Hunting Happiness

I know what you’re thinking — is this guy nuts? Well, no. I am referring to the market for REO/bank-owned/foreclosed properties in our neck of the woods. Such properties that are selling “as-is” but are priced well are receiving multiple offers within hours of listing.
One such example happened recently. A foreclosure […]

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As the rates of foreclosures in many areas continue to increase, there is a dark side that is less often talked about.  Obviously families being evicted are affected, but there are effects beyond that.
Foreclosed properties often eventually sell at auction or via the traditional MLS but at seriously discounted rates.  In our part of the […]

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Madam X over at MyOpenWallet has a post running about basic emergency preparedness and mention has been made of portable generators. I have been considering for some time adding a whole-house natural gas generator and looking at options. Consumer Reports did a ratings a while back and the Kohler 12 KW and Coleman […]

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I have written a couple posts about our first foray into real estate investment. The first post details the reasons we did it and will continue to, and gives some hard numbers.  The second post details some of the gotchas and surprises.  Overall the results are very positive, increasing our net worth by $25-30K. […]

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I posted many details of our first investment property and getting a lease-option tenant placed in a generally positive article here. But it wasn’t all fun and games; there were some negative issues that had to be dealt with as well. Some of them are probably obvious and others not. […]

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We have our first investment property now officially done. A family moved in on a three year lease-option program. We took a lot of cues from Scott Frank and Andy Heller’s “Buy Low, Rent Smart, Sell High”.
The family is pretty much the ideal tenant both from the book and in common […]

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Many of the personal finance books and blogs advocate getting a 15-year mortgage and avoiding 30-year ones like the plague. For disciplined households I do not think this is a cut-and-dried decision. Many sources simply quote the interest paid on each loan, completely ignoring the fact that the comparison is unfair since the […]

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CNNMoney is running a story headlining “Foreclosures jump 57% in March”.  The 57% jump is compared to last March.  Foreclosure rate versus Feb’08 is unchanged.
One interesting fact is that while the number of repossessed homes has gone up 129% versus last year, the number of foreclosed homes going to auction increased by only 32%.  RealtyTrac […]

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Flexo over at Consumerism Commentary has a very timely and poignant post about living frugally versus, well, living. It is particularly applicable because SomeGal has been pestering me to indulge in one of my vices: automobiles. In a past life (before SomeGal), I had some very expensive and very fast sports cars. […]

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MyMoneyBlog has a post about real estate valuations by the auditor and their affect on your real estate taxes.  The gist of the post is that with home prices sagging in most areas, now is a good time to determine if your home is over-appraised by the auditor and to challenge it.   Doing so could net you […]

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