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Monthly Archives: November 2017

When to Be Thankful?

Today is the official day for being thankful for the good things in your life, according to US tradition. Our Canadian friends were thankful last month! I’m always thankful on Thanksgiving Day that I have a family and good friends that put up with my weirdness and even like me. And I am thankful to all the people I work with in my jobs, especially the readers of our blog posts. Seeing a few hits every day cheers me up.

Good old Pardner had 30 years to give love and wisdom. Here he is with his companion, Fiona.

Admittedly, it’s been a hard few weeks for me and the people around me. Our team has struggled a lot, trying to sell properties and get them ready to sell. And people on our team have dealt with injuries, illnesses, big moves, family changes, and deaths of family and pets. (That’s right, I mourn the recent loss of our old horse, Pardner, like the loss of a human friend.)

Thanks go out to all the Hermits, our contractor friends, and our real estate partners for sticking with us while we deal with the “stuff” of life. We’ll return the favor.

The truth is, we all face challenges every day. And we all have beauty and love in our lives. I’m going to choose to be thankful for both the ups and the downs, and keep gratitude for the opportunity to experience all these things, each day. Challenging events and challenging people can drag  you down if you let them. My goal (and we’re supposed to have goals, so this will please Russell) is to see what I can learn from each event that normally would just irritate me. I learned that from the old horse. Pardner just seemed grateful to be there, every single day, and to do what he could do. That’s all you can really ask for!

We’re having a quiet holiday with family and a few friends. The holiday marks a year since Anita came to Texas, so we’ll raise a toast to that successful partnership. I wish you friendship, whether I know you in person or online. All of you have enriched my life. Thanks!

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Pardon My French…

I’m writing this because 1) Victor Hugo sort of looks like Lee, and 2) it feels somewhat fitting in the context of Lee’s last post about the proposed tax plan.

Victor Hugo’s first mature work of fiction was first published in February 1829 and reflected the acute social conscience that would infuse his later work, and would have a profound influence on later writers such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Claude Gueux, a documentary short story about a real-life murderer who had been executed in France. A lengthy epilogue follows the story, in which Hugo criticizes the lack of proportionality between education and criminal punishment. The last part of his speech, directly meant for French legislators, was considered by Hugo himself to be a precursor to his great work on social injustice, Les Misérables. Continue reading →

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Ursula Comes to Rest

Ursula at the ranch after her slide-out finally went back in!

Lee and I have owned an RV for the past few years. We used it mainly as a place to live while we were getting used to our property and then building our house at the ranch. Ursula is a very large and well appointed fifth wheel, and she made quite a comfortable home while we were out there. She had a great bed, comfy chairs and couches, and a pleasant kitchen. The bathroom was even OK.

Since we moved into the house, she suffered a few indignities, which made it hard for us to use her for guest quarters like we’d intended to. Mice chewed her hydraulic lines, a leak formed in her water lines, and the slides decided they didn’t want to slide. Plus lights kept mysteriously failing. We couldn’t move her with the slides out, and Lee had no luck finding someone to come fix her.

In the meantime, our friend Larry (you know him from the Ash house, St. John, and others we partnered with,plus his office is upstairs from ours) had started his new RV business next to our houses and office in Cameron. He’d been buying RVs and fixing them up to rent out, so of course he found someone to work on those. Hmm. That gave us an idea.

We decided that since we weren’t using Ursula for camping (really too big to fit into a lot of campsites), we’d team up with Larry and move her over to the Andress RV Park (which is now just one of his many RV businesses!). Since there were a few trailers that needed to be worked on, a competent RV mechanic (On the Road Again!) was willing to come out and get Ursula back into travel mode.

Hooray! She was ready to roll.

Getting those slides in and the RV up and running was apparently a bit of an adventure. This all happened while I was in Austin, so I guess I’m blissfully unaware of the details. Luckily, Larry took some pictures!

She’s now sitting in a beautiful lot in the “new” section of the park, away from the street, and shaded by a nice tree. I know that when all her repairs and updates are finished, she will make a nice home for someone, AND bring income to both Larry and us! Why have her sitting around at the ranch when she could be earning us passive income!

If you have an RV in reasonable shape that you aren’t using much, consider turning it into a cash generating machine like we’re doing. You’ll be providing someone with a reasonably priced place to live, AND make money. Hooray for entrepreneurs!

At some point in the future we’ll share more about Larry’s business model, since he’s hard at work writing it up. We’re really happy for him and Valerie, and that their son and his girlfriend are joining the business to manage one of their other new parks. So cool to see a fellow investor doing well.

 

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Positive Stuff! Celebrate All Wins!

It’s time for another update on our projects, and we have good news this week. CAW! (That’s Celebrate All Wins, the thing the FortuneBuilders people say.)

It’s a mystery house! We hope to share more information on this later.

A New House

We’ve got a contract signed on a new acquisition that Carol found. She’s really excited to put her stamp on this house and get it back on the market. Once the deal is all settled, we will share the details and show you this cute house in a great neighborhood in Round Rock. Carol has lots of plans for new flooring, brightening the kitchen up, and making a nice house even nicer.

Meadow Arbor

Since the house went on the market earlier this week, we received four offers! That’s the way it’s supposed to go! We are in the process of negotiating with the highest offer, which was slightly above list price. That feels good. We’ll keep you posted on how that goes. We’re working on getting it inspected and ready to go.

Bright and beautiful porch on the St. John house. Now with fencing.

St. John

This one IS on the market now, as we mentioned on Saturday! Check out the link to all the photos and details. The neighborhood is getting more and more nice rehabs every week, it seems. Like we posted earlier, the new fence has been installed. We just need to install the air conditioning unit on the house, and we are currently getting bids on that. We are letting the new buyer pick their own stove. That’s an incentive!

Taylor Homestead

Anita is still working on last details on the rehab. She has that shed next door looking like a real apartment-in-the-making. She’s waiting for Chris the contractor to be available this weekend to paint the stairs and install the rock facing on the front. It will be the next one to go on the market.

More?

Tomorrow I’ll share news about another project that I bet you didn’t see coming. Stay tuned! And remember, if you need us, just call! 512-807-8777!

 

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Tax Plan Update: Corporations vs. Pass-Through Entities

Scissors cutting the word TAX

The language of the current tax proposals is changing daily, if not hourly. The Senate plan currently has any benefits accruing to the middle class or small businesses expiring by 2025. Why? Why do you think?

No matter which party is in power, I’m always nervous when they start meddling with the tax code. Everybody agrees that we need tax reform; it’s just that we can seldom get two people to agree on just how that reform should look. If you ask three members of Congress, you’ll get at least five answers.

The “tax cut” bill currently before the Senate dramatically favors large corporations over the middle class and small business. As Gary Cohn, President Trump’s Chief Economic Advisor, said, “When you talk to all the CEOs — they’re the most excited about this.”

Why Is That?

Continue reading →

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