?"
"A thousand dollars."
"You might sell, perhaps, through a real estate agent?"
"The real estate agents here know very little of Western property. I should not know to whom to apply." ”

“ In the streets are crumbs of gold, but it no longer pays to mine for these; because, as real estate, the property is more valuable. It is a place of fictitious values. There is excitement in the air. Men have the faces of speculators. ”

“ Non-resident property holders have been a source of friction ever since the days of the nobleman who let out his vineyard to husband-men and went into a far country. Harvard University years ago, instead of selling Boston real estate outright, had a policy of letting it on a 99-year lease. ”

“ One instinctively shrinks from making a sketch or memorandum while they are by; and if caught in the act, one fondly hopes to pass for some harmless speculator in real estate, whose pencillings may be only a matter of habit, like those casual sums in compound interest which are usually to be found scrawled on the margins of the daily papers in Boston reading-rooms. ”

“ This mode of selling real estate in the United States is a very common and favorite one, and the principles governing the contract, both in law and equity, are more fully and perfectly settled than in England or any other country. ”

“ Inasmuch as density of population determines land values, it follows that vacant land near a large city at $100 per acre may be cheaper than similar land at a distance would be at $10 per acre. If you buy real estate, you become a silent partner who does nothing, but takes most of the profits of the business of others.
Some persons see so clearly that money is often easily gotten by investing in land, that sometimes they make mistakes, in trying to get in. It is as easy to be a lamb in the real estate market as it is in the stock market. ”

“ Tom said, not wholly in truth.
"The stability of real estate is our prime concern. By unification of our efforts, we have maintained these values over a good many years. But as you know, a good business organization never rests on its laurels. ”

“ Think how you would complicate the real estate business, when you came to turn out the mistaken people who had occupied, improved, and sold your property during your brief absence. Think of the difficulties that would arise from the increase in the size of your families, which would probably have taken place while you were sleeping out in the open air, and for which you would have to provide, although you had not been consulted in the matter. ”

“ In a Real Estate man’s eye, the most exclusive part of the City is wherever he has a House to sell. ”

“ Any snaps?”
“Come off the perch, Phil! You know what I’m gettin’ at. Are you fellows trying to create a slump or some such damned thing?”
“No,––certainly not! That would be poor business for a real-estate agent.”
“Well,––why the devil are you the bear in every transaction you put through? It didn’t used to be that way. Every broker in town’s been buying from you fellows all this year.”
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“Somebody’s got to sell, if there’s to be any buying. Now,––don’t get rattled, Pete. It is up to you. Sell if you want to. Nobody will stop you.” ”

“ We are going to have enormous railroad connections, which are already under construction, and in a few years the value of real estate will rise so much that we need no longer be anxious as to our financial situation. ”

“ Inquiries among real estate men show that they always have a larger demand for small acreage than they can meet, so an immediate market with large profits would await those who are first in this field. ”

“ The scope and character of the firm's business did not extend to the buying and selling of real estate on account of the firm. It had no capital for that purpose, and no arrangements were provided by which it was to be supplied. The profits of the business were drawn and distributed as fast as earned. ”

“ I mean the rent question for the poor, the working people. At the present there is a sad depressing trade all over our country, and even in Europe. Yet, despite this awful depression, I note what is termed real estate is now going up gradually in value. I mean property and land. And that in the midst of this very depression and want of all kinds of labour by our workpeople and manufacturers, and in the midst of a tremendous opposition from our foreign competitors ”

“ Real estate booms come in cycles. Prices go up and men get the fever and buy vacant property. The boom explodes, property goes down and you can't get your money back. The chances are you have bought the property on two or three years' time, and it certainly is paying for a white elephant when you are paying for land that is worth less than what it cost you. You cannot get out, however, because the original payment has already been made, and your only hope is to save something on your investment. ”

“ Whereas, Throughout our entire country the value of real estate is depreciated, industry paralyzed, trade depressed, business incomes and wages reduced, unparalleled distress inflicted upon the poorer and middle ranks of our people, the land filled with fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy, crime, suffering, pauperism, and starvation ”

“ While these institutions loan in the aggregate enormous sums on farm property, their chief field of operations is urban real estate, and particularly the industry of residence, or as we would call it in this country, apartment-house construction. ”

“ City real estate was not subject to the extreme fluctuating processes which so disordered the value of rural land. All of the tendencies and currents of the times favored the building up of an aristocracy based upon ownership of city property. ”

“ Outside capital is invested, outside operatives brought in to turn the place upside down and to bring in all the deviltries that have been invented, and all the town has to show in the long run is a little advance in real estate over the limited area where they want to build houses for the mill-hands. ”