All Forum Posts by: Carl Leonard

Here in the appreciating areas of California it's tempting to buy a deal that has a negative return and rely on appreciation to make your profit.  It's been working well the last few years so it will continue, right?  Well I don't see it dropping tomorrow, but who knows longer term.  

If you get a deal where you have positive return, then you are somewhat insulated.  Even if prices go down you are still making money every month.  Sure it would suck for the value to decline, but not nearly as much as a decline when with negative cash flow.

There are a ton of people out there doing home loans.  Keep looking.  I've never done a home loan with one of the big national mega banks.  They just didn't have as good of a deal.

It all has to do with frequency of use.  If you are a tradesman using these your tools 8 hours a day every day then the top tier brands already mentioned are the best bet.  I'm more like a few hours a month and the Ryobi tools do everything that I need.

Don't buy anything with a Ni-Cd battery.

I think that the 2% rule is more for a $65k duplex in a place like Cleveland where each of the two units rents for $650.  

As you stated it is the same holds for the 50% rule.  A new furnace is going to be more or less the same price if the house is 70k or 700k.  You burn a larger percentage of the rental income on maintenance and capex.

 Quite true.  I was not aware of ESOPs before.  Looks like they are really designed as a retirement savings like a 401k.  Companies use them because they can actually borrow the money.  Then there is the 10% off the top penalty that seems like it applies for early distributions.

There are possible pitfalls here.  I'm thinking that this may be CPA territory and the particulars of the ESOP plan may make a large difference.

It's basically free money.  It's only tied up for three months and you will make a minimum of %15 with zero risk if you can sell immediately.  As far as I can see it is a no brainer.  

I'm doing the same, but my employers ESPP plan is similiar to NickB's but the limit only 10% of pretax income and the period is six months.  It's been a good way to save for me.  I sure wish I could put more in it too.

I believe that for non owner occupied it is 20% down for a conventional loan. Some lenders might want 25%. Since it is 20% down there should be no PMI. The interest rate will be higher than if you lived in the home.

A conventional loan is the least expensive option.  Unconventional loans will be 30% or more down and unlikely to find a 30yr without a big balloon payment long before 30years are up.  At least that is what I have found when looking.

You need similar investments.  In your example you are comparing a 20k investment vs a 100k one.  Instead compare a one property 100k vs 5 with a 20k down payment.

I live in Santa Clarita and 250k seems like a lot for a condo that old.  Now this town is large and some areas are more desirable than others.

Not all LED bulbs are the same. 

Some of the less expensive ones use cheaper components and have much lower lifetimes.  I was looking at some Home Depot specials a while back that were only 99 cents for a 60w equivalent.  Package stated life expectancy of only 2000 hours.  I put them back on the shelf.

The better bulbs will be 20000 hours or more.