jhcap

This depends on what you pay, how much you can rent it for and what your costs are. I live in a Rocky Mountain resort town in the U.S. and own vacation rentals. They can be very good investments however, if you are renting remotely you will need a property manager and, at least where I live, they take 45-50% (might be less if you do all the booking) of rental income to market the property, book renters, clean the home, repair stuff, deal with renter's needs etc...That doesn't cashflow for me so I manage my own, but I live in the same town as my rentals. As far as the 28 day discount, this is because in many towns a rental period of one month or more is considered long term and is not subject to sales and lodging taxes as well as other restrictions. Anything shorter is a vacation rental and subject to taxes, local short term licenses and zoning rules. Properties can only be rented short term in specific areas (to prevent displacement of local working communities/neighborhoods). Owning a vacation rental is owning small business. If you are going to buy a home some place anyway the rentals may offset some of your mortgage and tax costs, but to make it cashflow and provide good returns you will have to treat it like a business.

Further consolidation into cash. I am following suit (Bridge pun intended) https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/business/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-goldman-sachs/index.html

That's interesting. Please, if you are inclined to do so, provide periodic follow-up, especially when you'll feel that your concerns are taking the corner. Well it turns out that there are a lot of people fleeing the bigger cities for the mountains. I am in the process of signing a long term lease with a family from New York. It's about half as much as I would make from VRBO/Airbnb in a normal year, however it is enough to pay my mortgage and expenses. I will resume short term rentals next year when, hopefully, things have normalized.

I am very worried about the impact to both long and short term rental real estate. I own both long term residential properties and short term vacation rentals in a ski resort town. All ski resorts have closed and all Spring break bookings have canceled. Historically there has been a shortage of rentals in my town, but with the hit to travel and hospitality thing could change drastically. So far Summer rentals have not canceled, but if they did it would be a big financial blow. Also, our town and rental market is highly dependent on H1B Visa workers. If they can't travel to the USA or if the jobs for them are not available it will be terrible for the local economy. I made it through GFC, hoping I can weather this storm too.

I was very lucky and new to value investing in the GFC. I didn't start entering the market until May of 2009 which proved to be pretty close to the bottom which had occurred a few months early (pure luck). I was able to quadruple my portfolio from there by buying very cheap companies with good fundamentals as well as net-nets. I was pretty concentrated in about five stocks. I'm not a momentum or growth oriented investor and I don't claim to be able to pick a bottom, but back in 2009 net-nets were abundant in many industries. I have yet to see that in this market. I'll start buying when I can fill a portfolio with net-nets (non-biotech) from a variety of industries. I also will wait until limits aren't being tripped on a regular basis, both in regular trading hours and futures. I do remember looking at LVS in 2009 which hadn't opened Macau yet. It traded at 72 cents a share at one point. I didn't buy because of the debt and fear that no one would gamble again. I remember when it hit $72 a share four years later. Not sure if there is a lesson there.

Chuck Norris' tears can cure COVID-19. Too bad he never cries.

What about Petro China - $PTR? He has owned it before and made a lot of money. He has publicly said he would buy it again at the right price. It is both China and energy so the ultimate contrarian bet.

I too am enamored with what Cornwall Capital did, however I don't think that SVXY was a good example of their type of investing as the time variable was not knowable. SVXY steadily climbed for years and it would have been very easy for the LEAPS to have expired before the drop. This is different from the Capital One example which had a court decision date that clearly determined when the binary event would occur and therefor allowed the Cornwall guys to purchase the appropriately dated options. For this reason, I think finding companies that have depressed stock prices due to law suits with clearly defined time lines are a good place to search for these types of investments.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900009649/ian-cumming-lived-life-with-little-fanfare-and-died-the-same-way.html

Getting back to the original question, I think basic geography is often forgotten in todays discussion of the economy. The land between the Appalachian mountains and the Rockies is the most fertile and productive contiguous agricultural land in the world. It is also serviced by a major navigable waterway which gravity feeds right to a major ocean port. It is no coincidence that New Orleans was fiercely fought over. Whoever controls the Mississippi basin, waterway and port will be a major economic power regardless of all other factors.

I'm not taking any actions based on Scion's 13fs, just making observations. It's a pretty large change whatever the reason. Burry is an inspiration to me and I can't help but look for any bit of info on how his mind works and what he is up to. Who knows, perhaps we will read about his current actions in another book some time in the future.

Looking at the difference between the February 13 f and the most recent April 13f, it looks like Scion reduced its equity positions from $79,939 million to $51,092 million. That's a 36% move of assets to cash or short positions or something else???

This sounds interesting. Any suggestions about where to look/how to go about it? Prestman Auto in SLC is one that advertises on Ebay Motors. you can tell that their cars are cheaper compared to the same models from other dealers with similar year and mileage. They deal mostly with newer cars though.

As a value investor I hate buying depreciating assets, but a car is a necessity for my life and business. I have found the best way to buy a car is to get one from a salvage dealer. The prices are significantly lower than a comparable non-salvage car. The trick is to find the cars that have a salvage title because the car was stolen and the insurance company had to pay out before it was recovered. These cars often suffer no real physical damage (Other than being found with a bunch of syringes in the back seat) but some state laws requires that a salvage title be issued if the insurance was paid. I drive my cars into the ground, so resale value isn't much of an issue for me. There are a few of these dealers around the country. They usually know what kind of repairs if any were done to the car if you ask.

The Canadian oil patch is cheap because: 1. Unfounded belief that the Keystone pipeline is necessary for these companies to be profitable. 2. Oil weighted producers being lumped in with natural gas weighted producers the latter of which are suffering from low natural gas prices.

The Canadian oil patch.

Recent article in Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettarends/2014/06/22/is-this-the-next-warren-buffett/

In chronological order: Nothing Down by Robert Allen Missed Fortune by Andrew Douglas Rule #1 by Phil Town You Can Be A Stock Market Genius Margin of Safety I got started with real estate so the first book that really made me start to think about investing concepts was Nothing Down by Robert Allen and then Missed Fortune by Andrew Douglas. When I decided to learn about the stock market the first book that turned me on to value investing was Rule #1. It's a good introduction to identifying and valuing companies.

This is a great read with a history of how insurance started thousands of years ago. http://www.amazon.com/Against-Gods-Remarkable-Story-Risk/dp/0471295639

You have dreadlocks and you are investing in oil and gas? Aren't those things mutually exclusive? ;)

I think a company that is investing in already developed and patented drugs can be a great investment. Drug patents can be one of the more robust moats out there. Frankly, I haven't dug into Valeant at all, but a cursory look tells me they are taking on a lot of debt to fuel their growth, which is something I am not usually comfortable with. On another note, it would seem even a great value investor can get sucked into the promise of new blockbuster drugs coming down the pipeline: http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/04/klarman-closes-position-on-enzon/

http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/24/news/economy/the-big-short-movie/index.html?source=cnn_bin

I have been investing in real estate for about 13 years. I own and manage single family condos, vacation rental properties and a multifamily property. I use a separate LLC for each property with a separate bank account. The idea is to create a legal barrier so that in the event you are sued by a tenant, they can only go after the assets of the business that owns the property that they occupy. One issue is that unless you have significant cash to purchase the property with, the mortgage will probably be in your name as opposed to the shell company. It is my understanding that his could create a weakness in the corporate vail, but I am not an attorney. I am not sure what the best legal entity would be if you were using OPM to buy real estate. This is a good question for a real estate attorney. I suspect that a hedge fund type structure with a LP managed by an LLC would work well, but again I don't know for sure and it may vary by state. Which state are you operating in? I operate in Wyoming. Wyoming is considered by many to be the most tax advantaged state in the U.S. No corporate or personal income tax unless you are a large energy or mining company. There are other tax advantages including very low property taxes, no real estate sales tax, no inheritance tax, no excise tax and several others. This is the reason why some of the wealthiest people in the country are buying property in places like Jackson Hole and trying to establish residency. The fees for starting an LLC and filing annual reports are minimal in Wyoming. Only $130/year per company. Fortunately I have never had to test my corporate veil.

I have been investing in real estate for about 13 years. I own and manage single family condos, vacation rental properties and a multifamily property. I use a separate LLC for each property with a separate bank account. The idea is to create a legal barrier so that in the event you are sued by a tenant, they can only go after the assets of the business that owns the property that they occupy. One issue is that unless you have significant cash to purchase the property with, the mortgage will probably be in your name as opposed to the shell company. It is my understanding that his could create a weakness in the corporate vail, but I am not an attorney. I am not sure what the best legal entity would be if you were using OPM to buy real estate. This is a good question for a real estate attorney. I suspect that a hedge fund type structure with a LP managed by an LLC would work well, but again I don't know for sure and it may vary by state.

As someone who frequently invests in micro caps this is a real concern for me. Even large insider ownership does not necessarily protect against a "take under". Novus Energy provides a good example of a situation where the management sold the company well under intrinsic value because they were given cushy jobs and large salaries with the acquiring company. WestFire Energy was a great company trading well below intrinsic value when the majority share holder (Sprott Resources) decided to merge it with failing Guide Resources to create Long Run Exploration. Sprott prevented the bankruptcy of Guide Resources, but owners of West Fire ended up holding a much less desirable company. While insider ownership and majority share holders can provide safety and stability, they can also rob you of your investment if they have ulterior motives. It is a difficult risk to assess.