Investing in Real Estate on Ebay?

Just let go & Buy it now!

A story about a seventeen year old young adult who had a vision, some summer money, and the ambition to press 'Buy It Now' on Ebay...

Written by Matthew Berger

The minute I pressed 'Buy it now,' I jumped up and down and was shouting out, "I own real estate!" (I had not paid for this property yet.) I quickly shut my mouth and sat back in my chair thinking, "I am going to be in so much trouble."  I did all my research on google earth, and read dozens of article about the town that I was now a citizen of (doing this after the fact is not something I recommend). Boy was I scared at this point!

I waited for my mother to come home. When she got home, I explained to her that I would be purchasing a piece of land in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. "No," she said. So I thought to myself, what the heck am I going to do to convince her I should buy this half acre parcel of land, since I had already agreed to buy it. So I described the property to her.

Location: Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania

Parcel size: 1/2 acre

Taxes: $300

'Great job.' 'Good find.' These are some things she said to me. But I knew she was not sold. YET. At this point, I was so desperate to convince her that I should be able to purchase this property (since I already had), that I pulled out my handy dandy tool, my 'Landscape salesman' personality. This tool is extremely powerful, because its how I can express my inner energy the best, and also enables me to give a great sales pitch, I must say. So I used it to my advantage, and bam, I was in business. 

The next day, I found myself in a car driving to rural Pennsylvania. When entering the address into my GPS, I found that this property is ONLY two hours from New York City. I was in shock, I couldn't believe that for a summers pay, I bought a property that was so close to New York City (You can see the lack of research I put into buying this property). As I approached the property, I realized how close it was to the lake. I knew it was near a lake, but I did not realize it was basically on a lake (again showing how little research I did). So I'm standing on my street in the Poconos, thinking to myself ' those are thirty thousand dollar boats sitting at the docks. Furthermore, those are quarter of a million to half million dollar homes sitting lakefront. There's no way I just grabbed this half acre lot right next to these homes for a summers pay!" Well, I did. 

So I picked up the phone, "Mom, the property is awesome. There are a ton of large homes around, its a safe, beautiful area, but the people are different." "How so?" She said. "Well, lets just say, they all drive pickup trucks and have weird accents," I said. She laughed and said, "I don't want you to be like that, so please come home."

She Was SOLD

So I went back home, called up the owner of the property. That night, we put a small down payment for the property ( I had won the auction, but had not yet paid). So I nervously waited a few weeks for the deed of the property to arrive. (This process was extremely sketchy and nerve wrecking as you could probably imagine. I made a smooth sales pitch to my mother, so to her, it seemed much more legitimate than it really was, though it was legitimate in the end). So we received the deed, it had my name on it and everything, Thank God! We had a lawyer look it over. We signed a few papers and bam, I was the owner of the property. I paid the remaining balance, which was minimal via PayPal (who pays for real estate transactions on PayPal? I do...).

Four Years Later

Recently, we received a letter in the mail from the town asking if we would like a hookup built on my parcel of land for the brand new sewage system and town water. This is phenomenal news and it means that the value of my property will likely rise in the near future. They start construction this year, and should be done by mid 2013. The whole county will now have sewage, rather than having to depend on a septic tank (which can cost the homeowner upwards of seven thousand dollars). Plus a well, which is about the same price. The savings are huge, but even more so, the value of the property will rise incredibly. The property is currently assessed at $19,900. After speaking with a real estate agent she was certain that after the sewage and town water are hooked up, the value should rise to around $34,500. I paid just under $2,000. As an irresponsible seventeen year old surfing the web, I would say that was a pretty bold 'click of the mouse' on my part. I certainly lucked out on my find. I probably would not recommend following my path, but I thought I would point out that it certainly is possible to purchase real estate on Ebay! 

Happy Bidding!

The Re-Generative Generation, Not The Sustainable Generation

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a generation re-generating life.

Growing up in a quite urban area, approximately 45 minutes from Manhattan, I have met a lot of really interesting people. When I say really interesting, I mean anywhere from an urban ‘starbucker’ to a west coast rancher. From a horticulturist to an aspiring entrepreneur. Who did I like most? Well, I would say I liked the aspiring entrepreneur the most, and the horticulturist the least. But on a different scale, rather than like and hate. A  scale which ranges from the most intriguing, open to change down to someone who  always complains because the earth is not a lush native forest. Notice that both want change… also notice that I picked these two as examples to focus on. Why- because I liked both of these people the most out of my list, though one was always complaining (horticulturist), they are still trying to change the world.

Where am I going with this?

The urban ‘starbucker’ is open to change, normally a democrat, and usually drives a prius, or takes the train wherever they go. All good things, nothing wrong with any of these qualities.

The West Coast Rancher, in my creative little mind, always thought of someone who was old fashioned, certainly not open to change, and also someone who wakes up every morning at 5:30 A.M. to hop on the horse and start farm work for the day. This one west coast rancher in particular, whom I happened to meet while in New Zealand was quite different from that stereotype I had stuck in my head. Her name was Traci and she was open to change. I was a part of that change, and really appreciated her willingness to see the rest of the world, not just her ranch. She told me that quite a bit of my stereotyping was on the money, but she was different then her family. She inspired me… there’s some magic that comes with seeing a rancher who wants

 to see the rest of the world. It makes you realize that you can enjoy both worlds, a relatively conservative lifestyle, stagnant on a farm for most of your life, but then if you want some change, you can get up and leave.

Of course we cannot all afford to become urban ‘starbuckers’ nor can we all capture the lifestyle of a west coast rancher… but what we can learn, is how to pull some qualities from all these people… a slice of ‘green’ from the urban ‘starbucker’, some relaxed, low maintenance (luxury wise) excitement from the west coast rancher, thinking big from the entrepreneur and caring about preserving our forests and bio diversity on earth from the horticulturist.

With the development of this recipe come’s some hard work, motivation and most importantly, commitment. Often, people will become vegetarians… for six months. Go on a diet… for eight months. Go on a budget… for two weeks or cut down on luxuries… for maybe a month at most.

This lifestyle recipe I am putting forth is necessary if we want to be on our way to not sustaining (sustainability) what we have- because its on the down slope, but rather re-generating what we used to have. We need to live our lives not only healing ourselves, but the environment and eco-system around us. We need to re-build and re-habilitate what we have, not start from scratch… it is simply too late for that.

Does this remind you of yourself?

You save up a bunch of money, and then when something great comes along, you start spending all your savings. Yes?

Your not alone

In fact, many end up spending most if not all of their childhood savings between the ages of 18 and 22.

I am guilty. It's okay though... as long as you have a backup plan.

For instance, I am travelling at the moment... well studying and travelling. I am studying at Lincoln University in Canterbury, New Zealand. If I stay on campus, I barely spend any money... but as soon as I get off campus and start sightseeing, my money starts to disappear.

Before coming to New Zealand, I allocated a bank account which would (hopefully) be enough to last me the four months that I was studying for in New Zealand. No, I am not rich... I have just been organizing my money into different categories for many years. I'm twenty years old... I don't have a ton of money, but if you start early, it's amazing how much money you can save... especially if you save for a GOAL. When you save with a goal in mind, you end up focusing more on saving (in order to achieve that goal) rather than just to see numbers rise in an account that says savings account... instead, I recommend having the bank label it based on the goal you have.

I also recommend opening up bank accounts with different banks. So when you are saving for your travel budget, you go to TD Ameritrade. When you are saving for Retirement (start now!) you go to Chase. When you are saving for a car, go to Wells Fargo. This way, you have an image in your mind of which bank is for which purpose. At your age, you may want to constantly go to Wells Fargo when you gather a few extra bucks. Once in a while you may visit TD Ameritrade because it's fun to travel. But rarely, or even never will you visit Chase. Visit Chase... ask an adult!

The one's that tell you to not worry about it most likely do not have enough money to retire... and therefore, it is up to you whether you want to listen or not. But wouldn't it be great to start early, and retire early... as early as 35-40 even! I've seen it happen... these people didn't make a million dollars a year, they just started saving early... seriously. Knowing that you don't need to work would be the best feeling in the world... even better if you continued working because you can finally enjoy what you do, and not have to worry about paying the bills... bills are so stressfull! Stress kills, therefore avoid all of that by 
S  T  A  R  T  I  N  G    N  O  W. 

Your backup plan requires that you visit TD Ameritrade, Wells Fargo and Chase evenly. If you keep them close to equal... then when it comes time to travel, and if you don't have enough in that account, you can evenly distribute withdrawals from Wells Fargo and Chase (depends). If you have it all in one, you are more likely to spend it all. If you have multiple accounts, it will 'feel bad' to go broke in all your accounts, so it will force you to spend wisely... trust me, this 'secret' works!

Plus, when you return from your travels, like myself, you will come home to two accounts which have some dough in them ($10 in the Wells Fargo and $20 in the Chase. Seriously, try this out, it really works! Remember, I'm not getting paid for this... I'm doing this on my own time to help YOU out.)

MB

Top Financial Moves To Focus On In Your 20's

BE RICH.

START NOW

I know you want your smart phones, Ipads, Ipods, Laptops and the latest edition of everything... or maybe you don't...

You only live once, and your only young once... I know!

You don't have to give anything up... you can still live your younger years having fun, and possibly not working your life away... since we have the rest of our lives to work, right?

BUT

Do not forget that one day, you will be saying, I should have started saving when I was younger... so why not just start now? Just do it... take your risks when your young, risk not going to a party, saving $20 and throw it into your Roth IRA. (What's this... go to your local bank and they will be more than happy to tell you all about it... seriously, they will be extremely happy that your making the best decision of your life!) You'll get bored if I explain it here. But before you go, grab a job and start making some money, you'll need a job if you want to open a Roth IRA.

Do you think it's too risky to get a job during school? Do you not really need a job... well even if you don't need the money, grab a job, not only will you be helping out your future, but you may even see your grades rise! Studies show that often, students with part-time jobs perform better in school than those who don't... this is becasue of the communication skills you gain. (Of course this is not always true, for me it is though).



Follow These Three Steps:
(Remember, I'm doing this extra work, on top of school work, for a reason! Trust me. )

1) Plan

To get where you need to be in life, it's best if you have goals. With your goals, comes a plan. If you intend to meet your goals without a plan, you can compare it to driving a car without a steering wheel.

What do you want in your future? (Write it down, and read it over 5 times)

Try short term first (3-5 years)... medium (5-15 years) and then long (20 plus years)

Dont be afraid to budget.

2) Live within your budget

If you find yourself saying, I really cannot afford it, but I only live once... just let it go. Of course this depends on the situation and whether we are talking about an Ipod or a college Text Book. Go for the Text Book.

If you live within your means (and enforce it), you will find that over the next several years, that you have saved up/saved thousands of dollars.

You've got enough stress within your life, and not to mention school. Do the hard work now, save, and when you are older, you can live your life without an added financial stress.

3) Make your budgeting and saving a permanent habit... that doesn't mean you have to be 'cheap'

Always have at least $500 in your bank... nope, no arguing (except for certain situations), it's mandatory, and certainly not impossible (for the most part).

Try and eventually have at least three months of 'emergency' cash in your bank.

Once you've got the emergency funds situation dealt with, you can start dividing you monthly savings to go towards some other goals (vacations, first home, new car). The amount of savings depends on your salary. I would say three quarters of your salary going to savings would be fantastic... though this is almost impossible at points... when your in your lower 20's, this should not be a major problem.


In the next blog post, I will discuss Investing and paying down debt. But for now, focus on these three major issues.