I went into 2020 with believe that this was going to be the year of vision and with a positive outlook. Boy was I wrong on that one.

So as we are a couple of weeks before the election- I understand that opportunities will depend on who wins the upcoming election. I would like to ask the question now before we know the outcome.....and maybe again in late December:

What opportunities do you see in 2021?

I'm not a numerology person or anything but ever since I won my first game of LIFE against my older brothers and sisters back in the day betting it all on certain numbers, I do tend to like numbers that end in 5 or 0. Plus it's easier to do the math.

So I really hoped 2020 would be a GREAT year.

And actually for us it's been not a bad one. New grandson, all kids and older grandkids have their jobs and most work from home, no one has gotten too sick. Lots of setbacks but nothing crushing. More hope than despair for us personally.

One day last fall I was outside filling bird feeders. It's peaceful and tranquil and I get "messages". Someone I could not see, said to me "there are too many Chinese people and we have to do something about it". Well, yes that is obvious in general but now that I see what happened, it makes me wonder. Did someone "do" the pandemic? Or does this just mean too many sick Chinese would be travelling here and someone would have to "do" something about that which "T" did.

So I never mentioned this to anyone as it was not specific enough, well, I did tell my tenant friends. She knows.

I think that regardless of the outcome in November, we LLs are going to lose more & more control over how we conduct our business. IMO not only does "Big Brother" want to share more & more with our hard earned success when we finally try to cash out but they are going to do even more to try to prevent us from getting a decent return on our investments & for our hard work.

It's a good time to stock pile some cash.

I can see MFH taking a hit this upcoming year as all the non-payments start hitting peoples bottom line in 2020 tax returns. As such, I see buying opportunities in the multi-family world.

How will I capitalize on that trend?

I will be eyeing mobile home parks as they are as affordable as they get in terms of housing around here. We don't have many condos built so they fill that niche. It wasn't that long ago where these were sold at about $9,000 per pad. Those days are long gone.

I disagree with the opening premise. My opportunities do NOT depend on who wins the election. They depend on me! I will adapt based on any changes made by our govt.

2020 has actually been a pretty good year for us. We opened up a four-unit that offered furnished housing for short-term workers. The first few weeks were slow, but it's been pretty near full occupancy ever since. Our personal AirBnb has been filled to capacity, first with stranded Chinese students and then travelers wanting to avoid hotels. Our renters have all paid on time, we sold one of our rentals for top dollar, and the one property we had to take back from a flipper is about ready to go on the market and should bring us about $20K more than we would have gotten if the flipper had just paid us back.

In a SWOT analysis, Strengths and Weaknesses are things you can control. Where Opportunities and Threats are things you can not change but you should keep track of.

Let me provide an example of one play I have made during the past 30 days.

Natural gas prices have been rather stable since about 2009. That window of price shifts has been rather narrow since 2015. I picked up some specific OGM rights on a set of known performing wells that will be operational for about another 30 years.

If prices stay stable as they have been with the current president, my yield will be between 8-14% and will require nothing at all for me to do.

If the challenger gets elected, he has proposed a ban on future fracking. I believe that will make current production worth considerably worth more.

Where the value of these plays really doesn't increase, the dividend that they offer may increase significantly.

I'm betting by spring you will begin to see a significant portion of the population vaccinated that will begin to move things back to normal. However, things like airlines are just now laying off lots of folks with predictions that they will not rehire for at least a year. Coupled with the pent up months worth of foreclosures, and potential corporate tax increases, I expect the economy will take a hit in 2021. I'm ready to pick up some more units as it bottoms out which may not be until late in the year or perhaps 2022. The only positive is that material prices will cause some building starts will be delayed keeping new inventory low, I don't know how long that will last though if the market does take a hit.

I'm not convinced the fleeing of the cities is a long-term trend. People have about a 6 month memory, there is a significant draw for the social amenities of cities, especially for the young. That could be an opportunity if you believe it's a short-term trend. It should become clearer by late next year.

I am hoping to be able to buy more property.

6x6 they have always been our most profitable flips that get listed on an auction/mls style listing. Off market are by far the most profitable, but the USDA ones are almost always home runs. They are lost by low income owners with mortgages backed by USDA loans. They are thoroughly inspected by USDA as part of the buying process so they are often not very trashed.

Most of the time they are cookie cutter 3/2 ranch houses that I can remodel and flip with my eyes closed. USDA foreclosures are the cream of the crop in my opinion.

That combined with the moratorium on federally backed foreclosure should cause a tsunami of these foreclosures when things reopen.

Thank you NE.