All Forum Posts by: Emilio Ramirez

Bryan,

I think your point is spot on, if you are considering the US or other established markets. Where the "nomad" will find success and a greater opportunity to increase their wealth is in emerging markets that have a high demand for their skills and a relitively low cost of living. I would think in most cases, owning a home for a nomad, would be problematic. However, I can also see the case where the nomad owns a home somewhere in the world that is their base of operations.

To the point of the original post, I would agree with most, that your personal residence is not an investment. It can be a status of wealth, but it is much more than that for many when you associate the human interaction that occurs in a home. I think for most people, the arguent that, "it's a good investment" is mostly something that helps them convince themselves.

The thought process might be something like the following:

Two bedrooms upstairs for the kids...an extra den/office.. we could put your mom in their... nice living room...that's where the flat screen will go.. great garage... nice backyard for bbqs with family and friends... oh and its a good investment.

Might even be considered a rite of passage into some next step of adulthood.

As long as the property only has one tax key, I don't know why you would have to live in both units.

There are really only two options.

1. Increase your income so the debt burden is not so large.

or

2. Retire your debt so your existing income is sufficient to provide for your standard of living.

There are many ways to achieve either goal. Potential ways to increase your income could be as follows:

1. Second job.
2. Start a business.
3. Rent out a room in your house.
4. Rent out entire house and move in with family.

Potential ways to retire your debt:

1. Walk away, as you have identified.
2. Short sale.
3. Loan modification.
4. Pay it off with savings.
5. Pay it down with savings and refinance.

I'm not sure on your questions on bankruptcy, but you could probably talk to an attorney for free to discuss those issues. Good luck with your decision.

exhaust ventilation from a bathroom is generally required by code, although this varies by state and municipality. This can typically be accomplished by installing an operable window in dwellings of 4 units or less. Again this depends on your municipality.

If you don't have an operable window then you are required to install mechanical ventilation (exhaust fan and ductwork to exterior). This type of work generally requires a permit.

Depending on your climate, you may want to install an exhaust fan anyways.(Do you leave the window open after a shower in maryland in february?) Older bathrooms with drywall or greenboard are more prone to mold problems and would benefit from mechanical ventilation. The exhaust system needs to be seperate from the forced air system.

Thanks for the info bill. What r the key items I need to put in my letter?

I would definitely be interested to hear others experiences.

My understanding is that the IRS requires you to have lived there for two out of the past five years. Two years being defined as one year and one day. If this is your first owner occupied deal and you can meet those requirements, I don't think you would have a hard time fighting that in court. Of course if you are doing it over and over again like Eric points out, you are probably heading for trouble.

This is primarily a zoning issue. So it would depend on the municipality in which the property resides. Most Zoning codes can be found online and an assessors info page should list the zoning.

I would guess based on your info that the zoning is single family to 2,3 or 4 family residential. The zoning will tell you this information in addition to allowable lot sizes and set backs.

As JScott told you, you would have to talk with the municipality in which the property is located to see what is required. It may be nothing other than typical building permits.

Logistically you will have to decide if you want to keep two of everything. Two furnaces, two water heaters, two electric meters, two kitchens, etc. Assuming that the current two family has everything split like that.

If it is in detroit, I would keep the two furnaces. Splitting the house into two heating zones would be more efficient and you wouldn't have to have them both running if you didn't need them. I would check the water heater size. If they are both 90 gallons then you can probably get by with one. Doesn't make sense to be continuously heating two water tanks that are redundant. Check with a plumber.

Of course, all of this would depend on what you are planning to do with the house.

If it bothers you so much, why don't you finish it now?

I'm not going to tell the kid what to do, but higher education is the biggest rippoff of the american youth.50% of kids don't even graduate and leave with an average of 25K in debt. How can that be any way to start anything.

I think school can be beneficial to the right person, but they need to be very focused and not take on debt to pay for it. Hard combo to find.

You could spend that same 4 years workin in a trade and making journeyman's wages at "graduation". Save up a nest egg and get some street education. Much more practical when it comes to learning how to negotiate and spot a bull shitter. Plus you'll have an inside track to learning construction which is a huge part of real estate investment.

The kid probably needs to answer some questions for himself. What do you want out of life? Might be a hard one to answer, but important.

With all due respect to the previous three posters, I'm going to disagree. While school can be the right thing for a handful of people, in my opinion, it is a huge waste of time and money.

Why would anyone pay good money just for someone else to tell them what to do?

And then what... you graduate and trade your time, which is your most valuable resource, for a paycheck.

Learn to be an entrepreneur. Tell yourself what to do. Don't look for someone else to justify your goals and desires in life or worse yet, define them.

There are many ways to get an education and college is only one of them. You're not going to learn how to run a business in school. You learn how to run a business, by running a business. Yes. You should do a lot of research before you start running a business, but it sure as hell doesn't take 4 years or require general education requirements. And an entrepreneur would find a way to minimize his costs to learn that information or even get paid to do it.