All Forum Posts by: Marcus Johnson

Whoops, I should have read Brian's response in correcting Greg's advice about keeping a mortgage for tax deduction, before writing the same idea.

Greg Gallucci I don't think it's good advice to tell someone to keep a mortgage for the tax write off. If you look at it mathematically which people on this forum would agree with, then why I pay the bank $10,000 in interest to get back $2500 in a refund saying you are in the 25% tax bracket? Makes no sense.

Why would you do an arm loan in this financial environment? Do you think rates could go lower. Rates can only go up and you'd be in a world of hurt should the value of your property suddenly rank at the end of your term. Don't do it.

My wife and I have a discover card that we use for gas and some other items and we pay it off each month. The credit limit is only 10k. We never miss payments and avoid debt on anything. Our credit scores are 813 and 814, so that goes to show you don't need a ton of cc's.

So with that said you don't have money. Not a good start.

I'm from Minnesota and have a duplex in south Minneapolis. I bought a wonderful duplex 2 years ago in a trendy area where applicants are lined up looking for rentals. The problem is that 2 years I bought it for 180k and now if cannot find anything of similar quality for under 250k. My cars on cash is 15% and that is after major renovations to the upstairs unit. It was closer to 19%. So I'm gonna continue to wait for another housing crash and in the meantime invest in the S&P 500 while the market is down.

Michael Swan How often do you 1031? And how do you figure in the closing costs hit you take on all of these exchanges?

I did a renovation of the upstairs unit on a duplex, new bathroom, paint and all new floors. I tried asking for a higher rent, got tons of showings but no applicants. Then I lowered the rent $100 and got 4 quality applicants. IMO, it's better to have a tenant than to be paying the mortgage yourself. I'd rather be cash flowing a little less and having someone pay my mortgage.

Same thing happened to me. I noticed that the water bill for both units went from an average of 4 units per month up to 21 units. It ended up being a running toilet. $10 fix. Turning off the water to the house and watching the orange triangle to see if it moves is the correct advice.

Michael Swan Are you saying you have $4 million in assets or network? How much do your liabilities add up too?