Rental #1 and Rental #2 Updates

Trisha called me today and updated me on the status of my various Oklahoma properties.

My property manager is set to meet with the appraiser at Rental #1 on Thursday. That should be the final step needed to get the refinance rolling. Well, then all the paperwork needs to be signed, but that's just mailing things back and forth.

Rental #2 still has some work that needs to be done to get it up to spec for the Section 8 inspection. However, the tenants are all sick with the stomach flu, so no work can be done until they are better. The Section 8 inspection was scheduled for this week, but that will need to be rescheduled. It also turns out the fax to Section 8 to raise the rent to $460 from the current $439 did not go through. Trisha re-faxed the request, only this time asking for an increase to $500 a month. She says the property was rented for that in the past, so hopefully, it will be accepted. If it is, it'll really boost my ROI.

I must say that, apart from the issues I was having last month, I am feeling more comfortable with my property management company. It seems the PM is helping nicely with getting the appraisal done. Additionally, even though Rental #2 is still in escrow and not technically mine yet, I'm being kept up to date on the repairs and Section 8 re-inspection process. Further, the repairs were started without my asking and are being paid for by the seller. I'm starting to reach a good comfort level where I can just tell them what needs to be done and they take care of it and I don't need to worry about it anymore. To be perfectly honest, I attribute a large part of this to Trisha joining the PM company, an event I like to think I help play a small part in :-)

Tagged: Magazine Meme

Trisha has taken a break from building her empire and tagged me to find out what magazines I read on a regular basis.

This one's easy. I read exactly one magazine regularly: Cook's Illustrated. I love to cook and what I like about this magazine is they don't just give recipes. They explain what different ingredients and techniques they tried, the results, and discuss how they came to settle on the ingredients and methods they present. The engineer in me loves this stuff. The magazine also only comes out every other month and is fairly thin, which means I can find time to read it all.

Occasionally, I'll pick up an issue of Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine, which is a nice Phoenix-based REI mag, but I don't subscribe and only read it sporadically. I get it more for the ads than anything else.


I'll tag:

Kenric at Live Learn Invest (Cliff also tagged you.)

Molly at My Madeleine (who will probably never see this, since I am a lurker on her blog)

At Last! A Realistic Retirement Outlook From Major Media

My monthly Schwab statements include a financial newsletter. I usually toss these in the trash after scanning them because, quite frankly, they don't have much information that I don't already know. However, the April issue pleasantly surprised me. Although it still doesn't have much info that is new to me, it does feature an article that caught my eye titled "Five Retirement Myths To Ignore." What struck me was that this is the first article I've seen from a major financial source or major media source that states what I feel to be the major problems with current retirement advice. It's about time someone started telling it like it is. Below are their five myths. They commented on each one in the article, but I'll just give you my comments.

1. You'll only need 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income. Health care expenses are going through the roof and, once retired, it's a good bet you will no longer be covered by employer health insurance. This alone is enough reason to ignore this advice. If you plan to travel more or buy nicer things, you'll definitely need more than 80% of your old income. Personally, I want my standard of living to rise when I retire, not stay the same or go down, so I plan to make more during retirement.
   
2. You'll be in a lower tax bracket. Federal deficits are going through the roof. At some point, taxes will have to be raised. And remember that withdrawals from traditional IRAs and 401(k)s are taxed as ordinary income - the most heavily taxed income there is. Thank goodness for the Roth IRA!
   
3. You'll keep working. Who thinks this? Retirement means you are no longer working!
4. The stock market will save you. By the time you retire, you will not have a long enough time horizon to ride out market fluctuations.
5. There's always Social Security. Haha!! Yeah, right!

Schwab Annouces Global Real Estate Mutual Fund

My monthly Schwab statement included a newsletter that featured an announcement about a new mutual fund Schwab is starting. It's called the Schwab Global Real Estate Fund and it will invest in REITs and REOCs (real estate operating companies). The initial subscription period is May 1, 2007 through May 30, 2007 and the initial price is $10.00 per share, with a $2,500 minimum ($1,000 minimum for retirement accounts and $100 minimum for custodian accounts). More information can be found here. The expenses are 1.36%, but they have agreed to limit them to 1.20% through 6/30/09.

As always, this is not a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Do your own due diligence.