Quote from ByLoSellHi:
If you have cash and can prove you will pay 100% of the closing price in cash, you can buy pristine real estate, residential, commercial, office and other, for 10 to 20 cents on the dollar, in most parts of the country.
Few people have the kind of cash needed to buy higher end properties, and the overwhelming question is, are you buying it to use it, or are you buying it to speculate?
Factor in the carrying/maintenance cost into the initial purchase price, also, as this can represent a significant additional expense that rivals that initial price, over a period of years.
Did you know that trophy properties are silently being taken back by banks and lenders so as to avoid bad publicity?
I'm speaking of properties that everyone here would recognize by name, and the borrowers have defaulted on the underlying note, and there has been a commercial workout, in some cases allowing the borrower/debtor to extinguish their debt and in other cases, they aren't so lucky.
The last trophy property to be taken back this way was when Harry Macklowe turned over the keys to the GM Building in NY to his bank, and ever since then, things have been kept on the Q.T.