RE GP/GC, BA/MBA, 25 yrs RE, land/dev, multifamily. SMB exp too. DMs open. Love All and Read and think for yourself
where others aren't 🙏
Joined November 2021
- Tweets6.9K
- Following5.6K
- Followers1.9K
- Likes112K
The Gang Finds Out Free Money Actually Raises Housing Costs
Got to Texas when I was 8. 3 states before that. Went to the soda machine at the hotel with 3 quarters from my Mom. They were 30 cents! And THE CHOICES!
A soda from the machine was 60 cents in Connecticut at the time.
I said... "What is this @drpepper thing?" Pressed the button. Also got a Mellow Yellow (meh). And CHANGE BACK!
I heard music playing in my head from the economics lesson.
Connecticut machines: Pepsi, Pepsi or Pepsi.
I am a fiercely loyal Dr Pepper drinker to this day. Long live Texas, hot summers, cold drinks, & Texas women! (I found a great one)
A hearty, but late welcome to you @Thefrugalgay11 !
I hope you all love the state where you grew up too.
I moved from Ohio to Texas 20 years ago today.
Here’s what Texas taught me:
• Tacos are a food group.
• The speed limit is the minimum.
• “Pop” is Coke. Even when it’s Sprite.
• 40 straight days over 100° teaches you that hell isn’t underground. It’s a Walmart parking lot in August.
• You water the foundation, not the lawn.
• There’s no basement to hide in when the tornado sirens go off.
Ohio prepared me for snow. Nothing prepared me for paying to water the foundation.
Guess who pushed these policies to allow a solar lien to be placed regardless of the underlying first lien mortgage that would have previously forbidden it?
My neighbor saved about $140/month with solar panels for 6 years...
Last month she sold her house and had to give the solar company $31,400 at closing before the buyer's bank would even fund the loan
The salesman told her the panels would INCREASE her home's value
Here's what he didn't tell her:
She never bought the panels, she leased them. $0 down, $189 a month for 25 years, and the payment goes up 2.9% every year
Her electric bill dropped about $330 a month, so she was ahead roughly $140 a month. Over 6 years that's about $10,000
Then she took a job in Charlotte and listed the house
The day she signed that lease, the solar company filed a notice at the county saying they own the equipment bolted to her roof. It sits on the property records a lot like a lien, and the buyer's title company found it in week 3
Then the buyer's lender read the lease. Taking it over meant a payment that had already climbed past $220 a month and would keep rising for 19 more years. The lender counted it as debt, and that pushed him over what he could borrow
So the buyer gave her three choices. Get the solar company to approve him to take over the lease (credit check, about 6 weeks, no guarantee). Pay the solar company to end the lease and remove the panels, then patch the roof. Or buy out the lease
The solar company quoted her $31,400 to buy out the lease
She paid it out of her sale money so she wouldn't lose the buyer
$10,000 saved, $31,400 paid. She's down about $21,000 for panels that were supposed to be free
This is why my offer changes when I see panels from the street:
Leased or financed panels: the seller pays them off at closing, or I take the payoff off my price
Panels they own outright: I still take about $5,000 off. A roof lasts 20 to 25 years, and when it needs replacing somebody pays $3,000 to $6,000 to pull the panels off and put them back on
If someone shows up at your door with an iPad, ask these before you sign anything:
1. "Am I buying these, financing them or leasing them?" On a lease or a power purchase agreement you never own them
2. "Does the payment go up every year?" 2.9% a year turns $189 into about $375 by year 25
3. "Give me the buyout amount for every year, in writing." If they won't, you'll find out the number the week you sell
4. "What does my buyer need to qualify to take this over?" Most companies want a minimum credit score and their own approval
5. How old is the roof? If it's over 10 years old, find out how much life it has left before you cover it with panels
Already have them? Call the solar company before you list and get the transfer requirements and a buyout quote.
Put the lease details in the listing so the buyer's lender doesn't find out in week 5. And take the buyout off what you expect to walk away with
That $31,400 solar buyout almost cost her the entire sale
And its the same kind of situation I look for when buying my houses
The seller needs out, the buyer's bank is making things difficult, and suddenly someone who can account for the payoff and close quickly has serious negotiating leverage
But you can't take advantage of deals like that if you're still scrambling to find the money
If you've got 700+ credit, my team helps qualifying investors secure $100k-$300k in 0% business funding
Find out how much you could qualify for BEFORE your next deal shows up. Free calculator in my bio
My new Texas startup will be a medicaid medicare autism adult learing center.
Seeking investors until my state gets done consulting with Minnesota & California officials on how to successfully have zero audits
How do I take a long position for Marijuana legalization in Texas?
I'm for it BTW, but it does come with problems.
What the far right did w/penalties for vapes is disgusting and short-sighted. Exonerate those people already charged with felonies. Ass backwards legislation.
If you see a local Texas election with very few votes counted....you have found a MUD.
Many already exist & more to come. 2 votes can trigger millions upon millions in bond debt. AND the developer can MOVE the voters into the area for the sole purpose of voting for the MUD.
Here is another one from yesterday's election.
Honestly there are pros & cons but if you are buying or developing inside of one you better get your reading glasses out.
Some can be costly. Ohh, and the 2 or so votes, they also elect the board who runs it.
The 2nd one had one voter. 1 !!!
This is a too short, shallow primer on how they come into being and how they work
munihub.com/decoding-municip…
Steve McCrann retweeted
426k gone.. estimated taxpayer savings of $20-40 BILLION ANNUALLY. Just in payroll & carry cost.
This is a huge deal and should be talked about more. Anyone notice any difference in their daily lives?
Steve McCrann retweeted
The Washington Post spent 7,400 fucking words trying to make Americans cry over a DEI executive who lost his government job under Trump. Buried inside this magnificent exercise in journalistic self-pity was a rather inconvenient statistic: 426,000 civilian federal employees have left government since Trump returned to office.
Holy shit. They set out to write a tragedy and stumbled into a political earthquake.
The Post's chosen victim, Dia Harris, served approximately 17 months in federal government before receiving eight months of paid administrative leave with benefits. Before that, he spent three decades working in corporate human resources. He lived in an affluent Maryland suburb with a $4,000 monthly mortgage.
But we're supposed to reach for the tissues because his DEI career hit a brick wall and he's received more than 500 job rejections.
Cue the violins. Somebody alert the United Nations. A former corporate executive is having trouble finding another lucrative gig in an industry whose political support has evaporated.
And here's where this sanctimonious media production becomes absolutely fucking hilarious.
While desperately portraying Trump's anti-DEI campaign as a humanitarian catastrophe, the Post documents the astonishing speed with which DEI programs retreated across government and corporate America. The elaborate administrative machinery that once seemed permanently embedded in American institutions suddenly discovered that its continued existence wasn't guaranteed.
The newspaper wanted outrage. Its own reporting supplied evidence of a massive policy reversal.
And amid all those thousands of lovingly assembled words about professional disappointment, the most important question practically disappears: What measurable public benefit justified the bureaucracy in the first place?
Apparently, examining the effectiveness of DEI administration is considerably less interesting than describing the emotional devastation of someone who once administered it.
What a steaming pile of editorial horseshit.
The Washington Post assembled an elaborate funeral procession for the DEI establishment, complete with sympathetic storytelling, professional grievances, and enough hand-wringing to power a small city.
Then it accidentally handed Trump the microphone.
Seven thousand four hundred words, and the poor bastards ended up writing his fucking victory speech.
(article below)
Man, the things you will witness over the next decade. This is fairly mild to me.
After 12+- years & hundreds of units I walked away. Might be back if CAP rates become functional again but the mental scars are real. People 🫣
Few people know these things are available in Texas. Central Texas close to Austin. Capt John Shank is someone I'll be booking when I get a window.
lonestarflyfishing.com/
On the Fly! Whaaaat?
It baffles me that the relentless pursuit of fraud is a partisan issue.
Our debt is a fraud problem. Which Democrat does one damn thing to go after it & end it. Sad but telling.
USAID global (& domestic) influence schemes they cried about losing is/was their slush fund. Sick
Ram Chhetri came to the US as a refugee, but this might be worst day of his life: It's the moment he realizes the $80k-$160k/year salary he's bilked from Medicaid for no-show work is coming to an end because @realdailywire caught the truth on camera.
We conducted months of surveillance that shows why "home care aide" is now the *most common job* in states like NY, CA, MN, and PA: Because a large part of those jobs are unambiguous Medicaid fraud.
Thanks to home care, Bhutanese refugees now make more money than actual PA families. The state doesn't just look the other way, but helps them get away with it. Converting federal health dollars into a universal basic income for certain communities relieves the financial burden they place on the state.
The scammers easily deceive the feds' woefully broken monitoring system. You'll see Ram pull into a driveway for 2 minutes in the morning, then 2 minutes in the evening. He clocks in and out of his shift from the right place, and the GPS system doesn't notice that he goes home in between.
$20 an hour doesn't sound like much, but at 77 hours a week, it's $80k–and it's easy to bill huge hours when you don't actually have to work them. And that's just for the low-level guys in this scheme.
Best "fun" use case for AI that I have seen. Legendary
UPS DANCE CHAMP!!
Coolest homeowner ever, or way too much effort for a package?
The doorbell cam spots a UPS driver, a speaker starts playing his song, and there's a snack basket waiting. The man dances his way up the walk and grabs a snack.
This is the other side of every prank video. Same camera, same porch, and nobody gets used for clout. You just make the best stop on a long route.
These drivers are hauling Christmas to every house in Colorado for the next two months. Leave a water and a granola bar out. It costs you a couple bucks.
My wife and I have two little helpers who would happily run that snack basket.
Give that man a raise.