[poorgradstudent]

This is a great time to sell. Inventory is relatively thin for homes young families want and can actually afford.

Painting is pretty cheap and can definitely improve a house. Personally I’d be slightly more hesitant on carpets unless they are stained and gross. I saw a few places where they had replaced the carpet with brand new, ugly carpet, and as a potential buyer I felt like I’d be paying for their mistake.

It sounds like the kitchen needs updating but isn’t necessarily in awful shape. In this market I’d probably leave it as is and letting any potential buyer view it as something they would fix down the road.

Worst case you list it, get no reasonable offers, and re-evaluate.

[poorgradstudent]

High rents and the rent vs. own index is part of why anytime someone around here yells “bubble” my reaction is “not so fast…”

[poorgradstudent]

We’re not in a recession yet, but it wouldn’t shock me if one stars this Summer. And like almost all recessions, things will actually be pretty good for Joe Six-pack at the start of the recession. Unemployment and wages are lagging indicators, so jobs and wages often do very well exactly as the economy on the whole is slowing.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=livinincali]Rand Paul just did the smart thing and dropped out. No point in burning up more money on a fruitless campaign. I don’t know how anybody donates anymore money to the Republican non-top 4 but maybe Jeb’s cash furnace will run long enough to get him back into a the mix a bit. The best thing for the establishment, that doesn’t want Trump, is to get these not going anywhere campaigns out of the way quickly.[/quote]

Rand Paul is also up for Senate re-election in 2016, and he probably wanted to shore up his position there, and not spend too much time looking like a loser on the national stage.

Paul’s supporters may split up in more interesting ways than some other candidates. I imagine there’s a few “Paul or Bust!” younger Republicans. I also imagine a few may side with Trump.

Small as their support was, the Huckabee and Santorum voters almost certainly won’t like Trump; although he panders to the religious right, for a true Social Conservative his positions are going to look muddled. Cruz or Rubio could both gobble up their support, but even Carson could.

[poorgradstudent]

I’m going to call Ben Carson a big winner, because, seriously, how did he ever get 9% of the vote in Iowa?

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Jeb, fiorina and O’malley are the biggest losers.

Fiorina flew out and didn’t even attend her own rally. Her supporters must feel like suckers.[/quote]

Well, unless you count Huckabee as an obvious loser. But going from a zero percent chance to Out isn’t a big loss.

Fiorina not attending her own rally is a classless move.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=FlyerInHi]poorgrad, you may be repeating but you add your own analysis.

I think you have the pulse of the country… You don’t jump to conclusions but you do consider the different issues that motivate voters.

Maybe I’m biased because I agree. Time will prove right or wrong.[/quote]

I’m not sure I have the pulse. I was one of those people who said Trump would NEVER make it this far. I also didn’t think Bernie Sanders could give Hillary as much competition as he has.

I lean pretty far Democrat but I’m ambivalent between Hillary and Bernie. Similarly, I’m not much of a fan of any of the Republicans. So I think I’m fairly objective as to who will win each party’s nomination.

Very very eager for tonight’s real results. Especially for Trump, but really, all around. Also eager to see some of the worst candidates get lopped off the Republican side.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=spdrun]So let the Chargers go to L.A., good riddance. It can barely be called a “sport” anyway.

Bringing it to the voters (who might not want to spend a lot of tax money to keep a stupid sport in their town) is the right thing to do.[/quote]

They’re not likely to bring anything to the voters unless they think it can pass.

The Chargers are arguably in a worse negotiating position than they were before the decision to move the Rams came down. Being able to borrow the Ram’s stadium is not really what the Chargers had in mind when this whole game of musical chairs began.

I’m not totally against *some* public support for a new stadium, but I do feel like most cities get fleeced, and the “typical” deal is bad for tax payers.

[poorgradstudent]

16 years is an awfully good run!

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=FlyerInHi]

I love your prognostications.

Don’t you think that Cruz and Rubio have names are that are too Hispanic sounding for Republican primary voters?[/quote]

Well, I read a lot of Nate Silver, so half of what I do is just regurgitate.

Despite his last name, Cruz doesn’t look or sound Latino. Apparently his paternal grandfather was Spanish. He has family connections to Cuba through his father, but he was born in Canada. I believe his mother is white. So, all in all, for many Republican voters he probably “rounds up” to white, or at least white enough.

To give credit to the Republican party, Ben Carson was the front runner for a while, despite being grossly unqualified. So clearly at least a good chunk of the Republican party is willing to look past race and ethnicity.

To anyone with a sense of history, Cubans who fled Castro get a certain pass, because they were fleeing Communism, the Greatest Threat of All.

Of course there is the possibility their non-white last names may hurt both a bit on the edges vs. Trump. But the path to victory isn’t necessarily to take Trump’s voters as much as to win over a coalition of the non-Trump voters and become the Anti-Trump candidate.

Smart Republicans should love the fact that in the general election Rubio likely would do way better among Latino voters than most of the other candidates.

So the short answer about names too Hispanic sounding for Republican primary voters? In some states, yes, but most of those who really care probably would have gone for Trump anyways.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=livinincali]Looks like both sides have something to tout in the ratings war

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/29/media/republican-debate-ratings-donald-trump/

Fox had much lower numbers than the recent GOP debates on major networks, but Trump’s event didn’t crush the ratings either. Seems like it’s a wash there.[/quote]

Yeah, I think viewers are understandably getting tired of the same candidates with the same responses. If this was a reality show it would be time to shake things up by bringing back eliminated contestants or changing the rules of the game. But in theory it’s an actual political process.

[poorgradstudent]

I’m calling my shot now that Ben Carson will finish Iowa a lot lower than the 8% he’s roughly polling.

This could lead to a Cruz victory, because Cruz has seemed to be the one who has gobbled up the most of Carson’s supporters as Carson’s polls have collapsed.

I’m very eager to see the results from Iowa.

[poorgradstudent]

Without Trump, I felt the debate was a lot more policy substantive… and also a lot duller.

Oddly Trump’s gambit may have paid off in the following way:

Without Trump on stage, Cruz suddenly seems a lot crazier. With Trump, Cruz could position himself as “If you kinda like Trump, but want someone who has actually won an election and worked in Government, albeit as a hated outsider, I’m your man”.

In Iowa right now Cruz is Trump’s closest competition.

Trump’s absence also could help Jeb and Rand Paul a tiny bit down the stretch, since they both were less terrible than they’ve been in past debates. It’s in Trump’s best interest for the establishment vote to remain split, rather than rallying behind Rubio.

[poorgradstudent]

[quote=scaredyclassic]“The main aim of education should be to send children out into the world with a reasonably sized anthology in their heads so that, while seated on the lavatory, waiting in doctor’s surgeries, on stationary trains or watching interviews with politicians, they have something interesting to think about.”
John Mortimer[/quote]

“Sent from my iPhone”.

I’m soooo glad boredom is an outdated thing of the past. So much easier to wait places now!

[poorgradstudent]

Trump is at least threatening to skip the debate entirely.

If the other candidates decide to gang up on him without him there (and the moderators are likely to bring up the issue), this could hurt him very, very badly.

[Author]

Posts