Errold

Do any of you work from home? My house use to feel gigantic and really empty, 5b/4b around 3k sq ft, but no real yard when I was single. But now with 2 kids and mostly WFH, it is just about right. 1 bedroom per kid, one bedroom/office for me, and one bedroom/office for the wife and one spare downstairs for guests.

Besides crying it out, I think it really depends on the kid. My 1st pretty much didn't sleep through the night regularly till around 2 or 2.5, had lots of night terrors, woke up screaming, crying inconsolable, crying until they puke. He was sleeping around 11 hours and started skipping naps around 1 year old. Now even at 3.5, he hates sleep, he will force himself to stay awake, even if he is dead tired looks like a raccoon. So we were ready for more of the same when number 2 came around. Number 2 luckily seems more along the lines of a normal baby and sleep mostly through the night by around the 1 year mark. Not sure how your financial situation is, but a night nanny a possibility or cutting back on work temporarily? Just keep telling yourself it gets better... and it does eventually. Wife was on maternity leave and I eased off work a bit during those really rough patches. Any family to help out during the day? Good luck!

I'll have to take another look at MSGE, thanks. BAM - held and sold, not ever quite comfortable with it. Probably due to my lack of understanding. BX, yes, I could add that mixed in with KKR. Did nibble a bit on PYCO. DPZ I do hold but regret not buying in size in the 200s. During that time I actually tried opening a DPZ, but could not get my foot in the door, even had someone willing to work at one of their stores for 1 year to get into their management trainee program. Big mistake on my part, if I was willing to devote 350k to opening a DPZ, should have been more than willing to devote a sizable amount to the stock. RTX, have indirect exposure to them already, so no need to buy their stock. Unfamiliar with the other 2, will take a peek. I am one of those that loves COST, but always too expensive for me. But 10 year holding, probably not a bad idea to just bite the bullet and pay the price. Use to hold MKL, I do hold DVA, and ASML I have been poking around, but seems a bit expensive. Still a bit of a cheapskate sometimes. IFF - mentioned before i'm horrible at understanding consumer/luxury goods. Agree on WM & RSG though. Refi should be done in a few weeks. Maybe I should title this account CoBF portfolio?!??

@boilermaker75 That is a good plan. My kids are really young, so I am considering tossing them the gift limit each year into their UTMA or something similar, but then I worry what if they turn out fiscally irresponsible lol. @Dinar Thanks for the list. A good portion of that is outside my wheelhouse, but Ashtead and CP are interesting. I have looked at NEN but never made the jump. As for BAC, been holding forever since it was in the 6-12 range. Could be bad, but figure, BAC and JPM best banks in the US with modest (hopefully tapers off) inflation and rising interest rates should do fine. Could be a fault of mine, but I often just let them chug along until I find something wrong with them or something too good to pass up comes along. Same with UNP, been holding since the 90-100s. CHTR, is definitely a newer holding and less comfortable with than the others. @Gregmal Thanks, I read a lot of what you posted on this site and thank you again for the insight on sunbelt RE, made a pretty penny on APTS. Even thought about just going down there and buying some sort of housing and renting it out. Any thoughts on BREIT? Just wondering if their returns will eventually be squeezed as they have snatched up a lot of the low hanging fruit. I spoke with their rep and the majority of their dividends at the moment are return of capital, 90%+, but they say it will taper down to 70%+ and they hope to keep it at that level, which makes it slightly more enticing. Also I do own a bit of MSGS, any reason MSGE > MSGS or vice versus? @ICUMD Yes, with the pullback, would definitely add some google in there. Appreciate all the input!

Hey everyone, I have debated for quite a while but recently decided to pull out most of the equity in my house that was paid off. With kids, ideally I want to help them get a house in about 20 years when they are older. Figure life happens, but a 10 year holding should be a good starting point. Not looking to knock it out of the park, but goal would be a reasonable, ~10-12% return with my current cost of around 3.5%. Safety more important than returns, as I was also content to just leave it untapped and have my house paid off. Rather not touch any holdings and less dividends the better, as I live in a high tax state, so my marginal tax rate is close to 50%. Planning on keeping these funds separate from my investment portfolio to keep track. Some current ideas and holdings in my portfolio: BRK (could just dump it all here and call it a day?) JOE DIS (bagholder I be, but also a believer) CHTR FRPH KKR BAC MSFT/FB --> Possibly just put a portion into QQQ instead or buy a bunch of FAAMG and some chip/semi's. UNP Thanks in advance.

Oof, I'm usually more of a lurker on here, but those returns bringing me out. Figure most people would shut down and open a new fund under a new name after 5 years.

I/we have purchased retail properties off loopnet, out here in California though. One list price was reasonable, ended up purchasing for a slight discount, <5%. This was a seller who wanted out and did not want to deal with being a PM. Units were fully leased out in a decent area, mostly NNN. Owner also had the deal fall apart 2 or 3 times prior to me so they were a bit frustrated. All I had to do was take over, be the PM, stagger and update the leases with rate increases and NNN terms. Standard DD and closed in 60 days. I think the deal was priced fairly. Bought for low 6 cap, probably close to 7 cap now over ~5 years prior to COVID-19. The other was also in California, more in the boonies, and the asking didn't make any sense, ended up obtaining the property at a >20% discount to asking. This was fully vacant except for the anchor tenant. Broker also listed potential rent rolls in the OM about 35% too high for its location. This owner was crazy. Long story short, after a bunch of craziness over the course of a year and finally at the end, he tried to stiff the broker on contractually obligated commissions and would not sign closing documents unless broker capitulated. We prepared to sue for performance, but the broker gave in (wanted to wash their hands of this crazy client) and we closed the deal. Luckily, over time it was worth it if commercial retail cap rates don't change too much. Bought around a 5 cap, was around 8 cap ish after ~7 years pre COVID. In this situation, I believe the broker lists the property at whatever the client wants to keep the business. Then over time they show that no one is interested or the offers they receive are much lower than the asking and hope they see reason. I think this works with most clients. Or you just list it and forget about it, and keep the connection alive and hope that the client has other friends with real estate. Or also having more listings makes you look nicer in the eyes of potential clients. But then also you have owner/operators who list properties for sale on Loopnet and may think, ok, if I get this price I will sell, otherwise I will just sit back and keep collecting rent. So I would say deals are definitely being done, but the asking may be accurate or wildly inaccurate. Not sure if the pricing is more accurate in California due to higher volume? Or possibly I got taken advantage of and I still haven't figured it out =D For both of these properties, I had to troll Loopnet for around a year or two to find ones I liked. *Update - all this was over 5 years ago, so things possibly have changed.