All Forum Posts by: Marvin Valencourt

Therein lies the problem.... Since Americans will never give up their mobility (in SUVs) the only way to stop Chavez, the Saudis et al is alternative fuels. No money = no power.

First step in a long journey? Lobby Congress to make flex fuel capability mandatory on all vehicles sold in America starting NEXT YEAR. Won't cost Ford and GM a nickel since they already sell them in other markets (like Brazil). Might want to ask them to take off the ethanol blinders and spend some money on measures to encourage commercial production of butanol too.

In my family it's more like gasoline and flame...

Hello B and welcome. Good luck on selling that house and I hope the investment isn't a recently acquired condo. Come back and let me know how you sold 'em after you do. ;) There are many around here that can't... I'm not one of them that wants to yet but may need to at some point.

I'd recommend a half hour with a divorce lawyer that practices in your state. Iirc in VA any real property obtained prior to the marriage was not considered community in the event of divorce and the spouse has no claim... Or maybe that's in FL, I've done one in each state. Having children changes the parameters...

First question should be can you afford the cash outflow every month and is it worth it to you to keep paying it for the possible future payoff.

Another thought - are you counting taxes, insurance and maintenance in your monthly figure? What are you spending that year if the furnace dies? As a landlord you have to replace that and my last one ran $2500, really changed the monthly "payment"...

Also note that if you take that write off and later decide to use your capital gains avoidance you 'll have to "recapture depreciation". I'm not exactly sure of what that means but my tax guy used the phrase repeatedly.

I'm a newb landlord so maybe I did this backwards but I'd make sure I had this part done before I talked to the other applicant. Fall back to the first one if they don't sign for some reason.

All else being equal go with the better income/debt applicant, and being a couple there's less chance you won't get your rent if one loses their income for some reason.

My ex had one of those things when I married her.. and took it when she left. Only benefit I ever saw in it was the ablity to bank the week and exchange it for one at another resort. If I recall, even that cost a few bucks to join the association or whatever it was.

I just moved off the Beach but still commute to work there. I guess said work's firewall is blocking access to the site included in your sig... I get a "Cannot find server or DNS Error" page. The corporate one works fine though.

Hello Jessie...

Let me know if you need a little help with that website... I'm local, sort of, and know more about computers than RE. 8)

I'll tell you what my old man told me 25 years ago... or so. Get that sheepskin at all costs. I ignored him and like someone has said I regret it today.

I decided on the military instead and though that wasn't a bad decision I missed out there too - by not listening to more of dad's advice. He told me to buy a duplex or townhouse to rent out with some of the monthly pay I was wasting on beer. You won't necessarily have the income as a college student to do that but it's not out of the realm of possibilty since you may already have saved enough to make a down payment on something. I couldn't manage that until I was almost 30. If you could find a good co-op job or even a part timer that made the payments and used grant money or loans for school it should be doable. Don't kid yourself though, doing both will take hard work and some sacrifice, think 13" TV for the next 6 years or so...