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matts

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Posts posted by matts

  1. YOu're all right - not a landlord, never been a landlord, never want to be a landlord (at least directly).  Also never missed rent when I was renting, so total ignorance here for sure. 

     

    Is internet access considered essential service?  Is there nothing that is available to a landlord outside of the courts? 

     

    BTW - renting was when I lived in TX, so maybe the laws / enforcement is different from rest of the country.  I just remember even getting some basic stuff fixed was a real pain.  Perhaps this is also because the apartments were very cheap, so you sort of get what you pay for, and I certainly had no money to go sue... 

     

    Edit - to be clear, I'm not advocating just forcing someone out because they can't make payment.  If I'm a landlord and I underwrote a tenant based on his/her financial situation, then I made that call and it's my responsibility to bear.  However, if *having a conversation* is too much, then that's when I become unsympathetic.  I'm merely trying to tease out ways in which to force a conversation.  Perhaps that's not legal in any form, but if I'm being screwed over then I'm going to use whatever legal means I do have to hit back...

     

    I don't think you are a bad guy for brainstorming your recourse as a landlord. But i think, unfortunately, your last sentence is correct. You are just screwed as a landlord here. Which is why i bring it up as a concern. As someone mentioned, the one thing that DOES scare tenants is a hit to their credit score, IF you rent to the kind of person who has a score and cares about it.

     

    From a little bit of googling, if internet access in specifically mentioned in the lease agreement then it can indeed fall under "utilities" and therefore be included under the shadow eviction clauses of most city/state bylaws. It's not black and white however.

  2.  

    Now landlords have leverage over commercial tenants because "normal" rules still apply. But what about residential where new rules say you can't get evicted if you don't pay? I still worry about that.

     

    You have a valid point, but if it really gets to that level is there really nothing that can be done as a land lord?  Especially in this high rise buildings, are there no options (cutting internet, for example) to at least force a conversation around ability to pay?  It's one thing to not be able to pay, it's another thing to choose to not pay.  So if one wants electricity or cable or internet, assuming they could be cut off unit by unit, why is a landlord obligated to provide that if the renter isn't paying rent?

     

    I'm almost sure turning off electricity would open up massive legal liabilities that landlords would lose in court. I know it is illegal in canada to turn off electricity or the heating source to delinquent renters. I imagine it is the same in the US, nevermind during this crisis.

     

    As for cable/internet...not sure how it works in US, but again in Canada, most renters even in apartment buildings have individual agreements with their telcos. yes, technically the buildings allow the telcos to run their hardware through common areas, but the rent is separate. landlords would have no legal right to turn off a third party service. Is it generally different in the US? Is the internet explicitly bundled with rent?

     

    Obviously case by case basis here and we're generalizing, so it's prob not great to extrapolate.  However, if the reason why renters aren't paying is b/c they think the courts will be stuck with too many cases, then it goes for landlords too.  ANd in terms of liabilities - outside of physical harm (so heat being one of the "Essential" items), what could be claimed?  No legal expert here but can someone really claim that they are entitled to free rent?  Again, I'm not suggesting that this is just a legal issue.  If I were a landlord and I have tenants who I know are employed, able to pay, and won't even have a conversation about rent and is telling me to go pound sand to take advantage of a pandemic, then I have no problem letting him or her know that electricity is not a "right."

     

    In terms of internet / cable - depends on the building.  Many large buildings include it as a part of the rent / HOA.  It's just easier to negotiate on behalf of 100 units and get economies of scale and service.

     

    All due respect, I think you are just thinking about this incorrectly and i doubt you have ever been a landlord. There is absolutely a double standard. No one thinks tenants are entitled to free rent. But the government has mandated that you can't evict them. So no, you can't cut off their electricity because that is how they would boil water, see in the dark etc. That's not part of your recourse. Your recourse is eviction and it is the government that has taken that recourse away from you. You cut off their electricity, and the only thing you will get is a giant lawsuit for "pain and suffering" once the courts get back to work. Whether electricity is a right is not up to you to determine.

     

    In Ontario

     

    https://stepstojustice.ca/questions/housing-law/can-my-landlord-cut-my-electricity-or-other-utilities

     

    In california (i suspect the rules are very similar in all other states)

     

    https://homeguides.sfgate.com/illegal-landlord-shut-off-electricity-61431.html

     

    "Electricity is an essential service to make a rental unit habitable.

     

    Turning off the electricity as punishment for non-payment of rent or in retaliation for filing a complaint is tantamount to constructive eviction. Constructive eviction occurs when the landlord makes the residence uninhabitable in an effort to remove you from the property. Legal eviction requires the landlord jump through specific legal hoops to get you out. Constructive eviction bypasses these requirements by forcing you to find new accommodations.

     

    Every state provides its own legal recourse for tenants who are aggrieved by the landlord. California Civil Code 789.3 makes it illegal for the landlord to shut off the electricity to force a tenant out of the property. You may sue your landlord in civil court for actual damages, attorneys fees and other damages if he does so. The statute allows an amount up to $100 per day for each day the electricity was turned off ."

     

    The next point is I'm not suggesting anyone is stupid enough to tell their landlord "I can pay, but I just won't." They will tell you their hours were reduced, their aunt has the virus and she needs help etc. And you can't ask them for financials to prove anything like you can with a commercial tenant. They don't need to provide proof of anything. If they don't pay, your recourse is to go through the courts. You can't change the tenant-landlord bylaws just because the courts are closed.

     

     

  3.  

    Now landlords have leverage over commercial tenants because "normal" rules still apply. But what about residential where new rules say you can't get evicted if you don't pay? I still worry about that.

     

    You have a valid point, but if it really gets to that level is there really nothing that can be done as a land lord?  Especially in this high rise buildings, are there no options (cutting internet, for example) to at least force a conversation around ability to pay?  It's one thing to not be able to pay, it's another thing to choose to not pay.  So if one wants electricity or cable or internet, assuming they could be cut off unit by unit, why is a landlord obligated to provide that if the renter isn't paying rent?

     

    I'm almost sure turning off electricity would open up massive legal liabilities that landlords would lose in court. I know it is illegal in canada to turn off electricity or the heating source to delinquent renters. I imagine it is the same in the US, nevermind during this crisis.

     

    As for cable/internet...not sure how it works in US, but again in Canada, most renters even in apartment buildings have individual agreements with their telcos. yes, technically the buildings allow the telcos to run their hardware through common areas, but the rent is separate. landlords would have no legal right to turn off a third party service. Is it generally different in the US? Is the internet explicitly bundled with rent?

     

     

  4. Agreed. By May 1, everyone will know whether their job is steady, or they will have some cash from the feds in their accounts. I'm still a bit worried many will not pay even if they could. You see that already in CRE. This is from a Prologis investor update a few days ago:

     

    Look, a substantial amount of that 24% are Fortune 100 companies. And somebody in their legal department probably said, "Send a letter to all your landlords and ask for rent deferral. Why not?" We're not going to give those people. I mean I think people should not use this market condition opportunistically. I think that's really a bad thing to do. I think people should do the right thing. We should be here helping the people that really need help as opposed to trying to extract an economic advantage. We're just not going to stand for that. They're valued customers, but they need to behave themselves.

    We're not going to take money out of our shareholders' pockets and put in other major companies' shareholder pockets just because they ask for it.

     

    Now landlords have leverage over commercial tenants because "normal" rules still apply. But what about residential where new rules say you can't get evicted if you don't pay? I still worry about that.

  5. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-04/trump-says-he-d-use-tariffs-if-needed-to-protect-oil-industry

     

    President Donald Trump ramped up threats to use tariffs to protect the U.S. energy industry from a historic glut of oil, as efforts to forge a global deal to cut output appeared to lose momentum.

     

    Q: How much in tariffs would he have to add to "foreign oil" if U.S. already "~energy independent producer"? Just close off foreign imports altogether? Would it matter though as U.S. demand for oil has also cratered?

     

    Will WTI trade at a wide premium to Brent and will refiners get hosed?

     

    Or will refiners pass those costs to Americans who, though financially struggling, will willingly buy $3-4/gallon gasoline to fund the welfare for the oil industry so it helps DJT's reelection bid?

     

    why do people keep saying this? How many times have you been to the pump last 2 weeks? Yes, some businesses will have higher costs, but they, along with individual people are getting loans to offset the higher costs and more. More oil worker voters than truck company owner voters (many of whom just pass on the gas cost to their corporate customers anyway). The demand for transport will still be there. We still need things to get to the store and to us. Not as much as before, but higher oil prices won't kill transportation companies.

     

    As soon as most of the country goes back to driving regularly Trump would dump the tariff. At least I assume that's what he's thinking. I don't think it's healthy, just trying to think like he thinks.

     

  6. I'm part owner in a company selling custom built websites. I regularly speak with Joe public about their finances.

    I speak with about 5-10 new people every day from around the country.

     

    Every third person I speak with has lost their job or been furloughed. Half of them have stopped paying some of their bills, credit cards go first. Many are seeking unemployment but are so broke the gap in income will hurt them badly. People are pulling all or some money out of retirement accounts. In general, those who needs support are confused as to what they will receive and when or how to apply.

     

    Many are only a month or two away from missing mortgage payments.

     

    I usually show people how to do balance transfers with credit cards to get 0% for 15 plus months, the credit card companies aren't approving new applications anymore, except for perfect credit. I haven't heard from anyone that credit limits are being reduced yet like in 09 however inactive cards are being cancelled en masse.

     

    Surprisingly, those working that are 60 plus years old think they will be going back to work by May.

     

    The leads we buy as a company are not available in the same quantity and the quality is lower. Generated online.

     

    That's interesting. From what i read a lot of lower-income people losing their jobs right now, will actually have more money coming in than before (combination of unemployment and the check from Mnuchin). How fast do you get an unemployment check after you file in the US. There might be some cash flow mismatch, but my impression was that for a couple of months most people will be able to scrape by.

  7. DHT

     

    EURN

     

    Can anyone spell C-O-N-T-A-N-G-O? Asymmetric play on crude storage squeeze. Oil market ain't buying the lies Trumpy is selling them.

     

    Dalal--we are seeing the world in a very similar way these days.  Ships going to earn their market cap in a year.

     

    You guys are 2 weeks late on the tanker trade. Tanker storage does not make much sense at anywhere near today's day rates. You really need oil to reverse everything it has done in the last 24 hours

     

    Skate where the puck is going.  Nothing changed by Trump's tweets except a spike to spot.  I don't see how there won't be a massive oversupply of crude for the foreseeable future.  Day rates move around, but the overall thesis is pretty good if you believe there will be a significant oversupply.

     

    Not a major fan of tankers FWIW, but think the trade makes sense.

     

    I'm having trouble with this one as the thesis seems very obvious. If everyone knows that Wayne is going for a backdoor tip-in, and they just let him skate there, then is he really in that great of a scoring position?

     

    I agree. The tanker storage trade is no secret. It's all over Bloomberg TV, FT, etc. I was in the trade and when I saw all the media attention I got nervous and had my finger on the trigger. Sold the second trump tweeted.

     

  8. I want to and have flirted with the tanker trade for a while, but too many moving parts for me and frankly, too many things that dont make sense. Most obviously, the primary one being, why TF are the stocks getting annihilated with $200k day rates?

    They are in energy ETFs which people are selling hand over fist? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Pure speculation because I honestly don't know.

     

    sorry, not trying to pick on you, but are you sure that's correct?

     

    https://etfdailynews.com/stock/DHT/

     

    https://etfdailynews.com/stock/TNK/

     

    I don't see the major energy etfs on those lists.

  9. DHT

     

    EURN

     

    Can anyone spell C-O-N-T-A-N-G-O? Asymmetric play on crude storage squeeze. Oil market ain't buying the lies Trumpy is selling them.

     

    Dalal--we are seeing the world in a very similar way these days.  Ships going to earn their market cap in a year.

     

    You guys are 2 weeks late on the tanker trade. Tanker storage does not make much sense at anywhere near today's day rates. You really need oil to reverse everything it has done in the last 24 hours

  10. Even if a deal was reached tomorrow and I highly doubt it. There are still hundreds of VLCCs on their way to deliver oil to places around the world for at least a month because thats how long those deliveries take. Not to mention all the tankers docked storing oil waiting for higher prices.

     

    The Russian's oil comes from extremely swampy areas of Siberia where if you shut-in those wells there is a high risk of well damage, then they have to wait for the winter freeze to come before they can re-drill. Last year when Russia "cut production" it was actually just some seasonal maintenance which means the bulk of cuts will have to come from the U.S and OPEC.

     

    A lot of US producers are 60% hedged for this year and with credit being free they have some breathing room and unless OPEC wants to lose massive market share they must keep pumping. The Saudis are filling every ship they can and docking them off the coast of all the places Russian pipelines deliver to trying to create such a surge in those local markets that the Russians won't be able to get their oil out of the pipes leading to a back-up and the Russians forced to shut their wells or risk just dousing Siberia in lakes of crude. If the Russians have to shut their wells and re-drill them all, the Saudis could knock out Russian oil infrastructure for a couple years while they re drill it all.

     

    If a cut was instituted OPEC would be taking the brunt of it, maybe some non-OPEC players would join in (Alberta, Azerbaijan etc) and they would have to cut at least 15 Million barrels to even start to normalize the glut in the world. I rate that possibility as very low and expect this glut to persist for quite a while.

     

    During a lockdown or quarantine or whatever you want to call it road traffic drops by 2/3 and road transportation is 2/3 of oil use in the major economies. So lets say oil demand drops during that period by 30%. Italy started their quarantine on March 9 and they are finally getting control of their situation. They have said it will last until at least April 13th. Lets say the Major oil consuming nations of the world spend a month with a 30% demand drop of oil. That's 70 million barrels of demand for 30 days while producing 100 million barrels a day. Thats a surplus of 900 million barrels.

     

    Incidentally B of A thinks the world has 900 million barrels of land storage, Goldman thinks there is about a billion so the number is probably in that ballpark.

     

    So we should be fine then right? Wrong. While the initial quarantine could create excess of around a billion barrels of oil, countries do not go back to 100% oil demand overnight. It will probably take at least another month before oil gets back to normal and that could be another 30 days with 10-15 million barrel surplus. That's anywhere from 300-450 million barrels that will have to be stored on tankers and in railcars and anywhere people can find storage.

     

    Using VLCC and ULCC tankers for storage could take 100-200 tankers out of a fleet of around 770. Tanker charter rates have already jumped to anywhere from $250,000-$300,000 a day. Tankers make money when rates are over $25,000/day so they are making a boatload of money right now (sorry for the pun I couldn't help it). With a surplus of 1.3-1.4 billion barrels how long will that take to burn through? If Opec the Russians and the Americans all cut a total of 10 million barrels and demand goes to 100million a day with supply at 90 million it would take 130 days to get throught the stockpile thats at least four months of low oil prices and charter rates being extraordinarily high. I think the tankers are going to be printing presses this year.

     

    The CEO of Frontline made a bet in a conversation (

    ) with a shipping analyst that if charter rates in the third quarter stay above the January charter rates the analyst has to buy the Frontline management dinner. But if the analyst was right and charter rates fall back down to regular levels in the third quarter the CEO would walk from Oslo to Bergen which is nearly 500km! Sounds like he has no intention of losing that bet.

     

    Disclosure I own some tanker companies.

     

    What's the 6-month brent contango right now? you can calculate the breakeven daily rate for a VLCC in order to make any money on storage (add some margin for the trader, insurance etc). The numbers made sense last week, but they don't make sense today anywhere near where day rates were a couple of days ago. day rates are likely coming down hard unless the contango move back up to where they were before trump opened his mouth. 

     

     

  11. One thing to keep in mind is that EVERYONE hates the oil companies.

     

    Do you know how I know you don't live in Texas?

    Fair enough. Everyone outside of Texas hates oil companies. But even there the number has to be close to 50%.

     

    Maybe even higher in Austin...

     

    But I think most Americans like energy independence and recognize the national security aspect. Especially post-coronavirus.

     

    I believe a tariff would be pretty well received.

     

    Do you think most people value long-term intangible things like "energy independence" over higher prices at the pump?  Will tariff revenues be used to offset a cut in the gasoline tax?  (I assume tariffs would also be imposed on refined products.)

     

    More broadly, if a large percentage of oil production in the US were shut-in (and new drilling went essentially to zero), how long would it take to restart that shut-in production and how much damage would there be to reservoirs?  It seems to me that we'd do more to preserve our energy independence by leaving it easily accessible in the ground and taking advantage of foreign sellers willing to sell us oil at very low prices.

     

    How many times have you been to the pump last couple of weeks? This tariff would not be forever. For right now, I think it will make a lot of sense to trump (not necessarily make sense to many of us).

  12. Any thoughts on the Newtek baby bonds? NEWTL and NEWTI

     

    YTM in the 13-14% range

     

    NEWT is the largest or 2nd largest SBA 7(a) lender. They only do first-lien loans. The portfolio looks like crap as I'm sure it does with most BDCs these days. But I think as such a large SBA lender, it's in no one's interest for it to go under.

     

    The SBA lenders are apparently going to get great fees for processing all these coronavirus sba loans as per

     

    https://www.ft.com/content/c584885c-6d64-4531-99e6-334c6ec0c57c

     

    "Banks will receive processing fees, paid by the federal government, for making the loans. The fees will vary with loan size: 5 per cent for loans under $350,000, 3 per cent for loans under $2m, and 1 per cent for loans greater than $2m. The loans will not incur a capital charge."

     

    They quickly sell off the guaranteed portions of the loans and then securitize the unsecured portions once they warehouse enough. I imagine the unguaranteed warehousing is dead for the foreseeable future, but these new SBA loans are 100% guaranteed and there should still be a healthy secondary market for them.

     

     

    They are also interesting because they have several business support subs that do payment processing, IT, cloud etc. This let's them double-dip on loan clients and also generates some leads for the loans going into the other direction. 

  13. Someone sent me a private message about UMH, asking about their occupancy during the GFC. I'm posting my response in case others are looking at it.

     

     

    Hey,

     

    Please post in the thread so we can all benefit from the info.

     

    congrats on the great entry. I also own the D prefs.

     

    You can look at the occupancy disclosed in the annual 10-k report on sec edgar

     

    the occupancy did not fall significantly in 2009, 2010, or 2011. I was surprised myself. Some people moved out but many moved in to replace them. I was likely because it's so expensive to move these "mobile" homes.

     

    The provisions for doubtful accounts did go up during that time, however. They are not a bank so their disclosures don't make it easy to see how those accounts resolved.

     

    I think what is different this time vs 08 is that many more people are losing their jobs all at the same time and politicians like Chuck Schumer are on tv telling people they don't have to pay rents.

     

    UMH has a significant amount of Fannie/Freddie guaranteed mortgages which allow them to defer mortgage payments if they agree not to evict. I forget if I ever found a % number for guaranteed mortgages but the 10-k shows most of the recent refinances have been with Fannie.

  14.  

    You are assuming they are well-capitalized enough to pay rent on their units for 3-6 months? of rent on all their units without any income from the units... I think the premise is these folks are undercapitalized, but I could definitely be wrong.

     

    You have a point. But in downtown Toronto specifically, which i was alluding to, it's just not the kind of market where someone with no buffer would own and rent. The market is just too expensive for lots of bad credit amateurs to be involved. The market has moved up strongly last several years so most unit owners would have plenty of equity to borrow against. Most responsible owners already have home equity lines set. There will definitely be downward pressure on rents and market values, but i don't see mass distressed selling or the banks tanking over real estate and liquidating.

  15. Just to throw some things out ...

     

    The WH meeting with the heads of the oil majors, is no different to when Bernanke met with the heads of US banks.

    It's 'here's what we're going to do' ... not a discussion. Our own thoughts are tariffs by the end of April.

     

    It's probably the opening round of muscular 'negotiation'.

    Do versus talk, and stability until the economy is back to what it was. 12 months+

    People are being paid to stay home anyway, with $QE, so most realized 2nd order effects will be external.

     

    The game changer is India. Covid-19 is now starting to bite, and much of their in-sourced production is reversing. As China did, their oil consumption is going to collapse. China's consumption isn't going back to what it was, while NA/Europe is dealing with Covid. Take out NA consumption, and the external price must drop like a brick. But nice and cosy, 'inside' the tarif wall.

     

    No point to storage, and this strands whatever external storage is already there, if the external price is going lower.               

    And it WILL go lower - as nothing prevents the NA block from dumping into the external market. Swing production is a bitch.

     

    Allow the EU into the circle, and the US/Europe can leave the ME.

    Done being policeman, and don't need to, as we're now largely self-sufficient. And for a very long time.

     

    So, gentlemen .... let's negotiate.

     

    SD

     

     

     

    If you take out NA demand you also have to take out NA supply. US won't be exporting anything at 20 bucks a barrel. so I'm not sure if the price would collapse. US would just disappear from both the supply and demand side. I do realize I'm oversimplifying because certain refineries are geared towards certain types of crude. But big picture, I don't follow that the global Brent price has to collapse in a US tariff scenario.

     

     

     

  16. we are thinking about it the same way.

     

    haven't pulled trigger on HST or anything hospitality related. There I think the EV / Key comparison is a harder to make at this time because you could be looking at a (maybe only slightly) different cap structure.

     

    Big picture, if on January 1 you knew this was going to happen and you asked how much would EQR/HST/VNO be down, I would think that most would guess HST would be down the most (75-100% of its tenants aren't paying rent for the next 2-undefined months)

     

    In actuality, HST is down 45%, VNO is down 51% and EQR is down 32%.

     

    Now YTD stock moves is not indicative of price to "value" gap. HST traded at a discount to replacement costs beforehand and had issues beforehand (EQR arguably did not) and Host now trades at a (using a sell side estimate) 50-60% discount to replacement cost.

     

    I'm not saying that HST isn't cheaper than the other two on a very long term basis, but I think the others (just using them as proxies for other type of RE and because I know VNO to an unfortunate degree) are safer and still offer upside.

     

    In a year, stodgy institutional investors will be bidding for / lending to EQR type of properties, but I think hospitality will have a longer and stronger taint/increase in the cost of capital

     

    Agreed. I only mentioned HST due to the method.

     

    Have you looked at the manufactured housing space?

     

    By that simple approach:

     

    ELS - 12.2Bn EV / 156,513 sites = 78k per site (but 80k of the 156k sites is RV)  -  average rent $675, sites mostly on the coasts. 90% of revenue is annual recurring. only 10% is seasonal/transient RV.

     

    SUI 14Bn EV / 141k sites = 99k per site        -  average rent 997, site mostly on coasts. half the communities are age restricted

     

    UMH 1.3Bn EV/ 23,100 sites = 56k per site  - average rent $447, sites mostly in Pennsylvania and Ohio. UMH also has a growing business of buying and owning the homes in order to rent them. This speeds up the turnaround of their communities since they tend to buy crappy parks that are ~60% occupied when acquired. They demolish the old houses, stick their brand new houses for rent, and that then make the community much more appealing for regular clients who buy their own home. On the negative side, UMH is family-controlled and shareholders have been complaining about the value leakage to the family for years.

     

    UMH and ELS look most attractive to me depending on your risk tolerance. The cheaper tenants at UMH are more likely to lose jobs, go delinquent etc.  ELS also has better management and shareholder track record.

     

  17. Today, the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (“DEPA”) announced the association’s support for an American anti-dumping action petition to be filed with the United States Department of Commerce and the United States International Trade Commission requesting the initiation of an antidumping and/or countervailing duty investigation regarding crude oil price manipulation by Saudi Arabia, Russia, and perhaps others.

     

    The petition will seek a determination that the recent actions taken by Saudi Arabia, Russia, and others to unreasonably increase their supply of crude oil at prices below market value will result in material injury to the U.S. domestic crude oil industry.

     

    DEPA Chairman, Harold Hamm said, “This is a direct attack on U.S. oil and gas producers. They are taking advantage of this corona virus pandemic that is sweeping the world to focus on this industry and to devastate it. These actions warrant the imposition of antidumping and/or countervailing duties on crude oil imported into the US from these countries. Saudi Arabia’s and Russia’s actions have already, and will continue to, harm U.S domestic crude oil producers and industry.”

     

    The petition seeks to protect the U.S. domestic crude oil industry, U.S. energy security, and the U.S. economy.  DEPA is moving expeditiously to investigate and potentially to prepare a filing.

     

    https://depausa.org/depa-announces-anti-dumping-investigation/

     

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/time-to-slap-a-tariff-on-oil-imports/

     

     

    Trump to meet at White House with oil CEOs

    Goal is to talk potential aid to the industry, including tariffs on oil imports from Saudi Arabia...

     

     

    It’s not anti dumping be sure the Saudis and the Russians still make a profit.

     

    Anyways, the tariff would just be a tax on consumers since the US also exports crude. Adjacent industries (petrochemicals, refineries) probably would need to close because they are not cost competitive.

     

    The more i think about it the more i think it's likely Trump does agree to a temporary tariff on foreign crude. It's just his style. You said that refineries will close...they are already closing. The adjacent industries work at $40 oil during normal times. Right now they don't work at any price, so why not do the temporary tariff until demand comes back? trump can say he saved millions of energy jobs.

     

    I don't want to get into a political discussion about whether it's the right thing to do, but instead, discuss how likely Trump is to make that decision.

     

    If it does happen, what are the second-order effects? What happens to all the oil coming out of Saudi Arabia? Does the spot price in Asia also jump? what about tanker demand?

     

     

     

  18. I'm not sure about China, but I wonder how this will affect the Canadian housing bubble.  China has already had strict capital controls since a year or so ago.  If that was partly fueling the Vancouver / Toronto housing market, that's definitely gonna be gone now.

     

    As an aside, I just thought of something that could be the impetus for these tight lending standards by private investors.  It's almost comical when you think about the side effects of some of these policies coming down from D.C.  If you allow forbearance on mortgages for up to a year, why the hell would you want to lend money out for mortgages then as an investor?  You don't even have to prove hardship from Covid 19 to stop mortgage payments.  If I were investing in mortgage related securities, I would definitely not loan money to high risk groups.  And, if you believe prices are coming down, I would also be wary of lower risk groups.  People who were upside down their homes in post GFC were just letting the banks foreclose on the house and claiming bankruptcy on it. 

     

    Finally, I'm seeing house price reductions start to ramp up.  Just saw another one relist 5% down.  I followed a couple listings price history, and incidentally, these houses sold at a peak during 2007.  Was resold for a huge loss in 2012.  Now, they're being re-listed higher than the peak in 2007.  Haha, wow.  Can't wait to see how low these prices get in a year or two.  We'll see.

     

    Thousands of condos in Toronto were being rented out short term on sites like Airbnb, especially downtown where there is lack of hotels. All those rentals are basically dead now, and I suspect even after the lock downs are lifted tourism will be down for a while. It will be interesting to see how many of those condo owners can survive a downturn and if the high RE prices can be sustained.

     

    I suspect many of the airbnb hosts will switch their units to long-term rental. This will bring down rents in the downtown core but why would they not survive?

     

    now...those that had a "business" of signing 12-month leases just to turn around and throw it up on airbnb...those guys are gonna get smoked.

     

     

  19. An Oilman’s Plea To President Trump

     

    What I’m saying is you need to fix the price of oil, maybe basin by basin, or one price for all. Set it at $62/bbl if one price for all. All imported oil would be subject to a tariff. This includes all the Sulphur-rich, low-quality oil the Saudi’s are sending into their state-owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, along with all the other heavy crudes shipped into our ports. Of course, they’re going to cry and moan, but so do my kids when I tell them no more TV.

     

    Now, this is putting a simpleton’s spin on it, but no bailout money would be required for the US oil and gas sector, plus you’d be sitting on those tariff dollars.

     

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/An-Oilmans-Plea-To-President-Trump.html

     

    That really is a simpleton's spin on it. He forgot to mention gasoline and diesel prices would rocket back up for everyone while helping the oil workers.

  20. I agree with your general thought process. But I also agree that some of the headlines from property owners will be pretty dismal next few weeks so we might get chances at better prices.

     

    Also wanted to add that I like how you try to simplify the value proposition. Like price/unit or the price/room as you did with HST.

     

    What I really want to do is take advantage of this crisis to buy into real estate assets at cheap prices. The public market is falling faster than the private so maybe after the reits recover I'll roll the money into the deals on the private side. At the end of the day I'm agnostic to the avenue of purchase.

     

    Big picture, western governments can't stomach residential RE falling more than maybe 20%. When the stock market falls, the (incorrect) perception is that only a few rich pricks get hurt. But falling residential RE hits many (most?) voters hard and they start sharpening the pitchforks. Politicians realize this.

     

     

     

     

  21. So I just got a letter in the mail from my commercial bank - not a national bank - that the next 3 loan payments are being deferred for everybody.  This is without discussing it with us first to see if we wanted to not pay for 3 months.  Seems strange to force it on all clients so I assume it was at the very least strongly suggested by the Feds.  Will have to ask around and do some research on why they did it this way.  The interest will be added to principal and they get to pretend all of their loans are performing in New Orleans right now - which sounds preferable to their reality.  Certainly leads to a bing swing in cash flow for the next 3 months.

     

    Are other multifamily investors being told similar / same?

     

    I spoke with a RE investment banker in Canada. The commercial department of the bank has bank-wide approval to switch any RE loan to Interest Only without further specific case analysis.

     

    Most of those loans are retail and office, but also some multi-family portfolios of their large clients. 

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