All Forum Posts by: Richard C.

Or, I suppose:

"I'll give you a thousand dollars, cash, right now, for the right to buy your house for its current value 30 years from now! What a deal, amiright? Since it will suffer more damage on a consistent basis, making the overall cost of ownership extremely prohibitive."

On a larger level, I would note that if people were as confident as they claim to be about the impact and effects of climate change, there should be any number of investment vehicles out there that would allow them to bet on that confidence, or mitigate the lass of that change.

Yet somehow, even the most ardent proponents of social and economic changes to mitigate the impact of climate change aren't willing to part with any of their current income to mitigate the impact of climate change on their personal finances.

'Tis curious.

Ask anyone who lives in a coastal area and goes on and on about climate change to sell you an option to purchase their house 30 years from now.

"I'll give you a thousand dollars, cash, right now, for the right to buy your house for its current value 30 years from now! What a deal, amiright? Since it will be underwater and valueless anyway?"

See just how confident they are in their, "Settled science."

While I am in favor of following licensing laws, and think many wholesalers don't (why, I don't understand; getting a RE license isn't like becoming a member of the bar or a board-certified surgeon, just do it already), I am really, really doubtful that people are actually serving time for unlicensed real estate practice. Outside of really egregious circumstances where the lack of license is really the least of it.

Anyone actually know of anyone being sent to jail? I doubt it.

That doesn't mean we can't heap social opprobrium on the sleazy who take advantage of people and make life harder for legitimate operators.

I always ask for it. It doesn't prevent me from having to do an inspection of my own.

If someone refused to show me their inspection report, when doing so would cost them nothing, it would probably make me suspicious. And I would therefore look more closely, and have my inspector do the same.

Just food for thought.

Maybe equity can't pay your bills, but a home equity line can. And even if you do have to draw on it, the interest rate is going to be at least competitive, if not better, than a 30 mortgage.

So no your approach is not crazy. I would argue, in fact, that it is the most common strategy people have followed in this country for decades. On a small scale, this is what you are doing when you pay off your house prior to retirement.

Those electric fireplaces with media hookups are tacky monstrosities, so far as I am concerned. If I didn't want to leave a wood-burning fireplace there (and I probably would leave it) then I would have a gas insert put in.

Try to bargain with the seller for your closing costs. Don't touch that "deal" with your friend.

I believe you said in another post that you were a former broker? What is your license status? If it just lapsed, maybe "pound sand" is a viable strategy. If the state pulled your license, I would suggest being extremely cooperative.

Measure the perimeter of the building, note the run-rise, and do the geometry when you get home.

This sort of disclaimer has no more force than those signs you see on some people's houses about how their "sovereign property" is exempt from local law, and no police officers or city officials may come on the property. So you haven't covered yourself at all.

Quite the contrary, in fact. Your admitting in writing that you are aware of the applicable regulations.