We had a family crisis last weekend. A Red-Alert-level crisis. We were on our first solo family camping trip in the Waterloo State Recreation Area out past Chelsea. First time camping without a big group like the cub scouts. Aside from forgetting my trusty Swiss Army knife and a lighter for my cigars we did pretty well with the packing. We had great weather – the lake temp was perfect and it had a sandy…
Category: Rants and Observations
Off-Topic Friday: Social Networking Meets Real Estate Investing
What if I could show you a way to easily find, meet, and network with a few dozen out of state real estate buyers and investors? Â What if I could show you a way to network with national business reporters and get exposure and possibly get slotted for interviews? Â What if I could show you a way to network that is nearly effortless, but still completely effective? Â Would any of that get…
Off-Topic Friday: The Starbucks Curse – Is the Party Over?
After my wife and I got out of grad school with our newly minted MBAs from the University of Southern California, we high-tailed it out of Los Angeles to the Northern California town of Burlingame. This was in May of 1992.  At that time, Burlingame was a quiet little town with a slow and somewhat decaying downtown area – you know the type – three consecutive blocks of shops, restaurants, and offices not much…
Off-Topic Friday: Captain Picard v Captain Kirk
I have thought for a long time that Star Trek is a metaphor for life. Especially for work and business. But as much as I try to explain it to my wife, I still usually get the blank stare (you know the one I’m talking about), even though I converted her into a STNG fan when we were courting way back in grad school in 1990. (She doesn’t like or get Monty Python either) I…
Off-Topic Friday: A Hedge Fund Roach Motel?
Since this blog is dedicated to the pursuit of commercial and residential cash flow properties, I want to introduce a new feature this week that will let me stray and post my observations on various things that have happened throughout the week that don’t relate to real estate. I’m calling it Off-Topic Friday, although because of the holiday I’m posting a day early. Today there are a couple of items to review: Item #1: Rush…
Screw It – Because Fear Sucks
I think that we’d all agree that the last couple of weeks have been brutal ones for our various markets: the stock market closed Friday at 2004 levels, Oil is at an all-time high, and the real estate market here in Michigan continues to plunge to new lows. And all I keep hearing is doom and gloom from the chicken-littles here. And it’s not just the media that’s perpetuating and worse yet – AMPLIFYING these…