I received a couple of questions after my last post on Capital Deployment. To address one of them – no – I won’t tell you Bluetooth convertible guy’s name. I haven’t heard from him since I wrote it though. I was wondering why my email spam traffic was down 30%. The relevant questions were on this whole issue of capital deployment, so I thought that it made sense to discuss it further, especially in light…
Author: Dennis Fassett
Capital Deployment, or Don’t Listen to the Guy With the Convertible and the Bluetooth Headset
As I have mentioned in prior posts, the most difficult part of this real estate business used to be finding the really great deals. I remember just 14 short months ago how I lost two consecutive deals because I ended up getting outbid on both, and that the prices of both of those properties had risen several thousand dollars over my original offer price in the bidding process. I can also remember thinking that at…
“Real Life†Monopoly
I bought another house last week. On my lunch break. An hour and 20 minutes out and back. Yes – I’d like the Chicken Fillet with extra tomatoes and a large diet Pepsi. Make that to go. Oh – and throw in a 3 bedroom bungalow with appliances and a finished basement too. I got home that evening and told my wife. She said “Cool!” Did I hit the jackpot with her or what? I remember…
I HATE Foreclosures
Pretty strong I know. But I do. I hate ’em. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the real estate business. I LOVE looking at houses. I LOVE buying houses. And I LOVE renting houses. I just HATE foreclosure. I must confess that I’ve become spoiled. I realized that in spades this weekend. You see, since about August I have shifted my focus to looking at regular listings. No foreclosures. No HUD homes. None of…
After All the Volatility And All The Promise – All You Get Is A Measly 6.4%
12,463 13,264 Recognize those numbers? I know that some of you do. And those do should be fatally disappointed with them. Why? Because they represent the opening and closing Dow Jones Industrial Average numbers for 2007. 2007 opened at 12,463 2007 closed at 13,264 A whopping 801 point increase for the year. An increase of 6.4%. For the entire year. (But don’t feel so bad – the S&P 500 posted an increase of only 3.5%…
Are You a “Half Empty” or “Half Full” Type of Person?
A friend of mine emailed me last week with an article that forecast more bad news. And he, I think tongue in cheek, suggested that I must be doing cartwheels because the bad news for the housing market was great news to me. That got me thinking again about the power of perspective. You see, a great many of the historically grand fortunes in this country were made by people going against the grain. Buying when…