All Forum Posts by: Loc R.

I have always done the 2" faux wood blinds (white) from Home Depot.

Reasonably priced and easy to cut down to the sizes I need.

I've kept this to myself for a while, simply because I didn't want too many competitors in my area. Well, now it seems like the word is out, so I'm going to share this with BP nation so that you guys in other parts of the country can benefit.

What I have been is buying Home Depot or Lowe's gift cards or store credit for cash. AT A DISCOUNT. I typically pay anywhere between 70-82% of face value. This can represent huge savings to your bottom line.

What I'll do is look for people selling them on Craigslist. From there I'll meet them at the store to verify the amount on the card. BE SURE THAT THE PIN ON THE BACK OF THE CARD HAS NOT BEEN SCRATCHED OFF.

The other thing to do while you're surfing Craigslist is to look for Lowe's or Home Depot "10% off" coupons. They typically sell for $2 each. As you can imagine, combining the discounted gift card idea with 10% coupons leads to HUGE savings.

Another idea that I have implemented is to buy a Macy's $500 gift card for say, $350-$380, then go back to Macy's and trade it in for ten (10) $50 gift cards (or 20 $25 gift cards). Now your birthday, wedding, and Christmas gifts are a little less expensive!

I simply think about how I would like to be treated if I were the deliveryman.

Not only that, but really, in the big scheme of things, what's $20 to you vs. the deliveryman who:

(a) has probably got a short career life expectancy
(b) is probably not making much more than minimum wage?

Great book.

I was lucky enough to find it at a yard sale in Santa Barbara back in 2000...got it for $1.

Keep it simple.

Have skin in the game.

You don't want to find yourself in a situation where it's you vs. the "little old lady" that you somehow took advantage of.

Unfortunately the Noteworthy Newsletter is no longer a good company to deal with.

Apparently after Clint Hinman (the last editor) left, Jack Sternberg has run it into the ground.

They no longer publish their newsletter, and orders taken from their website for educational material go unfulfilled.

Even more disappointing is that the former contributors, such as Clint Hinman and Lorelei Stevens, have simply responded to my questions with "I don't deal with them anymore." I will say that Henry Dvorken was nice enough to tell me that he was going to look into it.

So, buyer beware. Noteworthy has gone from an industry pillar to the dumps.

The only retail I would consider at this time would be:

1. grocery-store anchored, as the grocery store itself is going to drive a ton of foot traffic
2. ethnic oriented, due to its very nature (and we have tons of that here in So Cal)
3. 7-Eleven anchored (single tenant), as I don't see the convenience store going away.

Since you've held the property for more than one year, you would only be subject to long term capital gains, which would be your current tax bracket.

Depending on what you were going to do with that $40K, a 1031 may or may not be beneficial to you.

If you were going to buy more real estate, then yes a 1031 is probably going to be in your best interest, since you would be deferring taxes on your profit.

If you found what you thought was a better investment than real estate, then a 1031 is of no use to you at this time.

So a partial note purchase might look like this:

There's an existing note for:

240 months
8% interest
$60,000 face/principal balance
$501.86 payment

As an investor, you want to make 10% on your money, and you have $10,000 to invest.

So...we are solving for N (number of payments)
Y = 10%
PMT = $501.86 payment
PV = $10,000
N = 21.9

So you can either do one of 2 things:
(1) buy 22 payments, that would cost you $10,049.93
(2) get the 22 payments for $10,000 (your yield would inch up to 10.54%)

There are at least 5 ways I've seen partials structured, in terms of contracts.

The way I buy my partials is that I own the entire note, and after I get what I paid for, the note reverts back to the seller.

In the event that the payor defaults, I would take it to foreclosure. If someone buys at the auction, I would get satisfied first and then the seller of the note would get the rest. If not, I take it back and sell it. I get my portion first, and then the seller gets the rest.

You can buy a partial of a note.