REAL-ESTATE INQUIRIES PT. 2

One day as I was sitting at the benches by our apartment’s swimming pool reading my accounting text book, someone came up to me and asked, “Hey Cruzer...why are you taking college classes aren’t you retired?”  At first I thought “Well isn’t it obvious!” but actually this was an interesting question, so I thought it over for a few minutes before answering.  “Hmm...why am I studying...I mean...afterall I’m retired for Christ’s sake!”  Then it all came back to me, “Oh my two girls...that’s right, Rosita and Haley, who are now attending Fresno City College.”  I received an associates in General Education back in the late 90’s, which was only done because the Pd. gave a pay raise for every college degree earned and then I told myself, “Ok...I’m done with it!” but then my two girls came along and looked in my school files (how dare they) and discovered that I only needed a few classes to get my degree in Accounting (which is one of the hardest motherfucking classes I’d ever taken in my life!) so they nonchalantly confronted me, “Oh...so you preach to us about not giving up..huh...and what about you!”   

Needless to say, I went straight to Fresno State to go for my 4-year degree and they told me that I needed to go back to city college...can you beat that!  Here I was thinking that I was done with community education and I later find out that I still needed about six more classes just to enter FSU!  So now I’m close to the end and in the process in obtaining another 2yr degree (this time in Business Accounting) and most of all setting a example for my two girls, Hanzel & Gretel, who are actually becoming my competition, which kind of makes studying fun, but actually there is no such thing as too much education because that’s one thing that no-one can ever take away from you...think of it...you can lose the ability to walk, talk, see or hear, but as long as you can think with your mind...you can practically accomplish about anything...just ask Stephen Hawking and his bank account plus using your mind is a good combative source to fight Alzheimer’s, Dementia and other senile diseases, thus, explains the reason that I now possess a real estate broker’s license, which brings up another subject...real estate investments.

A young lady came into class the other day complaining about the high price of renting in the decent part of Fresno, which is roughly between $850-1,200 a month ( I know... it’s practically a house payment...right!).  Now I’m constantly (with the help of different sources besides the WEB) conducting research on real estate trends and new developments, and several of Fresno’s real estate experts speculate that for somebody to survive owning a home and maintain it, for example, pay the monthly mortgage of $1,200 for a $150,000 home, electricity, water, groceries, clothes, cellphone, cable, property taxes, car payment & insurance plus any repairs acquired, medical, dental, vision & life insurance and recreational expenses, a person or couple must make roughly about $53,000 a year, where the median of a suitable job in the valley is about $30-35,000 a year.  And the worst thing about this scenario is that there is a major assumption that both house values and apartment rates are going up every year with the back and fourth restrictions on home loan accessibilities and rising interest rates added with increase unemployment hikes and a rapid declining financial economy. So what is to be done...Cruzer to prevent us from taking our hard-earned money from our wallet and putting it into the pockets of these rich apartment owner(s)!  

I realize that there are many young couples, who are barely starting in life, either sharing a apartment with another couple to split the expenses or living with their parents to save up.  For example, there are these four couples that I know, who are each renting a $850 2-bedroom apartment for the past three years, which is a total of $30,600 and have nothing to show for it except a non-cash incentive in their state income tax form.  Only the men work in this group because their young wives are trying to study for better careers and taking care of their babies.  Now each man makes roughly $29,000 a year and are on their 2nd year of employment with low scores on their credit report due to lack of any other financial obligations.  

The thing to do here is for these two guys to gradually build their credit scores to at least 750 for a decent home loan with workable closing escrow cost or perhaps a FHA loan with low closing costs and down payment and stay employed for a minimum of two years than merge their income together, which is approximately $58,000 yearly, to qualify for a roomy residence...let’s just say with a monthly mortgage of $1,400  that’s $150 less than a $850 two-bedroom apartment, but that $30,600 goes straight into their equity instead of throwing it away, which in several good years quickly doubles.  Now if they decide to depart from one another then they can simply sell the house, split the profits and get their own home with the proceeds plus now each has establish credit to get another loan.  If one party wants to keep the house then he/she can refinance and buy the other party out.  Renting the original house is also another option whereas the monthly payments can be used in a payment of another mortgage payment.  (This is how many people get into the house business) But you need to act fast before the inflation cycle starts up again and turns everything upside down, which has been proven by history, so whenever you’re ready...call me!