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Balboa
ParticipantDoes anyone actually get this lowest daily rate? Right this moment we are filling out a loan docs and the stated rate is 4%. We do need a bit of special handling because we have shortened contingencies and may do a 21-day close. But we also have 20% down on a conforming loan with 800+ credit scores. Seems like we’d be good candidates for the best rate possible…
Balboa
ParticipantNot completely on point, but this was an interesting article in the NYT today: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?_r=0
Kettle bells seem all the rage, though form is key. My husband plays badminton. A couple of my friends love boxing. I feel like those things have the added bonus of requiring us to learn something new. We all know generally what running is like and whether we want to do several hours of it a week.
I’ve given up trying to workout after work. My workday spans at least 9 hours and my commute home is 45-55 minutes and is so stultifying (punctuated by moments of sheer terror, as the saying goes) that I have no momentum after it. I just started seeing a personal trainer last month and do it on my lunch hour. I do intervals on the treadmill at the office gym once a week and usually one weekend workout. I work a desk job — I doubt I’d want to use a break from manual labor to run on a tread mill (which is terribly boring on top of everything else).
Balboa
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=Balboa]CloSYS mouth rinse has really helped my gums. It’s not cheap, but I buy it on Amazon in 32 oz. bottles and only use 1 oz. at a time instead of the recommended 2 oz. I think you can also get it at some drug stores and Walmarts in nicer areas. (There was a whole thing about Walmart wanting to carry it and the company that makes it debating whether they could/should scale up for that, especially when it would be competing with much cheaper options on the shelves.)[/quote]
What is inside cloSYS?
Oftentimes the active ingredient is just peroxide or other simple common ingredients.
People often are taken by marketing and believe whatever they are using is “super duper proprietary stuff”.[/quote]Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide. The product is free of alcohol, dyes and flavoring (it comes with an optional packet), which doesn’t fit the mold of what most people think of or buy when it comes to mouthwash. I like it, I don’t like peroxide, which tends to dry my mouth out a little more.
Scaredy, if you are using a rinse, consider asking your dentist for a monoject syringe so you can make sure the liquid is getting to rear pocketing areas.
Balboa
ParticipantCloSYS mouth rinse has really helped my gums. It’s not cheap, but I buy it on Amazon in 32 oz. bottles and only use 1 oz. at a time instead of the recommended 2 oz. I think you can also get it at some drug stores and Walmarts in nicer areas. (There was a whole thing about Walmart wanting to carry it and the company that makes it debating whether they could/should scale up for that, especially when it would be competing with much cheaper options on the shelves.)
Balboa
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=yamashi1] The one thing you are correct about though is the “pay their dues” theory. Like I said before, we are results oriented people who believe in a just and meritocratic society. We believe that you don’t deserve a job because of the color of your skin, the amount of gray hair you have, or the amount of hours you sit in front of your computer. We believe in the bottom line, how much $ you bring into the company, how much impact you have to the bottom line. [/quote]
My observation is millennials also care about social justice and the environment. They care about what they eat and how they consume. Maybe they don’t care all the much to become activists, but the right message of compassion is important.[/quote]
I identify with a kinder, gentler millennial identity. I don’t think that “face time,” age, seniority, etc. are necessarily indicative of value in the workplace. By the same turn — demonstrated in this very thread — concepts of meritocracy are subjective and can run very far afield of what I would consider just, in the office and in the larger community.
Balboa
ParticipantI’m in a different geographic part of the market, but a somewhat similar boat. Some odd things have happened on our last offers:
House is listed at $550k. Asking price drops two days later to $500k. I offer $535k and am told the competitive offers are coming in over $570k. I understand you want broad exposure to get the best price for your client, but, in this market, there is no need to invite the people in the $450-500k range to what turns out to be a “high fives” party. I feel bad for those people, what a waste of their time and their hopes! For me, I just didn’t want to spend that money in that area.
I did offer offer more than $570k in another neighborhood, just shy of asking, and lost. It appears that house is going to sell for at least as much — or more — than an objectively better house sold for on the same street six weeks earlier. The other house was bigger, had a better lay out, had more bedrooms, and was “north of Adams” on a better lot with with no apartment complex behind it.
Comps are irrelevant in my neighborhoods right now. And though there are some cute and affordable places about 5-10 miles east, I already commute 45+ minutes each way and can’t justify more.
Interestingly, the SFR places that stay on the market near me tend to be flips. The improvements are all cosmetic, so the buyer doesn’t get to pick out the finishes. The listing price is so high you couldn’t afford to change any of it, and you still have to worry about crappy original plumbing and electrical, or crappy new plumbing and electrical.
Balboa
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]
You can gift the maximum in shares to your kids every year, tax free, before the shares appreciate. That’s why rich people send $14,000 gifts to all their kids and grandkids every year.[/quote]
Slightly more nuanced: You typically don’t have to start paying taxes on gifts you give until after you’ve already given out about $5.5 million.
The $14,000 figure is the amount you can give someone in one year without notifying the IRS of the gift — meaning that $14,000 isn’t counted against the $5.5 million lifetime maximum exemption. And you can give a $14,000 gift each year to as many people as you want and still not report it.
If you’re married, you can give $14,000 to someone and your spouse can give another $14,000 to the same person that year — still no reporting. It can be from the same account, even — just different people signing the checks.
But if you don’t care about having to to submit the IRS form or you have a mere $5MM to give, you could give it all to me tomorrow and still not pay taxes. PM for account and routing numbers. 🙂
December 18, 2015 at 7:50 PM in reply to: Landlord asking to be “additional insured” on renter’s policy #792708Balboa
ParticipantThanks everyone, and special thanks to Flu for making the call I don’t have time for! I confirms my sense of where things *should* stand.
I think I’ll get the renter’s insurance, but I am not doing the “additional insured” bit, even if I were to go with a carrier that offered it. If landlord insists, he’ll have to pony up the documents that show my non-compliance would violate my lease, i.e. raise his rates or cause him to lose coverage.
My lease also gives me the option of covering the cost of his higher premium, if there is one, instead of insuring myself. If that’s cost effective for the renter, I would be blown away.
The other thing that’s curious is whether he actually has this new carrier yet or not — if it’s the carrier that is requiring insurance and additional insured status, wouldn’t they require proof before the policy took effect?
For a law office, the language is terribly imprecise. For example, I’m pretty sure you can’t “renew” a policy with a new carrier. They could be using “additional insured” incorrectly, too.
Thanks as always! (Maybe this will be my last rental…)
December 16, 2015 at 1:02 AM in reply to: Landlord asking to be “additional insured” on renter’s policy #792580Balboa
ParticipantThat’s my thinking, Flyer. The insurance isn’t totally objectionable, but this “additional insured” business leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I did just re-re-read the lease, and I do have an obligation to comply with requests that prevent landlord from losing insurance and/or that avoid an increase in premiums…I guess if I really wanted to go to the mat, I’d ask for documentation from the carrier that shows the premium situation and exactly what the carrier is requiring of tenants.
I normally wouldn’t sweat this actually, but the landlord has made some recent decisions with regard to the neighbors that have put my guard up. It’s unfortunate.
November 29, 2015 at 11:17 AM in reply to: ot. BLM campus protests related to affirmative action… #791644Balboa
ParticipantI think if we’re going to keep naming public resources after Great Men/Women/Families, we’re gonna need bigger, more comprehensive and more ambivalent historical plaques. And then the people who oppose re-namings because “it’s hiiiiistorrrrrryyyy” can be more than 5 percent correct.
If private institutions want to gamble on using someone’s current “good name” for their buildings, etc., that’s their business, but I think it’s kind of dumb and mostly motivated by money at this point, the new namings anyway.
Naming something after someone, especially someone who occupied positions of great power, is an unequivocal statement about their value/s that may not stand the test of time.
Balboa
Participant“High-credit borrowers, those with FICO scores above 700, are almost entirely behind the surge in purchase applications.”
…
“… to get in on the QE “credit” money scheme, requires historically ever higher creditworthiness!”
The article doesn’t provide the rate at which banks are rejecting sub-700 applicants — I think sellers may be doing some of the the rejecting for them. Lots of “buyer to cross-qualify” in the areas we are looking in. Even if a lower tier score passes the cross-qualification, sellers could be inclined to go with the higher FICO, all other things being equal. Fewer accepted offers made by lower credit-tier bidders would lead to fewer originations with those scores.
I’d also bet a high number of people in the lower tiers are self-selecting out of the buying market.
October 19, 2015 at 5:31 PM in reply to: Uni Heights: 33 sales in 3 months –ave. of 100%”down”? #790466Balboa
ParticipantHi XBoxBoy — if you are looking at the page for a specific property on Redfin, that box appears just below the walk score. I looked at a few others near me — North Park seems more normal, as does South Park, Normal Heights is incomplete.
BG, I know what you mean about the odd and small lots in University Heights. Occasionally it’s an upside –“Well, no one can fit an apartment complex on the neighboring lot!” Plus, not much to take care of. I grew up in Queens and suburban Minnesota — my parents’ MN lot was perennially underused by us three kids.
We actually commute north (Carmel Valley and Carlsbad), but we just really like living along the Adams corridor. Maybe a lot of these sales are condos — there aren’t many SFRs for sale in this area and even fewer are under $550k. ..
Balboa
ParticipantIn the neighborhoods around me, there’s been a few “Coming Soon” signs for houses that never end up getting listed but do get sold. There was a “Coming soon” internet only listing for a house that I was really interested in, but the listing agent never responded to my agent. I assume they had plans to keep it in the brokerage or something similar.
April 3, 2015 at 6:30 PM in reply to: State of the economy and affect on housing in S California #784455Balboa
ParticipantI also agree with CA renter. I’m currently renting, but have a pretty good nest egg. If interest rates increased enough to push down prices, I think I’d be okay buying at the higher interest rate because I would be able to make a substantial down payment and have the prospect of eventually refinancing.
What I’m wondering is, who sells their house when high rates have depressed prices and the house in question is financed at a record low interest rate? Will inventory be limited sellers who are desperate or lucky?
Seems like it could be years before that’s a relevant question, I guess. a quarter percent bump by the Fed every so often doesn’t seem likely to do much to prices…
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