patrick.net

PockyClipsNow says

Quite frustrating to have leeching welfare ‘liars’ who drive a mercedes live in same house as me when I have savings, a real job, and drive a honda.

2 weeks ago I was at the market in Glendale, CA and someone in front of me was paying for their groceries with a new type of credit card I had never seen with a beautiful picture of the California coast labeled "Golden State Advantage". Later on I figured out this card has replaced the old paper "Food Stamps" people used when I was a kid: http://www.ebtproject.ca.gov/ .

When I was in the parking lot, I noticed this person was packing up the groceries that he had bought with the tax dollars we all pay and made their way to his pocket into the trunk of their Mercedez S-class with pimped-up 20" chrome wheels.

PockyClipsNow says

Its work and has huge risks attached to it from loss of $, lawsuits, you could get killed also I suppose.

Robbing a bank is "work" and has huge risks, too.

The value of an economic activity is simply the wealth creation involved. LLs do not create wealth. They expropriate it.

Yeah I know welfare cheats are 'reality'. I know a guy whose 'common law wife' lives with him - she got him setup as a sec-8 LL but get this - he cashes the checks and gives the $ to her. Of course she gets all other welfare (food stamp/AFDC).

Most people I know actually marry thier wife legally (dumb!)- then she quits her job after the first baby is born and they can never ever get welfare due to the husband has income. Much much smarter to not get married and leech off the system I suppose. Its legal too athough I have read the gov can inspect your house to make sure 'no man is living there' -cuz thats illegal?- but they give you plenty of notice so lots of time for him to clear out. hilarious.

lurking says

Get a clue because your behaviour and mindset is offencive even to the Vietnamese people

It's kinda funny how the Viet Minh won their war partially due to the abusive absentee landlords living the fat life in the cities on the backs of tenant farmers, and now they have fallen right back into the same historical pattern of high land values and abusive landlords.

Exact same thing happening in "Communist China" -- rampant speculation in housing impoverishing working people and causing truly colossal misallocation of investment.

The sad thing is, back in 1970-71, for a brief period of time the prior agrarian economy of Vietnam (before it industrialized in the 80s and 90s) was in fact made the most just and equitable, with tenant farming reduced from 60%+ in the coastal lowlands to almost non-existant, thanks to Thieu's "Land to the Tiller" program that was partially funded by the US. (We paid the administrative costs and the GVN paid to buy out the LLs via bonds).

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905909,00.html

To understand your blathering anyone that makes money on any property other than an apartment complex is the devil and are evil leeches

And as for my "blathering", all I can say it my moral arguments have a VERY strong tradition, stretching from Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" to Jefferson's private letters, to Thomas Paine's "Agrarian Justice", to 19th century moral philosophers like J.S. Mill, and to much of the intellectual milieu of the Progressive Era, eg. Mark Twain, Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Sun Yat-Sen, and hundreds more.

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/georgism_01.html

Capitalism's strength is the capitalist creating and/or bringing to market goods and services. But land was not created by the capitalist, it was created 4.5 billion years ago! And land that is in demand needs no marketing, these days at least.

When someone is profiting from something that he did not create, that's a form of theft. So much of the crap economics of the world can be found in this exploitation -- the collapsed housing bubbles of Japan, the US, UK, Spain, Ireland, and no doubt China and Vietnam.

All this misinvestment and the poverty among progress is entirely due to not understanding land economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty

Troy: I can't imagine a world where its illegal to rent a house out. CCCP? Cuba? Where? Even in communist china they can rent out thier house. Are hotel rooms ok to rent? If so can I rent you my house 'nightly' and thats ok but month to month is not? Private land ownership is the basis of every successful country that ever did or will (so far) exist.

PockyClipsNow says

I can’t imagine a world where its illegal to rent a house out. CCCP? Cuba?

Oh, no. It is very legal in Cuba to rent your house to foreign tourists: it's called "casa particular" and the govt. explicitly permits and taxes it. It was legal and widely practiced in USSR, too.

PockyClipsNow says

I can’t imagine a world where its illegal to rent a house out.

I would just tax rents all to hell to get the supply out of the LLs hands and into families who desire to buy.

Curiously, this does not even go against Prop 13 : )

And as for how well the modern economy is doing, maybe you're not up on current events but take a fucking look around you.

I am taking a look around very hard and I see only things getting better and better.

We should all celebrate as real estate 'gets back to normal' - I have been waiting for this since 2004. Low RE prices means everyone wins and there is more money to buy things and support your local community (or buy crap from china).

I think I have the same taxation belief Troy has which is basically "dont tax me, tax the #%*% outta the other guy". Most people are on this page.

PockyClipsNow says

I am taking a look around very hard and I see only things getting better and better.

LOL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/us/18calif.html?src=twrhp

The shit has not yet hit the fan, locally, statewide, nationally, or globally.

But it's certainly arcing towards it.

lurking--

I'm not sure. The dog really doesn't look that happy...

robertoaribas says

If I continued to write why I think most housing will go down, and didn’t post that I am actually buying, i would be called a liar on here if someone found it out. Post it and I’m a braggart.

Nope--no one would call you a braggart for that.

robertoaribas says

Doesn’t matter at all, I made half a million dollars on the bubble on the way up, I intend to take it way past a million dollars on the other side.

This statement on the other hand...

robertoaribas says

So it truly is a no-win situation, at least with the no count low class stupid people on here [ie the last two who chose personal insults, rather than any reasoned based response]
Doesn’t matter at all, I made half a million dollars on the bubble on the way up, I intend to take it way past a million dollars on the other side. “oh he doesn’t have friends”… “on he is a braggart…” whatever. Sad to be as jealous and pathetic as the two who just chose to make those comments

Only stating the facts. You are constantly denegrating others by calling them Stupid, Idiot, Dimwits, Nitwits and other childish names. Everyone on this site knows this unless they have you on ignore. Peace Out!

robertoaribas says

So it truly is a no-win situation, at least with the no count low class stupid people on here [ie the last two who chose personal insults, rather than any reasoned based response]

You mean personal insults like this classic Roberto from http://patrick.net/?p=579625#comment-705358 :

mark: yes your logic is stupid, we don’t want your smug ass out here anyways. One of my good friends has a place in malibu beach colony, those people piss on your neighborhood. I stay in her guest house, on the lot next to sting’s house when I am out there.

robertoaribas says

12 hour days of remodeling work were MUCH harder than I remembered, I better do some Yoga or something!

I recommend my friend Liisa, who is a great yoga teacher in Mesa.

robertoaribas says

709hannah: I have been in real estate investing for 15 years. My successful track record is fairly clear at this point.
college kids have been my BEST renters. Absolute best. Yeah sometimes rent is a bit late, as in “I am a bit short, but I called my dad and he is sending me the rest, can I pay it on Friday?” I have never lost a single $1 in rent to a college student ever, and while I know it can happen, it simply hasn’t happened to me ever. In fact, I went 8 years without a day of vacancy due to college kids handing my place off to their friends over time. Roommates moved, out others moved in but I had zero seconds of vacancy for 8 years, a remarkably good way to run a rental.
You might be surprised to know, but every home needs carpet and paint eventually. Buying them knowing they need that, plus washer/dryer and fridge hardly counts as proof that an area is “all trash”. that particular home, my lifelong friend wants to live in, so I’m even less worried, though I suppose his 3 year old son will spill some stuff on the floor, that hardly counts as abusive.
I have never rented to section 8, so I can neither comment to nor need to respond to your assertions along those lines.

Arizona must be much nicer to landlords than California. Here we had a renter not paying for 8 month, and he was protected by the law... and we had to pay his utilities too while at it.

Will a 2 car garage provide more ventilation for renters seeking to maximize their meth-processing capability? If I were a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, I sure as hell would be willing to pay $100 more per month in rent in order for some peace of mind!!

robertoaribas says

I closed on my 14th home.

Whoah, bubba. That's probably a little too invested in desert rentals for my tastes, but hey...I don't know much about Phoenix. Median prices on SFH in Victorville is up 20% from last year. I'm thinking of unloading two or three of my units until things shit the bed again.

Dang, buy me a few then too Roberto. 3br here has jumped from $100k up to $150k in the past few months with rents hovering around $1k/mo and taxes near $2k. IMHO not worth the headache at $150k, but if I could get your prices I'd be buying too.

FortWayne says

we had a renter not paying for 8 month, and he was protected by the law... and we had to pay his utilities too while at it.

This is why I always avoided being a land lord. My first rental I bought with a partner. He rented to a very nice Christian couple. We said no pets, no pets were a clause in the lease, but they got a German Shepard. I found out about the dogs when they reported a gas leak.

Oh, the German Shepard had puppies. They kept the puppies in the kitchen, and for some reason, I guess by moving the stove in, and out from the wall, the gas hose broke.

I went to talk with them, went in, saw the mess, and the gas leak, and was very excited.

They filed a restraining order against us, stopped paying rent, and yes we had to pay utilities. It took six months to get them out, and they had trashed the place.

After that I only bought what I could sell. I've had renters from time to time, but never really liked it.

robertoaribas says

In arizona, you could have had them out in about 45 days...

There is a thing about not paying rent if your property is unsafe, or doesn't provide utilities.

They sued us for not providing a working stove, and they had filed a gas leak report with the utilities. The gas company are the ones that turned the little lever on the supply line to the stove to shut the gas off.

In the hind sight of forty years, these people were pros. They had the attorney before they called us.

robertoaribas says

home 1: zip 85015 26K.

robertoaribas says

home 2. zip 85201 33K.

robertoaribas says

Home 3. 85281 42K

Darn, maybe I should consider greener Real Estate pastures.

The cash investor house flipping here goes all the way out to Fontana !

Ok, yesterday I saw some nice properties, a bit more expensive but reasonable, that I liked online in Miami, don't know the neighborhood though.

For whatever reasone, flipping is not going on in Dallas, would need to research Miami more.

Don't worry, Phoenix may be a little too red neck for me like Texas...

David Losh says

In the hind sight of forty years, these people were pros.

Did your partner not speak to their previous landlords? I hear stories like this and always wonder if people don't do their due diligence. But, it takes me at least 3+ hours to screen a tenant. More if they have credit issues or something that isn't spot on. I check every scrap of information I can find in social media or other 'internet aggregator' tools like Spokeo, and NEVER trust the information they put down (particularly their current landlords contact info). Call the county to get the property owner's information and usually you can find their contact info online. I figure every hour I put into a screening saves me 10+ hours of headaches down the line.

Not trying to be arrogant, and someday I know I'll probably get burned.. Only had one 'surprise' so far. Girl had a solid application, but then moved in her boyfriend without permission. With a bit of carrot and a bit of stick, I had her out 20 days after she moved in.

Mark_LA says

2 weeks ago I was at the market in Glendale, CA and someone in front of me was paying for their groceries with a new type of credit card I had never seen with a beautiful picture of the California coast labeled "Golden State Advantage". Later on I figured out this card has replaced the old paper "Food Stamps" people used when I was a kid: http://www.ebtproject.ca.gov/ .

When I was in the parking lot, I noticed this person was packing up the groceries that he had bought with the tax dollars we all pay and made their way to his pocket into the trunk of their Mercedez S-class with pimped-up 20" chrome wheels.

They do this a lot in Vallarta. You see them use the EBT for groceries, and a second cash transaction for alcohol. All while working off the books elsewhere, and collecting from the state at the same time.

David Losh says

They filed a restraining order against us, stopped paying rent, and yes we had to pay utilities. It took six months to get them out, and they had trashed the place.

After that I only bought what I could sell. I've had renters from time to time, but never really liked it.

And that's a Christian couple, I shudder to think what some of the renters we have turned away would have done.

One time we had this lady of color come in who just fit a really ugly stereotype, entitled, rude, and she told us that she was really upset that her lawsuits against the county and previous landlord were taking too long so she could get the money to pay her rent. I really think we dodged a bullet there.

Anyhow, haven't been doing any landlord type of stuff ever since. It sure is not for everyone.

gbenson says

Did your partner not speak to their previous landlords? I hear stories like this and always wonder if people don't do their due diligence.

This was 1984 and they had excellent references from other Christains. My partner was a very seasoned investor.

The attorney they had was a Christain just doing God's work.

He had a good job, and she stayed home. We did as much as we could to check these people out.

robertoaribas says

that post alone, if tracked back to you, could get you sued as a landlord ...

Yeah, and they'll probably label me a racist too, in CA that train is never late, even though her lawsuits frightened us enough to reject her as a renter, not the color. Out here somehow they always find a way to turn it around, and make it about skin color or sexual orientation so some bureaucrat can use it to propel himself further up in rank.

FortWayne says

even though her lawsuits frightened us

You should probably stop now.

David Losh says

FortWayne says

even though her lawsuits frightened us

You should probably stop now.

I'll stop when I'm dead. Until then I'll keep going. It's the American way.

FortWayne says

I'll stop when I'm dead. Until then I'll keep going. It's the American way.

The American way is moderation.

Well some people are just entitled. I was at the Kinkos scanning some paper work and sending it over. In walks this lady, dressed to the 9s, iphone in hand and a fancy looking purse. Then she sits in the computer next to me and gets mad and said she can't believe they charge 30 cents a minute to use the computer. She wants to print her resume and gets mad when the store clerk refuses to allow her to print for free. She wonders if she can print out her resume through her iphone for free and when the poor clerk says no, she cusses the world out and walks out!!

JodyChunder says

FortWayne says

I'll stop when I'm dead. Until then I'll keep going. It's the American way.

The American way is moderation.

American way is life liberty and pursuit of happiness. Not moderate fear of being honest.

FortWayne says

moderate fear of being honest.

That honestly doesn't even make sense. "Reticence" might be the word you're looking for?

Anyway, I wasn't talking about pussyfooting when I said moderation. Moderation is all-American. The opposite is un-American.

robertoaribas says

what did her color have to do with her being a bad rental prospect?

I think you mis-understood him. I believe he meant to say that she wore one of those fancy colored designer coats that indicates her family spends above their means and likely has credit issues. Then he rejected her due to ongoing litigation.

I once had a prospective tenant tell me he was suing his current landlord over allegedly the older electric system blew up his 8k big screen. This house i had was 40 years old i was like uhhh see ya! The dumb circuits break when i vacuum the house on every home i ever had.

I worked for a property management company as the fix it guy for a lot of years.

Fixing it also meant dealing with problem renters. I still say today in my business that if you are talking to me you're a problem.

I found that white people presented the worst problems. It may have been a numbers game, but no matter how I sorted it out, it was white people that talked about lawyers, didn't pay, trashed the place, and wouldn't call when there was a problem.

robertoaribas says

FortWayne says

One time we had this lady of color come in who just fit a really ugly stereotype,

what did her color have to do with her being a bad rental prospect? so yeah... racist... means seeing people as different based on race...

Only your reading comprehension Robert, only that.

robertoaribas says

YOU felt the need to mention she was a lady of color, so that was apparently an important distinction in making her less fit to rent to...

Being black isn't a crime, it's a description if a shoe fits. And the only nit pickers are those politically correct lying their ass off liberal sissies seeking a career in public office.

FortWayne says

liberal sissies

Hurray for Liberal Sissies!

robertoaribas says

what did her color have to do with her being a bad rental prospect? so yeah... racist... means seeing people as different based on race...

It's not a given that a rental is governed by federal fair housing laws or corresponding state laws. Many rentals are exempt, such as small owner occupied buildings, some single family housing, etc. State law of course varies from state to state.

I'm surprised somebody who owns several rental properties isn't aware of this.