I Called In Sick Today

[SuitedAces21 2,722]

yeah the market is crazy. my assistant and her husband had a long term plan to move to his parent's farm (100 plus acres) and live out there, but they wanted to save a certain amount. they saw what houses nearby were going for and just put theirs on plus 20% what they thought it should be at and it sold in 48 hours. moved the timetable up and off to the farm they go. the WFH thing makes it pretty easy too. 

[InternetExplorer 2,609]

I think people are moving up plans for buying because rates are low, and this is going to eventually settle down as supply catches up and people start to feel the economic pain from the lockdown. I just know that the fed funds futures say the next rate hike will be sometime in 2023.

I could be totally off base though. 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

August 4 

Brownsville 92 RF 104

Des Moines 76 RF 79

 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

August 5

Brownsville 91 RF 103

Des Moines 76 RF 75

[hank213 1,823]

Because of covid, for some reason, nowhere seems to be doing short term or month to month leases. Looks like I'll have to put my stuff in storage, cram in with blondy and the kids at her current place, and find an office space somewhere. Closing on my house scheduled for 9/29. 

[InternetExplorer 2,609]

I kinda wonder if smaller towns are going to see price appreciation and population growth because of all of this.

If that happens, I imagine nicer restaurants will be the big winner. The people moving in from more populous places are way less price sensitive and accustomed to non-chain stuff. I remember the complaining from my brother and sister in law after they moved from DC to BFE, Indiana.  

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

August 6

Brownsville, FL 91 RF 105

Des Moines, IA  75 RF 77

[InternetExplorer 2,609]

I am remembering that the Behind the Markets podcast had comments many months ago about survey data out of China, after Wuhan went into total lockdown, about a big spike in intent to buy a new house/apartment/whatever after being stuck at home for so long.  I have revised my theory; I think what's going on in the property market is a combination of acute awareness of what people don't like about their houses, plus the low rates.

I did actually submit interest in stock in my company, so if I get most of it, I'm going to spend the next year or two just paying off the loan. The traditional advice is, don't bet the farm on your employer, because it's already your sole source of income. I was considering what would happen if some mega firm wanted to buy us, and the truth is, I'd be immediately stripped out along with the rest of the 'overhead' staff. They just want the assets and advisors; they have their own support staff centralized somewhere else.

In that scenario, for that to occur before I'm financially secure, they will have offered an unreal multiple (4-5x current valuation) for the business. So the crazy return on the stock I'm buying would be the consolation prize for an early ejection from my firm. Everyone at the company swears that this will not happen in the next 10 years at a minimum, but if a 'yes' vote means that you suddenly have generational wealth, and the buyer is making the age-old promise that they're going to leave you alone, I don't see how we stay independent. 

[brvheart 1,752]

I'm looking forward to seeing how that will play out!  Fingers crossed.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

August 7

Brownsville 92 RF 104

Des Moines 86 RF 88

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

August 8

Brownsville

92 RF 104

Des Moines 

89 RF 93

[hank213 1,823]

On 8/7/2020 at 8:08 AM, InternetExplorer said:

I have revised my theory; I think what's going on in the property market is a combination of acute awareness of what people don't like about their houses, plus the low rates.

I agree, and that's on top of the pent up demand from the uptick that normally occurs in the housing market every spring but was delayed this year due to covid. There is also nearly unprecedented demand for contractors/landscaping/remodel specialists right now due to so many people working from home and finally deciding to take care of that home improvement project that they've been putting on the back burner for years. I was trying to get a small patch of fence repaired and of the 2 or 3 contractors that actually returned my call only one said he had any interest in taking on a job that small but it was going to be January before he could even think about scheduling it. 

 

[mrfritz 885]

On 8/6/2020 at 10:48 PM, BigDMcGee said:

Des Moines, IA  75 RF 77

This is the ideal temperature 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

1 hour ago, mrfritz said:

This is the ideal temperature 

It is the ideal temperature for my thesis, certainly. And I'm happy the good people of Iowa get to enjoy me being right almost as much as I do.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

The 9th of August

Brownsville

92  RF 104

Des Moines

93 RF 96

 

Des Moines gets off the board with a day of higher real temp, but is still 8 degrees behind in RF. 

[hank213 1,823]

Another area apparently experiencing unprecedented demand: self storage yards. 

[Theraflu 1,035]

Gonna have to start thinking outside the box there, Hank. Everyone seems to be on same path as you.

[hank213 1,823]

and i'm sucking hind teet...

[Theraflu 1,035]

I'm not here to kink shame.

I moved into a new house over the last week. My father-in-law built two houses a few years ago, and this one has been empty, not completely finished. I'm going to "rent" it, for now, mostly cause the house has a zillow price of almost 600k, and, come on. Small town MA is insane. Moving a family of 4 sure does suck a lot of ass, but we're in pretty good shape. It's been a long 10 days or so. It's 4 bed, 3.5 bath, 2600 SqF. Unfinished basement that has great potential for the future. It's nice finally having some space. 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

If I needed to store something, I'd rent office space, that shit is dirt cheap and plentiful, and I wouldn't have to deal with scumbags like Dino's storage. 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

The Tenth Day of August, in the year of our Brvy 2020

Brownsville

93 RF 105

Des Moines

81 RF 90

[hank213 1,823]

4 minutes ago, BigDMcGee said:

If I needed to store something, I'd rent office space, that shit is dirt cheap and plentiful, and I wouldn't have to deal with scumbags like Dino's storage. 

I would like to hear more about Dino's since they put one in close to me and I was thinking about calling them.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

3 minutes ago, hank213 said:

I would like to hear more about Dino's since they put one in close to me and I was thinking about calling them.

Go search /R/Omaha if you want the 411 on the guy that owns that place, Dave Paladino, there's a new thread about him all the time, he's a giant slum lord.  I've never rented storage space from him personally, but I've never heard a single good thing about him or Dino's. 

[hank213 1,823]

1 minute ago, BigDMcGee said:

Go search /R/Omaha if you want the 411 on the guy that owns that place, Dave Paladino, there's a new thread about him all the time, he's a giant slum lord.  I've never rented storage space from him personally, but I've never heard a single good thing about him or Dino's. 

That name does sound familiar. Didn't realize he owned the place. I was getting a bad vibe from them because they were the only site that didn't so much as tell you what size units they had, let alone cost or availability. Like zero info aside from the location. 

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Then again, I don't know if he's an outlier on the storage unit scumbag curve, the whole model is they hope you forget to pay rent so they can sell your shit off, so I can't imagine how many scrupulous businessmen are attracted to that grift in the first place. I picture the average moral character of a storage owner to be somewhere above a pay day loans owner and below Hitler.  The fact that I know this particular scumbags name, since I know the names of exactly zero other storage owners, says a lot, though.