‘Course that’s not why I’m talkin’ about her today. It’s ‘cuz the 4th of July is on Friday, and Roberta has done a ton of homework so she’d be able to tell you and me where all the excitement’s gonna be. If someone’s settin’ off a cherry bomb somewhere in the county, she’s got the lowdown on where and when.
Posted on July 1, 2008 @ 12:35 am - Written by BawldGuy
How many times have we been out to breakfast, looking at a menu showing mouth watering pictures of fresh squeezed orange juice? You know the one — a pitcher of juice surrounded by the most perfect oranges the Good Lord ever made? Then while leaving you pass the kitchen and see them mixin’ up another batch, throwing away the frozen concentrate. Hey, those oranges were fresh at some point, right?
It’s all about expectations, isn’t it? I’ve spoken to investment clubs, and the experience generally falls into three categories.
Newish club so mostly newbie investors — great questions, solid response
More mature club, a few ‘leaders’, one of which I inadvertently cross while talking
The ‘1 in 10′ club, interested only in real info, in depth detail, real expertise and advice
After a conversation yesterday with a long time client, I’ve decided what the heck, it might be time to revisit clubs. She recounted a recent trip outa state to her see her brother. They’re both seasoned investors, and he took her a meeting of the local club. She’d told them during a break about how we do things at Brown and Brown, and that we used to speak to clubs like theirs. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on June 28, 2008 @ 11:58 pm - Written by BawldGuy
A few times yearly a positive perfect storm hits where I live. It happened today. Getting ready for a big family deal 60 miles up the 15, I messed around all day. The exception was a very cool conversation with a ridiculously smart young guy whose advice I’m considering. I say he’s smart, but he lives in the Phoenix area on purpose. I guess different strokes, etc., right?
Anyway, I went through the whole day gleefully anticipating the family deal — and never once, not even a hint of a thought about writing something semi-intelligent. Oh well. Life goes on, and something tells me your lives didn’t change ‘cuz I forgot to put on my real estate investment dude hat on. The family party? The best ever. Everyone had their sharpest double edged swords out. Haven’t laughed like that in a long time. I was cut to pieces, but got my share in too. The Glenlivet was smooth as always, and The Boss was lookin’ hot hot hot.
On an absolutely unrelated note, if you’ve heard of twitter.com you can follow me. I’ll be, ah, @bawldguy — duh. If you haven’t heard of twitter, check it out.
I’ll be back in spades tomorrow though, and that’s a promise.
Here’s some music designed to put a cool twist on the weekend, and smooth everything over. Blasts from the past. Even Lani’s gotta like these two.
Posted on June 21, 2008 @ 7:22 pm - Written by BawldGuy
109˚ in La Mesa today. And no, I don’t wanna live in Phoenix. A fellow blogger is comin’ out tomorrow with his family from Phoenix. Life ain’t fair, is it? I think he’s driving here tomorrow. Ah, good times.
Posted on June 19, 2008 @ 10:26 pm - Written by BawldGuy
Had to write on this subject, as it’s been consistently coming up lately. And if clients bring it up, it needs to be addressed here. Asset protection, in my humble opinion, has become a racket — a huge cash cow racket — but a racket nonetheless. I’ll make use of the BawldGuy Disclosure:
The following opinion plus my Starbucks card will get us both some strong coffee and some really cool cookies. At least my opinion has been vetted by some pretty impressive attorneys.
(That last part is me saying, ‘Neener neener neener’ to doubters.) ‘Course I don’t actually say those words, I just refer to the bazillion dollar an hour attorneys I consulted. Gets the job done though, doesn’t it? Works for me.
Been sayin’ this for years — at least since the mid-90’s. After nearly 15 years of Asset Protection seminars, infomercials, and Fred yer next door neighbor tellin’ you how everything you own is in danger, you should smarten up and spend thousands on LLC’s and new fangled limited partnership agreements, and they should all tie into the…Stop! My ears are bleeding.
Has anyone told you the cost of residing in California with a few LLC’s? Try about $800 a year just to file the LLC tax return. Unless you’re unfortunate enough to have established one of those Blue Light Special LLC’s for ‘Just $99 Today!’ a real live LLC drafted by a real live real estate attorney with more than five minutes experience, will cost you $2,500-4000 for the first one. He’s creating it for you, not the last dozen clients. That cost real money. From then on the price crashes to $250-500 depending upon the attorney, and/or their mood. Gonna buy half a dozen properties? You’ll be advised to initiate more than one LLC. Let’s say the first one costs $3,000, and the next couple are $250 apiece. That’s $3,500 right off the bat.
You hold the properties for five years. That’s $12,000 of filing fees. Geez. I’ve already posted before about the tax deferred exchange problems. They’re not nearly as bad as they used to be, but they still can present problems. Lenders are usually the catalysts. I’ll skip that part of the story, but suffice to say holding investment property in a way which might possibly weaken or, perish the thought, cause a 1031 exchange to be disallowed, ain’t the way to a consistent sleep pattern, know what I mean, Verne?
Look, liability is what yer trying to protect yourself from when all the smoke clears, right? Right. This ain’t rocket science people. I’m not the Lone Ranger when it comes to this school of thought. I’ve finally heard the LLC word one too many times. So here’s my thinking, and that of the three real estate attorneys queried on the subject. Read the rest of this entry »
