Is gold actually an inflation hedge? Does it need to be?

[swank]

Several traders who OUGHT to know say to stay out of stocks except in a bull market. the rest of the time, you want to be in bullion gold coins, cause the market is just too volatile. Me, I don't see a bull market coming for a while. While I have some gold coins, my main income stream is from rental real estate. there's no money in renting single family homes, you can't begin to make enough money on them, relative to what they cost you. What you want is a big old wood frame house, with lots of big rooms, which you divide in half and rent out to the homeless. there has to be a LARGE population of the homeless, many more than the city's free shelters can support.  And the area has to be cheap in such houses, and you have to have 8 or more months per year of BAD weather to camp out in, cold and hot both.

[MachineGhost]

Several traders who OUGHT to know say to stay out of stocks except in a bull market. the rest of the time, you want to be in bullion gold coins, cause the market is just too volatile. Me, I don't see a bull market coming for a while. While I have some gold coins, my main income stream is from rental real estate. there's no money in renting single family homes, you can't begin to make enough money on them, relative to what they cost you. What you want is a big old wood frame house, with lots of big rooms, which you divide in half and rent out to the homeless. there has to be a LARGE population of the homeless, many more than the city's free shelters can support.  And the area has to be cheap in such houses, and you have to have 8 or more months per year of BAD weather to camp out in, cold and hot both.

Not true.  Section 8.

[l82start]

renting to the homeless and section 8 both come with lots of problems, damages and legal issues...  eviction and tenant law in most states tends to favor the occupant over the property owner, be forewarned it is not easy work i have seen an assistance tenant thrown out of an apartment by his junkie "friends" who took over and turned it into a squat. they did four to five thousand dollars damage in under a week!  the only reason they were able to get them out was (the grace of god) and the police officer who showed up was able to convince them the damage they had done made the apartment an environmental hazard. if it had been any other policeman They could have been looking at a multiple month long eviction process and many times as much damage plus legal costs...

[MachineGhost]

renting to the homeless and section 8 both come with lots of problems, damages and legal issues...  eviction and tenant law in most states tends to favor the occupant over the property owner, be forewarned it is not easy work (i am a property manager) i have seen an assistance tenant thrown out of an apartment by his junkie "friends" who took over and turned it into a squat. they did four to five thousand dollars damage in under a week!  the only reason they were able to get them out was (the grace of god) and the police officer who showed up was able to convince them the damage they had done made the apartment an environmental hazard. if it had been any other policeman They could have been looking at a multiple month long eviction process and many times as much damage plus legal costs...

It seems to me they need to improve their background checking procedures before leasing to anyone.  Not every homeless person or section 8 recipient is a loser.  Think of it quantitatively and you'll soon figure out who to avoid ever renting to.

[l82start]

they actually do a fairly deep background check, part of the problem is most are in recovery from something, so you flip the coin and hope the ones you get, are not the ones that fall back into what ever mess got them in trouble to begin with. there are some that show signs and we do avoid them, others can be fine for years and unexpectedly become a horror over night.

the other factor is economics, renting is a business and overhead and mortgages etc must get paid, so sometimes you are forced to lower the standards and take people you ordinarily wouldn't. i don't see the profit/loss details but most of the time in that situation the income will be more than the losses but the work load and hassle factor goes WAY up.