Friday, January 27, 2023
Chuck Marunde, J.D., Broker/Owner 360-775-5424


iRealty Virtual Brokers


Broker/Consultant

Washington State

SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • Search MLS
    • Sequim MLS
    • Sequim MLS Map Search
    • Port Angeles MLS
    • Port Townsend MLS
    • San Juan Islands MLS
    • All Islands MLS
    • How to Search the Sequim MLS
  • Videos
    • Sequim Videos Q&A
    • Buyer Videos Part 1
    • Buyer Videos Part 2
    • Buyer Videos Part 3
    • Buyer Videos Part 4
    • Living in Sequim Video Channel
  • Books
    The Coming Real Estate Crash

    The Coming Real Estate Crash

    The Sequim Real Estate Trilogy

    The Sequim Real Estate Trilogy

    Sequim Real Estate Videos for Buyers: The Ultimate Video Guide for Sequim Washington

    Sequim Real Estate Videos for Buyers: The Ultimate Video Guide for Sequim Washington

    Escaping California to the San Juan Islands

    Escaping California to the San Juan Islands

    Get Healthy

    Get Healthy: Increase Natural Immunities, Cellular Energy, Deep Sleep & Decrease Blood Pressure

    Manage Your Energy

    Manage Your Energy Not Your Time

    Real Estate Brokerage From Bricks and Mortar to High Tech Virtuality

    Real Estate Brokerage From Bricks and Mortar to High Tech Virtuality

    7 Myths of Selling Your Home

    7 Myths of Selling Your Home

    Buying Your Retirement Home

    Buying Your Retirement Home

    The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents

    The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents

    Sequim Real Estate For Buyers: Free eBook Updates Forever

    Sequim Real Estate For Buyers: Free eBook Updates Forever

    24 Secrets of Buying a Country Home

    24 Secrets of Buying a Country Home

    Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide

    Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide

    Living Off The Grid iin Alaska

    Living Off The Grid in Alaska

    Buying and Selling Real Estate

    Buying and Selling Real Estate

    Trending Tags

      • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
      • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
      • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
      • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
      • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
      • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
      • Buying Your Retirement Home
      • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
    • Agents
      Marunde Google

      Chuck Marunde on Google

      Flat Fee Listing Broker

      Flat Fee Listing Broker

      Buyers Agent Chuck Marunde

      Buyer’s Agent Chuck Marunde

      Trending Tags

        • Buyers Agent Chuck Marunde
        • Flat Fee Listing Broker
        • Google Profile & Leave Reviews
      Tetralogy
      No Result
      View All Result
      • Login
      • Register
      • Home
      • Search MLS
        • Sequim MLS
        • Sequim MLS Map Search
        • Port Angeles MLS
        • Port Townsend MLS
        • San Juan Islands MLS
        • All Islands MLS
        • How to Search the Sequim MLS
      • Videos
        • Sequim Videos Q&A
        • Buyer Videos Part 1
        • Buyer Videos Part 2
        • Buyer Videos Part 3
        • Buyer Videos Part 4
        • Living in Sequim Video Channel
      • Books
        The Coming Real Estate Crash

        The Coming Real Estate Crash

        The Sequim Real Estate Trilogy

        The Sequim Real Estate Trilogy

        Sequim Real Estate Videos for Buyers: The Ultimate Video Guide for Sequim Washington

        Sequim Real Estate Videos for Buyers: The Ultimate Video Guide for Sequim Washington

        Escaping California to the San Juan Islands

        Escaping California to the San Juan Islands

        Get Healthy

        Get Healthy: Increase Natural Immunities, Cellular Energy, Deep Sleep & Decrease Blood Pressure

        Manage Your Energy

        Manage Your Energy Not Your Time

        Real Estate Brokerage From Bricks and Mortar to High Tech Virtuality

        Real Estate Brokerage From Bricks and Mortar to High Tech Virtuality

        7 Myths of Selling Your Home

        7 Myths of Selling Your Home

        Buying Your Retirement Home

        Buying Your Retirement Home

        The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents

        The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents

        Sequim Real Estate For Buyers: Free eBook Updates Forever

        Sequim Real Estate For Buyers: Free eBook Updates Forever

        24 Secrets of Buying a Country Home

        24 Secrets of Buying a Country Home

        Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide

        Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide

        Living Off The Grid iin Alaska

        Living Off The Grid in Alaska

        Buying and Selling Real Estate

        Buying and Selling Real Estate

        Trending Tags

          • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
          • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
          • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
          • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
          • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
          • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
          • Buying Your Retirement Home
          • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
        • Agents
          Marunde Google

          Chuck Marunde on Google

          Flat Fee Listing Broker

          Flat Fee Listing Broker

          Buyers Agent Chuck Marunde

          Buyer’s Agent Chuck Marunde

          Trending Tags

            • Buyers Agent Chuck Marunde
            • Flat Fee Listing Broker
            • Google Profile & Leave Reviews
          No Result
          View All Result
          iRealty Virtual Brokers
          No Result
          View All Result
          Home Real Estate v. Stock Market

          The Perfect Storm

          Chuck Marunde by Chuck Marunde
          January 5, 2009
          Reading Time: 4 mins read
          0 0
          5

          Stock Market and Real EstateThe uncertainties in the real estate market are part of a much bigger picture of concern for most Americans.   This has to be one of the most interesting, uncertain, and scary economic times we have lived in for a couple of decades.   Millions of Americans are looking for answers to difficult questions, such as:

          1.   Is my retirement fund safe in the stock market (mutual funds)?
          2.   Are my other investments in cash accounts and investment accounts safe?
          3.   Should I convert more of my long term investments to real estate?
          4.   What’s going to happen to the mortgage market?
          5.   What will the real estate market do in the next year?   Should I buy?   Should I sell now?

          My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that real estate is 100 times safer than mutual funds or stocks managed by strangers on Wall Street and largely controlled by exogenous variables over which you have no control.   Despite the craziness in the mortgage market, the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the record foreclosures across the country, individual real estate owned by you cannot disappear, nor is it subject to the number one threat to your financial security.   What is that threat?  

          I wrote about it in an article last December entitled, “Real Estate vs. Stock as an Investment.”

          Almost daily I see articles in newspapers around the country about more scandals, another stock brokerage, financial services provider, or mutual fund paying some extraordinary penalty or huge settlement for fraud, misrepresentation, or some other criminal violations. The Wall Street Journal reported on August 29, 2006 serious problems at Ameriprise, formerly known as American Express Financial Advisors. Securities America, an arm of Ameriprise, settled for $22 million dollars.   [Many firms are implicated in serious fraud or criminal violations, such as:]

          AES, Duke Energy, El Paso, Merrill Lynch, Reliant Energy, Rite Aid, Parmalat, AOL Time Warner, Dollar General, PNC Bank, Cendant, Citigroup, Computer Associates, General Electric, ImClone, Peregrin, Xerox, Bristol Myers, HPL, JP Morgan Chase, Kmart, Lucent, MicroStrategy, Network Associates, Tyco, Enron, Global Crossing, Halliburton, Omnimedia, Merck, Qwest, Sunbeam, and there are many more, including major accounting firms and major stock brokerage houses. The losses associated with these companies is in the billions. These are losses suffered by millions of hard working Americans. These losses have nothing to do with a market that turned down. These losses have nothing to do with our economy or investing principles. These are losses people have suffered because of corporate and accounting fraud. How good does the stock market look now? Dell lost $50 billion dollars in market value in a single day, because quarterly profits did not make expectations. In the same day’s news, KPMG was in court for the largest accounting fraud in U.S. history. How safe is your retirement fund?

          Since I wrote that article almost a year ago, the stories have continued to come out of Wall Street almost daily.   It is absolutely astonishing.   There are so many of these types of stories, we have actually become nonplussed when a new story is published.   We don’t even see them in the paper, and when we do, our eyes glaze over.

          Update 1/5/09:   USA Today reports that “Some companies aren’t just seeing their credit dry up.   Now they’re losing their ticker symbols.   In the latest strain on companies already struggling to borrow, a swelling number are being delisted from stock exchanges.   This is taking the capital drought to a new level, because delisted companies may have even more trouble raising money. . . . This year, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market have delisted 129 companies for violating listing standards.”   Struggling Comapnies Fall Off the Stock Map, USA Today, 12/19/08, page B1.

          Consider that real estate cannot go “poof” and just disappear on you.   Neither can your home or your rentals fall off the end of the earth because of fraud.   We are also near the bottom of a 30-year historical low in mortgage interest rates.   Add to all of this one more extraordinary circumstance that is unique in time:   we are in one of the strongest buyer’s markets we have ever seen.

          This is the perfect storm, a convergence of numerous unrelated (and related) events, all powerful, all dangerous, all with the potential to create devastating results.   Where do you want your financial future?   Your choices are not going to give you warm fuzzies.   The choices are probably better thought of as the lesser of multiple evils.

          The safest place to place your money, your investments, your future, in my humble opinion, is in single family residences.   If you are buying a home for yourself, that could be an existing home or a new home, maybe it’s your retirement home.   Those are good choices, but I do not think the stock market is a   safe place right now for the average hard worker.   It’s a place for sharks, speculators, and professionals.   Would you trust your entire nest egg, or even a large portion of it, with sharks, speculators, and professionals on the other side of the country?

          Of course, as comedian Dennis Miller likes to say, “I could be wrong.”   If you are a professional money manager, or Registered Financial Advisor, you are welcome to post a contrary comment here to help educate your clients and the public.

          Last Updated on January 5, 2009 by Chuck Marunde

          Tags: Real Estate Investing
          ShareTweet
          Chuck Marunde

          Chuck Marunde

          Chuck grew up in remote Alaska, graduated from the University of Alaska with a degree in Economics and Teacher Certification, and after teaching high school for two years, went to law school at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He served four years as a Captain and JAG in the USAF at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. After practicing real estate law for 20 years in Washington, Chuck founded iRealty Virtual Brokers covering Sequim and the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. He is the author of 2,200 real estate articles and a dozen real estate books, and he produced over 100 real estate videos. Chuck combined his love for real estate and technology to create a massive Internet presence, and his articles and videos and books have been viewed by millions. Chuck is a well recognized real estate expert and his counsel is sought by other brokers and practicing attorneys around the country. Buyers from New York to Hawaii and from Florida to Alaska seek him out to retain him as their buyer's agent, and home owners around the State of Washington seek him out because of his new Flat Fee Listing Service. 

          Related Posts

          Real Estate v. Stock Market

          Is A Double Dip Recession On The Horizon?

          July 27, 2012
          0
          Real Estate v. Stock Market

          Those Wall Street Tokers

          October 15, 2012
          0
          Real Estate v. Stock Market

          Real Estate or the Stock Market?

          December 19, 2013
          0
          Real Estate v. Stock Market

          Cash is King, Stock is Not, Real Estate is a Buy

          October 22, 2008
          1
          Real Estate v. Stock Market

          Buy Real Estate For Your IRA Retirement Fund

          October 19, 2008
          0
          Real Estate v. Stock Market

          Words of Encouragement for the Real Estate Market and Economy

          October 20, 2008
          1
          Next Post

          Horse Riding in Robin Hill Park in Sequim WA

          Sequim Real Estate Agents

          Comments 5

          1. leah says:
            14 years ago

            Excellent points here. I am really fan of your blog. Thanks for your writing and I hope you never stop.

            Reply
          2. ErickMcG Remodeling & Renovation says:
            13 years ago

            Some of the biggest personal fortunes made during the Great Depression were in real estate. There will be some opportunity during this uncertain time for personal fortune as well. Investing in real estate in a hands-on way can make that happen for many.

            Homeowners can save a lot of money by educating themselves on the building remodeling process before hiring a contractor. This will help them communicate clearly with their construction professional and get the best value on the project.

            Reply
          3. James says:
            13 years ago

            It would seem at the present moment the person without knowledge would choose an FDIC insured savings account (finding the best savings rates of course.) over any of the investment options listed above both property and stocks are very unstable.

            Reply
          4. Richard Linder says:
            13 years ago

            This stock markets keeps on going down and up. Therefore they are called uncertain. If we would be able to predict them, then we would be millionaires.

            Reply
          5. Toronto Home Renovation says:
            13 years ago

            Very interesting. With all the volatility in the markets lately there is a lot of opportunities if you are a trader or someone who takes short to medium term positions.

            If you are a regular investor though, all this volatility can be scary and extremely confusing but sometimes the best times to buy are the scariest.

            Reply

          Leave a Reply Cancel reply

          Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

          I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

          This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

          "I wish I read this before selling my
          home. I could have saved $50,000." Andy 

          Search 2,200 Articles by Category

          • Trending
          • Comments
          • Latest
          Buyer and Seller

          What if a Buyer and Seller Talk to Each Other?

          August 5, 2022
          Prorate Propane

          How to Prorate Propane at Closing

          August 15, 2015
          Terminate a real estate contract

          How to Terminate a Real Estate Contract

          December 31, 2020

          The Sequim Blue Hole – A Map of Rainfall

          September 1, 2019
          print newspapers

          Print Newspapers Losing Readers to the Internet

          42
          Buyer and Seller

          What if a Buyer and Seller Talk to Each Other?

          32
          FNMA Killing Transactions by Requiring Private Road Maintenance Agreements

          FNMA Killing Transactions by Requiring Private Road Maintenance Agreements

          31

          What Documents Does a Buyer Need to Buy Real Estate?

          24
          Seattle Real Estate Market in Decline

          Seattle Real Estate Market in Dramatic Decline

          December 22, 2022
          Buying a home

          Buyers Must Be More Cautious Than Ever

          December 7, 2022
          Flat Fee Listing Service

          Sellers Chase the Market Down Once Again

          December 10, 2022
          Sequim homes

          Sequim Homes Sold Recently

          October 22, 2022

          Subscribe to Chuck 
          Marunde's Newsletter

          Popular Stories

          • Buyer and Seller

            What if a Buyer and Seller Talk to Each Other?

            0 shares
            Share 0 Tweet 0
          • How to Prorate Propane at Closing

            0 shares
            Share 0 Tweet 0
          • How to Terminate a Real Estate Contract

            0 shares
            Share 0 Tweet 0
          • The Sequim Blue Hole – A Map of Rainfall

            0 shares
            Share 0 Tweet 0
          • Why is Sequim One Of The 10 Best Places To Retire?

            0 shares
            Share 0 Tweet 0

          Leaving Comments   I hope you’ll join our community and leave comments from time to time. Please realize that comments, if approved, will be public, so do not use any personal information you don’t want broadcast to the world, and definitely don’t leave a phone number. Comments are not the place to ask Chuck Marunde for help in finding a home. To do that, call or text Chuck.

          Neither Chuck Marunde nor iRealty Virtual Brokers offers legal advice on this site. Please Read Our Legal Disclaimer

          If you’d like to view how we protect your privacy, see our Privacy Policy.

          iRealty Virtual Brokers

          iRealty Virtual Brokers reaches out to buyers around the United States with thousands of online articles, MLS sites, apps, real estate books, videos, and much more specifically to help buyers find all the answers to their questions. We also now offer a flat fee commission listing service that saves sellers tens of thousands of dollars.

          iRealty Virtual Brokers
          125 Olympic Ranch Ln
          Sequim, Washington 98382
          360-775-5424

          Search the entire NWMLS in Washington State:

          Sequim-Homes.com

          The largest independent real estate blog in the State of Washington with over 2,200 articles totally focused on our client’s best interest, their needs and their curiosity. All free and 100% reliable. I’m here if you need me, 

          © 2006-2022 iRealty Virtual Brokers and Chuck Marunde

          No Result
          View All Result
          • Home
          • Search MLS
            • Sequim MLS
            • Sequim MLS Map Search
            • Port Angeles MLS
            • Port Townsend MLS
            • San Juan Islands MLS
            • All Islands MLS
            • How to Search the Sequim MLS
          • Videos
            • Sequim Videos Q&A
            • Buyer Videos Part 1
            • Buyer Videos Part 2
            • Buyer Videos Part 3
            • Buyer Videos Part 4
            • Living in Sequim Video Channel
          • Books
            • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
            • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
            • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
            • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
            • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
            • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
            • Buying Your Retirement Home
            • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
          • Agents
            • Buyers Agent Chuck Marunde
            • Flat Fee Listing Broker
            • Google Profile & Leave Reviews
          • Login
          • Sign Up

          © 2006-2022 iRealty Virtual Brokers and Chuck Marunde

          Welcome Back!

          Login to your account below

          Forgotten Password? Sign Up

          Create New Account!

          Fill the forms bellow to register

          *By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
          All fields are required. Log In

          Retrieve your password

          Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

          Log In
          This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.