All Forum Posts by: Kevin C.

LOL - Over the years I've applied for and landed a number of jobs where a degree was required - didn't have one, still got the jobs.

I worked in bio-medical engineering for a number of years, position stated that a degree was required, I didn't have one, and for all the years I held that job I made more than most of my peers - peers that all had degrees mind you.

Degrees are a piece of paper that says you're capable of passing a slew of tests - doesn't mean you'll have a high paying career, or that you can even hold a job for that matter.

There are plenty of very wealthy people without degrees - it is not a requirement to have a degree in order to be wealthy.

One of my current team members happened to have a business degree when he was hired - he was hired for help desk.... Today he's a talented developer. He excelled at help desk and showed an interest in programming - my lead developer took him under his wing and brought him up to where he is today. Want to get ahead - that's the way it's done - get a job and excel at it. Start at the bottom, it's OK, the cream rises to the top. A friend helped get him the help desk position, his drive, ambition, ability to learn and work ethics got him where he is today - not his business degree.

A college degree in the wrong hands is worthless. I've hired and fired a lot of 'educated idiots' because they lacked the ability to do the job they were hired for. They had the paper, they had the experience, but they couldn't produce.

I have no college degree and do quite well in IT management. Two of my closest friends have no college degrees and one does very well with a specialty position in a hospital's bio-med dept, the other is the VP of Global Procurement & Manufacturing for a major fire control manufacturer.

Not bad for three guys without degrees.

College will open doors no doubt, but that piece of paper will not keep you in.

It's really all about who you know and how you perform given the slightest opportunity. Bright stars will shine, with or without a degree.

If you have motivation, common sense (yes, common sense is a big one, and you can't get that in any university) and the ability to learn, you can be successful.

If you have the cash to pay for your education - go for it. If you're going to graduate with a 6 figure debt to go with that piece of paper - best of luck.

I don't believe you can add a heat pump 'option' to an existing A/C system, in order to get heat pumps now, you'd have to buy a new unit.

Straight up resistive heat is expensive to start with, add to that the extreme cold periods we had this winter and that would add up to very high electric bills.

Electric rates in TX are very high compared to where we moved from (MO). In MO I believe rates are still in the $0.06 per KWH range, here we're generally in the $0.10+ per KWH range, quite a difference.

When you're running all electric, heat pumps are the way to go, they are much much more efficient than resistive heat. Once you get down into the teens, heat pump efficiency falls off the cliff, but in this area, the teens are rare.

We have heat pumps and they are pretty efficient down into the 20's anyway - but once you hit the teens - look out.

We had several extended periods with abnormally low temperatures in Dallas this past winter, that will create high electric bills in an all electric home.

You said you replaced the A/C when you purchased the home, did you by chance have heat pumps installed or is the heat just resistive heat (very expensive).

Even with heat pumps, when the temps get into the teens, the cost to heat goes up significantly.

I'm with Jon, no escrows here.

I'm quite capable of managing my finances well enough to handle paying my own taxes and insurance - been doing it for over 30 years now without issue.

I'm surprised so many allow a bank to manage their escrows for them - quite surprised really.

I have heat pumps (not ground source) and they work fine down to at least the mid to low 20's. Down in the teens the supplement heat (electric strips) cycle in and out. This is in North Dallas, and these are newer heat pumps, installed last year 16 SEER variable speed units.

There's no Natural Gas where we are - we do have Propane, but we only use that to heat pool or hot tub, and for a fireplace.

Just as a test, several weeks back when our weather had highs in the 20's and lows in the teens I switched to emergency heat (heat strips) to see if the heat pumps were really saving us money vs straight electric heat - indeed they were. Over two 24 hour periods, with similar temps, the heat pumps used over 40% less electricity than the heat strips.

The installer even told us to switch to emergency heat when the temp fell below 30 since he said at that temp the heat pumps were not efficient. He was dead wrong!

Modern heat pumps are efficient well below freezing - once you get into the teens, that's when they really start to drop off.

My understanding is that Ground Source heat pumps are much more efficient that air to air, so I would expect them to work pretty well down to zero and probably below. Someone with a GS heat pump care to share their experience?

Depending on how high their household income is, the depreciation aspect may have no current value.

Unless you are a RE Professional, once AGI reaches 100K (for married filing jointly), the depreciation write-off decreases. Once you hit 150K of AGI, you can no longer use depreciation to offset earned income at all.

When you have AGI of over 150K (married filing jointly), passive RE losses are carried forward and are re-captured when you sell (reduces your cost basis).

I'm no accountant, so I may not be 100% correct on this, just understand that high income earners are not able to use the depreciation deduction to offset earned income.

We have the screen type gutter covers too and they work fine. Most of our trees have larger leaves, so they are blocked. There is still some cleaning involved, but it is minimal.

I put in an offer on an REO just over a year ago that was listed for a killer price. My guess is the bank listed it at that price in order to increase activity for the property.

Anyone that knew the area would have known the list price was a great deal.

The strategy worked and the bank had multiple offers (or they said they did anyway).

I bid over the ask, strange though, the bank never came back and asked for "highest and best". Found out the sales price later - I lost out by a couple thousand. Not sure if I would have bid more even if I had been given the opportunity, just thought it was strange that I was not given the chance.