All Forum Posts by: Paul B.

I have never paid a painter a penny until the work was done, but I can see where he's coming from.

Let's say you book the job, he has you in the calendar, then, Surprise! The day before the gig, you decide you don't want him to do the job. Now he's probably lost the day because he can't get another job lined up in 24 hours.

I would avoid paying anything in advance unless you know for sure that you're dealing with someone very reputable. Even then, I would cut it down to 10% or something, and I'd also try to pay that with a credit card, so that if he flakes out on you and doesn't show, you can get your money back.

Darryl, this company was incorporated only one month ago: February 17, 2011.

Give it time!

Whatever you do, read the paperwork -- every word of it. And just remember the oldest of sayings about things that are too good to be true...

If you really have time to waste, ask if any of these lenders actually loan money, meaning they give you a line of credit that you can access for any purpose at any time using a check.

Just take a look at the site.

Not one name.

Not even a phone number, just dashes where the phone number is supposed to go. Wow, talk about lazy.

Even the link to their Privacy Policy just goes to a privacy policy generator, not even a template of an actual privacy policy.

This is all just beyond sloppy.

And what they're not telling you is that none of these lines are going to be with an actual bank or cash lender. At best, you're looking at lines of credit with places like Staples and other business products companies.

At least they're not trying to gouge you for $5,000 up front. However, they probably want 10% of the line of credit obtained. Are you really going to pay someone 10% to hook you up with a Staples card?

These business credit services are scams, the lot of them. Maybe what they provide complies strictly with the finest of fine print, but you are 100% absolutely not going get what you want.

So, as always, read the fine print. I bet there's a lot of it.

Oh, and am I reading this correctly?

3) Login ID and password are required that we can review the full FICO reports and do a thorough evaluation of the clients credit worthiness

So, they want you to set up a MyFico account and then hand them your ID and password? YEAH, RIGHT! While I'm at, I'll give you my original birth certificate, too.

"My aquaintance/friend is selling his house for 45,000. He's willing to do seller-financing for 25 years at 6.5% interest and no down payment. The rent I could get would be around 500-525 and would cash flow around 80-100 per month."

How do you figure? P&I is $300/month. Are you budgeting $125/month for vacancy, taxes, insurance, repairs, and replacement reserves? That's only 25% of the rent.

Why not manage the property for your friend for $75 a month?

Investors have a hard enough time managing properties an hour away, let alone those out of state or out of the country.

I could not see doing this without having a solid relationship with an in-country agent and property manager -- and you'd have to go there to meet these people.

Another option, albeit not quite as hands-on as what people here are used to, would be international REITs.

Depending on what you're discussing, I'd prefer the phone.

Emails last forever, which is not always a good thing if you say something you should not have said.

On a sidebar, I think people rely far too much on email when a phone call would get you twice as far in half the time. Email is quite often nothing more than an avoidance mechanism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k

$600 billion, not $600 million, although there was such a typo in the Wall Street Journal,

The Fed buys bonds, which creates a shortage of bonds relative to all the cash out there that would otherwsie be invested in bonds, which creates excess liquidity since that cash needs to be invested elsewhere. More dollars chasing fewer investments keeps those prices up and higher, which means rates on fixed-income investments fall and stay lower.

And this:
QE Explained Video