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Diego Mamani
ParticipantI just found out that a friend of a friend’s house was foreclosed last year, but she still lives there, rent free! FBs (haven’t use that acronym for a long time) typically have little incentive to agree to your deal.
Another complication: banks may not agree to sell the house to you at a fair market value, let alone at a discounted price.
ParticipantYou’re right Brian. As my friend Robb says, “some people take life personally.” People need to chill, relax, calm down, etc. We all die at the end, whether we worry a lot or not. We already know how the movie ends, so be nice to others, be nice to yourself, and try to enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Participant[quote=svelte]I can’t count the number of times I’ve walked into Home Depot / Lowes / Target and forgotten half the things I was going to buy. Now I keep lists to myself on todoist.com and if I forget? I just whip out the smart phone and check my list…[/quote]
Did you know that there’s some evidence that having tools like todoist.com make it more likely that we forget things? You are training your brain not to remember things! Remember when grandma started to forget little things? That may happen earlier in our generation![quote=svelte]Just last week, we drove to a party in MM (…) So we went in – the club owner said it was typically a late arriving crowd (!!) and other guests would be arriving soon. He was right.[/quote]
In other words, the smartphone wasn’t needed at all, and you wouldn’t have doubted yourself if you were used to remember things (see above).[quote=svelte]Quite often, a question will arise that will need an answer or a map. Bam! Right there on my hip is Wikipedia and Google Maps.[/quote]
I agree with our Luddite friend on this one. Besides, I spend 8-11 hours daily at my desk in front of a computer anyways.[quote=svelte]The finding ppl in the crowd thing was already mentioned, but in large crowds a cell’s voice/text capability is a HUGE time saver (true, it doesn’t required a smart phone but just a regular cell).[/quote]
Yep, my $10 cell phone with $100/year airtime works fine for this.Svelte and Ren, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the convenience of a smartphone; I just don’t think it’s worth the price tag. A friend was recently talking me into getting a tablet-type device where I can load the Nook and Kindle software for free, etc., but when I checked prices, I found that it was $400 at eBay, and that was for a used item! Kind of ridiculous to pay that much money… Most of the books I read I buy used from Amazon for $0.01 to $10.00 (plus $3.99 for shipping). I can certainly afford the devices and monthly fees, but I just don’t see the value in them.
Participant[quote=Ren][quote=Diego Mamani]TG, you’ll afford a much better nursing home if you save and invest all those $1000s you spend on cell phone hardware and service every year. LOL![/quote]
I aim a little higher than that, and choose both.[/quote]
My good friend, you realize that the whole discipline of economics wouldn’t exist at all if resources were not limited. Limited resources implies making choices among competing alternative uses. Only in electoral campaign fantasy land it’s possible to have lower taxes and higher expenses…
I’m only half joking; there’s nothing wrong with spending money on something you really like. For me, it’s world travel. I’m aware that money I spent traveling is money that I can’t invest and multiply. I wish you enjoy your smartphone as much as enjoy my (dumb?) travel.
Participant[quote=disimilar1]I have a similar issue with a RE Agent who leased a property for me long ago and had it in the contract they were entitled to renewal commissions.
The agency was sold but the agent claimed the contract was assigned over to him. He did cough up an assignment letter after much pulling of teeth. (signed by his friend, the broker who had owned the co that was sold).
Is something like this valid?[/quote]Looks valid to me. Are you trying to get out of the contract? If you’re still not happy, you could contact the new owners and ask whether they feel at all bound by the old contract.
Participant[quote=poorgradstudent]I witnessed first hand how willing our manager was to short change actually maintaining the property in a proper way in order to maximize short-term profit.[/quote]
I’d love to see an example of that[quote=poorgradstudent]Specifically, the plumbing; it was an old property with the sort of issues you’d expect, but the property manager always chose the cheapest, quickest “fix” rather than investing any money in upgrading or improving the property.[/quote]
The “money” you are talking about belongs to the property owner, not manager. Not sure how the manager maximizes his own short-term profit by not spending the owner’s money. If anything, the manager would be better off if the proper repairs are carried out, that way the building lasts longer and he gets to keep his job longer.Two explanations come to mind:
1. The property manager is just lazy or overextended, and what he does is not saving money, but saving his own time
2. More likely, the owner has made it clear to the manager that there’s no money for major repairs and that band aid solutions are good enough for now.Participant[quote=temeculaguy]I will be that guy in the old folks home with 700 channels of porn and sports on his ipad while you read the newspaper and complain about the government. Let’s see who’s room the nurses hang out in.[/quote]
TG, you’ll afford a much better nursing home if you save and invest all those $1000s you spend on cell phone hardware and service every year. LOL!
Participant[quote=flu]Don’t the minutes expire per month if you don’t use them?
That was always my beef with prepaid phones.[/quote]
Flu, the minutes don’t expire for a year if you buy $100 worth of them at a time. That’s 1000 minutes, and that’s the case with T-Mobile and AT&T prepaid that I know if. If you buy less than $100, say, only $10 or $50, then the minutes expire after 30 or 60 days, and also the per-minute price is higher.I hate yapping on the phone. I have a cell so that I can be reached when I’m on the road, and also b/c it’s so hard to find pay phones nowadays. When people call me (or when I call) I get to business right away and then finish the call. If they want to get social and talk about the weather, their pets, or the Padres, I tell them that I have to go, or that the connection is getting weak and I offer to call them back when I get home or office (and then I do call them back from a landline).
That way, the 1000 minutes truly last me a year, easily. To refill you can do it over the phone with your credit card, buy a card from Target, etc. Once I bought the $100 card from eBay for only $94, and no shipping involved: the seller took care of adding the minutes to my account.
Participant5yes, the world needs more people like you! What you are doing is awesome and it’s a great model for young people to emulate. I can’t give much advice other than to ask how much experience you have volunteering in lower income developing countries (as opposed to middle income developing countries like Mexico or Turkey).
The poverty you will witness may be too shocking for some people. It is one thing to read about malnutrition and something else to actually see children riddled with disease. I believe they have electricity and running water in Haiti, just not everywhere.
Something else to prepare for: huge disparities in income. A minority if Haitians live with first-world amenities and have somehow got used to live surrounded by abject poverty. This contrast may shock you.
Also, some cops and government officials will be honest and will help you, but others will obstruct you and ask for bribes.
I’m only trying to help you be realistic and prepared for anything, good or bad, that may happen. Best of luck to you!
ParticipantGlad to know I’m not alone… I paid $10 for a Go-phone ATT&T phone, no contract. It’s a little flip phone, I also paid $100 for 1000 a minutes that should last me a whole year.
ParticipantI forgot to add… the Subie dealer closest to my house was able to beat the Costco Program’s price! Not only that, we found yet another dealer willing to beat my neighborhood dealer’s price. So we found not one, but two dealers who offered me a lower price than the Costco-affiliated dealer.
I was told that the dealer agrees to pay $200 to Costco for the referral, that is, if you close the deal.
ParticipantParamount, it’s SOP that a new company would take over the old company’s clients. You should visit them in person and tell them that you wish them well but that you’ve decided to self-manage for time being. If they owe you money, try to get it back. Maybe you can work out a deal with the new management? Who knows, after meeting the new people in person you may decide to give them a chance to earn your business.
If you don’t want to work with them, and they don’t want to refund your money, you could still go to small claims court.
ParticipantRedfin. Zillow is good in that it shows adjacent lots. There are some LA-based sites that even show the names of the buyers and sellers going back several years.
ParticipantFlu, somehow I missed the earlier messages on this, so this is news to me. Glad to see that you’re evolving well and I wish you a speedy and complete recovery. Hang in there, man!
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