Some people wary of the prohibitive costs of health insurance may prefer not to get insurance at all. But this should not be the case. Here are some pros and cons of getting cheap medical insurance:

Pros
Prompt attention. Illnesses need prompt attention or they will become full-blown. To avoid this, getting an affordable health insurance is the next best option.

Annual medical check-ups. This can help detect illnesses at its earliest stage. Blood test, cholesterol and sugar levels are checked during the check-up. Most health insurance provide annual check-ups for free.

Discounted rate. The charges are usually lower for those with insurance policy than those who don’t. Insurance firms are able to negotiate for lower rates with healthcare providers.

Peace of mind. Illnesses and accidents strike without warning. If you did not get an insurance to cover such emergency expenses, you might end up shelling more money than expected. Also, aside from the burden of the illness or injury, you also need to cope with the additional burden of securing money to pay for the medical bills. With health insurance, you need not worry about finding money to pay for the medical expenses.

Cons
High premiums. The policy holder may need to pay higher monthly premiums due to rising medical costs.

Risk of rejection. A person with preexisting medical condition may get rejected by insurance providers. If not, they may be required to pay higher-than-normal premiums. People should also consider things to not say to your insurance company.

There are a number of factors that can affect the health insurance costs. Individual or family policy may differ considerably in price. Family policy often comes out cheaper. But this may not be applicable to your case if one member of the family has a pre-existing medical condition. If such is the case, a separate individual policy for the ailing family member and a family policy for rest of the family might be the best option. Age is also a factor. This is why insurance is a ‘timing strategy’. Older people pay more in their medical insurance plans than younger people because they are more prone to illnesses.

In order to get cheaper health insurance, it will be a good idea to get a high deductible policy. This means you will pay a huge portion of the medical expense out-of-pocket if illness or accident occurs. Some can save a significant amount of money by opting to deduct more. This may mean that there will be more conditions that are included in the policy exclusions. To maintain an affordable medical insurance policy, it will be a great idea to set aside some money that can be used in case of illness.

One way is to spread the cost over the year in the run-up to Christmas – although this takes some discipline and organization. Possible benefits of Christmas shopping this way are that you can afford to buy really good presents at times of the year when you’re feeling flush and/or you find them cheap – and it can also help you to avoid getting into debt in December.

However, many people will get into debt this Christmas to pay for all those little extras that make Christmas so special. A YouGov survey on behalf of Intelligent Environments indicates that 31% of people will get into some sort of debt this Christmas – 58% of them will spend extra on their credit cards and 39% will go into their overdraft.

Credit card debt and overdrafts are fairly flexible debts because you can ‘get away’ with making small payments towards them.

However, many people don’t realize just how expensive these forms of debt can be. If you only make the minimum payments, you can pay much more interest overall than if you ‘overpaid’ that debt. It’ll also take far longer to repay debt that way – possibly many years.

One trouble with Christmas debt is that come January, you find you have all your usual bills to pay, with debt repayments on top of all your other expenses. Many personal budgets are already squeezed and additional debt repayments can, in some cases, tip the balance and leave someone with a real debt problem.

If you do find yourself with a debt problem at the start of the year, debt management might be able to help you. Debt management has quite a few advantages – for example, you could lower your monthly payments if you spread them over a longer period of time and some lenders will waive or even freeze interest and charges on money you owe them.

However, it’s not as simple as running up a huge credit card bill and turning to debt management to deal with it! Debt management is only for people who genuinely can’t afford their unsecured debts anymore. Lowering monthly payments also damages your credit record and there’s no guarantee that your lenders would agree to it, or freeze interest, anyway – and if they don’t freeze interest, repaying the money more slowly will cost more in interest.

Having said that, if you think you may have a debt problem, it’s worth speaking to an expert before things get out of hand. They could tell you about the best way out of debt for your current circumstances, so it’s well worth seeking advice.

How Do I Save Money On Taxes?

Saving money on taxes is always a concern for hard working Americans and is especially true in today’s tough economy.  What most people don’t know is that too often they are over paying taxes.

The tax advising team at The Lucrative Investor has partnered with an offensive tax firm that began in 1975 that saves clients an average of $5,800.  One of the most recent tax reviews saved a real estate agent $25,000!  This was a cold hard cash given back to the agent.

The proper tax structure is crucial in order to ensure legally following the tax guidelines designated by the IRS, while taking all of the deductions and advantages that the IRS allows.  Most CPAs do not fully understand the tax code as it is complicated and continues to adapt.

Self employed Americans are at the top of the spectrum for over paying taxes.  As mentioned, this is often a result of not having the proper tax structure and having the fear of the IRS lead them to way to the safe side, opposed to the offensive side.

The Lucrative Investor understands the concerns of investors and knows that proper accounting, business structure and cash flow are crucial to success and growth of a financial portfolio.

In order to help investors achieve their goals, The Lucrative Investor is able to offer a FREE three year tax review to see if you are paying too much in taxes!  That’s right, a FREE three year review to see how much money we can save you today.

Here are the top three steps for a successful business and the role The Lucrative Investor plays:

1.  Build a Team
-  Outsource all but your critical and core competencies
-  The Lucrative Investor becomes part of your team offering our core competency in tax structure design and implementation

2.  Demand Solutions
-  Require veri?able value-added performance from your team members
-  The Lucrative Investor is solution-driven providing services with measurable ?nanical value

3.  Operate Offensively
-  Don’t react to market forces – create market opportunities
-  The Lucrative Investor empowers your business to offensively approach the tax code generating cash?ow and maximizing tax protection

Bank of America recently announced that it was planning to get rid of its basic free checking account options for their customers. Not every larger banking entity has done so but many are expected to follow suit. This has been all brought about by a struggle between banking companies and merchants nationwide. It’s also largely due to the federal government mandating that banks can only charge fees for those who’ve signed up for overdraft protection. Banks, until now, have been able to pay for running checking accounts through charging overdraft fees. Now that the fees are going away, so is the free checking.

This all comes at a very difficult time when many people are being faced with cost hikes across the board. Everyone is struggling with their finances and taking out title loans as a way to pay of their bills. Money is tight right now and, for some individuals, this is just one step too far.

In a report that appeared on NPR, one woman talked about how she did away with all of her accounts and now uses a prepaid account card to pay her bills. It wasn’t that she couldn’t afford the extra few dollars a month, but, as she saw it, it was just one step too far. It seems that many people are feeling this strain as they’re being hit at every turn. This latest move by the country’s largest banks might actually have some pretty serious side effects.

The vast majority of banks are smaller institutions that operate locally and without the nationwide coverage. Many small banks are thinking about advertising their services and offering free checking accounts to its patrons. This is seen as one way that could get more customers but the only way that it would work is if people signed up en-mass. Free checking isn’t really free. It costs the merchant and the bank. When it comes to single purchases, we’re talking about small amounts of money. But added up, that a lot. Smaller banking institutions are hoping to offer free checking and increase their profile.

So, the end of free checking isn’t really here. You can still get a free checking account with many smaller institutions. If this is something that’s interesting to you, check with your local banks and see if they’ll offer you something similar. Many feel, though, that this will eventually kill off free checking. People want their checking accounts and check cards to be usable anywhere they go. That’s why these larger banks are charging now. They’re big and people want their service and, for the most part, they’re willing to pay for it. Are you?

If you are a new investor to the HY market you can take advantage of the biggest monthly loss since November 2008.  In addition, yields to maturity (YTM = cash interest payments + any gain/loss from holding the bond to maturity) relative to treasuries have risen to levels not seen since the summer of 2009.  For example, the YTM’s on a variety of representative high yield indices are above 8% versus around 2% for ‘risk free’ 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds and approximately 4.25% for investment grade bonds.  The last time potential returns relative to treasury bonds were this good was in the summer of 2009, and investors who were brave enough to commit capital at that time were rewarded with 15% – 20% annual returns.

The current high yield opportunity will most likely not lead to double digit returns.  However, as in 2009, the rush to reduce risk by institutional investors combined with declining liquidity has created an attractive return potential relative to the actual fundamental risk in the HY market.
U.S. corporate fundamentals have improved dramatically since 2008.  For example, corporations have lowered debt and dramatically improved liquidity.  Many U.S. companies have enormous cash balances that have been held in reserve due to economic uncertainties.  In addition, unlike the economy overall, corporate net income has grown steadily since the recession low and is making new all-time highs.

If you have been leery of the U.S. stock market and are underwhelmed by the returns on CDs or other low-risk fixed income securities, you might consider the opportunity in U.S. high yield bonds.  There are many HY mutual funds available to individual investors that provide broad exposure to the sector.  Based on fundamentals, I think the HY market is cheap relative to the actual risk of default and high-single digit returns available in the sector today appear attractive relative to other fixed income alternatives.

A Rush Out of ‘Junk’

The answer is nobody really knows.  However, there are two main reasons why I’m not selling my shares.  First, this isn’t a surprise.  Over the past seven years, since Mr. Jobs was first diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer and underwent a liver transplant, he has taken three leaves of absence for medical reasons, most recently beginning last January.  During these periods Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, has managed day-to-day operations.   Based on the decline of his physical appearance I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Mr. Job’s role in Apple’s daily operations limited throughout that period.

Second, the past seven years have been an incredibly successful period for Apple’s business and stock price.  Apple’s stock has been a ten bagger since 2004 and net income is up an even greater percentage.   Mr. Cook was managing Apple during much of this period – he had to have played an important role in that success!

It is clear Steve Jobs has been a huge inspiration and a driving force behind Apple’s phenomenal success, and that can’t be replaced.  However, I’d bet his core philosophies and vision is so ingrained in the Apple culture that in his absence the company will maintain and continue it’s phenomenal record of success.

It is not only the size and volatility of recent market swings that points to hedge fund managers as the volatility culprits.  In Saturday’s Weekend WSJ there was a very interesting article titled: Too Flustered to Trade: A Portrait of the Angry Investor written by Jason Zweig.  Mr. Zweig details online polling data collected by a team of psychologists from Decision Research between August 9 and 15.  The polling data suggest that small investors are angry, worried, and during the recent market turmoil they have made few if any changes to their portfolios.  It hasn’t been small investors who’ve sent share prices south and the polling data also suggest they won’t be starting any new wave of selling.   Another group of investors who have been inactive recently are long only institutional managers.   Speaking from experience, traditional equity portfolio managers rarely see much value in making portfolio changes during periods of such drastic volatility.  It’s the hedgies who have been piling in and out of stocks –mostly into S&P 500 shorts.  It’s the hedgies who have driven stocks down to valuation levels similar to March 2009.  They may be right about slowing economic growth next year or European banking problems, but they are wrong to bail out of seaworthy stocks like Apple (COMP: AAPL) and Amazon (COMP: AMZN).  These two blue chip growth ships may have to endure some stormy business conditions but they have little risk of sinking.  When economic weather improves, they will be making new all-time highs and rewarding investors who have greater conviction than a scurrying rat.

The first paragraph read “The Justice Department is investigating whether the nation’s largest credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, according to two people interviewed by the government and another briefed on such interviews.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes! I didn’t think it was a debatable topic anymore that the credit agencies completely dropped the ball on rating Mortgage Back Securities among other financial instruments used by Wall Street. Millions of investors lost their shorts due to these agencies recording record earnings for their rating services preformed.

I thought it was common sense to most investors that top ratings for MBS’s helped fuel one of the largest housing bubbles in our Nation’s history.

It reminded me of a clip recently done by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

I want to be clear that I do not fault Standard & Poors in their decision to downgrade the United States to a AA+. The United States in most economist opinions does deserve a down grade. It is difficult to justify a top credit rating when revenues are $2.3 trillion annually, but we spend $3.7 trillion dollars. Continuous use of excessive borrowing will eventually lead to a demise unless something is changed.

Unfortunately people, especially Americans are creatures of habit that will likely have to go through more pain before we decide to change our ways and live within our means.

Answer: Not much!

The market has already discounted the likelihood of today’s crummy economic conditions.  It’s possible that the Philly Economic Index, which was really bad, may lead stocks to new short term lows, but I’d bet against it.

Over the last week the market rallied 8%, which was an enormous move, thus stocks were very over-bought – the flip side of how over-sold they were on August 9^th.   Today’s action is working off the over-bought momentum that took the market up 8% in five days.  It is part of a normal bottoming process and not a new signal of economic collapse.

I was talking to my retirement age father the other day and he said something like, “This market is crazy, how can it be so volatile.”   A great question; I’m sure a lot of people are thinking.  Even professional money managers are confused.  According to a front page story in today’s WSJ, “Institutional clients are shell shocked.” Furthermore, according to chief market strategist, Rick Bensignor of Dahlman Rose & Co was quoted in the same article saying, “some institutional investors I know said they don’t want to play this game anymore.”

I told my Dad that I thought the market and public really got spooked by the debt ceiling talks, and that the stocks were discounting the possibility of even poorer economic growth, employment growth and consumer sentiment.  I also told him at times like these, I used to like to listen to guy named Dick McCabe, chief market strategist from Merrill Lynch.   Dick retired in 2005 but I’m pretty sure he would have said something like – to be continued…end Part 1

Part 2.
At times like this, I used to listen to a guy named Dick McCabe the chief market strategist from Merrill Lynch who retired in 2005.  I never met Dick in person but spoke to him on the phone many times.  He is the mildest mannered guy you’ll ever meet and is the ultimate student of the market.  Dick was always able to give objective context to market periods like this week compared to other volatile periods.

If Dick were still sitting at his desk today, I’m sure he would have come on Merrill’s squawk box (intercom system used by traders/brokers) after the close sometime this past week to say something like the following;  the market has been just experienced a 15% pullback, which is fairly dramatic but not that unusual.  For example, the market pulled back about the same percentage last spring and summer (April 23 – July 2) without an S&P 500 downgrade and in somewhat less dramatic fashion and then the market recovered nicely during the fall and early winter.  He would probably also say that intense volatility (400 point Dow moves) is fairly common at important market lows.  Extreme fluctuations are simply part of the process of washing out weak equity holders and at the same time shaking hedge funds and other institutional investors out of their market shorts (bets the market will go down).

He might also have said something about the CBOE Put/Call ratio, one of Dick’s favorite indicators.  The P/C ratio is the ratio of put volume (bearish bets) vs. call volume (bullish bets) traded on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange.  The P/C ratio is a great way to measure how many investors are bearish vs. bullish.  When the 10 day averaged reached 1.4, Dick would say that now was a great time to buy.   FYI, the 10 day average was 1.24 after Thursday’s close – not perfect but close to a very good buy signal.

Finally, he might wrap up by saying that he didn’t know if the economy was going to slide into recession or some other piece of bad news was going to pop up.  But, if you invested in stocks when the P/C ratio was as high (like it is right now)a year or two from now you would look back and be happy you had followed its signal.

The Chicago Tribune editorial writers are exactly right about the above quote.  However, they go on to explain how the economy is really quite a lot better than it looks and it is “misguided buyers/sellers” of stocks who are wrong.  I have an old partner who used to say, “That kind of advice and a quarter will buy you a cup of coffee.”   Meaning:  it isn’t worth squat.

What the Chicago Tribune doesn’t understand is – stocks discount the future.   And what the stock market has been saying over the past month is that while our political leaders were dithering over their Band-Aid plan, any small business plans for future hiring, investment or spending along with consumer optimism were swirling down the commode.

That’s the bad news the market is discounting.  The good news is our economy isn’t the only thing that affects the stocks in your portfolio like Apple and Johnson & Johnson.  In fact, from a fundamental standpoint our economy is only a part of what’s important.  Factors like: interest rates, global growth, cost controls and new products are more important and, so far at least, the events in our nation’s capitol haven’t screwed those things up.

Most important corporate net income growth has been great; the S&P 500 is on track for record earnings (albeit aided by mass layoffs).  From a P/E standpoint stocks are cheap, technically they are extremely oversold and I’d wager the market is within a few percentage points of its short term lows.

Lately fear has won out but, there is another old stock market truism I like and it goes “The best investments decision never feel good.”  I can attest that taking advantage of the recent decline to do some buying is a decision that would not feel good but like the saying goes it will very likely make you money in the long run.

Over the past month while Congress and the President wrangled over who could pass a more “politically” painful to the other’s base, U.S, Treasury Bonds rose in price.  Measured by Pimco’s 7yr – 15yr U.S. Treasury Bond Index, U.S. long term debt rose 5% and made a new high for the year.

What? You say,  how could that be?  Well it appears most investors believed Pimco’s imminent fixed income manager Bill Gross, who said, “the  greater risk to Treasury returns is inflation”, which is commonly produced by strong GDP growth.  U.S. and global stock market action,  poor economic data recently, and falling consumer sentiment are signaling zero risk of that happening.

So fear not if you have a good portion of your investments dedicated to U.S. Treasury Bonds.  However, the budget busting problems such as healthcare spending, Social Security and a congress full of ten cent millionaires aren’t going away.   However, while U.S. debt is safer than other investments today, when the day of U.S. fiscal reckoning finally arrives, U.S. Treasuries might not be the only place for all your marbles.

Lets face it, for some people, being a landlord is very undesirable, but having the security and benefits of owning real estate is very desirable.  Triple net leases are able to offer the security of owning a tangible investment like real estate, without having to place tenants every year and worry about the headaches and time it takes to maintain a property.  Instead of dealing with individual people, tenants are corporate companies with credit ratings that allow owners to asses their level of risk and return.  The higher a company’s corporate credit rating, the lower the capitulation rate (cap rate) or annual return on your investment.  Typical cap rates for triple net lease range from 6% to 10%, although some triple net leases offer lower and higher cap rates.

Triple net leases are also unique in their duration.  Unlike a typical residential lease that lasts only 6 to 12 months, a triple net lease lasts typically 15 to 30 years.  This is a huge advantage for property owners who want consistency in the monthly payments and the security of not having to worry about the constant struggle of placing tenants.  Triple net leases also take into consideration inflation and typically include rent increase clauses through the life of the lease term.

Typical tenants for triple net leases are Walgreens, CVS, Social Security Administration, Arbys, Pizza Hut, 7eleven, Wells Fargo and many more.  These well recognized companies are willing to participate in triple net leases, because owning all of their business locations is not advantageous to their business model or growth.

The purchase prices of triple net leases have a wide range that can be as low as $500,000 and exceed $20,000,000.  Most purchasers of triple net leases put 50% down, or pay cash through a 1031 exchange or savings.  A triple net lease purchaser may be looking to have a healthy cash flow for retirement, or perhaps steady income after inheriting a large sum of money.

Lets take a look at a typical triple net lease for a buyer who has decided to 1031 exchange their money into a Walgreens (on a side note, Walgreens will typically only occupy corner locations unless confined to a large city) that is AAA rated with a cap rate of 7.25% at a purchase price of $5,500,000.

Purchase Price: $5,500,000
Cap Rate: 7.25%

To Calculate the annual and monthly payments, simply take the purchase price of $5,500,000 multiplied by 7.25% for the annual rental amount, which is $398,750 or $33,229.17 every month.  This is an ideal situation for an investor who is looking for a consistent return, plus likes owning real estate.  Some investors may be willing to purchase a triple net lease with a lower credit rating for a stronger cap rate in the 9%-10% range.

Owning a triple net property offers a long term lease with a corporately rated tenant, opposed to an individual tenant in residential real estate.  The major benefit of a triple net lease is the consistent monthly return without the hassles of being a landlord.  If you would like more information on triple net leases or the properties available, please sign up here, or call us at 312-265-8417.

For seasoned investors, what I’m about to tell you is nothing new, but often comes a surprise for newer investors.  In general, cash cow properties will not be prettiest property on the block, but running a successful real estate portfolio comes down to at least covering the monthly and unforeseen expenses.  “Aligator” properties as we call them, or negative cash flow properties take from investors bank account every month, opposed to contributing to it.  Some investors, are fine with this due to future appreciation, or because they plan to use the property as a vacation home.  This is commonly seen in higher priced markets such as California or New York.

For the average investor, a portfolio that produces a consitant negative cash flow, could inhibit their desired lifestyle, or even cause forecloses.  This is a problem that is currently plauging our country after so many homeowners lost significant value in their real estate portoflios.  The average investor is not able to take a 20% or more decline on their real estate portfolio and continue to make high mortgage payments on properties commanding lower rental amounts.  Do not make the mistake of buying a property on emotion opposed to the numbers and later regret your decision.  It generally takes a lot of good decisions to build wealth, but one poor decision can destroy a lot of wealth.

So how can real estate investors best protect themselves from getting into an alligator property?  The Lucrative Investor team has several measures and approaches it uses when analzying prospective deals.  One of the pillars that we use is price to rent ratio.  In general, if a property is priced at $150,000, we ideally want the property to command at least $1,300 to $1,400 a month in rent.  Investors in an ideal world would have a 1 to 1 price to rent ratio, where their property would command $1,500 a month in rent or more.  This is one general figure that indicates a strong factor for positive monthly cash flow.

Monthly expenses will make or break your prospective deal.  We pull our monthly numbers by acting as a renter our self.  What are comparable rents on craigslist for the area?  What is the average quotes from 3 to 5 property management companies that are located locally (we act as a renter opposed to a prospective owner because these companies want your business and often tell you what you want to hear opposed to the reality).  Beyond what the rental rate is, what will it cost to insure the property?  This can also be done by calling 3 to 5 insurance companies with an address and obtaining a written quote.  The same principal applies to taxes.  Call the assors office and figure out the property trends and taxes for the few previous years.

Conducting the proper due diligence will take some time, but it is time well spent to prevent yourself from adding an alligator property.  Once you have all of your numbers accurately estimated, simply run the math and decide if you can live with these monthly numbers and build a nice buffer account for any unforeseen expenses.

Evaluating real estate is pretty simple in principal and fairly stable and safe if the correct procedures are taken to calculate the cash flow.  After the first few times it will become easy to you and allow you to assemble a strong real estate portfolio that meets your desired cash flow needs.

The reason that so many investors both large and small seek non-performing notes is because of the extremely attractive pricing.  People hear stories all the time about a property that was purchased for 40 cents on the dollar or lower, but they are extremely hard to find.  The other barrier to entry for the average investor with non-performing notes is the cash involved to successfully close on a non-performing note.  Banks typically will not carry any debt on a non-performing note, which means investors have to be well financed in order to successfully close a transaction.

Non-performing notes are priced so aggressively because the bank has a wart on their balance sheet that is not only performing, but has not yet gone through the foreclosure process to wash out the liens and other clouds on the title that keep the property from re-structuring towards a performing asset again.  Often, non-performing notes involve a lot of work and will have plenty of obstacles to over come once purchased, but the bank realizes this and prices the asset very aggressively to sell.

One of the most recent non-performing notes the lucrative investor team was involved with was two mobile home parks located in the MI.  We all know that MI is one of the worst affected states in America from the auto industry with high unemployment, but mobile home parks are priced at the level where it’s average family can afford, plus the owners are only responsible for collecting lot fees, not home upkeep and other headaches involved with lower priced rental properties.

The key to this deal were outstanding numbers.  The previous loan within the past few years on these two properties was $18,000,000.  The investor who purchased this asset had the contract with the bank for $3,650,000!  Even at the 46% occupancy, it was operating at a 23% cap rate bringing in $73,000 a month income with the new debt piece only at $36,000!  Now that is a cash cow.

On top of that, the investor had two as is offers at $4,500,000 and $5,200,000 that could not get the deal themselves because the first group had it locked up in contract.  Hedge funds and other institutional investors have banking relationships like these where they are able to secure and close on deals for great prices.  They take the time and effort to clear the title of any clouds and get the property operating again at an acceptable level where they are able to re-sell a clean performing asset and makes in some cases millions of dollars.

Non-performing notes are usually not a rosy picture when it comes to the task at hand of re-managing a property to get it back to an acceptable performing level, but hardly any other asset can offer such aggressive pricing and strong rewards for investors.  As the housing correction continues to take place for the next several years, more and more opportunities will be available for investors who are well positioned and willing to take on risk for big rewards.

If you would like more information on non-performing notes or opportunities available,call us at 312-265-8417.

So if a single family home rents better and usually commands more in rent, why not buy single family homes every time?  Well, unless significant down payments are made, single family homes do not tend to cash flow as strong as mutli family due to higher price per square foot.  Also, in general single family homes command a lot more hands on attention than multi-family investments.

The Lucrative Investor team has had a lot of experience with investors and single family homes, which has been positive for the investor, but also negative.  The hands on investor who is very selective and hires the right property management company (if they do not live near by, which is usually the case) can do very well for themselves and enjoy the monthly cash flow.  Investors who are too busy, or do not want to be hands on in the process usually do not do very well.  Many investors have had to learn the hard way that hoping quality renters come and stay does not work!

Successful single family home owners have learned that good tenant relationships and up keep of their property will help lead to a profitable endeavor.  There is a fine balance between making an investment property too nice and not getting a return on your money, but also having a low rent place that will be difficult to lease in a competitive market.  The best way we have found when evaluating a rental property is to put yourself in the tenants shoes.  Sounds like common sense, but often investors will chose better home amenities or lower priced properties because they think it will cash flow better, instead of purchasing a property for more money where they would actually want to live.

When purchased correctly, single family homes can be a great way to build wealth and a cash flowing real estate portfolio.  The key to success is to fully evaluate your prospective property and compare it to other rental properties in the market to ensure that your property will be a desirable rental and also attract the type of tenant that you feel comfortable working with.

Before the tightening  of the credit markets, it was common for real estate investors to have up to 10 mortgages and in some cases more depending on their local banking relationships.  In today’s environment, it is uncommon to see investors who have more than 3 or 4 mortgages obtain a loan for additional properties even if the numbers make financial sense.

Typical multi-family investments are duplexes, triplexes (tris) and quadplexes (quads).  Multi-family investors often find that their units do not command rents as high as single family homes, nor do they see quite as much appreciation, but for buy and hold investors, or roll your sleeve up investors who are willing to improve a property and raise rents, they can be a fantastic investment.

Location of a multi-family property is one of the biggest factors in it’s future value and rental demand.  In areas with higher density such as cities, or college towns, multi-family properties are ideal for rental.  Tenants in dense markets do not expect, nor do they usually care about amenities such as a yard or garage that single family home owners desire.  They are more sensitive to the rental amount that fits their monthly budget.

Single family homes in dense areas often do not command enough rent to cover the expenses and create a positive net cash flow (this is common in markets such as California).  With lower price per square foot and multiple units, multi-family properties will typically allow an investor to generate positive net cash flow, or be close to neutral and take advantage of future appreciation, tax benefits and principal paid by renters.

A popular exit strategy for multi-family property owners is dividing units into individual units and selling them separately to maximize their sales price.  This process is called condo conversion and will have different rules and regulations based on the properties location and zoning requirements.  In most markets, a property owner will have to have their plans approved by the city council and inspected to meet requirements such as a firewall in between the units of the building.

The owner may also have to work with their lender to determine loan payoff, as they may have a due on sale clause in their mortgage contract.  This usually happens when more than 4 units are involved, as properties with more than 4 units will almost always have to be financed through a commercial loan.  Commercial loans are held by the banks that originate the note, or what is commonly referred to as “holding their paper”.  Commercial loans are more flexible in their terms, but usually have strict requirements about payment upon sale.

Multi-family properties can be a fantastic addition to real estate portfolios depending on location, condition and market factors.  Before purchasing a multi-family property, prospective buyers should conduct heavy market research such as average price per square foot, insurance and tax rates, as well as what realistically they demand for rent.  If the numbers pencil out and future of the location looks positive, it may be a purchase worth making.  Keep an eye in dense markets such as college towns and cities where renters tend to be more conscious about their monthly budget and people tend to rent longer before purchasing.

However, when I went to look at reviews on the internet about the hotel, the reviews were all bad. Some were bad for no reason, some were bad because the reviewer actually had a bad experience.

Now, here’s the problem I am having with places that have been reviewed on the internet, this particulary pertains to places on trip, hotel, and food review sites: People are more likely to complain than report a satisfactory experience. I am guilty of it: a lot of times, I end up writing about when something makes me angry or I am unhappy with a situation.

You will always have a few people who are going to report on how the situation was regardless of whether or not the experience was good; but more often people will complain than brag. Honestly, the entire situation isn’t very fair to the establishments.

For example, the hotel I’m staying at has particularly bad reviews. I believe on Yelp, this hotel is rated a 2 out of 5, which is not very good at all. It all has to do with the fact that there isn’t wireless internet for free in the rooms (which is stated on the hotel’s website and is fairly common knowledge in my opinion), parking isn’t free (but there aren’t many places in the downtown area that hae free parking), and the bathrooms are small.

I believe that most places should be given a fair chance and that you can’t go by what all the reviews are.

I have a love hate (but mostly hate) relationship with my land line. I really don’t want to get rid of it because I don’t always have cell phone service in my house and I don’t want to miss any important calls (and with my luck, the day I turned off the land line, I would get one of those important calls).

To help with my problem, I started looking into VoIP services. I’m sure that everyone has heard of Vonage. If you have cable, I’m sure at one point in time the company has tried to sell you on its digital telephone package (which is simply VoIP). There are many more providers than just this handful though.

After a brief Google search for VoIP providers, I found some really good deals out there. Most were cheaper than Vonage’s $24.95 a month.

You can choose what provider you want by the features you want. If you have friends or family outside the United States, then make sure you pick a plan that offers free calling to international numbers. Sometimes you can find services that offer calling for free to the UK and Europe.  Most providers offer free calling to Canada and Mexico.

There are also some providers that offer a reduced price for service, but it requires you to leave your computer on all the time. The Magic Jack is the most popular form of that. I wouldn’t use one because I don’t want to have to leave my computer on for days and days at a time, and like I said before, the one time I have to restart my computer, I’m sure I’d miss the call I was waiting for.

I just feel like no matter what you pick, if you have a high speed internet connection, you can definitely save money with a VoIP service versus a traditional phone line. You just have to make sure that your connection is reliable and always on. Also, don’t forget, if you have DSL you may not be able to get rid of your land line.

Don’t even get me started on the Google Voice fiasco that just happened and landed Apple in some hot water with the FCC….

Now the iphone application store has rejected a new application because the application allows the reading of the Karma Sutra. It is to be noted that the book reader Eucalyptus does not come with any books, but the K.S. is available for download onto devices and could be read at another time.

Whether it be the fact that Apple’s development team may decide that your application isn’t good enough for their devices or good enough to be released to their “cloud,” there are different places for software developers to go to have their programs viewed by many.

Apple has also been thinking of releasing a “net book” also. I suppose the net book would run like net books that run on Windows or Linux and are just able to run simple programs or surf the internet. Apple would undoubtedly make a net book that would be impossible to make programs for and far less powerful than any of the current mac books that are out there today.

The mac/pc commercials make me so mad because the pc just gives up when “the Megan” asks for a computer that doesn’t have software issues like crashing or viruses. Well guess what “Megan,” Mac’s have all those same problems too. As a matter of fact, I have been on a Mac many times in the past and gotten their version of a blue screen of death. I mean the iMac may have been the worst personal computer I have ever used, however there are so many people who think that the Macintosh name and product line is the best thing that has ever happened to the computer industry.

Whatever the reason, I think that people will enjoy PC’s and Windows mobile, Android, WebOS, and Symbian phones for much longer once the novelty of the iPhone wears off (like everyone knows it will).

When an employer has no sympathy for a potential candidate’s time it leads to frustration on the candidate’s part. Employers have been canceling interviews at the last minute with out a reason or an apology. Some are just wasting the candidate’s time by not paying attention during the interview and this is troubling because (and I should know) a candidate spends a lot of time preparing for an interview; this includes looking up the company and reading into the company’s philosophy and mission.

When an employer doesn’t share the company’s timeline to hire with the candidate it is also quite frustrating. A hiring manager always knows when they need someone. They know the time frame that they will be hiring in and not telling a candidate is annoying to all candidates.

Not sharing what kind of salary they pay is also really annoying, especially when they expect a candidate to give what they think they should be paid. There really isn’t any reason as to why a manger wouldn’t share this information. They really should give you some kind of range for you to expect to be paid and this would clear up the entire awkward situation that comes about when its time to talk money.

Finally, this one is the one that gets under my skin, when employers fail to notify a candidate that they are no longer up for consideration for the position. This is rude and extremely common. Many times a candidate sits by the phone (or in my case, shies away from a week vacation) to wait to hear from an employer. A simple email could do if the employer is no longer interested in the candidate.

Here’s one just from my own opinion book: If you’re an employer don’t tell a candidate to expect an interview and then don’t answer emails or the phone when the candidate calls. And give them an interview if you say you will.

The industries where jobs can be found include: Accounting, Information Technology, and even food service. This is all according to government data.

There are several surveys out now that are indicating that many companies won’t be hiring anytime soon, but a lot of the companies in the industries listed above will be looking for new recruits and are already out there actively seeking employees.

After shrinking for an entire year, four quarters in a row, the economy is expected to pick up a bit for the July through September quarter; this could lead employers to take away hiring freezes and start hiring people again. However, even with the new unemployment numbers out and showing a decrease in the total number of those who are unemployed, unemployment is expected to increase to 10% by the end of the year. Total job openings stayed steady through June according to the Labor Department.

Of course there are plenty of accounting jobs out there. The college I graduated from often boasts their 100% placement rate for accounting graduates. That number just seems crazy to me. After all, they just took a lot of the same classes I took to get through business school, yet most of them end up working in their field within weeks of getting their diplomas.

The United States and Canada came out on top with the highest levels of contamination of cocaine on paper money with between 85% and 90%. China and Japan ranked the lowest with only between 12 and 20% of their money being contaminated.

A similar study was conducted two years ago, and the new results prove that there is an increase of 20% from the previous study. Scientists have been aware of the contamination on banknotes. Paper money is used during drug deals and also when people are rolling it to snort cocaine. Then the money ends back up at the bank where it contaminates non-illicit drug money.

The levels of cocaine that showed up on the bills fell between .006 micrograms and 1,240 micrograms. As a reference, .006 micrograms is several thousands of times smaller than one grain of sand and 1,240 micrograms equals about 50 grains of sand. The scientists also noted that some of the cities tested definitely had higher contamination levels than others. Baltimore, Detroit, and Boston ranked among the highest contamination levels. Salt Lake City had the lowest in the United States.

If you were expecting to get something out of this you should probably move along. You’re not going to get high off a few dollars from your local bank. You won’t even have any health problems stemming from handling paper money.

It is also unlikely for any trace amounts of drugs that were on a bank note to end up messing up your drug test at work.

PowerPoint has been around for 25 years now, and while it was first geared toward people who had to present in business meetings and salespeople, the program has now become synonymous with anyone who has to give a presentation of any kind; no matter if you’re a salesperson or a 4th grader.

Over the past few years in college, I gave numerous presentations and PowerPoint presentations were not only expected, but required for all of them. However, after reading the expressions on people’s faces while giving presentations over the past few presentations I’ve discovered something: no one cares.

Perhaps it’s just presentations that people don’t want to go to, perhaps it’s the fact that PowerPoint slides often have too much information on a slide. Whatever the reason, I believe that it’s time for people to start coming up with more creative ways of giving presentations.

I think, especially for those in more creative fields, there should be requirements that they have to give presentations that are far more creative than a PowerPoint presentation; and no, I don’t mean passing out candy or throwing t-shirts at the audience. Marketing professionals are expected to be some of the most creative people in the business school and they’re giving the same presentations as accounting majors, something is wrong there.

Another problem I have with PowerPoint presentations is that the audience has become numb to the presentations. They have taught an entire generation how to stop paying attention. They have also taught that same generation how to rely so heavily on one program.

In the corporate world, people often turn something that can be said in two to five minutes into a 20 minute presentation because they feel as if they need to have the visual aid of a PowerPoint presentation. What a waste of time.

After spending months looking for a job, I finally found something working as a sales associate at a local department store. I’m making $10 an hour and averaging 30-35 hours a week. With an hourly rate like that I’ll barely be able to make my car payment and student loan payment, but at least I’ll be able to make them.

It’s a difficult market to find work in when 80% of the graduating class of 2009 weren’t offered jobs upon graduation and with many of us still out there looking for work.

It really is a full time job to try to find something; in my case it turned from a search for a dream job to a search for a job where I could earn something. Employers really do have the upper hand in this market, they know that they can offer you less money and that you’ll be willing to accept it only because work is so hard to come by.

I recently found a website that said those who graduated with a degree in business administration (just undergraduate) are earning an average of $42,000 a year. I’m getting no where near that number. After taxes, I’m lucky if I’ll be earning $12,000. As much as I want the sales experience so I may be able to get a job somewhere else in the future, I don’t know if this is something that I really see myself doing. The truth is, I really wanted to be making at least $20,000 a year while I lived in my current house and I honestly find the pay of $12,000 a year a bit insulting for all the work I put into college. Yesterday while I was sitting in the break area watching the training videos someone asked me why would I even consider working at that store when I had graduated college and had a business administration degree. I could only say, “because I can’t find a job anywhere else.”

Signing up for classes comes down to three things:

First and foremost: The class you are required to take.

Number two: What time the class is offered (I most often would try to avoid those awful 8 a.m. classes).

Lastly, who is teaching the class.

The professor teaching the class may be the last thing you’re thinking about, but it should be the second after what class is required for you to take. There are also plenty of ways to figure out exactly what you’re getting yourself into when you sign up for a particular professor.

Many college offer teacher evaluations as part of the course sign up process. That is, if your school offers registration online.

If your college doesn’t offer teacher evaluations over the internet, you can always check some of my favorite sites to see what other people are saying about your professor.

My favorite for reviews is RateMyProfessor.com. This website has over 10 million comments from users about professors at over 6,000 schools. This one is good because you can see what other people think about the professor, but this is just like a teacher evaluation program offered by any college only when you post something, it stays on the website. Many colleges end up taking down the most negative comments from their evaluations.

My overall favorite site has to be PickAProf.com, its now part of MyEdu.com. On this site you can see how other people did in the class grade-wise. This can really help in deciding if you want to take a teacher who barely passes anyone, or one who will pass more than 3/4 of the class. This one actually really helped me in picking a professor for some of my harder classes.

Unemployment has hit a nationwide average of just under 10% and it looks like a lot of places aren’t hiring, have implemented a hiring freeze, or are laying off a majority of its labor force. However, there are places all across the country where you can find work (usually) and you actually have a good chance of finding work in one of these cities.

1) Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska, so much so that the population of the city is almost half of the total personal income for Alaska. The median age in the city is 33 and while the recession has hit the rest of the country pretty hard, in Anchorage the city marked it’s 20th year of job growth.

Twenty percent of the city’s jobs are in education, health services and government, all of which have increased the number of jobs for the past year. Big box retail stores are also starting to move into the city. Stores like Kohl’s and Best Buy have continued to open new stores in the city.

2) Arlington, Virginia. Arlington neighbors Washington D.C. and is home to the Pentagon as well as Arlington National Cemetery. The biggest employers in this city include the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the State Department. When there is a lot of government jobs in an area, the national unemployment rate has a much smaller effect on what is going on in the local employment rate.

Arlington also has several large private employers such as US Airways, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Marriott.

3) Columbus, Ohio. Columbus has a strong distribution industry as well as a strong transportation industry and this can likely be attributed to the city’s central location in not only the state, but as well as the country.

Columbus has a diverse economy for such a Mid-America kind of town. It boasts healthcare, manufacturing, technology, as well as hospitality services. The largest employers in the city include the biggest university in the state Ohio State, Nationwide Insurance, Bob Evans, JP Morgan Chase, and OhioHealth.

4) Houston, Texas. This Texas city, like much of the rest of the state, has come out fairly unscathed in this recession. Houston is one of the only cities in the country where people are actually finding work. Houses in Texas are affordable and jobs are plentiful. Thanks to the city’s large stake in the oil industry, this city has continued to fare well.

Oxford University Transportation System

107 Main Street

Oxford, MS 38655

For immediate release

Media contact: Jennifer Lott McClelland, Public Relations Intern

Tel: 901-555-9665(W); 901-555-9502(Cell)

Email: jjlott2@gmail.edu

Oxford-University Transit Commission introduces new manager

O.U.T. gets full-time manager to oversee daily activities

Oxford, Miss. -The Oxford University Transit Commission is introducing the new full-time manager, Ron Biggs to the team. Tim Lett will be stepping back from the current position as temporary manager to make way for Biggs.

Biggs, a recent hire for McDonald Transit, will be taking on the day to day responsibilities of the Oxford University Transit system. Part of Biggs’s responsibility will be overseeing a proposed expansion of the system if city and university budgeting allows.

“Mr. Biggs is very qualified and will be a wonderful addition to O.U.T.’s management. He has been with us for a little while now and we’re all looking forward to the next few months,” says committee member Carole Haney. “Ridership numbers have been improving every time a new report comes out and hopefully the months ahead will see the same trend.”

Oxford University Transit is the only public transportation system in Oxford. The shuttle service operates six days a week, Monday through Saturday and runs two routes between 7:10 a.m and 6:40 p.m. The red route runs from North Lamar to South Lamar and the blue route runs from the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Jackson Avenue to the Brittany Woods neighborhood.

Oxford University Transit is operated by McDonald Transit, a company headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas that serves 30 public agencies across the United States and boasts 50.3 million passenger trips annually.

For more information on the Oxford University Transit Commission, call (555) 555-1310.

-END-

This map basically means that the lighter color, the more equally the wealth in the country is distributed. You can tell where the most people suffer due to the darker shades of green seen throughout the  map.

The countries with the biggest gap between poverty and wealth are the South American nations and some central to southern African nations.

Canada, Australia, much of Europe, and even some African countries all have fairly good wealth distribution throughout.

The United States falls into the same category as Russia, India, Italy, England, Portugal, and Uzbekistan to name a few.

Source

It can be amusing when a corporation goes through an identity crisis. Usually a corporate name change stems from the board or owner’s desire to move the company in a new direction or to pretend that they know what the consumer wants. I suppose sometimes they actually do know what the consumer wants, but more often a name change on an established company makes customers go, “huh?” more than anything else.

I think that more often though, companies decide to change their corporate name to get out from under a dark cloud that they imposed only on themselves.

Here are some of the worst of the worst corporate name changes:

The Shack::Radio Shack. This was so bad that I had to write about it in a previous post. While I now know that the company isn’t completely changing its name to the Shack, I still am not quite sure what the company was thinking when they decided it would be a good idea to align their company with a rickety old building. When I think Hi Tech, I’m not thinking about shacks.

Xe :: Blackwater. Earlier this year Blackwater decided that it would change its name to Xe because the Blackwater name was tarnished thanks to a 2007 incident that led to the death of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians. Thankfully, even after the name change the government did not renew the company’s contract.

Altria :: Philip Morris Co. When the company changed its name on the same exact day that the company was cleared of responsibility for a woman’s smoking related death in late January 2003, it obviously wanted to escape the bad PR it had been getting. However, all that ended up happening was a magnifying glass on the company. Every time customers are reminded about the name change, they are reminded that this is the same Philip Morris they knew and they only tried to change their name to escape responsibility.

SyFy :: SciFi. This one I can’t quite figure out. All the cable station did was change the spelling of the already abbreviated name.

You can read more about bad name changes as well as the worst offender, I’ll give you a hint, it has something to do about the company who changed the name of the Sears Tower, all at the SOURCE.