All Forum Posts by: Chris John

Quote from @Jim K.:

The old joke says it all.

What do you call someone who speaks many languages? Polylingual.
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language? American.

One of the many benefits of being the BSD!  haha.

First generation - Foreigners living in America
Second generation - Live in two worlds
Third generation - American

Pretty tough for immigrants to break this trend, no matter how hard they may try or where they come from.  Seeing it like crazy in the Central Valley of California with our Mexican population right now.  "How come you don't speak Spanish?"  haha.  Poor kids.  I know how they feel because I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been asked why I don't speak Portuguese.

Man, for some reason this string is stuck in my head and is beyond frustrating for me.  If you think racism is so prevalent and debilitating for the average American minority, I'd think you'd want strong, competent minorities to be their authentic selves to break down the barriers of the ignorant and force them to see that someone with a "ain't white, particular, and funny" name can be a success and an asset.  Why let rampant racism win by empowering a society that is unaccepting of new cultures and forces minorities to succumb to their racist norms?  Wouldn't it be better to prove them wrong and shine a light on their stupidity rather than conform to their whims?

Anyway, we elected and reelected a man named Barack Hussein Obama... 

Also, I understand that doesn't mean there's no such thing as racism, that this point is anecdotal, and that some people think Obama's approval rating would have been 100% if his name was "Don Smith" and he was white (spoiler alert - it wouldn't have been and some of us think he was a bad president based solely on his performance, but many people aren't interested in hearing a nuanced criticism of Obama's tenure - you're in luck because I'm not looking to give one!).

Ugh.  Rant over and sorry to subject you to this if you've read this far.

@Sabur Hussain  I have a finance concentration, but never really intended to use it professionally and only got it to help with my personal investing.  Honestly, I'm not sure if it served that purpose very well because I think that someone can definitely learn a lot from personal finance books about real estate and stocks and just skip the four year degree (for personal investing - not business finance).  I guess I'll never know for sure, and I definitely don't think it hurt, so I'm happy with my choice in the end, I guess...

Anyway, I'm a plodder, so my "boring" advice would be to save for a down payment and get a fixed rate on a property that will pay for itself, plus put a little money in your pocket for a rainy day.  Then, I'd save for another (which will hopefully come more quickly).  As years go by, you'll add more and more, especially when you start to get equity.

I will say that I regret not scaling into multifamily properties earlier on and not being as intentional about my growth as I should have been.

I should've bought a house, waited until it had good equity, 1031d it into a small multifamily, waited until it had good equity, and 1031d it into an apartment.  I see it very clearly now (I think) and I believe I've been inefficient in the way I've deployed some of my equity over the years.  I should have 10 apartments by now, but instead, I've only just started buying 4plexes a couple of years ago.  Anyway, what're ya gonna do?  Things are great, but they could be greater!  haha.

Just my 2 cents and I'm anything but an expert.

Best wishes!

@Mose Gebremeskel  Your name is sick!  Seriously, I can't tell you how much I dig that name! 

Here's a vote for keeping your awesome name and ignoring any negativity associated with even considering the change.  Without question, there is enough of a market for you if you're talented.  Would you really want to work with the odd racist for a little extra money anyway?  Be so good that people have to accept you for who you are and let ignorant idiots fall away.

Best wishes with whatever you choose.

@Ferrel Granda Yeah, but I'm buying OOS these days, for lots and lots and lots of reasons.  Not all of them monetary...

Feel free to reach out if there's anything questions you have that you think I might be able to help you with.

Best wishes

I feel like we're at the point in the highway where you're cruising along at 75 and all of a sudden everything slows down to 40 for a 1/4 of a mile and then you go back to 75.  It seems like there's no reason for it, but it's because there was a crash there a half hour earlier.  Traffic just hasn't caught up with the "new normal". 

There's been a lot of people getting outbid for a small amount of inventory, now those people can finally grab something.  However, it's probably not the house they were hoping for and they're probably feeling that they're overpaying for it with monthly payments - even compared to a few months ago. 

Anyway, once those people work their way through the system, I think the housing market might finally see a price drop.  I'd be shocked to see a crash because of the stricter lending standards as compared to 2008.  Also, with these tighter margins in real estate, the effort it takes to come across a deal, the further effort it takes to make a deal work, the stock market going on sale recently...  I'd be surprised to see my next investments not be index mutual funds and probably some stocks that I feel like got unfairly hammered.  I don't think I'm alone, so, for me, this covid insanity might be wrapping up as far as the real estate sector is concerned.  

I think we're going sideways/slightly down for awhile, but obviously, just my opinion...

@H. Jack Miller

There's a lot of hucksters out there, but I think I've finally found someone who's selling something that I can get behind.  I just might try your new "dont die" strategy out because it sounds like it's just right for me!

Nobody cares, but I'm with @Will Barnard on that bathroom.  Honestly, between the dated tile and the handrails, it just made me sad.  I imagined a single, older lady growing old alone, her husband long since passed.  I mean, obviously I have no idea and I definitely hope I'm wrong, but that's literally where my mind went.  :(

Having said that, the rest of the house looks great!  And congrats on being back under contract.  That's awesome!

@Joe S.

The people I know that have filled pools have poked holes in the bottom (I'm pretty sure this step is very important so that it doesn't fill with rain water and cause you problems in the future) and filled it with whatever nonhazardous material they could find.  I think some have broken up the pool surround and dumped that into the pool.  From there, I'd guess trying to get fill dirt would be the way to go if you know someone with extra.  You might get lucky looking through Craigslist or something like that to see if anyone has extra dirt.  If you have to buy, I'd call a local rock supplier and see what the cheapest fill they have is.  They've probably done this before and could give you an idea of what you need.  Honestly, I'd think only the top half foot or so would need to be good, clean dirt for growing.

I live in the Central Valley of California, so there's a lot of guys with a lot of equipment, so sometimes you get lucky with a friend having leftover of something. 

It looks like you're in Texas.  If you were out here, I'd connect you with my buddy that dug my new leach lines for me with his backhoe.  haha.  Sorry!