investment real estate: Don't Go To Jail, Collect Your $200 - 03/25/08 10:56 AM
Don't Go To Jail, Collect Your $200 by Bill Roberts
I received an email the other day from an ActiveRain member asking about using his Self-Directed IRA to buy a house that he could "rent" to his son. I want to respond to this by saying that a Self-Directed IRA should be your very best investment vehicle for providing for your retirement BUT you need to follow the rules.
You may invest in just about anything from within your IRA but there are specific things that you CANNOT do:
Prohibited transaction. A prohibited transaction is any direct or indirect:
Sale or exchange, or leasing … (20 comments)
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investment real estate: Timing the Market - 03/03/08 11:20 AM
Timing the Market by Bill Roberts
Qualcomm is a local high tech company here in San Diego. Owning their stock has made quite few of their employees and other local people Millionaires. I figured that everybody could understand making money this way. You simply bought Qualcomm stock in the beginning and sold it after the price went up (way up).
Last Friday it closed at $42.39 per share. Back in March of '03 you could have bought some Qualcomm stock for around $15.00. Now my question to you is, "Would it really have mattered to you if you had paid $14.50 or even … (15 comments)
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investment real estate: Memories Or Just Getting Old - 02/29/08 11:39 AM
Memories Or Just Getting Old by Bill Roberts
My wife was off work today and she wanted to watch Rachael Ray. OK, I like to cook so I used to watch her on Food Network all the time so I said "sure, let's watch her."
Lara Spencer, another of my "faves" from the old days on Good Morning America was doing her regular visit with RR. During Lara's segment Frankie Valli came on. OMG is he short. I couldn't believe he was Rachael's size and shorter than Lara. Well, his height didn't matter when I was listening to him and The Four Seasons … (12 comments)
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investment real estate: Money, Money Everywhere - 02/27/08 06:27 PM
Money, Money Everywhere by Bill Roberts
Every newscast talks about the economy, the mortgage meltdown, and what the government is doing about it.
I'm sure that by now you realize that the housing crisis was brought on by the Fed's actions vis-à-vis interest rates. They (specifically Greenspan and Bernanke) destabilized the mortgage market, the housing market in general, and the very economy by reducing rates to zero and then sharply raising the rates back to a normal level. This kind of action does not take place in a vacuum. These guys torpedoed us. Anybody making excuses for them is in denial of the … (8 comments)
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investment real estate: The Big Money Mystery of 2008 - 02/27/08 12:45 PM
The Big Money Mystery of 2008 by Bill Roberts
Everybody has an opinion about the Mortgage Meltdown. Everybody has a suggestion about how to "fix" it or prevent another occurrence.
I have my doubts about all this.
My friend Bill Archambault writes extensively about all aspects of the mortgage industry. If you don't know him or read his blog, you should.
He recently posted about Why Are We Calling Lenders Predatory
This started as a comment on that post.
After "analyzing" the lending process Bill suggests that part of the problem is the federally mandated Truth in Lending disclosure (the TIL).
You can't legislate against stupidity. And disclosures … (2 comments)
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investment real estate: Not Again! A Real Estate Market Update - 02/27/08 11:18 AM
Not Again! A Real Estate Market Update by Bill Roberts
This morning on the CBS Early Show Mark Zandy, the Chief Economist for Moody's economy.com said that he expects another 10% decline in real estate values over the next twelve months.
Why are they doing this? Haven't they fueled this market decline enough? Since markets are basically driven by psychological factors they are the problem. The mass media provides the information that most people use to make their decisions. If that information is faulty, then their decisions will probably also be faulty.
These so-called experts have a responsibility to all of us to stop … (17 comments)
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investment real estate: Spiderwick Chronicles - Not Really A Review - 02/25/08 11:46 AM
Spiderwick Chronicles - Not Really A Review by Bill Roberts
Yesterday we went to see Spiderwick Chronicles. It is a Nickelodeon production so I thought it must be "kid friendly." It just goes to show how out-of-touch I am. The special effects were great. It is a combination of "live" actors and animation. I don't know how they do it but it's great. It was kind of like a Harry Potter movie, which is why Irene wanted to see it. It scared her, so I was satisfied.
When all was said and done it turned out to be a CHICK FLICK. It … (10 comments)
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investment real estate: Hey Super Agent What Do You Want? - 02/23/08 02:34 PM
Hey Super Agent What Do You Want? by Bill Roberts
Lenn Harley recently posted HOW TO SUCCEED IN REAL ESTATE SALES. GET REINTERMEDIATED . It was "Featured" so you may have read it. If you haven't read it you should.
I read and then commented on her post:
Lenn, As we take back the business, we will probably have to deal with our pricing for our services. Technology allows a "Super Agent" to handle many more clients than the old ways in the old days. Competition should drive the price of services down.
If you still haven't read the full post please do so. The comments … (4 comments)
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investment real estate: Suspend "Due On Sale," Fix The Problem - 02/22/08 04:27 PM
Suspend "Due On Sale," Fix The Problem by Bill Roberts
Back in the good ol' days when we could buy property subject to the existing financing and there was nothing the bank could do about it, anybody could buy real estate. Qualifying wasn't an issue.
If a seller was "in trouble" it was easy to get them out of trouble by simply selling the property "subject to" or with an AITD (an all inclusive trust deed or "wrap-around mortgage).
Then, in their infinite wisdom (or pressure from the banks) Congress enacted the Garn-St. Germaine Act in 1982. See The Don'ts Of Due On … (65 comments)
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investment real estate: What Do You Do During A Recession? - 02/11/08 12:21 PM
What Do You Do During A Recession? By Bill Roberts
For the most part economic activity slows down during a recession. That is actually the definition of a recession: two successive quarters of decreased economic activity. There are various technical descriptions but this is good enough for our purposes.
Recessions always lead to recoveries, usually about 18 months later.
So what do you do during the recession? Save your money? Get ready to "pounce" once the recovery is announced? Sleep? Or do you take positive action?
Whatever you might want to do once the recovery starts, you would be better off doing it while the … (15 comments)
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investment real estate: How to Find Land - 02/08/08 12:03 PM
How to Find Land By Bill Roberts
Man has always had the urge to find new lands. It is what led to the discovery of the New World. It is what pushed us west from the Eastern Seaboard.
But just because all the land has been discovered doesn't mean that our thirst for new lands has been quenched. On the contrary, we seem even more inspired to find a piece of land that satisfies certain hungers within.
I'm one of those land pioneers. I like nothing more than going out into the sticks looking for that elusive parcel which will satisfy a hunger deep … (5 comments)
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investment real estate: How Low Can You Go? - 01/31/08 06:29 PM
How Low Can You Go? By Bill Roberts
I've been hearing a lot of criticism of the NAR's campaign that now is a good time to buy real estate. It seems that these self-professed experts on economics and the real estate markets think that this campaign reflects badly on Realtor's® because they say the market is still heading south.
I'd like to know what makes them so expert on the actions of markets. Did they sell houses when the market was higher? Why did they do that if they are experts on real estate economics? Didn't they know the prices were going to … (23 comments)
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investment real estate: Elements of Retirement Planning - 01/30/08 03:09 PM
Elements of Retirement Planning by retirement planning specialist Bill Roberts
If you are not yet retired (and maybe even if you are) there are things you need to know about planning for that (dreaded) day when you quit working (at your regular job).
Is it going to be a walk in the park? Or a part-time job at Wal-Mart greeting new arrivals?
Maybe you would like to have enough time (and money) to play golf, visit the grand kids, see Yosemite, do a little sailing, or just putter in the garden. That's what your parents did, so why not you?
Well, there are a lot … (11 comments)
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investment real estate: Lying In America - 01/29/08 10:33 AM
Lying In America by Bill Roberts
It would seem that lying is not acceptable in America. Look what happened to Martha Stewart. When they couldn't ‘get" her for insider trading, they got her for lying to a federal investigator.
But what about when the police lie? The other night on the CBS show 48 Hour Mystery story about the Tankleff murders the lead detective stated it was OK to coerce a confession by lying to the suspect. Watch his interview.
Do we even know if the Federal investigators lied to Martha Stewart? Do we care?
And what about former President Bill Clinton? Wasn't he convicted of lying … (8 comments)
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investment real estate: Buy Low, Sell High - 01/26/08 11:47 AM
Buy Low, Sell High by Bill Roberts
All the stock market pundits echo this mantra but then they advise just the opposite in their specific recommendations. When prices are going down they say "SELL" and when prices are going up they say "BUY."
The technical analyst looks for a "breakout" formation before he recommends buying a particular stock or any stocks for that matter.
What does this mean? It means that the stock has come off its low and has BROKEN THROUGH a line on his chart that he labels as "RESISTANCE." What this means is that everyone has jumped on the bandwagon … (8 comments)
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investment real estate: Have You Ridden The REO Express? - 01/25/08 01:49 PM
Have You Ridden The REO Express? by Bill Roberts
This morning on Good Morning America there was a story about a bus tour of foreclosed houses. I think it was in Pismo Beach, California, but it could have been anywhere. Apparently they charge $20 a head and they take a busload (what's that? About 50 people) around to look at REOs.
They give them the asking price and either the previous selling price or the previous loan amount. It wasn't clear. Maybe they just give them what they have and it varies. In any event these have got to be motivated buyers … (30 comments)
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investment real estate: What Good Is A Neg Am Loan? - 01/20/08 11:04 AM
What Good Is A Neg Am Loan? by Bill Roberts
There is a lot of talk lately about people getting stuck with PAY OPTION ARMs that are really negative amortization loans. The general consensus seems to be that the mortgage industry really took advantage of people with these types of loans. It is said that they allowed people to buy "more house" than they could afford.
WEALTH BUILDER LOAN
Well that is one of the purposes for a properly constructed WEALTH BUILDER LOAN, as a pay option arm is called. The idea is that houses may be unaffordable right now, but if you could … (22 comments)
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investment real estate: Baby Boomer Retirement Planning - The Basics - 01/20/08 10:53 AM
Baby Boomer Retirement Planning - The Basics by Bill Roberts
Retirement Planning is like planning for a trip. You can't really do much planning if you don't know where you want to end up. Just putting a little money aside with the idea that you'll need it when you retire is kind of like just driving around aimlessly, you'll end up somewhere, but not necessarily where you want to be.
So if we can agree that isn't the best approach, then what is?
Well, the process is quite simple. You start by creating a budget of your living expenses that you'll … (13 comments)
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investment real estate: A Special Request and A Special Gift - 01/11/08 11:50 AM
A Special Request and A Special Gift by Bill Roberts
My ActiveRain friend from Kansas City, Chris Lengquist asked me to write a guest post for his blog, BBQCapital. Chris is in an area of the country that a lot of us can only envy. Income property actually produces income even with a mortgage in place. Where I am in San Diego all we know about is "negative cash flow."
The title of my post is Baby Boomer Retirement Planning - The Basics. Please visit Chris's blog and read my contribution. Check out the rest of his blog while you are there. He … (2 comments)
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investment real estate: A Penny For Your Thoughts - On Second Thought You Better Make That A Dollar - 01/08/08 05:18 PM
A Penny For Your Thoughts - On Second Thought You Better Make That A Dollar by Bill Roberts
I recently read an article by Matt Heaton explaining the role of the Fed on interest rates: Why does no one in the media understand The FED?
I wrote my own take on this: Greenspan, The Evil Villain
Home Prices
But it doesn't matter which one of us you believe, the fact of the matter is that interest rates affect home prices.
Some people think that the recent (2002 - 2005) run up in the price of a single family residence was some kind of conspiracy.
If there … (10 comments)
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