Comments on: Housing Situation

By: Onward! «

Onward! « — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:14:02 +0000

[...] fond of the 20% Rule and the 25% Income Rule. Maybe because I like numbers and I got an elephant stamp out of that exercise with my old home. I do need to rework it for my new home. Nevertheless, the [...]

By: MM101 Summary «

MM101 Summary « — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:07:17 +0000

[...] have been looking at our MM101 activities ranging from our housing, to our choice of transportation, retirement accounts, debts, income statements and net worth [...]

By: Just Numbers «

Just Numbers « — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:36:17 +0000

[...] towards achieving my number. I seem to do quite well following Money Making 101 and some of its rules, but I haven’t quite make it to Money Making 201 with much success yet. I did experiment with [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:30:44 +0000

@All – Update on the housing situation. I did find a property recently from a builder. I don’t believe I bought at the bottom but I paid $20K less compared to the average. I bought the last house from this subdivision and paid the least among similar size houses. Will be closing end of this month!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:25:53 +0000

@Adrian – The “pay yourself” idea is a great idea. I will consider it in my analysis for the property as well.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:43:49 +0000

Mark – Even though I normally suggest that you outsource property management, I agree that handling it on your first property as a learning experience is a great idea … you can always outsource later.

BUT: make sure that you ‘pay yourself’ i.e. include an allowance for property mgt when you first analyze the deal … do the financials still ‘stack up’ when you add property mgt charges of 6% to 10% into the equation?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:20:36 +0000

@Diane – I’m planning to manage the property myself first so I know what to look for when hiring a Property Manager later.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:30:54 +0000

@ Diane – It means: 1% p.m. = 12% p.a.

By: Diane

Diane — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:45:35 +0000

Adrian, I had also read and heard about the 1% of the purchase price that Mark cited and the other being that many go by .8% of that same purchase price. What is the 12% p.a. that you mention?

Mark, are you planning to hire a Property Manager or do that yourself? How do you account for the other costs (maint, primarily) associated with the property as a rental as well?

This has been a good discussion. Tell more about the reed v kiyosaki spectrum as well.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:16:07 +0000

@Adrian – Yes, I’ve read about John T Reed. He is definitely overly critical and even hates the publishing industry. That’s why he prints his own books and sell. He is also very critical about Robert Kiyosaki which I agree to some degree. There is always a fine balance of things and they are on both ends of the spectrum.