The house of the Future?

I'm really starting to wonder if this is reality or not. If solar technology is close this could be a huge transition. The thought of trading power off the grid is bigger than just your house. What could be the ROI on buying 100 of these solar panels. Energy is the next bubble. Hopefully it is the real deal, and energy independence puts the US back on the map as a world leader. The cost of 10 solar panels, and a windmill is a little salty(45 k for a 2000 sq ft home). It comes out to be around a 10 year payback. I like to get my money back on improvements or aquisitions in 3 ears or less. It isn't cost effective unless the price of the technology comes down, or as I fear prices of energy skyrocket. I wonder if the lobby money of the oil companies, and huge utility monopolies can keep this under wraps for another 20 years or so. I'd love to own this home, although I'm not quite ready for an electric car. There is something about the power of combustion engines running on high octane fuel. Although if I didn't have to worry about fuel costs because I can charge my car for FREE?! I might learn to live with it.

It seems this is the wave of the future. I'm not sure if the technology is real or not. It certainly isn't cost effective. If it becomes the real deal it will create a lot of infastructure changes, which will be a huge stimulus for the economy. I think it will be a good idea to become an energy auditer/ home inspector. It wouldn't hurt to learn how to install solar panels, and windmills.

As a rental property owner this excites me, and scares the you know what out of me as well. I am very frightened of increased energy costs, and the costs of improvements to convert. The thought of not having to pay much to power my buildings. That is around a 15 to 20% reduction in operating costs. It will be interesting to see how the government tries to control this process, or if big brother rolls over to the deep pockets of the utilities, and oil companies.
We will find out a lot about ourselves, both personally, and as a nation the next decade. I do think our economy is headed for the beating of our lifetime the next 10 years. That house looks great. I wonder if anyone can afford it???

House of the Future- Sustainable MicroGrid for Each home (CLICK ON THE PICTURE!)

Contrarian success story

Just talked to a friend who is a Norristown landlord. He has bought close to 20 homes in Norristown this year for around 40 to 50k a pop. He has added around 9k a month in positive cash flow. At 40k for a property that can rent for 1100 a month sec 8. Depending on how you borrow the purchase money you could have around a 400 to 500 dollar a month positive cash flow per unit.

Here is a hypothetical contrarian riches analysis. Buy 40 properties in Norristown over the next 5 years. You plan on holding and being a Landlord for 10 to 13 years. At 20k per month cash flow it's 240k per year times 10 years is 2.4million cash flow. Now it will be safe to assume these properties will sell for 75k 10 years later. That is fair market value today. On the conservative side we are making a 30k profit per unit pre tax, which will be around 23k after tax. Based on these numbers there is just short of a million dollar profit. All told between cash flow and capital gains the investor stands to make around 3million bucks on less than a 2 million dollar borrowed investment. Anyone got 2 million bucks to lend???? That's the missing link to this 3 million dollar puzzle.

Inflation or Deflation?

I've been trying to figure out where this trainwreck is headed. The Government money bombs would lead you to believe inflation is around the corner. If that was the case this would be a very bad reccession. The more I look around and see, the more I think we are in for the worse Deflation in the history of our lifetimes.That would mean that this is more like a depression.

Asset and income deflation were gorillas in the great depression, and that is what I see happening. I know that my used car inventory has deflated in a huge way, causing me much financial pain. I also know that sales are down 60% because people have no discretionary income. They are experiencing cut hours, pay cuts, or out right layoffs. The ones that do have discretionary income are choosing to save it instead of spend it.

This creates less demand for goods, which causes business to cut costs and spending, causing a downward spiral. Until the job market turns, and people begin spending again the 500lb gorilla in the room has a name beginning with a D not an I. Love to hear others thoughts on this topic.

Office Vacancies Rise

I think that one of the biggest opportunities to gain wealth in this coming Depression is in the commercial Real Estate market. Many commercial RE investors will not be able to cover their nuts as vacancies increase. I know my landlord at the car lot owns a bunch of industrial and retail properties. Many of his tenants(myself included) are struggling to pay the rent, and are giving notice they cannot continue operations. I am pretty certain there will be commercial foreclosures ramping up the next few years. Since you can't live in a commercial piece demand will be low, and banks will be offering firesale pricing, and in house financing to get these off the books. If I can get a fully leveraged break even with a bunch of upside potential, I'm in. Here's hoping it continues to get worse.(It's hard to swallow as I write that, but a true contrarian wants to see it hit the fan.)

Plummeting Tax Refunds, Property Taxes May Be Next Shoe To Drop

Hard to figure out which will have the bigger impact....

1) Delays in getting a tax refund/getting your tax refund in the form of an IOU?

OR

2) Local governments getting swamped by smart people appealing their property taxes?

What to do if you are unemployed

Today's unemployment numbers were AWFUL! 9.6% unemployment rate, but a higher rate of 16.5% if you include people who have given up looking for a job.

The good news is that the media has it figured out and offers this wonderful tidbit of jobs you can get if you are unemployed, including:

1) Become a fake employee

2) Be an actor in a zombie movie

3) Do your best Michael Jackson impersonation

Yes, the financial media is doing a great job indeed....whats next to recommend, become a contrary investment blogger??

Want some good, solid advice? Read Mark Cuban's guide for becoming rich

It's going to hit the fan hard

A scary article from The Market Ticker, As I sit at my car lot with no customers I have time to surf the web and find info like this. Between my personal experiences, and what I see our incompetent government trying to bruch it all under the rug, I can't help but wonder how bad it is really going to get. In order for recovery to begin the bad debts must be cleaned out. This can not end well folks...click on the link to read the whole thing:

Recessions cannot end until the conditions that caused the recession are removed from the economy. This is elementary logic and obvious to anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size.
For an inventory recession growth returns when enough capacity is destroyed through layoffs and inventory selloffs to bring capacity and demand back into balance. Employers then hire new workers and the economy recovers.
For a credit recession, however, there is a much larger problem: The reason real interest rates went negative is that debt has a carrying cost and consumes free cash flow; so long as the debt taken on in the credit binge remains the cash flow impact also remains.
Default and bankruptcy clears excessive credit (debt) from the system - if it is allowed to occur. But if it is not, then the bad debt remains on the balance sheets somewhere and the cash flow impact remains in the economy. Employment remains weak, capital spending restart attempts falter as demand fails to return and credit quality continues to remain insufficient to support new credit demand.

If ya can't beat em join em

OK Now that I got the anger off my chest, let's figure out how to get paid off the shit coming down the pike. In order to enforce this cap and trade there will have to be inspectors. I would love to bill the govt to be that guy that makes sure all these buildings comply. I guess it's time to start an inspection company that is certified by the government. Cha ching. Instead off getting pissed think contrarian and be the guy that benefits from the trainwreck.

Wild Wild West

Cap and Trade, Wal mart and the government in bed together, and Micheal Jackson is the big headline. It is amazing how stoned the American people are to let this happen!!!!! A power hungry Chicago thug is trying to take over america and we are just rolling over. Who is the government to tell me what improvements I need to make to a home in order to sell it!!!! I'll show them I just won't sell. Next I'll need to be energy efficient to get a simple rental license. Don't get me wrong, I think becoming a green energy efficient world is a key to the long term survival of mankind, however in a land of freedom like America it is supposed to be my choice as to when and how I conform. I should conform because it is economically and morally feasible, not because big brother tells me I have to.

Guess what folks, our broke ass governments can say they are ramming it down our throats, but I can't wait to see them enforce their grand sceme. Local governments are broke, state govts are, and so is our federal government. Why the hell should we listen to an organization that can never run in the black???!!!!!

I need to take care of my own. So if the government wants to play games, i'll create games of my own. If you want to tax the shit of my income, I guess it's time to not let em know what the income really is. Cash is now king. The government would love everything to be on a debit card so they can track it all, and eventually thats the way big brother will roll. Until then an underground economy will arise bigger than ever. Our US dollar may become a joke soon, and if the world decides to stop buying our debt our govt, debt and all their ideas to control the nation. It will become a joke since they won't have the money to enforce their grand socilization, and taxation without representation. Meanwhile pay me in cash baby!

I can tell you that I suddenly have a 25% vacancy factor(wink wink) and I am living barely above the poverty line. In the car business it's cash for everything, I pay my mechanics cash, my customers pay cash, many tenants pay cash. Guess what, cash is real hard to keep track of. If the government wants to bail themseves out on my dime, come try and find it. With the way you have screwed up this country so far,I doubt your good enough to beat me. I've played fair to this point, and you've continued to screw me . Now it's every man for himself. Wild wild west style.