[Hatfield]

Actually this is kind of awesome. It’s not the sort of thing I’d want in my house, bit it still awesome in its own way.

[Hatfield]

I’ve got several friends in the bay area as well as a brother, and they all say tech is going gangbusters. It’s like the late 90s all over again, and they’re having trouble hiring good engineers. The other interesting data point: a friend was looking buying a house or condo or some sort of ski getaway in the Tahoe area, and those prices are getting stratospheric as well. It’s all bay area tech money, apparently.

[Hatfield]

This doesn’t seem that different than the HOA paying for maintaining a jacuzzi that you may or may not use, or a tennis court, or a clubhouse, or any other amenity.

[Hatfield]

I think like a bunch of other folks, I somehow wound up here by way of the Yahoo QCOM chat board. I mostly lurk here, either because most of the folks here are way more knowledgeable than I am, or because I want to side-step the more political discussions. I do chime in from time time on stuff I do have first-hand experience with (managing rental units, and lots of OT stuff).

Shame to see such a sudden turnover of old hands, but it seems like there’s still plenty of wise folks floating around to make this board continue to be a worthwhile read.

[Hatfield]

Interesting that you should post this now.

Costco used to offer individual health insurance plans through UHC/PacifiCare for its business members. I enrolled up in 2006 and am still with them today. About three or four years ago I received a letter stating that this program was no longer being offered to new subscribers, but UHC/Pacificare would continue to honor existing policies.

A few weeks ago I received a notice that UHC/Pacificare was terminating all individual policies at the end of this year. Apparently the California insurance exchange opens in October with policies starting the first of the year. So I’m going to be shopping for health insurance in the fall.

[Hatfield]

[quote=4plexowner]collect first and last month’s rent up front along with a security deposit (most people don’t have this much money available so you will severely limit your pool of potential tenants doing this)[/quote]

The Nolo press book strongly advises against calling any part of the security deposit “last month’s rent” because the tenant will likely take that literally. It also creates an ambiguity should you later raise the rent during the tenancy.

In California the security deposit cannot exceed two month’s rent (CC § 1960.5(c))

Get the Nolo press book. It’s 30 bucks well spent and has all the forms you’ll need.

[Hatfield]

For the credit check I used simplescreening.com last time. Seemed to work OK. IIRC you need to download a a consent form for the tenant to fill out, and you fax it back. Or maybe I just used the NOLO consent form, I don’t recall at the moment. But you have to send them some form of authorization and they email back a link to the credit check. Pretty painless.

[Hatfield]

For decades the export of manufacturing sector jobs has been incentivized by policy. That’s the primary cause of the decline of the middle class, and that needs to change.

The technological change is nothing to fear, IMHO, What we’re seeing is the beginning of Industrial Revolution 2.0. These disruptive new technologies come with great opportunities. I actually think we are headed towards a renaissance of US-based manufacturing, but its going to look very different from manufacturing in the 1950s.

On the policy point I’m a pessimist, but I’m on optimist on the technological front.

[Hatfield]

That is awesome. I prolly should stock up some of those high intensity road flares.

[Hatfield]

Get bids on Craigslist. Take a pictures of the dirt pile, and put it in an ad that says “wanted: dirt hauling.” The pictures should be composed in a way so that you can accurately judge the size of the dirt pile. Ask “how much would you charge to haul this away?” Within minutes you’ll start getting responses.

[Hatfield]

There’s some pretty good deals in this week’s flyer.

http://www.flutterby.com/images/2012/10/01/hf_tool_sale.pdf

[Hatfield]

Lance Armstrong is a douchebag. He seems to think the world owes him the opportunity to compete after all the shit that he’s pulled.

I find it very telling that when talking about all the people he screwed over, he always uses the passive voice. He’s sorry about the bad things that happened to other people, not the bad things he DID to other people. That’s not remorse, that’s just a prick with entitlement issues wanting to get back into the game.

It’s very sad that anyone should feel the need to win that badly.

[Hatfield]

This is awesome, and now I know where the porn is made.

[Hatfield]

[quote=nhamlin]the time to buy is when blood is running in the streets[/quote]

Exactly. This isn’t something I have to do. It’s something that I’ve toyed with for a long time but it’s always seemed way overpriced. But now I’m seeing properties trading at 1/4 the peak and below. Many units seem to be back at 1990s prices.

I’m not interested in Tahoe or Utah or Colorado mostly because I know nothing about those areas, and I’d be a fool to buy into an area I know nothing about. Heck, I might even be a fool for buying into an area I do know. :p But Mammoth is THE premier ski resort for folks – especially families – in southern California, and regardless of whatever trouble the municipality has gotten itself into, the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is not going away anytime soon.

I’ve just started playing with the numbers and there’s not much depth to my analysis yet. I haven’t found (or created) the Mammoth Lakes equivalent of a Rich Toscano graph.

But I think I smell blood. I’m not in any rush, either. I don’t see much upside to this market in the short term.

[Hatfield]

I think the semantics are important. Here’s another way of asking. Who owns the copyright today? Did you assign (sell) the right (has there been a change of ownership?) or did you merely grant a license and you still own the copyright?

Your language of “granting an exclusive perpetual right” sounds like you have not assigned (sold) the underlying entity. If you still own it, it still sounds like passive income to me regardless of how your payment gets structured or whether the license you granted is exclusive or not.

[Author]

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