"Soullless, bloodsucking human being". This is when you know a person has a very weak case. He invents a phrase that no one has used and demands people to defend it. I think people know that was never said. Stop reading the marquee inside your own head, start reading what is actually posted. I simply challenged the notion that this was some grand social service involving terrible risk. It is neither. It is a way to make extra money, and some people think it should be easy. Why? Why should any way of making money be that easy. And if you rent to people you claim you KNOW and find them to be utter, destructive slobs, that shouldn't cause you to question the riskiness of a business. It should make you ask fundamental questions about "do I really KNOW the people I think I know?"
As for namecalling, no one has done that. I think the person has gotten too emotionally involved when legitimate questions are raised about a point in a debate and you start trying to claim they are "namecalling". Certainly, if someone tried to smear you, you can post a link to the message, but I don't think it has happened. Why don't more people buy housing to rent? Because a lot of us refuse to get that leveraged. We don't care to have huge mortgage debts. That is a decision made before the first rental, and I think those who do it have been seduced by the notion of easy money. _____________________________________________ Regarding growth in the Park Board budget. This is a very mixed-up issue. I agree that growth that comes from normal compensation increases for a reasonable number of people is something that no reasonable person can oppose. If their compensation tracks with mine, then I won't be beggared by increasing their compensation. But what about when the Board takes that as a springboard for all sorts of other plans. We already have one of the premier park systems in the country. There is no justification in a bad economy for planning large scale expansion of any kind. The taxpayer base isn't expanding. The use of parks isn't really expanding. We can justifiably be in a MAINTENANCE phase and paying justifiable costs for that. And I don't see any voter mandate for anything but keeping up the system. Plus, there is NO harm in continuing to learn more efficient ways of doing things. Let the Park Board make that their signature accomplishment. If they do any more, let them show they can do more on the same or less money. Look at consumer goods. In MOST cases, we have deflation in their costs. Yet, the features keep getting better. You can now get a DVD player for $55 that will play five or six formats of music and movies. That's one tenth of what I payed for my VCR years ago. How is that possible? Economies of scale and a fixation on efficiency. So, that's what voters want from their government agencies. Hire good people and let them achieve the most they can. Pay them reasonably, but don't let bureaucratic procedures hamper their ability to produce value. _____________________________________________ Regarding the benefits accruing to rental property owners, one web site says: "While not the only benefit, a discussion of real estate as an investment must include the tax benefits for most investors. The tax benefits typically include depreciation deductions that provide for tax deferral and (for certain investors) the potential to use a limited amount of losses to shelter other earned income." "Also, the capital gains exclusion for homeowners provides for an investment strategy to generate tax-free income by actually moving into a rental property for a minimum of two years before selling at a gain. Consult your CPA or tax adviser for the specific benefits that real estate may offer you." http://www.sftu.org/rentreasons.html Another site says: "But if you actively participate in a rental activity you can deduct up to $25,000 of the rental loss. To actively participate means that you own at least 10 percent of the property and you make management decisions in a significant and bona fide sense, such as approving new tenants, setting rental terms, approving improvements, and so forth" http://www.turbotax.com/articles/FAQonTaxesandRentalProperty.html So, now if such a law applied to me, I wouldnt have to pay tax on ANY of my investments because they exceeded any money I actually made. The key point here is that the rental property owners get to KEEP the investment while taking the "losses" against other active income. The only way I'd get to take a loss at all would be if I sold the stock, but since it is retirement investment, I can only generate the loss at the price of paying premature distribution penalties. Which suggests another factual reason some people invest their money in rental property. Other retirement investments have become very lame. Buy rental property, reach retirement, live in it the required time, sell it, and you get TOTAL EXEMPTION on capital gains!!! Slick, huh? Next time you rent from a middle-income person, one who can take the entire $25,000 loss deduction, think about this. It may be why they get so sloppy. They get to keep the damage deposit. They get to deduct the repairs against their rental income. They get to depreciate the property. And they can sell it with no capital gains tax at retirement. Pretty risky, huh? It may also explain why this is simultaneously a "poor landlords market" and a market with more people wanting to rent their property than there are renters who want to rent. ____________________________________________ Some who comment on this issue of risk like to make a point of "expertise" (listen to me, I've owned rental property). Well, before you leap on that basis, remember that the big accounting firms that lied to the public were respected as THE source of wisdom in their field. In the end, that didnt matter because they had a monumental conflict of interest that caused their management to insure that NO truth got out that would harm them in the public eye. I don't readily believe what landlords tell me about the risks and rewards of being a landlord because I've tracked the truth about real estate investment for a long time and know they are suppressing a lot of facts that would make their case look worse. I've given some of them above, and you can judge for yourself if the landlords are being really honest here. ===== Jim Mork -- Cooper Neighborhood ________________________________ Help stop spam -- Join SpamCon Foundation, http://www.spamcon.org __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
