I get a lot of comments about the tax implications of a real estate deal. I am a big believer to ignore the income tax ramifications of a deal and buy it strictly on its financial merits
Quote of the day
The tax ramifications of a deal can make a good deal bad but it cannot make a bad deal good
-Scott Damrow FNBO
This was on line someplace and was given to me by Posey it was written by Cliff Ennico, if you know him pass along that this is good stuff
Successful Entrepreneurs are:
Focus on results
Not perfectionists
Know how to sell
Don’t care about Why’s and wherefores
Flexible
(often) Neurotic
Not always nice people
Don’t become “Prisoners” of their resumes
Thomas High said that I should add to the list of ten things you should teach your kids how to shoot a gun. I want to do one better. I would like to add how to shoot a gun and a compound arrow
I have been thinking allot about this lately. John Maxwell says that the person that you will become in 5 years is most influenced by the people you associate with and the books you read. I am not sure if you know this, but Omaha has a very famous Elite triathlete. Her name is Mariana Phipps. She won the Iron Man World Championship for her age group a few years ago. She has an amazing story to tell. Clink on the link below. The point that I want to make is how she won the race. And due to the way the course is laid out. There is a turn around with about a mile left of the run, and she could see the person in second place behind her. Marianna goes on to say that she knew that if she just kept the same pace she was on, she would win the race. When she tells it give you goose bumps. She broke the world record by 45 minutes. The reason that I like to talk about Mariana. Is that she was not an athlete until later in life and it gives inspiration to what you can do if you really want something and put your mind to it. The other thing that I want to point out is to always surround yourself with people like Mariana. If you always have winners around you will by default think like a winner.
Some simple rules
1. Pick the people that you hang around with carefully. An example of this, is that I do not associate with anyone that does not call me back right away. I know it is a small thing but expects the best out of people you spend time with because this will affect how you perform.
2. Read positive books. Do not get me wrong the WSJ and OWH are good but can be negative. Pick one of my favorite books are read it.
3. Always put yourself in a position of impact. I love to play basketball. I am just no good at it. And often times don’t get picked to play so I stayed away from basketball. Pick sports and jobs that you can make a big difference in not one that you are going to have to sit on the sidelines.
4. Get used to losing. I have met a lot of really smart, really talent people in my life. The most successful ones are not the ones that are really smart or especially athletic. The ones that do well in life are the ones have had huge failures and changed what they are doing to get better at it.
http://admin.ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/results/agegroupwinners/fran-arfaras-catches-up-with-2005-womens-60-64-world-champion-mariana-phipps-omaha-ne-usa
Finally the market is beginning to reflect what places are truly worth. In the last few days someone posted a huge house in midtown for $6500. Finally real estate owners are beginning to come to grips with the fact that properties that need a ton of work and are large are nearly worthless.
My brother Jason Lives in Phoenix actually Peoria, AZ the real estate market is crazy there. His house value has fallen by nearly half since 2005. What is interesting about his story he lives in a huge development which transcends economic cycles and the neighborhood is so vast. There are 4000 lots in his development called Vistancia. There are so many people in the same situation. He bought his house for $320K in 2005 today it appraised for $178k. The house has fallen by $142K, almost half its value. What it interesting about his story he look all the equity out if his house in Omaha when he sold it and put over $100K down on the house in Phoenix. Most of his neighbors did not do this. They borrowed the entire purchase price. In fact some of them were so underwater that they bought a second house in there neighborhood and told the bank they were going to rent out the new house. When in fact once they closed they moved into the house that was larger and much cheaper and fell in default on the first house. My point of all of this is the banks bear much of the burden in the whole mess for not knowing their customers. .
As many of you know we had a trailer stolen out of our parking lot as week. We caught the whole thing on video and we got some great shots of the perps. The cops called Thursday and said the found the trailer in north Omaha. The video was kind of a comedy because the guys that stole it had not idea how to back up. I have been thinking a lot about what a skills a father should teach his children. I was blessed with three things growing up. My father was big into showing how to do guy things. I was a Boy Scout and I was ranch hand. These three things taught me all the necessary skill on how to figure most things out.
Here are 10 things every father should teach his children how to do before they are 16. This applies to both girls and boys but especially boys
1. Back up a trailer using the mirrors
2, Start a camp fire
3. Handle a sharp knife
4. Fix a broken window
4. Use a chain saw and how to get it started if it does not start easily.
5. Pull a car out of a ditch
6. Steer a car out of a skid
7. Fix a bike flat
8. Diagnose a dead battery in a car and replace it
9. Throw a punch and how to talk away from a fight
19. Drive a stick shift car
Bill Wheaton, a professor our ours at MIT said the role of government is to keep the paying filed for business flat. The founding fathers roll for government was limited to making sure that a system was in place that stopped one company or companies from obtaining on unfair advantage that would stop free trade. Ad you can see the role of government has gone way past what it was originally intended to do.
