[Chrispy]

Here’s three adages that have helped me over the years:

1) Decide what you really want and the price you need to pay to get it. Then, resolve to pay that price.

In other words, if you want a degree, instead of telling all your friends as you’re swilling beer, “Oh yeah, I’m going to college next year” resolve that the “price” for college will be nights spent with the books and days spent in classes, instead of hanging out with your buddies.

Everything that is worth having has a time and/or money price involved and you must pay that price IN ADVANCE of achieving your goal. Dreaming about it is not the same as daily action.

2) If you are working a minimum wage job and want to be paid $15 an hour, do $15 an hour quality work. Doing the minimum will NOT get you any raise other than a cost of living one – but working beyond your wage will get noticed. If nothing else you will develop new skills and be able to transfer these skills elsewhere.

3) During the day, as you get caught in a number of activities, ask yourself, “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” Then, focus on that activity.

Having said that, I’d better get off Piggington and back to work!

[Chrispy]

I got out in April 2004. My house sold in three weeks at full listing price, and I don’t care if I could have made 20% or so more “appreciation” by waiting two years. Balance that against the tens of thousands of dollars I have saved in the last two years by renting instead of owning – factoring in not just the mortgage, but the homeowner’s insurance, taxes, cost of the sale, improvements, etc.

I was also able to take a large portion of the gain and reinvest it elsewhere, which increased the gain’s value over two years. On a purely financial level, I made more by selling early than waiting.

There is something to be said, too, for peace of mind. I have never been happier than in the last two years, because I didn’t have the albatross of an unsold house and wondering if “now was the time to sell?” or “should I have sold last month?” or “should I sell in two months?” Selling is stressful – especially in a declining market!

Quality of life and being happy is more important to me than “perfect” timing.

[Chrispy]

You might want to advise your nephew that people of real wealth don’t have to brag about it. The people whose cocktail party chatter consists of how much their stock portfolio is worth, the raise they just got, the incredible deal they got on their new sports car, etc are not only boring to listen to, but quite often liars.

True wealth doesn’t have to advertise. Also, the people who brag get hit on by salesmen of all types – another reason to just shut up about it and enjoy your treasures with the trusted few.

[Chrispy]

Aaah, condo conversions. There’s one a block up the street from me (University Heights) that just got finished two months back. One of the units may have sold, but then again, it could just be a real estate agent parking their car there.

My biggest complaint about them is that four parking spots point directly into the two front units – so those lucky people would get headlights shining onto their dinners every night. And, despite the verbiage on the signage in front, “fully mature landscaping” does not fully described the the left-over greenery that “came with” the old apartments.

They are going for $250K for 1/1. Open house three days a week. No action.

[Chrispy]

With all that renovation, that house still doesn’t grab me. How much could they possibly get for rent? $2500? That puts them $1000 underwater on their current mortgage, and something tells me their payments are gonna ratchet up…

I sure wouldn’t want to have spent $92K in hard cash AND eight months of hard labor to make a renter happy.

[Chrispy]

“he can package the 3% deduction into the sales price and then rebate the buyer afterward…”

The buyer still has to pay property tax on the higher amount, which is what shows up on the county sales record, so the “rebate” is less than it should be, all things considered.

This is the same flaw in logic that shows up when people throw a “free” car into a house sale. The buyer gets the car, the overpriced house, and the property tax bill on the overpriced house. Far better to knock down the price of the house and buy your own damn car.

[Chrispy]

“There is no universal morality.”

Ditto that.

And, JG, it is extremely offensive to read that you think single people and childless couples are selfish. Judge not, less ye be judged.

[Chrispy]

Sounds like you might be missing a lot of the scenery.

[Chrispy]

Here’s my take on it. In high school, college, and the early working years it is easy to make friends because you see the same folks, doing the same thing every day right along with you – taking classes, going out for extracurriculars, working up the corporate ladder. If you’re lucky, you mature/start a family and it’s no longer so cool to hang out at the bar watching a game with your buddies while drinking a ten-pack.

The older you get, the less you’re around new people to make new friends with, and you’re a little more picky. I have a harder time making friends these days but I find taking classes and continuing to do stuff like play tennis keeps me around like-minded people.

One of the best feelings in the world is to be OK with being alone (unless you’re the Unibomber, that is)!

[Chrispy]

Calling an Option ARM a “cash management tool” is like calling a doggy door a “pet entry system.” I think Bill Murray said that locking the medicine cabinet was a “medication management strategy” in the movie What About Bob.

When in doubt, throw a bunch of fancy words together to fool the public, or should I say, “sophisticated individuals.”

[Chrispy]

Me too. I’ve seen too many blogs go south when politics enter the discussions.

[Chrispy]

You forgot a rung between mobile homes and condos… and that is the dreaded condo conversion. In other words, a poorly rehabbed apartment becomes a condo conversion – impossible to sell, rent unless at a huge loss, or lease.

[Chrispy]

There’s a gal on the Housing Bubble Blog that has tracked his purchases in Texas – she has also cached all of his web pages, just in case he takes them down later. Someone else on the HBB has already reported him to the AG in Texas. A few others have checked him pretty thoroughly and say he’s bona-fide… I think he’s bonehead-fide myself.

[Chrispy]

Yeah, and it’s only starting to hit him NOW that maybe he should go back to work full-time. I understand that he needed lots of time to visit with the bankers and fix up the props… but now he’s just in “stew mode” and has no exit strategy.

His timing could not have been worse. He got started on his “real estate investment journey” in January of this year. I’ve always thought by the time you hear about get-rich-quick schemes, it’s probably too late. This certainly applies here.

[Chrispy]

Not me – Crispy & Cole is someone else. He has a lot of good comments on the Housing Bubble Blog, I wish I were him sometimes.

If I were this foreclosure guy, I would not bare my soul online. He got hammered! However, he seems to be not only ignorant but thick-skinned – only with that kind of combination could he have continued the Ponzi scheme of taking money at closing to finance another house.

He stated that the last bank turned him down and that was “the last straw.” Dude – you should THANK that bank for putting the brakes on your idiocy. Otherwise, you’d owe a LOT MORE money.

I think he still doesn’t get it.

[Author]

Posts