How To Rob The Treasury For Bonuses – You have to love (or HATE!) Goldman Sachs:

Karl Denninger, Market Ticker, Jun 24, 2009
You have to love Goldman Sachs:
[Goldman to make record bonus payout -Guardian 21 Jun 2009]
“…Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit [...]

Identity theft and finding the right tenant.

It’s no secret identity theft is a booming business. This can have serious impact on you as an income property owner. It’s hard enough to find quality tenants without having to worry about whether they are actually who they say they are. I mean, what better way for chronically deadbeat renters to sneak into your [...]

More on the “national” housing market.

Just read a funny analogy about the myth of a US housing market. It went something like this. Coming up with a national housing number is like a weatherman who combines weather conditions in Nome, Alaska and Key West, Florida to arrive at a national average temperature of 45 degrees. While technically correct, this is [...]

Jason loves his new iPhone application.

The truth is Jason not only loves his iPhone but he really loves the fact that there is now a Property Tracker application to run on it. Longtime listeners have heard of Property Tracker before. It is Platinum Properties Investor Network’s software of choice for small to medium size income property investors.
We didn’t invent the [...]

Don’t get hit by the shrapnel of the ‘fatal conceit’.

The ‘fatal conceit’ is an idea coined by Friedrich Hayek. It simply means that central planners working for the government tend to miraculously consider themselves free from sin and error. Nowhere is this more evident than in watching the present gang of do-gooders try to borrow their way out of a mess created primarily by, [...]

Two stages of wealth creation.

Buying real estate for investment purposes can seem like a big chunk of information to digest if you look at it all at once. Let’s break it down into more manageable bites. The simplest part is Stage 1. During this time your primary focus is to stock up on debt. You want lots and lots [...]

The Reluctant Investor’s Lament.

Jason likes to close the monthly Creating Wealth in Today’s Economy seminar with a poem called The Reluctant Investor’s Lament. It was written in 1977 but still packs a wallop of powerful thoughts. Below is an abridged version for your reading pleasure.
“I hesitate to make a list, of all the countless deals I’ve missed;
Bonanzas that [...]

The easy way to get a loan modification.

Every once in a while you hear a story that makes you go, “Hmm, how DOES something like that even happen?” It all goes back to the secondary mortgage market and the practice of banks and Wall Street firms buying and selling pools of mortgages – one loan was sold 39 times, according to Kim [...]

Owners, make your property manager happy.

You’ve bought your first income property and have a property manager in place. You can’t just turn off your cell phone and take a year-long yacht cruise to the South Pacific. There are some responsibilities you, the owner, still have. Here’s a quick list.
1. Interview the property manager BEFORE executing final purchase contract to discuss reasonable [...]

They’re melting in California.

As a California-based business, we offer the following commentary and wonder, “Why are we still here?”
Yes, it’s warm in California but we’re talking about a different kind of melting. On June 10, 2009, California Controller John Chiang had this to say about the Golden State’s economic future. “Without immediate solutions from the governor and legislature, [...]

Income property arbitrage.

Let’s define arbitrage. Arbitrage is when an investor profits by exploiting small price differences between similar (or identical) financial instruments. Arbitrage occurs because of pricing inefficiencies in a market. These small price blips can add up to big money for the shrewd investor. Think George Soros – he made his fortune in the margins of [...]

How do WE make money?

Maybe it’s been nibbling at the back of your brain – how do these people at Platinum
Properties Investor Network make money anyway? They seem to be giving all the good information for free. We do give away a lot. It’s part of the business model. The first thing to understand is we’re not a traditional [...]

What exactly does a property manager do?

As you may know, we are BIG fans of property managers. The small percentage of monthly rent diverted to their wallets for services rendered could very well save you an aneurysm from handling tenant complaints. Trust us, whether you live next door to your investment or across the country, you DO want a good property [...]

A definition of “investment.”

You see the word “investment” tossed around quite often within these posts but what do we really mean when we refer to an investment? You likely have (correctly) ascertained we don’t consider anything sold on the Wall Street exchange an investment. Ditto for NASDAQ. Double ditto for treasuries or CD’s.
But what is an investment and [...]

Ditch the dollar during temporary deflation.

While it is our fervent belief that “inflationary times, they are a comin’ back”, there’s no denying that we are in a period of deflation right now. What does that mean? Prices are a little lower and the dollar is a little stronger. While this market condition might wander along for a couple of years, [...]

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