Watch This Video!!

I.O.U.S.A. is a full-length documentary that details the four main deficits we have in the United States: trade, budget, savings, leadership. I can honestly say that when I first watched this movie, it scared the wits out of me; mostly because it left me wondering HOW IN THE WORLD ARE WE GOING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM? I am glad to say that the people who released the documentary have kept up with the times and have since released this shorter video detailing the HOW'S for fixing our deficit issues.

This shorter video, titled Solutions, was made in 2010, 2 years after the initial movie that was released in 2008. As we all know MANY things have changed since then. PLEASE WATCH!!! And pass this on to others you know. If you would like to know more please visit the official website http://www.iousathemovie.com/.

Who Is Profiting From This Downturn?

Corporations across America have recently been reporting near-record high profits. If that is so, why are people continually losing jobs? It's simple really. These high profit margins have not come from increased sales, but from increased cuts. That's right. Companies are making a killing from simply decreasing they're expenses, many of which are job and salary cuts. Makes sense, right? So, even though we still have the highest unemployment rates in recent history, and people are still losing jobs left and right, companies are getting richer.

Is this good? Is this bad? You be the judge. If companies retained employee's then the unemployment wouldn't be as bad, and the recession would come to a quicker close. However, if they keep these jobs they would not make as much money which could lead to more job losses...possibly...or the wealthy in charge of those corporations will continue to get wealthier while the middle class continues to dwindle.

I'm not an economist, but it's nice to know what's really happening in our economy when many "experts" are reporting that the recession is gone and companies are making record profits. Yes people, the recession is still here, and will likely be around for a while.

If you'd like to read the article I based this on follow the link :)

For My Friends

Since I have many friends and family in Utah I thought I should share this article by Forbes.com. Many economists have been touting the end of falling real estate prices, but according to some new research there are still many areas of the US that will see falling home prices in the next year. Forbes put together the top 10 cities with falling prices with Utah having two cities on that list.

1. Atlantic City, NJ.

Overpriced 54%

12 month drop -9%

2. Provo/Orem, UT

Overpriced 44%

12 month drop -12%

3. Portland, OR/ Vancouver/WA

Overpriced 31%

12 month drop -9%

4. Glens Falls, NY

Overpriced 22%

12 month drop -11%

5. Bellingham, WA

Overpriced 22%

12 month drop -9%

6. Flagstaff, AZ

Overpriced 21%

12 month drop -13%

7. Salt Lake City, UT

Overpriced 21%

12 month drop -10%

8. Charleston, SC

Overpriced 21%

12 month drop -9%

9. Eugene/Springfield, OR

Overpriced 21%

12 month drop -8%

10. Salisbury, MD

Overpriced 21%

12 month drop -8%

To see what is causing these price drops and why each of these metros was chosen check out these Forbes and MSN articles.

The Test

I am very excited!! I've been in Omaha for 3 weeks now, have my furniture, got a car, spent some time with my husband, and finally got to work. Now all this real estate talk of mine is going to be put to the test. I'll admit that until now, I haven't done much in Omaha. With all the packing, finding a place to live, unpacking, furnishing an apartment, finding a car, and everything else involved with a trans-pacific move I haven't had much of a mind or the energy to do much in the last month, besides drive around neighborhoods getting to know the different areas and taking all the flyers from homes for sale to check prices, etc. Today, the test finally began and I got to work.

Today my husband and I got a Nebraska number for the business. What's cool about it is that not only did we get to personalize it, but it's free, rings to my cell phone, and sends transcipts of all voicemails to my email. Where did I get such an awesome number? Google, of course. In case you haven't heard of it, which I didn't until 2 days ago, Google has another cool product calledGoogle Voice. Apparently it's been around for about a year and is only by invitation only. In order to speed up the invitation process for us (which can take hours, days, or weeks according to some people) we had a current Google Voice user send us an invite which allowed us to set up our new number immediately. Now Kenny Investing, also known as Kenny Buys can be reached at 402-957-BUYS.

What else did we get done today? I updated our website (which is still under progress) for several hours. Now the home page and question section is current enough to do it's job. I'd love feedback from anyone willing to give it. Keep in mind that I haven't updated the About Us or Contact Us sections (will hopefully get to that tomorrow), and am going to add a couple more pages. Head over to www.kennybuys.com to see what I've been up to.

Also on the slate was to acquire a P.O. Box. Check!! AND design and order car magnets and bandit signs. Check!!! All thanks to my wonderful husband.

I am so excited to really get started. We still have a lot to do, but hopefully within a week we'll have our first target area canvased with bandit signs, have ads in local papers and websites, and start getting all sorts of leads for the business. Wish Us Luck!!!

When Rent Lowers, So Does Your Income!

I recently read an article from MSN that had me a little worried at first. The article talked about the top 10 US cities with declining rents. As a future landlord that scared me because one thing that every landlord knows is that when your rents lower, so does your income!

1. Seattle, Washington: Average rent/mo = $1,023. Rent decreased last year a total of 13.85% with vacancy rates jumping from 5-6.4%. One of the main causes for this huge decrease was due to increased unemployment that went from 6-9% in one year. That's a whopping 133,300 people that lost their jobs!


2. Reno, Nevada: Average rent/mo =$753. Rent decreased 13% last year since one-fourth of gaming revenues were lost and unemployment rose from 8.8-12.7%.


3. Las Vegas, Nevada= Average rent/mo=$766. Rent decreased 12.4% in the last year. It's no wonder since unemployment went from 8.7% a year ago to 13.1% in December. Vacancy rates are at a HUGE 9.9% and foreclosures are at 12.04%; the largest level for all US cities.


4. Tacoma, Washington: Average rent/mo= $840. Monthly rents decreased 12.3% in all. The major contributing factor for this was again, unemployment which went from 7.1-9.5% in one year.


5. San Jose, California: Average rent/mo= $1,590. Annual drop in rents was 12.3%. What's interesting is that unemployment which went from 7.8% in 2008 to the current 11.5% only increased the vacancy rates in the apartment market to 5.3%, however the office space vacancy rate is now almost 25%! Looks like silicon valley and its 11.5% (103,300 people) are looking for work elsewhere.


6. Phoenix, Arizona: Average rent/mo= $667. Rent decreased 11.2% with a vacancy rate for apartments reaching 11.3%! What are landlords doing to battle those numbers? Giving tenants all sorts of concessions for staying with them or getting new tenants to move in.


7. Salinas, California: Average rent/mo= $1,044. Last years drop in rent was 11.1%, but vacancy rates are not bad at 5.3%. Since this is an agricultural area unemployment is usually around 10% in the winter. This year's winter, however, was drastically higher at 16.7%.


8. Salt Lake City, Utah: Average rent/mo= $727. Rent dropped 10.3% last year. Unemployment isn't nearly as bad as other metros at only 6.2%, but that's a far cry higher than it was in 2008 at 3.8%. Vacancy rates jumped higher than the unemployment did when it went from 2.9% in 2007 to 7.6% last year.


9. Oakland, California: Average rent/mo $1,356. Decreased rents were 9.7% last year. Vacancy rates are still decent at only 5.3%, but unemployment is at 10.9% compared to a year ago when it was 7.7%. Also, retail sales dropped 27.8% in this recession while other cities were only around an 8% decline in sales.


10. Palm Bay, Florida: Average rent/mo= $611. Rents decreased last year a total of 9.5% as did employment which hit 12.1% (triple what it was in 2007). The vacancy rate is the highest in the 88 metros surveyed for this article at 14.4%.

I didn't share this to alarm anyone interested in becoming a landlord. If you set up your investments properly you can shelter yourself from times such as these and maybe even come out ahead. Plus!!! There is good news. According to Marcus and Millichap (a large real estate research firm) there should be "strong rent growth in 2011" due to the large size of the echo-boom generation and the decrease in construction. Not to mention the many people displaced from foreclosures, short sales, or the need to downsize.

Things may look a little scary at times, but there are many opportunities out there; especially in these seemingly scary times.

MSN Article

Marcus & Millichap 2010 Apartment report

The Importance of Setting Up Your Business RIGHT!

Want to know just how destructive setting up the wrong entity for your business can be? After getting sued by a business partner Terry Hoskins of Ohio didn't just face sale and foreclosure of his business, but of his house too! He only owed $160,000 of the total $350,000 the house was worth AND NEVER MISSED A PAYMENT!! So, instead of letting the bank take his home from him, he bulldozed it to the ground.

"I'll tear it down before I let you take it....I plan on giving back what was on
this hill exactly (as) it was....I brought it out of the ground and I plan on
putting it back in the ground."

If Mr. Hoskins had instead correctly set up all his businesses so that his personal assets (his home) were protected this never would have happened. Sure, he would have lost his businesses, but at least his home would have been safe.

From the looks of it Hoskins owed money to the government and to his brother after the lawsuit. It was his businesses, not his home that owed the money. One thing that I have learned a lot about in the last couple of months is that you need to set up each of your businesses properly in order to prevent exactly this kind of situation. How exactly do you do that? Get a good lawyer to help you. It's as easy as that.

What do you think? Was the bank justified in going after his home?

MSN Article

News 5 Article

Watch this short video for more of what happened.

Buffet's Tips to New Investors

One of the things I really like about signing out of my hotmail account is going to the MSN homepage and taking a look at the top stories. Every once in a while I happen upon something that catches my interest, now-a-days it's usually something about real estate or investing.

In this article by Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal Buffett gives new investors 6 great tips. Below are a few highlights of those tips.

1. Stay liquid. "We will never become dependent on the kindess of strangers," he wrote. "We will always arrange our affairs so that any requirements for cash we may conceivable have will be dwarfed by our ouwn liquidity. Moreover, that liquidity will be constantly refreshed by a gusher of earning from our many and diverse businesses."


2. Buy when everyone else is selling. "We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. I's been an ideal period for investors: A climate of fear is their best friend...Big opportunities come infrequently. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble."


3. Don't buy when everyone else is buying. "Those who invest only when commentators are upbeat end up paying a heavy price for meaningless reassurance," Buffett wrote. "The obvious corollary is to be patient. You can only buy when everyone else is selling if you have held your fire when everyone was buying."


4. Value, value, value. "In the end, what counts in investing is what you pay for a business -- throught the purchase of a small piece of it in the stock market -- and what that business earns in the succeeding decade or two."


5. Understand what you own. "Investors who buy and sell based upon media or analyst commentary are not for us, "Buffett wrote.


6. Defense beats offense. "Though we have lagged the S&P in some years that were positive for the market, we have consistently done better than the S&P in the 11 years during which it delivered negative results. In other words, our defense has been better than our offense, and that's likely to continue."

Click here to see the full article.

For the letter Buffett wrote to his shareholders that this article was written from, click here.