All Forum Posts by: Chris John

Quote from @Bill B.:

Has she owned it long enough to have a bunch of appreciation? If so, the best call would be to sell it to harvest the tax free gains. You would literally be better off selling and buying the neighbor’s condo to rent out.

I'm curious to know why you feel that way.  I'm not sure how property taxes work in Indiana, but in California they'd most likely have a higher rate mortgage, higher homeowners taxes, and have to pay realtor fees.  I'm curious to know what I'm missing, thanks.

@Brett Riemensnider

Congrats!  Very exciting. 

Make sure to treat it like a business and your tenants like customers.  Treat them well, but keep a professional, happy distance.

As a teacher, I feel like many young teachers make the mistake of trying to be the "cool teacher" and it gets them in trouble.  I think it happens in landlording sometimes too.

Best wishes and good luck!

My buddy that's very successful told all of his children that if they don't need his money, he'll leave it to them.  If they do, he won't.  I think it's solved a lot of potential problems for him.  haha.

@Jim K.

Interesting question that I've been confronting a lot lately.  My kids are 20, 18, and 18.  They've known their entire life that I would not be paying for their college, but would allow them to stay home for free (I'm even giving up my office so they can have their own rooms, which is a bummer!  haha).

They've all been working since 16 and between work, birthday gifts, and mutual fund growth, they've got about 40k, 20k, and 20k and paid off cars.  I will say that I did manage to turn a couple grand of birthday gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. into around 10k for them.  So, I didn't really give them any money, but I did help their money grow pretty effectively and I'm giving them the gift of free room and board through college as mentioned.

This has always been my plan for my children and I've taken a lot of guff for it over the years.  I could easily afford to pay for college and most people don't understand why I won't.  It's hard watching them burn both ends of the candle and knowing that they could've gone to "better" schools, but I wouldn't change it as I am so proud of who they are.

In the end, they should inherit a lot more than I did.  I don't think leaving them money is my job though.  I think teaching them to get their own money is...

Quote from @Edward Condon:

PS  The natural law function of inflation is to cancel debt.  If inflation is going to have its way with you at the grocery store and the gas pump, you'd better have your way with inflation on your balance sheet!

Extremely well put, imo!

"The common factor in all of your failed relationships is you"!

;)  haha

Sorry for the cheap shot and I hope you take this as a joke!

@Carlos Ptriawan

Sorry, man.  Bummer!

@Carlos Ptriawan

I learned this the hard way.  The worst part for me was that these were in the attics of one-floor 4plexes.  Why not put them on the ground?!?!?!  So frustrating.

I hope you didn't just learn this the hard way!

Quote from @Sam Booth:

This makes me feel better! How about those 7 or 8% interest rates? Does that make you wish you could pay the higher interest off quicker? I found out an extra payment goes alot further on high interest rate.

It's all at 3-4%.  I borrowed until the banks stopped me when rates were low.  

I think @Scott Trench brings up a great point when he says "Many investors who don't know what that inflection point is will continually leverage thirsting for more, and ultimately wish they’d listened to Dave", but I plan on borrowing until the grave if the numbers make sense for my children and grandchildren.

Haha.  I owe like 30x my annual salary.