Here's the recap of all of S&P's European downgrades today:France and Austria down one notch, stripping both of their coveted triple-A ratings.Downgraded by TWO notches are Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.Only Germany and Slovakia were given stable outlooks while all the others received negative outlooks.The S&P said it was taking the actions "because Europe's leaders had failed at recent meetings to take decisive steps to solve the region's debt crisis."

It’s never been clear to me how powerful any of these organization can be in raising our concerns and lobbying our legislators, compared to the giant behemoth mega-banking industry and Wall Street, which seems to do well for itself.With any luck, we’ll be able to ride the coattails of the CMLA, as long as we’re not excluded at the last minute.Jeff

We do not learn in school here that some of the founding fathers stated that the European central banking system being forced on the colonists was the real reason for the revolution.

ET Homeowners soon will be able to count income they earn from Airbnb Inc. rentals on applications for refinance loans.A new program -- expected to be announced on Thursday by Airbnb, mortgage giant Fannie Mae and three big lenders -- will allow anyone who has rented out property on Airbnb for a year or longer to count some or all of that money as income.Refinancing can be a way for a homeowner to tap home equity for renovations, college tuition or other big expenses, or to reduce their monthly payments.Lenders have been tougher on income from side businesses and part-time work since the mid-2000s, when poorly documented income claims on mortgage applications helped fuel the housing bubble.Airbnb, which launched in 2008, argues that its service includes reliable technology to track income, and that it is helping middle-class Americans stay in their homes by giving them a way to generate additional cash."

Gravel landscaping becomes a giant litterbox and you have to put on some gloves and pick it all up by hand. 

., attending local RE investing groups regularly, being in the area for one reason or another on a semi-regular basis, etc.).Ask yourself, if you had a couple of months where you had to go there every weekend for some issue, would that be OK or would it be a giant PITA you'd want to avoid.Just trying to put it in perspective.

A couple considerations I will say, having just launched this new concept in January this year, the marketing is certainly a giant challenge.

It is the equivalent of building on a giant sponge. lolIf the house is 40 years old it has had 4 decades to settle that 12 inches.

Now that the country is 24 trillion in debt with a giant employment problem, huge geopolitical issues, domestic politics are bordering Banana Republic, those are not signs of a strong country.  

You may just be the next Real Estate Superstar and be running a giant REIT in a couple of months - I really have no idea, but I think other folks on the forums should be a little cautious before using your examples for their own investment strategy.