All Forum Posts by: Collin Hays

1.  Affordable

2.  Expandable 

3.  You can talk to the owner any time you like.

4.  Fully customizable 

5.  Every bell and whistle I can think of.

Brightside.

You got hosed on that.  You got a judge who likes to play God instead of make rulings.  Too bad.

So you are knowingly considering renting out a portion of the house, fully aware that it is prohibited by code?  Even if you didn’t get busted, it’s incredibly arrogant and inconsiderate of your neighbors for you to do this.

Whatever happened to morals and ethics in this country?  

Hi Linda.  I am not quite sure what the threshold is, but once you reach a certain amount of properties, you can "integrate" with VRBO, and you are no longer required to use them as your merchant account.  The savings are immediate and substantial:  I was paying VRBO 3 percent per CC transaction; I am now paying around 1.6 percent.  Additionally, I am not having to wait forever on my funds - I have my funds in my bank account 24 hours after I charge the guest.  There's no delays, excuses, or an extra 3 percent premium to get my payments at the time they are made, which VRBO is currently charging and calling it "advance pay."  

Good question.  A Ferrari can be pricey to repair, but not a lot more than really any other import.  I can't imagine $6000 to fix a leak.  I think my most expensive repair was $2000 for a throw-out bearing once.  That's not all that bad.  Now if a guy is racing around his Ferrari like it's a Formula One car, certainly the Ferrari will deliver, but you do have a lot of expense with driving a car that way.  I only buy cars that have been "cruisers" - puttered around in.  And I can pretty quickly tell how one has been driven.  If I am looking at a 30K miles Ferrari that has had two clutches over that time, it has obviously been "rode hard", and I'll pass.   

Don't misunderstand, a Ferrari is not an investment in the sense that an STR is. But bought right, you should still make money on it over the long term, even after maintenance. Classic/exotic car ownership for me is simply a hobby.

All of life is not the pursuit of wealth.

 Steve, it's kind of like making a profit on anything else - know your market so to speak.  Generally speaking, however, once a Ferrari is around 15 years old, it is done depreciating.  That is because even with cars that were "high production" numbers by Ferrari standards are increasingly rare by normal auto standards.  For example, Ferrari produced around 7000 360 Spiders over a 7 year run from 1999 through 2005.  That sounds like a lot, but consider that Chevy produced over 240,000 Corvettes over that same time.  Today, of those original 7,000 360 Spiders, there might be 5500-6000 remaining worldwide.  So prices are strong and will only get stronger over the long term.  

Here is my latest acquisition, a 2001 Ferrari 360 Spider.

We try to avoid these.  We will get inundated with people making reservations with little to no notice, then they change their minds and decide things aren't as bad as they thought, then they dispute the charge for the rent on their credit card statement, calling us the devil and pretty much every other word you can think of.  

I bought a Ferrari in May.  It is the fourth one that I have owned, and I have made a profit on the first three.  I wouldn't call it an investment, but it's better than buying an RV I suppose.

Originally posted by @Paul Sandhu:

I bought a 350 gallon black rubber livestock watering tank from a farm supply store, $250.  Built a wood fired heater that the water is circulated with through a sump pump in the tank.  There is a lid that goes over what  you see in the picture.  My next creation is going to be an outdoor sauna/steam room.  It's going to be a hard plastic deer blind with a roof.  The heat source will be from an electric cook stove.  Going to fabricate some metal heat boxes to place the heating elements in and cover them with lava rocks. The heating elements will be wired to the cook stove.  The temperature will be controlled by the temperature knobs on the stove.  I thought about having it propane or natural gas fired, but that would be dangerous.

 Now that's a red neck hot tub that is Jeff Foxworthy!  I love it!