istari

8 ms·

31.
by istari 16y ago
You seem to think because you had a down payment, had a job, bought a house you could afford, you "deserve" to be screwed over less by a falling housing market, because you were "responsible". Just the opposite! The migrant field worker who
32.
by istari 16y ago
What you should be worried about is practical experience, not accreditation. The reason why you feel comfortable with a self taught software developer is because you can write and run software on your own. Let's say you got shot. Who would
33.
by istari 16y ago
What do you think guys with 20 years experience blah blah blah blah blah... That would be the "staff" engineers. I myself is a "senior" design engineer with 4 years of experience. You seem unfamiliar with the industry lingo.
34.
by istari 16y ago
Right a mortgage is 5% or so. So around 0.5% per month, roughly. Rule of thumb #1 for rental properties is that if it can get 1% of its total value in rent per month in rent, you can get positive cash flow. 1.5% is worth your time. 2% is wh
35.
by istari 16y ago
I need 18 months. I would go to courthouse foreclosure auctions, partner with other investors, and buy the property for 70% of market, fix it up, and sell for market price. 30%/70% = 42%. Take away agent fees, closing costs, and repairs, I
36.
HN Time Bartering
14 points by istari 16y ago|5 comments
37.
by istari 16y ago
It's not free at all. Buying a rental property off the MLS means you have to manage it, and is like starting a small business. This is fairly safe to do even for beginners, and is a good way to leverage a few tens of thousands and a good cr
38.
by istari 16y ago
My point isn't that my friend got a crazy good deal. My point is that arbitraging 12% rental income against a 5% mortgage rate is so easy right now you can do it by buying right off the MLS at market rates, in one of the most expensive(pric
39.
by istari 16y ago
People who think 6-10% returns are unrealistic are sheep, and know nothing about real estate. A friend of mine, a complete novice, was able to buy a multifamily unit in downtown San Jose for 500K and rent it out for 5000 a month. His down p
40.
by istari 16y ago
Here's some negotiation tips by a professional: http://www.rdawson.com/articles.html Good to read to get into the right frame of mind.
41.
by istari 16y ago
You're being way, way too self centered and naive. Let's assume you have no interest in local bands. A young cousin of yours starts a band, and gushes about it whenever he meets you. "You gotta come hear us!" What are you going to say? "No,
42.
by istari 16y ago
Upon searching Wikipedia and not finding it, I realized the actual source is the movie Amadeus... Just as good, right?
43.
by istari 16y ago
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." -- Mark Twain snark/
44.
by istari 16y ago
A random Calvin and Hobbes comic strip popped into my mind: Calvin bugs his mom about money Calvin's mom is exasperated Calvin asks his mom for soap. "Yes, have all the soap you want" Calvin sitting before his parents' car, grinning, with "
45.
by istari 16y ago
A) Mozart died poor and alone because he was an alcoholic and was horrible with money. His music was tremendously popular during his time. B) Mozart was raised as a professional musician from an early age by his musician father, performing
46.
by istari 16y ago
The more I watched the Milan fashion show, the more troubled I became that 0% of the models on the catwalks were men. I realized that the men in the IT industry compose a vast, under-served market for high fashion that is being actively an
47.
by istari 16y ago
I did it much cheaper than you. I used 4 stacks of paper for keyboard, an empty cardboard box for my mouse, and a pencil holder to tilt my monitor when I'm standing. When my legs get tired, it takes 10 seconds to remove all of that and sit
48.
by istari 16y ago
"Today, she owes $370K, and the BPO of the home is 170K." She's underwater by 200K, and not 300K.
49.
by istari 16y ago
Him getting to stay in the house for a year is due to the lengthy foreclosure process, a legal artifact, not due to any compassion on the bank's part. I'm confused why you're using the word "compassion" at all, and coaching your argument in
50.
by istari 16y ago
fallout? ejecta?
51.
by istari 16y ago
The real choice isn't between stocks, cds, mutual funds, etc. It's between conventional and unconventional investing. The conventional route is easy and standard. Emergency funds in a bank, set up a schedule to buy index funds automatically
52.
by istari 16y ago
Most of you aren't trying hard enough to come up with things we'll PROBABLY live to see: 1. California earthquake 2. global economic depression 3. war involving developed countries(N Korea vs S Korea, India vs Pakistan, Iran vs Israel, Chin
53.
by istari 16y ago
I wasn't talking about programming either, pair programming is just an example. Your spreadsheet will work just as well. You wanted a solution to you wasting time. Get someone to sit besides you as you work. Find someone who has something o
54.
by istari 16y ago
Haha, I suffer from much the same illness. Oz, are you in the Bay Area? I wonder if a "pair programming" setup would work? By that, I mean 2 people tell each other what they're going to work on, then sit beside each other and work on it. In
55.
by istari 16y ago
You're forgetting one of the basic laws of diplomacy: don't try to starve out someone with thousands of artillery tubes pointed at your capital.
56.
by istari 16y ago
The Chinese sees the housing crisis from a different point of view: The US cheated China out of billions by selling them bonds backed up by inflated real estate, money saved up by hardworking Chinese. It's a completely different take on the
57.
by istari 16y ago
Consider acquiring a new hobby: buying and selling real estate. In this environment it's not hard to get good deals if you have the cash. I've bought over 20 properties in at courthouse foreclosure auctions in conjunction with other investo
58.
by istari 16y ago
Who else is sick of hearing this message? Yes, we have unpreceduented access to information. But that just makes clear the real bottleneck to true learning is not lack of information, but lack of INTEREST. True progress in any field is made
59.
by istari 16y ago
I've always been fascinated by this phenomenon. Many accounts of ball lightning leave behind physical evidence, though. Dead rabbits, dead priests, damaged buildings, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
60.
by istari 16y ago
"Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation." Just wondering, is this how you respond in real life when others give you constructive feedback?

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