[surveyor]

I didn’t get a whole lot of info from the Georgia person. It sounded like a combined living situation, though. He was moving here with a co-worker and they needed five parking spaces altogether.

If there’s any trend to note, it is the frequency of people “doubling up”. There were quite a few applicants who were renting for that situation.

[surveyor]

Tenant Circumstances

1. One applicant (family of 3) has been transferred from Temecula to El Cajon and wishes to stop commuting from Temecula.

2. Received an inquiry from a person moving here from Georgia.

3. One person seems to be a bubble-sitter – sold his house, wants to rent now.

4. One was military, moving here.

5. Two couples, good friends, wanting to stay in the same house, from New Mexico.

I’m expecting a horde of people coming by this afternoon so I will let you know if I can glean anything from them. The ones I have posted above are the ones most interested.

[surveyor]

Replacement Tenants

My tenants moved out early and I am charging them rent until I find a new tenant to take over the house. I thought that the house would be vacant for a couple of months, with December usually being the low period for renters.

Advertised, and about 20 people have called me up, interested in the house. I have about five who are interested in moving in NOW.

So unless your landlord is a real prick, I’d say it wouldn’t take too long to find a replacement tenant for them…

(gotta love that craigslist).

[surveyor]

Fees

As a person who is not intimately involved in the financial aspect of building homes, but is “in” the industry, I can tell you that there are many factors that make a home in San Diego/California more expensive than Texas.

Environmental fees were mentioned, that is true. Texas does not have as many environmental regulations as California. There are also many more fees and requirements imposed by local agencies, cities, and county gov’ts. There is also fees for checking the plans, and fees for making sure certain things are built. For example, sometimes the agencies and gov’ts will require that you not only build sidewalks for the road leading up to your new homes, they will also require you to put in money in a fund for drainage.

Some people will interpret this post as a justification for the higher prices of today’s real estate. That is not necessarily true, but most people are not aware of the high costs of fees (i.e. taxes) that go into a house. From start to finish, it can take five years or more to build a house. The carrying costs for such an investment and doing that for five years is pretty high.

[surveyor]

Here’s another detailed analysis of the Lancet numbers:

Iraqi death reports merely propaganda

Some notable quotes:

“Consider just this: Because the sample size was so small, the range for deaths was wider than Mick Jagger’s mouth: 8,000 to 194,000. So Roberts and company just split the difference. They said the tiny sample size was necessary because the interviewers were in constant danger. No doubt they meant being caught in the crosshairs of an F-16, rather than any possible threat from those jolly terrorists who routinely kidnap civilians and slowly saw off their heads.

Further, the researchers didn’t feel bound by anything official like death certificates. Interviews were fine. “In the Iraqi culture it was unlikely for respondents to fabricate deaths,” they wrote.”

“Even anti-war and anti-American groups and individuals have indicated the Lancet figure is outlandish. “These numbers seem to be inflated,” due “to overcounting,” Marc Garlasco, of Human Rights Watch told the Washington Post. The website http://www.iraqbodycount.com estimates about 14,000-16,000 deaths since the war began. The Evil One himself, bin Laden, in his pre-election video, made reference to the Iraq war and stated “over 15,000 of our people have been killed.””

[surveyor]

Powayseller:

Here is an article for your perusal that states that the Lancet was wildly exaggerating the 100k civilian deaths.

How Lancet Cooked Up the Numbers

Some interesting quotes from the article:

” The recent survey, published in the British medical journal, “The Lancet,” claiming over 650,000 civilian deaths due to the liberation of Iraq, was quickly labeled propaganda, not science. Is the survey accurate? The answer is, apparently not. The survey is widely out of sync with casualty counts by other organizations, and by a wide margin. A 2004 study by the same authors claimed 100,000 civilian casualties – a survey at odds with one done by the United Nations at the same time (which estimated 18,000 to 29,000 deaths). To compare this with other studies – the group Iraq Body Count only claims 49,000 civilian deaths, the Brookings Institution reports 62,000, and the Los Angeles Times has reported 50,000 civilian deaths since the liberation of Iraq.”

So Powayseller, if you are using disreputable sources and not doing your due diligence before making genocidal and terrorist accusations, aren’t you LYING? I mean, the information is out there by a simple google search. Are you being arrogant by only looking at data that favors your point of view? Maybe you are so blinded by your anger and hatred that you can ignore the other evidence that does not fit your world view?

I am not being accusatory or making allegations towards your person, but I just thought you would like to know how the shoe feels on the other foot.

[surveyor]

No, the world did believe that Iraq had WMDs. They just did not support the war because they hoped appeasement would work better. Also, many European countries had significant Muslim populations and they were fearful of Muslim rioting if they supported the U.S.

Lastly, many European countries were actively doing business with Saddam Hussein and were making loads of money from the situation. They of course were not interested in a war because they would be basically cutting off their own hands. France and Russia, the ones who were most opposed to the war, had billions owed to them by Saddam Hussein. Because the U.S. wouldn’t guarantee their payment, they were vehemently opposed to the war.

[surveyor]

Before the Iraq war, the Europeans and Iraqis were accusing us of genocide because of our embargo. Osama Bin Laden used the Iraqi embargo as rationale for attacking us. So the good old U.S. decided to approve and institute an oil for food program, which was corrupted. Still, the Europeans and Iraqis were accusing us to genocide. So, in an effort to improve the situation, the U.S. undertook a war to remove a threat to the world. And these same people still call us terrorists and accuse us of genocide. So non-partisan or not, these criticisms are hardly credible.

And incidentally, Powayseller, you always complain when others make personal attacks on you. At least show others the same courtesy, even the President of the United States. Name-calling is not useful in a debate, and it decreases your credibility.

[surveyor]

I was in somewhat similar situation a while ago – I had a house, appreciated a lot in value, but to me it was useless because I couldn’t do anything with that equity unless I sold or refi’d it out.

After a lot of research I decided to put it into real estate, where the expected rate of return on your investment was a great deal higher than the interest rate to borrow was (cash on cash). Also, I made sure that the properties cash flowed and that it was a high enough cash flow so that it would eventually replace my salary.

Now, yes, I acknowledge this was risky. But it was a way of spreading my investments beyond the stock market, of which I was already maximizing. I’ve done my research and made some informed decisions. I’ve certainly tried to minimize risk several ways, such as not buying SFRs/condos, not buying in California, and by setting out a 15 year time frame for these investments.

So why am I working like a dog, “slave” to my mortgages, property taxes, and all that? Because my ultimate goal is to retire early and have financial security. The best analogy I can come up with is driving towards my retirement. The safe way is to drive 45 mph. It will take longer to get there, but it is safe. By making all my assets work for me (real estate, investments, my salary, taxes) in an efficient manner, I can push my speed up to 65 mph and get there faster.

Did I mention this is risky? Sure!

Do I recommend this for everybody? No! I thought it would be less work than it has proved to be.

Am I going to get slammed on by Powayseller and all the other real estate bears here? Sure!

(haha)

Still, America rewards hard work and sacrifice. America also rewards laziness but not as much. 🙂

[surveyor]

Raybyrnes:

If your father is going to borrow money at 5% to make money,you need to make sure your investment makes a guaranteed return of at least 9% or more (5% for the loan plus 4% inflation). Do a wiki search for “cash on cash”. Not a lot of people in the stock market are guaranteeing 9% returns nowadays. I really don’t recommend taking equity out of a house in order to invest in the stock market. Way too much risk.

[surveyor]

Ownership…

surveyor, when you roll credit card debt, auto loans, or medical bills into your mortgage, your are converting a short term debt into a 30 year loan, and paying 2-3 x interest on the debt because you are amortizing it over such a long time. Personally, I think that’s a bad idea.

Thank you Captain Obvious! 🙂 But in certain circumstances, it is probably necessary to at least use some debt management, as opposed to just going into bankruptcy…

[surveyor]

Most REITs deal with commercial real estate and are not heavily invested with home builders.

Besides the housing bubble is not a real estate bubble. It has generally been applicable only to residential real estate like SFRs and condos.

[surveyor]

“invest”

Why the ” ” around invest? That’s probably the best way to use equity.

I myself have used the equity to buy other properties, both in San Diego and in other locations not in California.

I know others who have used their equity to buy out their credit card debt and pay for medical bills. Yes, they will still have to pay it off, but at least they can use it to manage their debt.

As for why does a house (and all real estate for that matter) generally appreciate in price versus other assets, that is the value of real estate. It is a terrific vehicle for creating wealth.

[surveyor]

Hire a property manager. They will charge you about 8% to 10% of the rent. They will listen to your guidelines as to the type of people who will rent the house and will run credit checks of all applicants to see who are the best ones to choose as tenants. As long as you are picky as to who rents the property, I think that it might work out. Good property managers can provide input as to who are good tenants and who are bad tenants.

Also, remember all sorts of tax breaks are available to you when you do start renting out the property.

I think you should research this some more, but if you can make better use of your property, it can provide a lot of opportunities to create cash flow for you, beyond just giving you relief from the mortgage it currently has.

Obviously I hope you can sell it, but if not, take a look at how best to use it.

[surveyor]

Rental Turnover

“For him it wasn’t worth the risk of losing a tenant for even one month for only $50 extra (that’s only $600 for a 1 year lease).”

This is my point exactly! Giving up a good tenant for only $600 (for the year) and spending $2000-$3000 does not add up!

Now obviously this advice does not help if one is trying to get into a rental…

[Author]

Posts