All Forum Posts by: Tony Blasioli

@Tony Blasioli I pray you will find help.

I have discussed this with friends and associates from Eastern Europe, those who experienced socialism first hand. 

First, socialism has a good sales pitch, it really does. Everyone will have all the "necessities" of life taken care of, all you gotta worry about is living your life, everyone gets along, ohhh all your problems are those big bad billionaires and we'll get them it's all there fault. It's a sales tactic that has worked well over the decades, give people a scape goat then sell the cure and the cure is always "just give us all the power and control, don't worry we are good guys, we only want to take care of you". It gives lazy minds a lazy solution. 

Second, we have bread a lazy self-righteous entitled American society, we did it from a place of love wanting our kids to have things better and not to go through the sacrifices we suffered or those we grew up hearing but we actually made them spoiled litter temper tantrum monsters. Is it any surprise how they stomp there feet yelling "but I want it". They are arrogant and ignorant, the most dangerous deadly combination. 

Put those 2 together, and here we are. 

 *For those of you who are thinking "f this guy, socialism is..." just do me this 1 favor before replying. Take a moment to think this math thru; socialism says everyone will be equal, sounds good right, but how, just stop and think on that for a moment how would you make everyone equal because there is only 1 way. You can't force people to be smarter, or to work harder, to put more focus and desire then they want, so you will never elevate lower people up to higher ones, logical impossibility. So, the only 1 way is to, lower everyone else to the level of the lowest common denominator. That is the truth and reality of socialism, surf's and royals. That is parasitic, the fundamental goal and bedrock of socialism is parasitic. 

@Tony Blasioli I hate you had to go through that. Looking back on that ordeal did you grow from your experiences? Obviously, you did or you wouldn’t be commenting here. It comes down to experiences. Some people didn’t lose a beat. I know the house I had a mortgage on at the time went underwater I had to let economy rebound so I could sale it. From that experience I had that became my why to become an Investor. Today, I’m Wiser, Stronger, and Better from it. When that happened I didn’t have the skills I have now. Today I choose to have more control over things.

Yeah, it's funny how the "control" thing works. I control everything I can, but sometimes due to circumstances beyond our control, that control is lost.

Example: The way I got where I am. After liquidating in 2008, my wife and I moved to Hawaii, the intent being to start another construction company working for DOD. I did that, then "Sequestration" came along and dried up most of the contracts. While waiting for a large Navy contract to be awarded, I started a political blog in 2013, my own personal/public rant space. I had no idea at the time that a blog could make money. My blog took off immediately and advertisers were contacting me. I was soon making five figures a month and putting that money into investment properties. I had to pay cash for them because I bought them so cheap that they were below most lenders' minimum loan requirements.

Before I knew it, I owned five properties, all vacant and in need of varying amounts of rehab. I rehabbed them, rented them, and now those five properties gross over $4000 a month. I bought a sixth ($30,000 cash deal), rehabbed it, and it is now generating $1,500 a month. When fully occupied, it rents for $2,200 a month. 

So, I owned all of these properties free and clear and they were and are cash flowing very nicely. I now have a seventh property under contract, fully occupied and cash flowing nicely, but I'm stuck!

My blogging income/investment war chest has dried up. Full disclosure: I am among those hated by many (all) on the left. I am a patriot. I am an ex-Army officer, love my country, and owe it much. Thus, my motivation in starting my blog in 2013. We didn't get that Navy contract, but just as well as my blog was rocking. Fast forward to the 2016 Presidential Election and I was working 15 hours a day, seven days a week. No one gave the only candidate in the race with no political experience a chance. He was laughed at, ridiculed. Yet, he won, thanks in large part to the contributions of the right-wing blogosphere and sites like mine. Candidate Trump tweeted one of my articles to the world in February, 2016, for which he received much grief from the likes of George Stephanopoulos, et al. This put me on the radar of the powers that be in Silicon Valley, namely Facebook, Google, and Twitter, all of which are run by leftists who despise patriots like me. After President Trump shocked them all in November, 2016, those Silicon Valley powers vowed to shut down the right-wing blogosphere, which they have effectively done. No matter how hard I work today, my blogging income is a couple hundred dollars a month. Facebook has deleted all six of my pages, including my main page with over 300,000 followers, I am shadow-banned by Twitter, and Google has closed my best advertising account, Adsense, and makes sure that my content does not appear anywhere near the top page of searches. My site has been made virutally invisible.

Everyone is aware of this egregious injustice. Congress talks a badass game, summoning Herr Zuckerberg before them multiple times and slamming him for his wrongful censorship. Then they slap one another on the back and rush off to the next dinner party. This censorship has become a priority with President Trump, but, to be honest, the man is being attacked from so many directions at once, I understand him not being able to jump right on it.

So, for the past few years, my wife and I have been struggling, trying to live on our rental income (thank God we have it!). With just a few more units, we could do that, but we can't quite make ends meet with our current rental income alone. So, last year I leveraged four of our properties for a measly $25,000 apiece to flip a house. Long story short, the house wouldn't sell. We lost the $100,000 we had in the flip and now our lender who leveraged four of our properties wants their money. Both Roofstock and an independent appraiser valued those properties at $450,000, and we can't borrow $200,000 to pay off the short-term mortgage, purchase the property we have under contract, and keep the rest as cushion and operating capital. I don't know why we can't find that lender. It doesn't make sense to me.

So, every day, I keep looking. For months, my #1 daily job has been going through the document drill with lender after lender for weeks on end and ultimately being told that they can't do the deal because COVID or per door value or one thing or another, yada, yada. So, I wake up every morning and I try again. I fear what will happen to us if I can't pull off what seems like a no-brainer. The American Dream, right?

@James Hamling me and a buddy had it out the other day over communism Socialism the other day. I finally got so mad I told him if u want to be a communist go live their. Then I told him I was going to take his property and he would be executed he looked at me strange then I said that’s what they did in China when the communist took over. Point being people please know what your voting for.

@Danny Ferrari that’s exactly right. Hell back in 2008 and for some time the” housing market sucked “is what you would read. Ok what did I know? People always need a place to rent(landlord) if prices are going down that means buy. That’s investing 101 for me. Thank God these simple ideals make sense to me. Do the opposite my Friend and you’ll more than likely be ok.

As a building contractor/developer, I was at the spearhead of the 2008 crash which began in 2007. I remember vividly the day it started. I had several million dollars in spec construction underway. I was behind the wheel in my truck when the announcement came over the radio in a news blurb that the Fed was raising the prime a quarter point to throw icewater on a red hot market. I thought, 'Oh, no, this could be very bad.' It was! We had been selling houses left and right with 20 to 30 couples touring our houses every weekend. The weekend after that announcement we saw just a few couples. Ultimately, we were unloading houses previously valued at over $700K for $380K. It was a blood bath. So, there may be some differences between 2008 and 2020, but from where I sit, it feels the same!

@Thor Sveinbjoernsson

So much more data needed to make that assumption. First off, unemployment in 2020 is very different than unemployment in 2008. In this case, people were paid to not go to work versus that of 2008.

This, from Jaime Dimon of JP Morgan:

Of the 20% unemployment, 70-80% of the unemployed are home making more money than they did while they were working.

The amount of liquidity and stimulus in the economy is staggering.

My two cents- if we see a second wave of infections towards end of summer and fall, we’ll have a big problem. If not, the Dow goes to 30k and economy soars.

@Tony Blasioli

Call PenFed credit union. They do lines of credit on rental properties.

@Tony Blasioli

If your leverage is only 25% on your total portfolio then you might have more options. Have you tried getting a HELOC on your other properties? The HELOC might be enough to bridge you into a post-covid environment where refinances may be easier. I believe you could also possibly cross-colateralize your assets to back a long-term fixed refi on your distressed property. I don't know that much about your specific situation, but when you aren't hyperleveraged you usually have some options available in a pinch.