All Forum Posts by: Terre B.

Nope.   There are a lot of things that count as indicators for economic status, but Vegas room rates are about as ridiculous a stretch as I've ever heard.  

Interesting perspective.  

I'm not a "PRO" at real estate.  I AM a pro at travel.  Been an agent for 30some years.  I currently book major incentive travel groups, corporate meetings, etc.  I manage anywhere between 30-50 groups at a time.   I know Vegas Hotels.  

I booked the Palms for a group last week. Its NOT the Bellagio, or the Mandarin Oriental.    When I book hundreds of rooms at a shot, they tend to give me the best pricing, since DUH, it's vegas, they aren't making their money off the rooms, but off the gambling, the liquor, etc. and Im putting several hundred corporate people in their property who are all going to spend money.   I paid $93-118 per room per night.  Room rates are considered a loss leader, ESPECIALLY Monday/Tuesdays and fall, which is a slower season. 

 There is absolutely NO corelation between the cost of a hotel room in Vegas (of all places!!!) and real estate.  There is actually no corelation between the cost of a hotel room in vegas and anything other than their load factor.  Pick a date.  Any date.  Price a room.  Tell me the hotel and the date, and I guarantee you I can change that room rate.  I call my contacts, tell them I have a major liquor company wants 150 rooms.  I will get a better rate than you, and yours will vanish like smoke.

.A great many people here have suggested you reevaluate, put yourself on a salary as the Property manager, or GC or whatever you want to call yourself, and contribute to the household.  You continually find justifications for your actions so I see no evidence that you are even considering her opinion.  

Who's name are all these properties in?  

What is your exit plan?  Or are you just going to go on like this for the next 20 - 30 years?  

You have tossed a lot of numbers out, most of which make no sense, but at no point have you stated what is the breakdown.  All you want ot speak of is "equity" but based on your statements, you are misrepresenting your expenses and therefore it leaves a question as to if you really know what your equity truly is.  

It appears that you are not here for advise but you are looking for ammunition to throw at your wife. 

Couple of things to keep in mind. HML (first mortgage = first position) is pricey. Much higher interest rate, and points as well. This will seriously eat into your potential value after the remodel. So will the payments on the 2nd mortgage (private money). I'm sure someone else here can quote you exact figures, but I jutt read a thread where the guy was only going to make $5K on a flip once he got all the actual figures in.

It looked awesome after about 3 months...coincidentally about the amount of time it took for my back to quit hurting every time I looked at it!  Fortunately, that wasn't a rental, just a white elephant I bought for my family and lived to regret for a wide variety of reasons only part of which were the flooring or the black and purple walls, or the 20 AMP breaker for the Kitchen, living room and 2 bathrooms.  (FYI - 20 AMP breakers in houses with 3 teenage girls are not a good idea.)

i pulled up black carpet (which matched the black walls (sheesh!) in a 1910 farmhouse, and found the original wide plank pine.  Someone had painted that too...

I thought it'd be easy, I rented a sander.  Unfortunately the house had hot water heat and two of the walls had long registers.  But it was worth it when done. 

Who decided that all the profits were to go back to the business?  You?  Or both of you?  

I agree with the rest of the group, yes she has a right to her feelings.  But you need to identify if the solution really is you getting a W-2 job, or if putting yourself on a salary will make things feel more equal, or if there is another underlying issue.   If, out of $700 a week, she's paying taxes, your $477 truck payment, all the credit cards, $570 a month utilities (OUCH) and I'm sure cell phones, etc.  it totally sounds like you need an accountant to advise you on what should be part of the business as an expense.  I.E truck.  Cell phone bill.  Your gas for the truck.  Etc, etc etc...  You really aren't making $7000 a month if you are not expensing things properly.  

Have you considered that she may hate her job as much as you did your old ones?   I suggest you listen to her and do some serious restructuring or you may need to see that prenup thread on here.  :-)

Smartest thing I've read here.  

I've been married 42 years.  To probably 5 different men.  All the same one.  If I asked him he'd probably say he's been married to 10 women.  (I'm NOT asking that question!).   Prenups were not a household word when we were married.  

At each stage, we each had to ask ourselves if this new person was someone we wanted to continue to spend our life with.  It required compromise and adaptation, but we chose to stay together, but at any point that choice could have gone the other way.  There were times we came close and started the discussion.    IMO, a prenup might have made things easier.  There were times, that the discussion of how to separate created conversation that revealed we really didn't want to part ways. Had there been a prenup, that conversation might not have happened. 

That said?  Yes, I think a well written prenup is an excellent idea in many circumstances.

There is nothing they can do for you, you cannot do for yourself.  Go to Credit Karma, Credit sesame, you can online protest negatives on your credit.  If something isnt removed, protest it again.  And again.  Follow the recommendations on there that make sense.  (Not all will, they push credit cards heavily).