Best thing I ever did.

[selfemployed]

A tip for the younger guys. Live within your means. pay no attention to what others have, fine cars, big house and all the expensive toys. Their up to their a** in debt. Keep your head down and stay the course. What I have is for my family first, I come second or will do without. Thats my job. If you don't pay your credit card bill off when it comes your playing into their hand. Look what Bigtime has done.

[spotts]

at 38. Bought it as a wrecked rental from a farmer, Nice little 100 yr old 4 acre farm yard. Main Victorian looking home, Smaller Mother-in Law home to the East, and a labor shack in back. All together 6 buildings not counting the outhouse. I've refurbished them all 'cept the little garage. Let a neighbor have it and I built a 1,200 sq ft. garage/shop with heat and A/C. [original purchace price was $55,000] County has it's taxable value at $167,000. Would sell for more. It's real nice now.

Now I've bought 3 more fixer-uppers. Honest- $65,000 for 3 homes. Have finished 2- 1 bedroom homes since mid December. Brining in $675.00 per month for both, enough to cover pmt, tax and insurance on all three. The bigger one is gutted and I will finish it into a 3 bdrm $700 per month rental this spring. Will turn the $700 over to principal only and pay um off quick, then find some more. I plan to retire off my slum lord income. Rent dont hurt your SS pmt. Even have the Mother-in law house in my yard newly remodeled. I have a son living there now but once the older 2 are done with college, it will be a teacherage for our local school. They already want it.

Stock Market scares the hell out of me too. Homes are real. I don't have much in the stocks and most of the folks I know who did regret it.

[Edited by spotts on 02-19-2005 at 07:20 PM]

[selfemployed]

Your to nice to be a slum lord

[tinner73]

spotts is that written right? 3 houses for $65k? how come so cheap? are they in "bad" areas?

[spotts]

Originally posted by tinner73
spotts is that written right? 3 houses for $65k? how come so cheap? are they in "bad" areas?

Naw, just small homes in bad shape. Great for rentals. Hell, the 1 I just finished was in such bad shape [it's in a yard with 2 homes that I gave $38,000 for. Big home was gutted to the studs by previous owner.] it appraised for $1,500. I bought the property from a broke cousin. Spent about $6,000 to fix it up nice, just rented it for $325.00.
No crap, I have $7500 in a home that will bring in $3900 per year.

The other home was an unmaintained 800 sq ft home on a 1/2 lot I bought from a little old lady after she went to assisted living. $24,000 bucks. Just needed carpet, new plumbing fixtures, and some paint and cleaning. These good deals are getting hard to come by. I'm gonna buy um when I find um.

[Edited by spotts on 02-20-2005 at 12:23 PM]

[Diceman]

Good post Scott, on not trying to live like a big shot.
And Spotts will be the next Donald Trump if he keeps it up, only with better hair.........

[spotts]

Originally posted by selfemployed
Your to nice to be a slum lord

Where do you think your staying when I hold the convention?

[Diceman]

Just so my cabin has a potty and lots of beer.

[spotts]

could a man need???

[Diceman]

A big screen TV would be nice.

[selfemployed]

Fine by me. Guess it's got central heating. Liz doesn't like to cut firewood.

[Guy]

There's one thing I've always wanted to ask a home owner in the US. I know that the interest you pay on your mortgage is tax deductible. But what happens when you sell the home? Suppose that you bought a home for $100,000 ten years ago and sell it for $200,000 today. What are the tax implications?

[indian]

DICEMAN, you're starting to sound like another pathetic slave owner. Do you really own your own business?

[tinner73]

hey Guy...as far as i know if you re-invest within 18 months you won't pay any capital gains tax. i think there was a one-time (in your life) complete exemption, not 100% sure about that one though.

[amickracing]

Originally posted by Guy
There's one thing I've always wanted to ask a home owner in the US. I know that the interest you pay on your mortgage is tax deductible. But what happens when you sell the home? Suppose that you bought a home for $100,000 ten years ago and sell it for $200,000 today. What are the tax implications?

This is my 1st time owning a house, so I need to do a lot more checking into this, but here goes.

When I was talking with the tax guy he was mentioning that the interest I pay wasn't really going to help me. I can't remember if it's because I just don't pay enough in tax's to meet the "deductable" where it starts helping me, or if there's other reasons.

Also, not sure if it's a state thing or a national thing, but he said that any profits you make on a house are just yours to have, no tax's taken out of them.

God I hate tax's... They take tax's out of the money you ear, make you pay tax's on stuff you buy, heck in CA I heard they even get your SS# so they can report any income from recycling to the IRS. I sure wish I owned a business that had the market cornered this well.

[lenb]

Generally, if you lived in the home for 2 years out of the last 5, and you haven't sold another home in the last 2 yrs., you can exclude up to $250,000 of the capital gain from the sale (individual), or $500,000 (married, filing joint return).

I've owned my home for 11 years, original mortgage was 30 years. Refinanced to a 15 yr. mortgage a couple yrs. ago at a lower rate. Payment still the same, all I did was knock 6 yrs. off the loan (minus cost of the loan).

Still have 13 yrs. left, sure wish I could pay it off sooner. Could have payed off the balance and then some with what I lost in the stock market after '01. Oh well.

[lenb]

Originally posted by amickracing
When I was talking with the tax guy he was mentioning that the interest I pay wasn't really going to help me. I can't remember if it's because I just don't pay enough in tax's to meet the "deductable" where it starts helping me, or if there's other reasons.

The standard deduction is $4850 (single), $9700 (married), so if your interest paid, along with any other deductions you could claim (medical, job expenses, state taxes, charity, etc.) didn't add up to at least that, then it wouldn't be worth itemizing deductions, and you would just use the standard deduction.

Only reason I know is I just finished filling out my tax return today, and it's still sitting here. Always feels good to get that done, not one of my favorite things to do. They sure could make the whole thing a lot simpler.

[Diceman]

Originally posted by indian
DICEMAN, you're starting to sound like another pathetic slave owner. Do you really own your own business?

Yes, I have a slave trading business, do you have a strong back?