hey guys my name is shawn jarman, i am a 23 year old welder that lives in ventura county, ca. it kind of goes without saying that if you are young, there's no way of breaking into real estate unless you inherit property or a sum of money. spent 5 years in phoenix arizona for school and ended up buying one side of a duplex for a whomping 50,000. 2 bed, 2 bath, 20% down, occupied for 800/month, monthly payment of 319/month. finally got a renter since i moved back home, and stopped hemorrhaging money. i suppose im currently buying and holding, but where to go from here to get out of the rat race further. i have a construction background and love working with my hands, just not for someone else, interested in possibilities of flipping. my renter is a family man with a son, and coincidentally does my contracting and handyman work. all in all i see possibilities, but 40 hours/ week is kind of a hindrance when investing out of state it seems. excited to hear from you guys and connecting with a community of people who want to own their own futures, rather than home town friends

How much do you pay for sheet rock, tape, bed, and texture?

I find that I often analyze something to death, trying to get it exact.

Took most of her valuables and said "she is in icu close to death, most likely will not make it."

Just to add some more specific details to my saga, here are the facts:Well on the 4 bed 2.5 bath 2 car garage Charlotte NC house I paid $170K for and put down 20% CASH with closing it was about $40,000.00 I lost up front.Short sale don 1/12/12 for $80K Net $70K on a owed amount to Chase for $141K.

There are already electric hybrids that use very little gas.More are slated for 2014 - 2015.If gas goes any higher and stays there it could be a death knell for suburban areas.More people will move to more dense urban living where they can walk and bike to work to reduce costs to survive.Used to there was a small class of the rich,a big middle class,and a small poverty class.Now the rich class is bigger,the poverty is bigger,and the middle class is shrinking into non-existence.Costs are going to rise and keep getting worse and worse.I want to be on the wealthy side.In many instances it is getting cheaper for me to eat out then buy at the grocery store.I can get a 3 course meal at Red Lobster for 7.99 and get 2 meals out of it.The restaurants are not having to raise prices at the rate of the grocery stores because alcohol sales drive most of the profits.If people think it is bad now it is going to get much worse.We need to stop depending on gas for transportation.It's a dead resource on it's way out.

A lot of these issues are also causing other issues inside the house.It seems like the house is a money pit and  death trap.She says she wants to keep it for taxes because she gets to break even every year because of it.

That covers cleaning, dressing the beds, throwing our garbage, etc.

Added a 2 bed 1 bath mother in law above the garage.

For two identically-designed policies (same premium, same death benefit), the IUL will generate more cash value over the long run than the WL.This is a good primer on Life Insurance that explains the REAL difference between WL and IUL...https://www.biggerpockets.com/...Good luck!