All Forum Posts by: Loretta A. Steele

1: Taxes are $1654.35 for the calendar year 2010. Title is transferred Aug 12th of the same year. What is the proration to the buyer and seller?

Property taxes are paid for the entire year. If the seller had already paid the $1,654.35, then on Aug 12th, the buyer must paid for the portion of taxes that apply after Aug. 12th.

1,654.35/12 months = $137.8625/mo.
137.8625/30 days = $4.59542/day

Aug.(19), Sep.(30), Oct.(31), Nov.(30), Dec.(31) = 141 days

141 days = 4.59542 x 141 = $647.95422

SELLER : Credit $647.95
BUYER : Debit $647.95

2: Property taxes are $1654.35. The first half was paid by the seller. A sale closes on Nov 13th. What is the debit & credit to buyer & seller on the settlement statement?

We are not given the date that the first and second half of the taxes are due. Let’s assume a calendar year, as in #1.

The 1st half of the taxes were paid by the seller. The second half of the taxes must be prorated.
In the second half of the tax period, the seller stills occupies the property upto and including November 13th.

The seller occupied the property for 4 months and 13 days.

1,654.35/12 months = $137.8625/mo.
137.8625/30 days = $4.59542/day

Jul.(31), Aug.(31), Sep.(30), Oct.(31) = 123 days + 13 days of Nov. = 136 days total
136 days = 4.59542 x 136 = $624.97712 that the seller owes the buyer

SELLER : Debit $624.98

BUYER : Credit $624.98

3: A woman pays $45,674.81 for two vacant lots. The second lot costs 63% more than the first lot. How much did each lot cost themselves?

Lot2 = 100% of Lot1 + 63% of Lot1 = 163% into the total paid
= $45,674.81 / 163% = $28,021.35583
Lot 1 = $45,674.81 - $74,449.94030 = $17,653.45417

4: Nick and his brother each bought a lot. Nick's brothers lot cost 29% more than Nicks lot which was 150ft x 210ft and cost $.60 per sq ft. What was the cost of each lot?

Nick’s lot = 150ft x 210ft = 31,500sqft
= 31,500sqft x $0.60 per sqft = $18,900

Brother’s lot = 100% of Nick’s lot + 29%
= 129% of Nick’s lot[$18,900] = $24,381

I trust that my logic is correct, please correct.

A strategic default is the decision by a homeowner to stop making payments on a loan despite having the financial ability to make the payments. In this definition, the homeowner is financially able to pay. The payments are not in question it’s the homeowner’s reasoning that is important. The homeowner might have evaluated; spending money on something that has lost value versus using their money elsewhere.

The strategic defaulter has reasoned or evaluated and come to a business decision. They ran the numbers and decided what made sense to them. Just as the banks run the numbers and decides what makes sense to them. The strategic defaulter and the banks are making a business decision.

So who is morally at fault? Neither, it’s not a moral issue. Business judgments not moral judgments are in play. Paraphrasing a movie quote…â€it’s just good businessâ€.

Charles, congrats on your first commercial property.
And the high traffic element is great!
I will be looking forward to your future pictures as well.

Rentals with pools will have liability issues as others have stated.

We are in Southern California and we know how we love pools. But when it comes to rentals, you need to evaluate a number of issues.

In the neighborhood, will your rental be the only pool on the block? Will it see a lot of activity because of this point?
How is the pool protected? How many times have you seen news reports of pool accidents during the summer months?

Also you will need to look at the maintenance issues with a pool.

- Monitoring calcium hardness once a year
- Maintaining your chlorine levels
- Checking the pH
- Checking the alkalinity
- As the surface of the pool begins to age, the plaster will require repairs
- Maintaining the filter and or filter/heater, if is the pool heated

As far as who should maintain the pool, I would advise hiring an experienced company. Do not let your tenant maintain the pool or let them chose the pool company.

Hope this gives you something to think about.

In dealing with people in this industry; tenants, contractors, other investors, etc. at times can cause you to wonder about the human race. But you can't let that stop you or make you cynical.

Before you get to the cynical stage, stop and remember why you choose this business. Remember the goals you created when you started. And relieve that you can control how you respond to others, but you can not control how others respond to you.

No more than a nice holiday card, should be sufficient.

No matter what you give, you will always have some people that feel entitled. It really comes down to what you are comfortable with.

It's your business and ultimately your decision.

Here is a variation on the traditional Open House.

Advertise in your local media that you are having an "Open House Auction". The idea is separate your property from other open houses and to generate serious buyers to your property.

Prior to the auction, pre-qualify all potential buyers. This will eliminate any tire-kickers. Set an open house time for your buyers to preview the house. And set a time for the actual auction. The preview and auction can be on the same day. You can decide if you want a silent-style auction or not.

Again the point of the auction is to get qualified buyers to the property.

Ghosting is a mystery and there does not seem to be one all-inclusive solution to this problem. But there are some things you can try that might reduce the possibility of Craigslist ghosting your ads. Give these a try;

1. Never post a large number of similar ads in a given twenty-four hour period.

2. Have a number of different free email accounts. And make sure to vary the name on those email accounts. The idea is to appear as different or unique as possible.

3. If you have more than one computer, post your ads from your different computers inorder to generate different IP addresses.

4. Create three or four different ad texts that still get the point across, but are not mirror images of one another.

Hope these suggestions will help.

Marie,

Welcome to BP, as you can see it is a great environment for networking and learning.

You are definitely on the right track in building your buyer's list and gaining experience as a birddog.

Good luck and stay active in BP.

Loretta

For those that are interested in a very basic tutorial on using HTML tags in Craigslist ads. I just posted about "ad text formatting" on my blog. Again the tutorials will be step-by-step posts on using HTML tags.

My blog is called: REI Computer Related Shortcuts