All Forum Posts by: Michael S.

One caveat I would add to your first statement: there are a handful of schools where you can get any degree and it will be worth the price. I went to an Ivy and saw Art History (and other obscure) majors get 6 figure salary finance and consulting jobs after graduation. For any school outside of the top 20, stick with engineering if you want to guarantee a good salary. That's if you want to slave away for the man for the rest of your life. A podcast from Planet Money about 6 months back reported that 8 or 9 of the top college majors for average salary upon graduation were different flavors of engineering. However, that's little consolation to the 19 year old kid hating life in his engineering classes as he watches the Psych majors play Frisbee on the quad.

As to the second statement above, I completely disagree. Do not enlist just for the college money-- its not worth wasting 4 years of your life and hating it. I've been in for 7 years and things keep getting more and more ridiculous all the time. We are in for a lean few years budget wise, and that makes life in the military less enjoyable all around.

Dang, Rentapp is not accepting any new users. Does anyone have any recommendations for a similar website?

@Chris Feltus @Brandon Mendoza

Please excuse the newbie question. What is the benefit to doing this? Obviously, it keeps the seller from knowing some details of the buyer's end of the transaction and vise versa. What are some specific reasons why you would do this?

So I gave in and bought the white enamel steel shelf with hangar rod underneath. With all the brackets and stuff it only cost $17 and was probably easier to put in than any other method. I was lucky to get a bent piece of shelf at a discount and cut it to 4'. Side benefit-- it matches the rest of the house for those really picky renters.

I was actually surprised how cheap it was.

Figured I would post here since it is similar, instead of starting a new thread...

I am about to rent a house out, and one of the closets doesn't have a bar to hang clothes on. It is a 6 year old 3/2 1600 sqft house in a B+ area with nice amenities (stainless, laminate, crown moulding, etc) that will rent for $1250. Not quite a high end rental for the area (not on a golf course or with deep-water boat access) but pretty nice. The rest of the closets (including master) have those white epoxy steel wire shelving that includes a hangar bar. I think I can buy this for about $50 to match the rest of the closets.

On the low end, I can put in a spring shower-curtain type bar for $5. That would probably fall down a few times as the tenant puts too much weight on the bar and screws up the paint. However, do you really need to repaint closets on a rental when they have minor cosmetic damage?

Or, I could just leave the closet empty. In that case, I imagine the tenant would probably put in their own $5 bar.

What would you guys recommend? From a ROI standpoint, I won't get any extra money from a closet bar, but I might get the house rented quicker that way.

@Duncan Taylor

Awesome post. That was about what I was thinking, but it was nice to hear it from someone more experienced.

@Duncan Taylor

Obviously it is a very personal decision when you decide to switch from "just get an umbrella policy" to "I want to spend 5 grand having a lawyer set up some trusts for my massive wealth." And, I know nobody on here is offering legal advice. Do you think it makes sense to switch over once the value of your properties exceeds the value of your umbrella liability policy? Or, wait until the equity exceeds the total liability coverage? How about taking a net present value of your cash flow, discounted at market rates, add that to your equity to see if that number approaches your liability coverage?

@Andy Luick

It is owned by First Citizens Bank. I have 2 bids, one at $40k and one at $40-60k. The second bid gave a caveat that if the problem is an underground spring, it might never be 100% repaired and will need constant work, though they claim the underground spring is "unlikely."

The bank knows about the first bid, which is why they have it listed of $40k, with an ARV of about $130k at the high end. Unlike most banks, they aren't completely clueless about the local market. The problem is that the deal is still way too thin.

@George C. the estimate was for helical piers with concrete or mud pumped in underneath. You are right though, that it would be a big red flag for a buyer-- this isn't your standard $10k foundation repair with a couple piers.

Still curious... has anyone ever gotten a neighbor to bite off on paying for some repairs?

@Andy Luick

Thank you for the information. You are right that I would almost have to get the place for free to make the deal work. Either that or get other interested parties (neighbor or HOA) to put some money into the repairs. The problem is I have no idea how to go about doing that. Do you just have an attorney draw up a contract? What would you do if they later backed out?

Oh well, I have a feeling this one will be sitting for a long time. I am just going to let this one go and watch whoever jumps in (if anyone does). I live walking distance from the unit.

Bump...

Wondering if any of you guys have ever tried this before. I am trying to set up a win-win for all parties.