All Forum Posts by: Stephen Masek

I wouldn't touch real estate in California with a ten foot pole - crazy "global warming" regulations coming to destroy vast numbers of jobs, out of control and broke governments, and numerous greedy types wanting higher taxes and bizarre new regulations. I have (outright) a $850,000 house here, so am watching closely for signs which would indicate it is time to sell. My business is doing well, and I can outlast and beat most competitors, so it would be nice and lucrative to stay for a recovery. If there is a recovery here. It is quite possible that most of the rest of the USA will recover, and CA will go much further down.

Do any markets in Texas look good for buying and renting (my definition: built in the 2000s, rent return after taxes, insurance, and management of 10% plus on all cash purchases, purchase price $40 to $65 per square foot)?

Make sure you have a good asbestos survey (if built before 1990) and a good lead survey (if built before 1978) before any work is done. Otherwise, there is liability, and a strong potential for the contractor(s) to hit you with big change orders for dealing with those materials.

Like The Millionaire Next Door, The Big Short reads like a novel. It focuses on the lives of people who saw the housing bubble coming far before almost everyone else. It also has the technical and inside details, and is the only place I've ever seen the explaination for how a strawberry picker got a $750,000 or so house.

I'm talking about the checkbook control plans. The prohibitions seems quite straightforward, and my wife and I are good at record-keeping, so don't want to pay for services which just add cost and complexity.

It would certainly be helpful if somebody who recommends a company states if they use it or not.

The party is over in some areas. We attended one on January 30 in Las Vegas for a few hours with a real estate agent we know who had made money on buying at the sales, fixing, and flipping. We saw the end of it that day - people bidding so high that there was little or no money to be made. One guy even bid high on one we knew had a great big tax lien, so his research was no good.

Remember that the lever in leverage pries both ways.

We need to get to an economy and society based on wealth, not debt. The Orange County Register published an article by me on that topic.

Why not insteaqd develop a plan to get debt free? Dave Ramsey provides solid advice on becoming debt free.

What is you favorite solo 401K company? Why?

I see that My Solo401K.net has a very nice web site with loads of useful information.

I see that BroadFinancial.com also has a nice web site, but you have to call to learn their fees.

Asbestos was used in many materials throughout buildings - stucco; window putty; asbestos-cement shingles, pipes, and flues; pipe, duct, and vessel insulation; sheet vinyl flooring; drywall joint compound (so over much of the drywall surface); plaster; floor tile (all sizes); flooring, mirror, ceiling tile, and other mastics; roofing; plastic roof cement; roof coatings; acoustic ceiling texture; ceiling tile; and more.

Lead-based paint coated with non-lead-based paint in good condition is less of an issue, as long as it is maintained, and is not damaged or disturbed, as by repair and renovation work, or deterioration. Past improper work or deterioration could leave lead dust which creates substantial liability.

Big money, and big liability. Very serious.

Any of the painted surfaces could be coated with lead-based paint. from msot likely to least likely - a) exterior wood and metal, b) interior wood, c) kitcehn and bathroom walls and ceilings, d) other walls and ceilings.

Asbestos is more common in buildings built in the middle 1960s to the middle 1980s, than in older ones, except for the pipe & tank insulation. However, older ones may have been renovated, with asbestos drywall joint comppound, ceiling texture, vinyl floor tile, sheet vinyl flooring, stucco, window putty, ceiling tile, etc.