Today Youngster fans are in for a treat.  We have the pleasure to interview Stewart Hsu, an ex-Silicon Valley High Tech Pro turned Real Estate Entrepreneur.
 

Profile of Stewart Hsu: Born and raised in NY, Stewart attended university in the Mid-West, and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998.  Three “start-ups” later, Stewart realized he could not depend on an IPO to create his wealth, so he committed to taking full responsibility for his own results.  Since then, Stewart has invested in over 15 properties in 6 states over the last 3 and half years.  His latest transaction is a 60-unit apartment building in Dallas, TX.  Stewart has 3 passions in life 1) investing in real estate, 2) continuous personal development and 3) sharing his experiences and insights with people.  Stewart’s working on sharing those ideas on his website www.stewarthsu.com to be launched May 2007, come check it out.
 

Interview begins:

Youngster:   Welcome to Youngster Inc Stewart! 

Stewart:  Thank you Youngster Inc.  Hello everyone!   

Youngster:   Stewart, can you tell our youngsters a little bit of your success highlights?   What have you done since you left the Silicon High Tech world?

Stewart:  I successfully owning and/or operating over 15 properties in 6 states; buying and running a 60-unit apartment building in Dallas, TX.  Have a great relationship with my business & life partner, Edith, whom I couldn’t have even done the half of it without.

Youngster:   Wow… impressive.  So… tell us why Real Estate?

Stewart:  Superior Returns with Great Leverage.  Real estate is a true asset that banks will lend you money on.  Banks won’t lend you money on a stock portfolio.  Leverage means you can put down 10% to 30% of the price of the real estate, and the bank will lend you the other 70% to 90% in order to purchase the property.  Because of this great leverage it’s not uncommon for you to achieve annual returns of 20%+ on your cash invested.  I’ve done deals where I exceeded an annual return of 100%.  It’s phenomenal.

Youngster:   It’s cool…but is real estate really safe?

Stewart:  Real Estate is definitely safe.  Imagine even if you over pay at the purchase for real estate, if you can hold on to it long enough, you’ll still make money on it in the long run.  You need to do your homework to ensure you’re buying in growth areas.  All you have to do is buy where there will be job and population growth; typically the people follow where the jobs go, so focus on jobs.  It’s not uncommon for a stock price to drop by 20% in a day vs. for real estate it’s rare for it to drop by 20% in a year.  Real estate is one of the few products that everyone uses every day.  Think about it, every store, every house, every gas station, etc.  Real estate has always been around and will be around for as long as I can tell.

Youngster:   I have never thought about real estate that way…… But how about the heavy tax?

Stewart: The IRS is on your side.  Seriously, there are a number of tax incentives the IRS provides for the person that purchases investment real estate.  Though these benefits, the IRS is actually encouraging you to own investment real estate. Did you know there are actually more tax benefits for owning investment real estate vs. the home you live in?  Also, since a real estate investment is treated like a business, it’s perhaps one of the easiest businesses to get started in. Anyone can do it and you’re never too young to start.  I’ve met people in their early-teens buying property; I’ll admit I wish I had started that young!

Youngster:   Early-teens buying properties?  Wow… YoungsterInc would love to interview them. J  That is great inspiration for our other youngsters here!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 8:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.