Real Time Numbers not Historical Numbers

I am off to get an offer signed and double check another property before signing another offer. Recession is almost over don't believe the media. These are observations from my personal experiences but I have noticed that my personal experiences have been a better thermostat for what is happening. Gas prices are low and so are prices. True that people are still being laid off but other companies are hiring. It is time to reinvent yourself and get into a growing industry. Do not rely on being at one job the rest of your life but continue to grow and adapt.



I am also going to ask to get proactive because the only thing that will slow down our recovery are the pending tax hikes from all of the bailouts. Write to your congressmen and women and let them know that you will vote them out if they vote for another bailout or another tax increase. Enforce the current tax laws and catch the tax cheats. Legalize marijuana and prostitution and you have another revenue source. Let's start some dialogue about my last proposition.

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Sales Tax Increase

Ok I know we are still only 2 days away from the increase but I just looked at my lease statement and it increased by $3 because of the increase. This is ridiculous cause now I'm going to speed up those payments and payoff my car sooner which won't benefit anybody but me. That means I am going to cut back on other spending in order to make that happen. I guess the only companies that will benefit are going to be the makers of Spam and Ramen cause that's what the kids and I will be eating while we make all these cut backs in our family budget. I refuse to give the state anymore money cause they are just so inefficient.



To all my friends who are hired by the state I apologize but I know most of you have admitted to me that the state empowers administrators too much and employees too little. So in the end all you have is bureaucratic heavy departments.

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Love Your Life

I am sitting here thinking about my life. I love everything about it. Sure sometimes my life has knocked me on my a$$ but how I get up is what defines my character. All my experiences good or bad has made me who I am and I wouldn't change a thing. I love my life and when I finally realized that, things started falling into place.

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Another Temporary Tax Increase!

This is not an April Fools joke! Californians will be hit with another so called temporary increase in the sales tax on April 1st. This is a one percent increase. I am very curious to know how many of the past temporary increases were ever repealed.



These smart politicians decide to make things more expensive during a recession just because they cannot control their spending. I remember someone being quoted saying that they would not increase taxes during a recession. I guess this just means personal income taxes but raising taxes on everything else is okay. How many people out there purchase items from other states just to avoid the California sales tax? I don't think California's politicians get it and they think that people are actually reporting how many items they have purchased from other states on their state income tax return. You are not going to generate much tax revenue during a recession and so you must cut your spending.



Thank you to all of those politicians who have approved this tax increase. Thank you for prolonging California's recovery. When will they get it? If they want to regulate something then make it mandatory for our politicians to take courses on economics and not just econ 101. If there's a petition to recall circulating please send it my way.

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Understanding My Purpose

There are times that I question if what I am doing in life is what I am supposed to be doing. Okay I question it a lot. Being in real estate is a struggle. There are so many factors that are out of my control. Then I spend money to try to make money and by the time I get additional business I need to figure out where to get more money so I can advertise. It becomes a vicious circle and many are lucky to have spouses that could support them and here I am as a single parent making my kids sacrifice right along with me as I try to build my business.

Days like today make me realize that the struggle is well worth it and it is not because I'll be receiving a commission check soon. I just helped someone get into a home. This is their biggest purchase so far and a giant step for the newlyweds. Soon they'll start their family there and have many Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. I played a big role in this purchase. This was their first real step in building wealth aside from having a savings account. I love this feeling.

Best of all they will benefit from the $8000 refundable tax credit and the mortgage interest deduction. Their payments are now building equity instead of just going down the drain like the rent. I taught renters how to become homeowners and I'm able to do this on a mass scale thanks to the internet and have time to do something else that I love, spend time with the kids.

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Presidential Motorcade

I was able to witness the Presidential Motorcade around 3:15 pm today as I was trying to get on the 5 Freeway north by the LA Zoo. All of us were stopped from getting on the freeway when I realized he must be on his way to the Tonight Show. So first socialism and now traffic, great. I am just kidding and taking a cheap shot. It was actually pretty cool. I've never witnessed this before and my only regret was that the kids were still at school and did not witness it with me.

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Checks & Balances

Thank God that our founding fathers were a lot smarter than our today's legislatures. They are flexing their muscle today and trying to tax the bonuses that AIG paid out 90% to 100%. The problem is that this is contract law and the legislature is just doing a dog and pony show right now. They should have never given them the money to begin with and allow for AIG to restructure under our current bankruptcy laws.



I know there is a big debate whether what they are doing is constitutional or not but it brings me to my point. Eventually this will go to the court system and it will be determined then. If you ask me AIG has been defrauding us from the beginning and if they investigate them properly they will be able to get the tax money back. Now next elections please vote out any incumbent that voted for yea for any of the bailouts and vote in anybody else. We cannot allow for government to corrupt itself by giving itself more and more power. Next thing you know I can't even write something like this. Oh wait maybe I should keep quiet for a while.

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Inappropriate Use of Tax Money

So President Obama says that AIG represents inappropriate use of tax money. This is just like me giving the homeless guy off the freeway off ramp with a sign "need money for booze" some money and getting mad cause he bought some booze. We knew that these guys were unethical before the first bailout and then they threw a huge party and we continued to give them money.



Mr. President the true inappropriate use of tax money is how our politicians just continue to hand it out and reward bad behavior. Yes it is true that he has inherited this problem but now that you are in charge please listen to the American people and let us get back to a free market. Our government is responsible for protecting us from fraud and prosecuting those that defraud us. Instead of prosecuting we just keep giving them a check.



We complain that we are at a disadvantage when it comes to trade. When they have these G20 conferences what is it that they talk about? Are they not trying to even up the playing field? We just did the same thing that we complain other governments do and subsidized an industry. We need to lead by example and let the free market take its course.



Listen to the American taxpayers. We believe in the United States and we know that we will rebound. We believe in taking risks and learning from our mistakes. We do not believe in our hard earned money being used to reward failure. The only ones benefiting from these bailouts are the highest income earners. I thought the democrats platform was based on helping the middle class and yet the middle class is about to pay the biggest price.

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Burbank Parochial League 2009 - SRB

A while ago I wrote about my t-ball team and how proud I was of them. On Sunday March 15, 2009 we had our picnic. This is a great time for the kids and parents to get together for some games and great bbq. Most importantly you get to feel the love that we all have for our kids.

As a rookie coach I was initiated by being put behind the grill and having to chop up some tomatoes. Thank God for the beautiful day. We also had egg toss, water balloon toss, 3 legged races and much more.

We concluded the festivities with trophies and gift cards to the kids that have played since T-ball and this was their final year cause now it is off to high school. The "A" division which is made up of 8th and 7th graders won the Championship for SRB.

I wrote before that I was honored just by being a part of these kids' lives and them showing me that they improved throughout the season and then they surprised me with a gift. I was really touched by this gift and so I had to share it. If you cannot make out the picture, it is a Mets Jersey with all of the kids' hand prints. I strongly recommend the Burbank Parochial League for anyone in the area. Sign ups for next season are held in October and for more information go to http://www.bplbaseball.com/

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Beware Non-Licensees!

Just read through my CA Real Estate Magazine and read that penalties for non-licensees is $20k and/or 6 months in a county jail. A corporation is subject to a fine of $60k. I wish they would offer a reward cause I could probably make a living reporting all these people that are required to have a license but for some reason will not get licensed.
When dealing in real estate matters please make sure that the person you are dealing with is licensed. First of all it is not that hard to get licensed so you have to ask yourself why one would not get licensed. Second of all licensing is one way that they try to protect the general public. If you are interested in this law look up California Business & Professions Code Section 10139.

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Runaway Production in Los Angeles

Studios are making economic decisions to film in other geographic areas other than Los Angeles. So our city legislatures decide to offer incentives to keep production in Los Angeles. Good idea but why is it only applied to one industry?



If you make it inexpensive for a business to operate and then they will operate in your district. The jobs will attract labor who demands other services and housing. Taxes are collected on the sales of goods and services and so more revenue is generated by the city. Now if we just cut out the unnecessary spending we would have a productive local government. Tax incentives or lower taxes should be offered to all industries.

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2009 St. Robert Bellarmine Mets - T-ball

My t-ball season came to an end yesterday as we took on the 1st seeded team, St. Finbar Phillies. It was one of the best games of the year and I couldn't have asked my kids for any more than what they gave me.



These kids were having fun and playing their hearts out. My team was made up of a lot of 5 and 6 year olds and the other team was a lot of 7 year olds. Anybody that knows the league would have told you that the Phillies were going to sweep the floor with us. They were a very dominant team throughout the season and came in to the tournament with only one loss. As my kids started to score you can see the frustration of the other coaches setting in and at the end they felt real lucky to escape with a win by just 3 points.



Despite my team being very young I was amazed how they soaked in the instructions given to them by myself and my other coaches. I gave them a pep talk before the game and you could tell that they believed that they were champions and they played just like champions. I wish I could keep all of my kids together for next season but since our Parish keeps things very fair we go through a draft process and keep all the teams evenly matched. I was taught a lot by my kids yesterday. They showed me that competition can and should always be fun. When it's all over the most important thing is that we had the opportunity to play and we gave it our all. The best gift that I got from my team was that I saw them learn and improve throughout the season. That is how I know I did my job.



I highly recommend the Burbank Parochial League to anyone in the Burbank area. It's fun, competitive, and filled with great coaches that truly care about the development of every child involved. There are four churches involved in the Burbank Parochial League, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Francis Xavier, St. Patrick of North Hollywood, and St. Finbar. For more information check out the website http://www.bplbaseball.com/. I hope to see some of you at sign ups in October. Also championship Sunday is next week. Check out the schedule to see what division your child would play in and check out the championship game next week.

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