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Author Archives: Ernest Lee Bruns

Save Money and Lose Weight

Would you pass up a pizza a month to pay off your mortgage seven years ahead of schedule?

Most of us make at least one mortgage payment every month. It’s not one of our favorite things to do, but we do it so that we can continue to have a place to live. Those of us with rental properties probably make a mortgage payment every month for each property.

This week, I learned of a painless way to pay off your mortgage—one or many—early. According to Kristen Berman, co-founder of Irrational Labs (a behavioral economics company), one simple hack can help you pay off your mortgage up to eight years early. That’s right. One simple behavioral twist can save you thousands of dollars in interest on your mortgage…painlessly.

Would you like to know what it is? Continue reading →

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How to Ru[i]n a Business

Over the past few weeks, our sister company, Hearts Homes Hands (Hearts, for short) has been trying to get some promotional items with the lovely helping hands logo embroidered on them. Since Hermit Haus has previously purchase such items from the big online vendors, we knew that the quality of the items they provide tends to leave a bit to be desired. So we decided to buy the shirts from Lands End and have a local company embroider them. This decision provides the quality we like while supporting local businesses, a win-win.

Based on our experience so far, here are a few rules to follow if you want to avoid doing business. Continue reading →

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Just Be Careful

A Ponzi scheme uses the investments of later participants to fake profits to earlier ones. Sooner or later, all Ponzi schemes collapse from their inability to generate enough new investment to pay older investors.

There’s been a cautionary tale running around the news this week. It makes me think of something the Oracle of Omaha once said. “You cannot build a good career with bad people.” This statement has been interpreted as “You can’t make a good deal with bad people.”

I don’t know enough about Clayton Morris to make a value judgement on his character, although his career as an entertainer on Faux News does not earn him any brownie points in my book.

Morris left Faux News to form a turnkey investment company that buys, renovates, and manages rental properties for investors. There are a number of companies that do this job well, but you are always taking a big risk when you invest in a property you may never see. Continue reading →

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A Numbers Game

This table presents the same numbers as described in the text.

This is a summary of the numbers presented in the text of this blog. The project does not show enough potential profit for us to take on.

When you’re looking at a deal, it’s really easy to get excited about the raw numbers. In fact, if the basic numbers—how much the property will sell for minus how much it will cost to get it ready to sell—aren’t great, run!

In this case, we were looking at a house that would sell for about $375,000. We could buy it for $225,000 and it would take about another $65,000 for renovation, based on our average cost per square foot on a house in this market. That leaves about $85,000 in gross profit. Not bad for six months work. Right?

That gross profit number means that we should take a closer look, not that this is a good deal. It’s really easy to forget about the other costs, which can add up faster than Usain Bolt can run the 100 meters. Continue reading →

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Corporate Citizenship

Spaghetti Supper at Yoe High Cafeteria on 27 September 5-7PM. Tickets $8.00

If you contact buy a ticket from me, I’ll buy another one for a high school kid up to twenty tickets.

When we founded Hermit Haus Redevelopment and Hermits’ Rest Enterprises, we intended them to be engines of good in the world.

This week, we set up a matching fund with a local charity for Bahamian hurricane relief. That fund has already exceeded our goal, bur I encourage you to do what you can to help some of the most wonderful people in the world to rebuild their lives. I can’t imagine having a hurricane with more than 200 mph winds sit on top of my home for two days. I’ve ridden out lesser hurricanes—mostly in the cab of a pickup—but what happened in the Bahamas is unprecedented as far as I can tell.

The other thing I did was to buy twenty tickets for the Cameron Rotary club’s annual spaghetti supper. This event raises money for the Rotary club’s charitable efforts, which include scholarships and youth leadership education. It also feeds people before some football game—Suna is the football nerd in the family. The tickets I bought will feed the band before the game. See the graphic for details. If you contact me to buy a ticket, I’ll buy another one for a band kid.

If you’re going to be in the Cameron area, you can contact me or any other Rotarian for tickets. How often can you eat a good meal for a good cause?

Neither of these actions is a big deal. Neither cost a ton of money. When you set out to do good, little things pile up. So please do something good today—no matter how small.

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