ragnarisapirate

I have had it for about a week and love it. I highly suggest it, actually. The voice recognition technology from Google has vastly improved despite the Samsung version of Siri sucking. Other than that, it is a great phone. The bad reviews of the battery life were way over hyped. Anything that can detect when I am looking at it and as a result, not have the screen time out, is freaking cool in my book. :)

speaking of settle dates, don't those seem a bit antiquated now? It seems as if this sort of thing could be instantaneous if the powers at be really wanted to...

I don't remember how I found this, but, it's a pretty good interview. Check it out at 10:50 especially. I am really interested to hear what people here think about the possibility that a regulatory function actually triggered a panic.

+1

As a side note, how many of you all have looked at RICK? I think that there is a lot of potential for the stock, actually. For those of you that are married, I would think that the scuttlebutt might present a bit of an issue. ;)

I get the feeling that these places are also becoming a little bit less taboo than they were 20 years ago. The Pub and English style restaurant with a similar theme that seems to do pretty well here (and is franchised). I think the real question is, how long until RICK transitions into the food services industry.

You bring a good point of screening out bad tenants. I would think that DC would be great for rentals, just because you have a lot of people that by definition, may only be there for 4 (or fewer) years... Out of question, what are you renting those properties that you paid 630K for?

I would say you have either been a landlord or have very good intuitive skills because you have described very accurately what it means to be a rental property owner. I would add that a structural problem with landlording is that you are trying to earn a return off an asset by renting the asset to someone who can't afford/qualify to buy it at these discounted prices either. The tailwind for landlording right now is of course demographics. Many Boomers who have insufficient savings/pension will be renting in the near future and of course will greatly reduce turnover because that is a one way street under the circumstances. A rental property is an investment, but it is also a part time job (per property). That's the part people fail to realize, they just look at the numbers. Indeed, I am a landlord. It may be what I am looking at here, but, it is almost always, across the board cheaper to buy than rent. I don't know tha tI buy the baby boomer talk for now. Unless they lose their house.

Ok, Ragnar. But if we change the situation a bit. Let's say one buys with cash, no mortgage. And one is not looking for a flip, but a long term income producing asset, basically, a cash cow. Let's say something built in 2000s, so fairly new construction therefore less maintenance and something that is part of condo/townhome association (so exterior maintenance & repairs are covered). So, let's say this something is in the neighbourhood of $250K + let's say $10K in closing costs, inspections etc. So since it is a newer construction in a fairly decent condition, it'll need minimal work to prepare for a rental, but let's say another $10K to spruce it up. So, we have about $270K "out the door". And let's say this something could be rented easily for $2100 per month. So, further let's say monthly expenses will be $350 in homeowners association dues (which already includes insurance), plus let's say $400 in property taxes ($4,800 per year including melloroos (since it is a newer area with nice amenities), plus let's say $250 per month for things like home warranty and to fund unexpected expenses. So, we have $1,100 per month in cash. But if we want to be even more conservative, let's say $1,000. If rents rise over time, which they usually do, will be more than that. For the next 10, 20 years. I don't think it is that bad at all. A little supplement to salary or retirement income. A little bit of diversification away from the stock market, to which let's say you are already substantially exposed. Definitely much better than cash in an inflationary environment. And not to forget that these property prices which are at 2003 levels are paid in 2012 dollars, not in 2003 dollars, which is a different thing. $270K now is not the same as $270K then, which to me is a substantial plus. So, basically, a not such a bad alternative to keeping substantial amount of cash sitting in the bank waiting to be eaten up by inflation or increasing already a substantial exposure to stock/bond markets. Residential real estate today is still a distressed asset, maybe not as cheap as it was yesterday, but still cheap. And if it provides steady monthly income - great, plus if it makes the principal more or less to keep up with inflation - even better, and if the angels sing and some day it appreciates above the "keeping up with inflation" level - icing on the cake. At the numbers you cite, it seems to me that one is paying a lot for inflationary growth... A good business that is already under valued and makes sugar water or candied fruit seems a lot more attractive to me... Better yet, buy stock in a company that invests in real estate, and do so below book value. You get the same protections that you cite, hopefully get a competent manager, and do ZERO work of your own other than occasionally log into your brokerage account from a beach somewhere. I can't say enough that there are a ton of people that think they know what a nice house is, but have no clue (and end up investing in them). You can't really get a full appreciation for this stuff unless you yourself are willing to actually crawl under the house to find out for yourself. Inspectors are generally idiots that just want to be called back to put their stamp of approval on the next sale. I had one that tried to say that I was selling a house 3 months ago, with a receptacle that didn't work... Well, he was too dumb to stand up and flip the switch that the thing was on... that setup was something that was original to the house in 1970, and, was actually required by code! Alone, not a big deal, but, there were like 5 other items that he got totally wrong (for example, he didn't know how to test GFCIs, said my gutters were loose, etc). I literally fixed none of the problems that he cited, as they didn't exist. Even if wrong, those are cheap things to fix. There are other problems that are much bigger, often surrounding foundations and such. Even new houses have issues that can be bad; contractors here are notorious for cutting corners on new construction. Don't believe me? Take one from our own book as value guys. How many of you crawl into annual reports and don't trust what a bunch of the WS analysts say for forward P/Es and such? How many times do you find that people freak out about things they shouldn't, but don't have an appreciation for dangers that are very apparent to you when dealing with stocks? My guess is pretty often. By extension, that is the same thing that I see with houses in my hometown. I don't think that it is too different from different places in the US, but, could be wrong. All I am saying is that I think there is a significant number of people that don't know what they are doing, and that they will get burned at worst and at best, will pass along a house to a greater fool at some point in the future.... Thoughts?

I was going to post about this on here, but decided to write it up. http://ragnarisapirate.blogspot.com/2012/06/irrationality-in-residential-real.html

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/21/155359393/bidders-get-feisty-over-foreclosed-homes BTW... It really seems that people are doing really stupid things now. I won't be one bit shocked if there is another wave. In my hometown, there are too many people that are dealing with too small of margins.

or, uses a computer to watch it...

Dentists will also have a strong reason to discredit this product... After all, they could lose a great source of revenue (cavities). It's kind of like how Valvoline and other oil change places try to get you to change your oil every 3K miles, despite not really needing to- not only are oils much better today than they were a while back, but, cars also are made so that the manufacture tells you to often wait for longer periods of time. Hopefully P&G will not buy the patents... BeerBaron I don't get it? Why would it be bad if P&G bought the patents? They certainly have the production, distribution and marketing capacity to profitably deliver such a product to consumers....

VERY well put.

Any suggestions with a particular brand with tools? Use to be strictly Craftsman (hand tools), with them using cheaper metal might look around a little if I ever need a new socket set. For power tools really like Makita. Cordless drill bought almost 20 years ago still works like a charm. My uncle has a Makita drill that he has used almost daily for about 20 years as well. That said, I am a fan of Dewalt for power tools. Hand tools really vary based on what it is; I generally really like craftsman as a rule of thumb, but, have been impressed by select Kobalt stuff. Snap-on is really well made as well. I am a big fan of stihl for chainsaws and such. These new sockets from Craftsman look really neat, actually (and I think that there is a 51 piece set). http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-19pc-universal-max-axess-socket-and-ratchet/p-00931088000P?keyword=universal+socket+ratchet&prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=L1

Tools- there is something to be said for quality hand and power tools. Having a Macbook and a good phone are also invaluable.

I have no idea what they will bring. I do own some shares and find the whole situation very intriguing. At the prices where I bought, it seemed like there was a decent call option on the sale.

On today's conference call, PRXI said that they were trying to sell the assets of the Titanic in a tax efficient manner. They also essentially said that they would be giving the bulk of proceeds back to shareholders. Now... while giving the proceeds back to shareholders is pretty straightforward, I am curious as to how they can get out of paying a ton in taxes on the sale. Does anyone have any insight as to what kind of tax rate they may get this down to? What about things they could do to reduce the taxes?

genius

Very harsh but interesting nonetheless. Harsh, but right...

I would love to know what the whole thing rents for.

[amazonsearch]Storage and Stability[/amazonsearch] Has anyone ever read this book? It's about backing a currency with all the things that make an economy run (corn, wheat, iron, silver, ect) and talks about it in a way where we could feasibly have competing currencies and faze out the greenback. There are all sorts of other advantages, such as what would happen with a war and such. I read it while hopping plans to get to and from Houston a 8 or so months ago and thought that it was one of the most brilliant pieces of writing ever. As with all the other stuff that I have read from Graham, I couldn't put it down and kept thinking "WOW! This is what I have always thought/believed, but, was never smart enough to extrapolate on, put into words or so much as have a cohesive thought on!" I always love it when that happens and the thought was a really old one (The book is something like 80 years old).

Because it would be very interesting to see if the appraisal went into how it assessed the items. For example, with real estate, you often have comparable sales, as well as a cash flow analysis. That would be really valuable in determining what may happen with this stock... It's a devil is in the details sort of thing.

Is the 2007 appraisal of artifacts available?

I think in most restaurants, the wait staff is responsible. I do not know if they are financially responsible though. That sucks. I've never worked as a waiter, so I had no clue. In my state, it is illegal for employers to force employees to pay for a dine and dash or anything along those lines. They can fire a person, but not dock them pay. Most people don't know this, or are simply too scared to call their employers out on it.