I’ve been crunching numbers, trying to see if something, anything would work. That and my "9 to 5" has me commuting down the busiest freeway in California twice a day.
There’s no pithy article, ready for today.
I’ll get something out tomorrow.
Sitting once again in the Real Estate Agent’s office . . .
"Cliff, I have to go show a house. Do you want to come along?"
Why not?, I figured. Looking at houses, no matter what the reason, is something I enjoy doing.
On the way over, this story unraveled in front of me. A family migrated, nearly 8 years ago. The husband decided the wife would stay home with the children: all three of them. Working for an air conditioning and heating company, he took care of his family plus managed to save $40,000.
OK, so I was impressed.
The house was an inheritance, unwanted by the seller. He refused to
pay for the usual stuff, including termite inspection and repair. A
potentially big problem in California. His asking price was $450,000: even in this flat market the house would sell quickly.
My "flip this house" mentality took over when I first gazed upon the new project. Paint this, cut down that, replace that, redo the hardwood floors blah blah blah.
But the father didn’t care about all stuff. Neither did his caring wife. They were just looking for a home, someplace where they could say "This is where we live." The kids had already claimed which room would be theirs. The excitement was definitely building.
The Real Estate Agent went into action. With his blue tooth ear piece, he was working a deal with the sellers agent. I have seen the Agent, working his magic on several multi-million dollar real estate deals. With this same zest, he worked on this deal on behalf of this family.
The agent said, "I’ll pay for the house to be tented for termites. And if there’s any damage, I’ll pay to have it repaired before close of escrow."
That’s when it hit me. This is the real use of "power". Not in closing multi-million dollar real estate investment deals . . . but helping someone else who is aspiring to achieve their dream.
In this case, buy a home.
"You can’t keep renting a room. You have to live somewhere."
Sounds good.
The Real Estate Agent and I were seated in his office, reviewing the houses I looked at the previous weekend.
All the deals I’ve looked at are within my grasp. But the numbers only work if all the units are rented out. And that puts me back out on the street.
Remember my talk on flexibility? Yeah, I’ve also got to have some quality of life.
For the moment, I’m not sure if any deal I’ve looked at thus far will work in my favor. And when I speaking about favor, I’m speaking from the standpoint that I have to live somewhere that I can actually call "home".
I am glad that he has my best interest in mind. There are more than a few agents out there, that would gladly put me into a deal and not care about where I would actually live. After all, the customer is always right . . . right?
It brings comfort knowing the agent is looking out for me.
It only took 10 years.
Mrs. BluntMoney wrote this interesting analogy: incurring credit card debt and hiking in the Grand Canyon. In a nutshell, going downhill (incurring credit card debt) is easy and fun. Climbing uphill (Paying off all that debt) is hard and laborious.
And there may be a donkey involved . . .
But this is applicable to any large debt one incurs. Whether its a car payment or mortgage or student loans . . .
Wait!! Stop the press!! What’s that!?!?
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls and the rest of you . . . it is with a barely containable excitement that I proudly issue this declaration:
|
My Student Loans have been PAID OFF!!!! |
|
|
Do a little dance, |
|
Sound the canons! Slay the fatted calf! Tell a friend!
Thank you very very much. I’d like to thank
the academy, my producer for taking a chance on me, mom and dad for
believing in me . . .
Now if you’ll all excuse me, I’m going to run up and down the street butt-naked, screaming at the top of my lungs.
Watch out!
Nah, I have a better idea. An impromptu vacation, to do something crazy, is in order. I’m off to the airport. Have a great weekend! I certainly will.
TaxGuy: Hello Clifford. Are you happy to be doing your taxes again?
Clifford: Yes sir! It’s time to get paid!
Last year, my excitement could barely be contained when doing my taxes. This year was no different. Well, it was slightly different. I was more prepared. My expenses were neatly tracked on a simple Excel spreadsheet. One goal for this year: upgrade to Quikbooks.
During my session with TaxGuy, I did learn something I would like to share with the class.
The maximum deduction one can take for a rental property is $25,000 per year. The good news is if the total deductions are over $25,000 then the balance can be applied towards the future.
Example:
It’s 2006. You have $33,000 in write-offs. The maximum that can be deducted is $25,000. $33,000 – $25,000 = $8,000. The $8,000 can be carried forward into the future.
Let’s say that in 2007, you only have $17,000 in write-offs. You can apply the $8,000 from 2006 to the write-offs of 2007. $17,000 + $8,000 = $25,000.
I don’t know if there’s a theoretical ceiling, with how much cumulation of write-offs you can carry forward. If you have $10,000 per year in carry-overs, after 10 years would that total $100,000 in write offs?
That’s why I pay TaxGuy. He can worry about that.
I was able to write off Barron’s.
Can you keep a secret? I was able to write-off this blog . . . shhhhhhhhh!
