Any home based business success stories out there?

[LandGreen]

I thought this would be the perfect place to brainstorm other income producing ideas...internet is full of stuff from stuffing envelopes to filling out surveys etc...but i imagine it is 100% scam, unless someone here has first hand experience.

Just looking for things to do on the days off, because this airline world is not going to provide much of a retirement anymore! sorry if I sound cynical!

 

[Zephyrhills]

rentals, rentals, rentals

 

[LandGreen]

rentals, rentals, rentals

i keep hearing about this..."BUBBLE...the BUBBLE is going to break!" "guys with rentals on interest only are going to get clobbered!"

oh well, probably the tenants are all saying this anyway! LOL

 

[miles otoole]

i keep hearing about this..."BUBBLE...the BUBBLE is going to break!" "guys with rentals on interest only are going to get clobbered!"

oh well, probably the tenants are all saying this anyway! LOL

I hope he meant power tool rental because if it's real estate, you had best not be leveraged to the hilt. UAL anyone?
I'd say the new money will be in foreclosures due to I/O loans blowing up. 40% of the new home loans in San Diego are interest only? Wow!
A mortgage broker showed me the break even annual price appreciation point for the typical interest only loan-15%. Yikes.

 

[Zephyrhills]

At the end of the term, those people will just refi into another I/O loan. If they sell, then what? They have to buy another home, which means another loan. Get an I/O loan. Buy a rental. Write 100% of the I/O payment off each month. Preserve your D/I ratio so you can buy more rentals. As long as there is no depreciation, then sell the home or refi it when the principal is due (5 years typically). Negative-am I/O loans...now that is a different story...unless you bought in central FL over a year ago before the 100% surge in prices. A 30 year fixed loan doesn't work for rentals...unless you plan on keeping the home for more than 5-7 years, at which time you actually begin to pay down some principal.


...or just keep picking up opentime and pray your airline is around when you retire. I'll put my money into rentals, thanks. I love my airline, but who knows if they'll be around when I hit 60/65? I like to have some control over my financial future.

 

[MINIME]

This is really not considered home based, but I own a small trucking company. Business, there's plenty to go around but drivers are very hard to come by. Supply and demand is not on the owners' side at this time. Once you do have drivers and trucks that run good without so many break ups, it can be lucrative.

The wife also ownes some rentals. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with them. If interest rates go up, people tend to stay away from purchasing homes therefore renting more and more. Currently, I'm about to close on a commercial property myself. We'll see how it goes.

Hell, none of my go to airlines have called yet, I better do something to prepare....the future

 

[MDP727]

I agree on the rentals. I took a voluntary furlough last year to give it a stab at full time. For 05' I bought and sold two forclosures with out doing any work to them. Good luck on the commercial property! I purchased two office buildings a year ago with 22 rental offices. I'm in the process of putting them on the market because they have appreciated for 1 million more than I payed for them. My recent purchase was a 3/8 mile speedway. Due some homework and you can make some money.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

I own a sail import business. You can check it out at www.islandplanetsails.com

Yes we offer good deals to fellow airline employees.

We also own a beach condo that we use as a vacation rental in Neskowin, OR which is north of Lincoln City and south of Pacific City. Ask about our interline rates starting as low as $59/ night for a 2 night midweek stay, $69 for single night.

I think rentals can be a good investment in the right area. I didn't want to buy a regular house and have to put up with full time renters. Prices at the beach are up 400% in 8 years, doubling every 4 years. With the baby boomers retiring and oceanfront real estate still a bargain compared to California I don't see the market bottoming out anytime soon. Nor do I see overinflated San Diego prices dropping out of sight. There may be a small correction or a flattening but the demand is still there. Interest rates could play a large role in how the market goes over time. Vacation property will not suffer as much as primary residences in the event of higher interest rates since a lot of the property is being purchased with cash from the sale of other property. The only real threat to the real estate market is President Bush's plan to greatly reduce or eliminate the mortgage interest deduction and reduce taxes on capital gains and dividends. If that happens the bottom could fall out of the real estate market. I'm counting on a lot of opposition from Congress and the Senate to keep that proposal from becoming reality.

 

[miles otoole]

Housing subsidies

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/11/crush_that_mort.html

 

[Dave Benjamin]

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/11/crush_that_mort.html

The only people that would benefit if the so called "subsidy" were eliminated would be the very wealthist people in the USA. We're probably talking the top 1 percent or less. Think about it. How many of us make six figures off our investments every year. Sure if you make a high six figure income off dividends and stock deals you'd be better off. At my airline the CEO and perhaps 2 or 3 other people would come out ahead if the mortgage deduction was eliminated. Thousands of other people would lose in a big way.

There are many subsidies that Washington could eliminate to save money. We could start by ending corporate welfare. Just look at the handouts to oil companies that were in that Energy Plan.

The only economists likely to support removing the deduction are political appointees or members of conservative think tanks. Enactment of that inane proposal would cause the largest reduction in individual net worth since the Great Depression.

The mortgage tax deduction has social benefits as well as financial ones. Home ownership is a good thing for America and Americans. Delong claims "The money put into building those huge villas on the hillside could have been put into factories, office buildings and schools...." I submit that most of us are more comfortable living in a house than in a factory. The middle class of this country consists mostly of workers. Workers work in those factories and office buildings. The average citizen is not in a position to engage in massive commercial development.