Posted on August 17, 2010 @ 6:27 pm - Written by BawldGuy
Back in the day my mentors would regale me with real estate investment stories about the early 1950’s. Having been born in the summer of ‘51 I was all ears. I heard a common thread in most of their tales, until that is, we hit the end of 1975 or so. The ‘way it always was’ began to change — radically. They began to notice not so subtle changes in the local market, and they didn’t like it one bit. No siree.
Prices started rising in what would be the first of a long cycle of up a bunch, down a bit, up a bunch more, etc. I’m not sure it was indeed a paradigm shift as a matter of fact, but to them that’s exactly what it was. One of ‘em was so put out by what he saw through the rest of the 70’s he retired earlier than planned, headin’ back home to Wyoming. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on June 28, 2010 @ 3:52 pm - Written by BawldGuy
Last Thursday’s post pretty much summed up my thinkin’ about what most, not all real estate investors should now be doing. A common denominator found in the daily calls and emails I receive is the ultimate question — What should I do now, if anything?
You may be surprised, or not, to learn that much of the time my counsel is to stand pat, or almost. For the record, ‘Doing something‘ isn’t a Plan. I read everything I can about the economy and real estate in general, and have frequent conversations with those in the business for whom I hold well earned respect. Allow me some relatively unfiltered PlainSpeak today. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on June 8, 2010 @ 5:56 pm - Written by BawldGuy
The three links below are worth a second read, especially given their relevance in today’s economic realities. Let me know your thoughts.
7 Expectations of Real Estate Investors — Beware of Potential
10 Ways To Delay or Diminish Your Retirement
The ‘Old Normal’ — Sore Elbows and Adapting
You may get a hold of me by calling 619 889-7100. I’d love to talk with you, as my daily fix is a must. 
Have a good one.
Posted on June 1, 2010 @ 4:03 pm - Written by BawldGuy
My job at the front end of the relationship with a client is to understand, inside and out, their financial picture as it is. It’s surprising how many times I’ve had conversations with folks, only to have them let out a little bitty factoid that changes most of what I woulda told ‘em to do. What may seem humdrum to you today, might make a very happy difference a decade or two down the road.
I never know when that elusive little factoid will show up, but in so many of my initial few conversations with clients, they pop up without warning.
Here are some recent examples. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 26, 2010 @ 6:28 pm - Written by BawldGuy
As in any profession or industry, investment real estate has its own nomenclature — our own language so to speak. Many of the words/concepts we use have been reduced to abbreviations. An example is NOI — Net Operating Income. The one we’ll talk about today is GRM — Gross Rent Multiplier. For those of us who’ve been in the business since Hector’s pup died, it gets even shorter, often referred to as Times Gross — as in “How many times gross do properties sell for in this town?”
First thing we should do is lay out what Gross Rent even means. It refers to the gross scheduled rent of a given property, which will also generally include laundry income if applicable. It should be understood that it’s virtually universal that you’ll be referring to a year’s income — not a month’s. I say that, but there are places that will use monthly income, a pain in the rear end if there ever was one. Numbers are almost always computed using annual figures when producing an analysis on residential income properties. That’s not to say using monthly figures won’t work, but it’s a lot more work than necessary. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 17, 2010 @ 6:27 pm - Written by BawldGuy
Short ‘n sweet today, as today, and probably through Memorial Day, I’ll be busy knockin’ down the dominoes, or pullin’ the trigger, and a dozen other clichés as it relates to implementing what we’ve been workin’ on the last 20-something months or so. Grandma said the Devil’s in the details, but I never knew she was being so dang literal.
Anywho, I was thinkin’ today that it’s times like we’re currently fightin’ our way through that people often begin worrying about what the other guy might get, instead of keepin’ to their own knittin’.
Therefore, I thought it would be timely to refer you to a post I wrote in 2008, about how sometimes we tend to Look Through the Wrong End of the Telescope.
I think you’ll like it — it’s always been one of my favorites. If you have a question about what you should be doing with your real estate investment portfolio, or just wanna get started, gimme a buzz. 619 889-7100 will get you to there. Have a good one.
Posted on May 6, 2010 @ 6:10 pm - Written by BawldGuy
I’ve written about real estate vs stocks ’till it’s almost like beatin’ a dead horse, at least from Wall Street’s point of view. Half the time the posts were written when stocks were ridin’ high. Everyone was lookin’ in the mirror seein’ Donald Trump starin’ back at ‘em. Every time I write about it, the stock ‘n bond guys come outa da woodwork to put in their two bits — for what it’s worth.
Look, if stocks are your thing, good on ya. But today’s post, though short and sweet will starkly draw the differences between the two.
Let’s do this the way Socrates might. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 29, 2010 @ 9:49 am - Written by BawldGuy
Written By — David Shafer
Thought I would talk a little about Charitable Remainder Trusts in response to BawldGuy’s post, “Retirement Dream a Nightmare….” First, some background in my involvement with CRTs. I will give you the full explanation in a later post, but for now I will tell you that I am a partner in a business that manages CRTs in order to create additional sources of income for non-profits. Currently, over 80% of real estate donations are not consummated because the non-profits don’t have the expertise or the structure to accept the donation.
The point of CRTs is not to dodge taxes, but to encourage donations of appreciated assets to non-profits. Hence, they rarely solve tax problems; merely create some tax advantages for the donor. Folks that push CRTs as a way to solve tax problems tend to create as many unintended problems as they solve. Read the rest of this entry »