One year ago today: July 16, 2014, Martha, age 24.
Five years ago today: July 16, 2010, 27 is old.
Six years ago today: July 16, 2009, revenue drops 84%.
MORNING
For the record, I am the originator of the Craiglist “Comic Book”. This is the technique of posting photos so they tell a story line as the reader mouses over the panels left to right. It is difficult to describe, so here is an example in still motion. The first panel can be changed to any target you want, the remaining two panels remain unchanged. I chose guitar players, because I don’t like them. Craigslist displays the first panel large by default.
Next, I caught up on the Pluto flyby. Naturally, every scientist involved on the project is claiming victory. Yes, fellas, but you are forty years late getting there. I will really be miffed if I die before we get to Mars. I see various states are going after Uber, not for transportation issues, but for information about the private comings and goings of riders. And of course, the suits by handicapped people who want their cut. Why can’t they ride the bus like they used to? Uber is not the local charity.
Also, states like California want the fares charged and the identities of drivers. It’s ever more clear what the authorities are really after. And this big deal about Cindy Crawford’s daughter, the one named after a car, “taking the world by storm” is highly exaggerated. She is not, as the media is pushing, the image of her mother. In fact, her mother isn’t the image of her mother any more.
And I smile upon hearing that millionaires and billionaires are leaving the US in record numbers. Why? Because of taxation and loss of privacy. Hmmm, didn’t I first bring that issue up as a potential problem back in 1991? I know what stupid people think, but the reality is the top 1% in the USA pay 40% of the taxes. And they don’t much feel like paying for Obamacare as well. Plus, the cost of entitlements and the welfare class continue to spiral. It seems we all know people who have never worked a day in their lives and have everything we do.
Plus, if you have not heard of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, it requires that banks (not the taxpayer) must report any account owned by, get this, not a US resident or citizen, but by a US taxpayer. Most foreign banks, who still take privacy seriously, have opted to close said accounts. Remember, the tax law has changed and requires US citizens to file a return no matter where they live and whether or not they owe any taxes. Like Canada, people who discover later in life they have something to hide discover through their complacency, they have lost any hope of doing so. Serves them right.
Face it, tax laws give the IRS the right to do as they please, but I find certain attitudes even more unsavory than that. One is how the IRS refers to people who leave as “takers” because they “used” the US infrastructure to make their fortunes. Now they don’t want to pay their “fair share” of the cost back. The problem is not the people and their motives, the problem is income tax itself in the first place.
I’ve been pre-occupied but things are getting back to normal. I see “< href=https://archive.org/details/AdolfHitlerTheGreatestStoryNEVERToldParts127TGSNTtv>The Greatest Story NEVER Told” has been banned off youTube. It deals factually with Hitler’s life, so you know it was banned by those who stand to benefit. Watch it while you can, I can’t say how long the link will stay valid.
NOON
Hey, where is the noon quote? Gone. It was not affecting readership and took a disproportionate amount of time. Don’t conclude I’m “laying off the prospector”, I watch very closely to see what works, and the quote wasn’t. But other things surprise me. For example, have you notice the consistent “look and feel” of the posts for the last couple of years? Not by accident, you know.
This is a property not discussed before because it only has 1.5 baths. However, with 1,500+ square feet of “heated space”, it could quickly become something quite nice. There are three bedrooms. As detectable here, the ceilings are nearly a foot higher than is common these days.
You know what is sad? That this is the result of Wallace’s error. That big place from 2009 that he screwed me around on was the bargain of the century. That $18,000 was the lowest priced two bedroom bought at the lowest ebb of the real estate bust. Did I mention it sold recently for $53,000? All that old idiot had to do was keep his word and wait. That’s twice what the property above is selling for. I told him many times, stick with me and we’ll both have beautiful retirement houses for free. Like this one.
It has an en suite.
On the auction, we now go into stealth mode. We are up against a cunning opponent and we are seeking a weak spot. So, unlike the US military, we are not going to announce when and where we will begin operations. That would be plain stupid. I hear that! As it stands, there isn’t even a commitment for us to do anything, it may not happen, particularly if we move on to something better.
That is now a distinct option, because the location of the house is almost ideally located for us to keep an eye on all kinds of properties in the area. I can only tell you it is 210 miles from here, a day trip. It is sitting on a third of an acre, so the yard work is daunting. However, when we looked at it, although it had been vacant and untended for months, it was natural Florida flora. Still flat, open, and green. No kudzu.
AFTERNOON
I’ve been okayed to put out a feeler on this property tomorrow. So that what I said moments ago does not mislead anyone, these kitchen cabinets are not a renovation. They look great because they are the solid wood 1928 originals. The house also has a real wood-burning fireplace and a monster “family room”. As well, it has an interesting architectural feature called a “jack and jill” bathroom. (The names are not usually capitalized.) This was common in hotels of the period.
It is a bathroom in between two bedrooms that each have a separate door. Because it is accessible from the bedrooms only, and not a hallway, it is the en suite Wallace always wanted. For privacy, you have to lock the other bedroom door—and remember to unlock it when you leave. (The way around this is to devise a rope or chord that locks both doors by looping around the doorknobs. Then it is not possible to forget to unlock the other door when exiting. I learned this from that Petrovski(?) book.)
EVENING
According to Forbes, 30% of Americans are over-spending on rent. Rents are rising at twice the rate of inflation; though never trust the actual figures. Put another way, if I don't have to pay rent, it is like a 30% raise. After taxes. I was researching the rumors that the next bust will be commercial real estate (the last one was residential). But we know from experience, this will only cause an increase in rents by the survivors. And what’s this about Amazon losing money?
Hence, after JZ called, I am convinced the best idea is to buy something now. As long as there is no credit involved, we will not be worried by the banks. The situation is complicated, in the sense that whatever happens in the future, will we have the money? My thinking is (if you have enough money right now), it is not wise to take a chance on the future.
What’s changed is most of my lifetime, the only real monetary concern was creeping inflation. It was never a situation that absolutely could not continue. Until now. Nobody trusts the system anymore, so quit worrying how I will react. There’s millions of them. I would rather commit now even if I lose with the numbers, because I feel those numbers are about to be something to behold. What appears now as less than a bargain may soon switch roles. Rents are already soaring and Florida is never immune to that.
The reason I feel rents will escalate is a traditional ratio. Property owners must charge enough rent to stay afloat, but not significantly more as to cause vacancy. The owner is generally up to his neck in debt, or he would not bother with tenants. It’s a type of blackmail that mortgage lenders worship. But the situation changes when you own the property outright. And I'm looking now.
Some might say taking a chance now is exposing us to the unknown. I agree, but think that if you own nothing, you are even more exposed. Some say there is about to be another real estate bust, others say another bubble is looming. Either way, the market is going to misbehave. Hence, I have given the High Command until Saturday noon to make a decision on buying now and returning to the auctions in spring 2016.
One odd thing we noticed that seemed irrelevant at the time was, up in the interior, we appeared to be the only educated white guys who understood Spanish.
ADDENDUM
I ran diagnostics on my computer. It is set to never check for updates, delete all cookies daily, and drop off the Internet whenever it is not used more than ten minutes. Well, MicroSoft and Adobe don’t like that. Remember when you could not play the newest videos unless you allowed Adobe to install its spyware on your computer? Well, now you can’t play any videos, including the old ones. It’s probably been this way for a while, but I just noticed it today. Make no mistake about it, Flashplayer is bad for your privacy. And MicroSoft will not let you check your email with cookies disabled. Yes folks, the world is due for a new and better Internet.
Last Laugh
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