News:

To return to the forum homepage, please click the banner at the top of your browser.

Main Menu

Recent posts

#31
Real Estate Crowdfunding / Re: Thoughts On RealtyShares C...
Last post by John_PVF - August 05, 2021, 06:49:09 AM
Haven't seen much activity on here recently, but was curious if anyone had received any K-1s from Realtyshares for 2020 yet.  I've reached out to IIRM a few times, but the answer is always the same: they are with the administrator that processes them, and that there's nothing contractually they can do to force them to work faster and get them out to us.  This answer is unsatisfactory to me as they have taken longer and longer each year despite having more and more investments close.  The only deadline that seems to have any sticking is the Oct 2021 extended filing date, but I don't take much solace from that.  I could have filed in February were it not for this.  I just don't think they (IIRM or the administrator) are making this a priority and need a little more pressure to do so.  Thoughts?
#32
Well seems high compared to the $0 I pay at my broker.
#33
Automobiles / Broke the 10% car buying rule
Last post by inoffensiveusername1 - July 25, 2021, 11:16:00 AM
I broke the 10% rule for car buying, and realize that FS was right.

I make about 100k so according to the 10% income rule, I should have bought a ~10k car. I justified it mentally because including stock gains I made ~200k in 2020. This was of course dumb because 2020 was a great year for stocks (post-crash). I was saving up for a house and had cash on the sidelines in March which I piled into the market in April after the Fed announced their emergency measures. But not every year is a bull market.

I set sights on a Toyota Corolla. Stupidly I didn't settle for the basic L trim level and got an SE which pushed my costs up by several thousand. For some reason I wanted that extra 30 horsepower. I thought, what if I need that extra HP to maneuver on the highway? But, based on my driving needs I don't take the highway much anyways. I don't even need that HP to get through the city.

When I went to my credit union to pick up the check, they congratulated me and that boosted my ego. But in retrospect, of course they are happy, they're making money off of me. Always keep your ego in check. At least I got a decent rate, 1.79%.

With the virus situation, I tried to complete the purchase online, but the dealer's website glitched out and it wouldn't let me. So I had to go into the dealership to seal the deal. Then they tried to charge me more than the quote they gave me online so I had to haggle. Then they came back with a price lower than the online quote. Whatever.

So with a 3-year loan and no money down (and GAP insurance), my payments are about $660/month. I'm feeling the pain.

The silver lining is I got the car earlier this year, before car prices went crazy. I had gone on the car dealer subreddit and saw that car salesmen were literally crying because they couldn't sell any cars. I took that as a bottom signal. I predicted inflation would come from all the loose money policies. So there's that.

With the car bubble (which appears to be cooling off now), I could probably even have sold my car for more than I bought it for. Except I already scraped the car while parking it in the garage. I got quoted $1300 to fix the paint. At this point I'm just going to live with it.

I have to drive the car every two weeks just so the battery doesn't die. I don't have anywhere to go to, so lately I just loop around the neighborhood for 20 minutes. At least I'm getting practice driving.

#34
Taxes / Re: Tax Planning
Last post by Irish247 - July 08, 2021, 04:05:42 AM
I started using a CPA from my first years of making money. Granted it was the family CPA, but still a benefit. I have since found that doing taxes on my own on the side in draft format was the most effective for me to learn the best ways. I did this for the last 10-12 years. However, more recently, I've made some large financial moves and have come into some serious unicorn stocks and windfalls. As a result I'm starting to lean toward outside sourcing. Our family CPA has since retired, and I have elected not to use another, since I learned how to do it all effectively myself.

My friend who is in a similar boat, has just crossed the $24M net worth range, and he too is starting to outsource for the first time. He however works in numerous states, and has property holdings under various companies so it make sense from a time perspective to have someone else do it.

To answer your specific question though, I think it wall depends on how complicated your taxes are. W2 and small property holdings - do it yourself. Anything beyond that, it might be worth the second look.

#35
With the latest mortgage drops, I'm considering refinancing out of a 2.87 rate, and found some rates today in the 1.75-1.99 range. The companies are lesser known to me, but not sure that matters?

Has anyone worked with these smaller brokerages/loan companies: Interfirst, Sebonic, amerisave?  Seems like with these I can drop my monthly payment down and cut from 2.87 to 1.75 nearly a full point. They are saying zero points, and zero cost for the refinance (which I'm sure is baked in). These rates are on 15 and 30 year mortgages too. How is this possible? Too good to be true? The 15 and the 30 are giving better than the ARMs.

Considering my house increased roughly $200k in value, I'd almost consider a cash out refinance at these rates. why not do it?
#36
Real Estate Crowdfunding / Re: Thoughts On RealtyShares C...
Last post by rs_thoughts - July 03, 2021, 09:37:36 PM
3 years to get a 50% haircut on senior debt, despite the underlying still working and paying income?? And now you need to take admin fee off that? A round of applause for the managers. And then they send some marketing material to buy into some of their investments? SMH...
#37
Real Estate Crowdfunding / Re: Thoughts On RealtyShares C...
Last post by Dgilpin - July 02, 2021, 10:42:57 AM
Anyone else get updates about the West Islip Family care deal in the Franchise Growth portfolio today?  To update those not involved, there is a buyer for the whole portfolio, that will be done in seperate deals.  one of my investments West islip Family care will be one of the first to close.  I just got the email today stating what the closing price will be.  Lets just say I am shocked by the heavy discount they are accepting and the hit I will be taking on this investment.  I can only assume my other investment in the Detroit Doghaus property will be even worse, despite the fact that they already failed to close a deal at a small loss to investors over a year ago.  Does anyone know how the suits against  IRRM are progressing?  I plan to reach out to legal counsel about this and would like to potentially organize with others here.
#38
Real Estate Crowdfunding / Re: Thoughts On RealtyShares C...
Last post by dwengca - June 11, 2021, 01:47:39 PM
I agree!  I got $20k on this one, and probably all gone now.   I really think there might have been some sort of fraud going on here...   how did they go from 6.6 million to end up costing 10.5 million? 

The sad part I think here is that IRM will probably just let it go. 


Quote from: cgblack on June 11, 2021, 12:46:07 PM
A disappointing update on 1 Sand and Sea:
=====
IRM currently classifies this investment as a Tier 3 asset. Distributions from this
investment have not been distributed in accordance with the original business plan.
Since the last update, the house did sell. It was previously mentioned the closing was
delayed primarily due to the actions of one of the Managing Members (MM). The MM
who was trying to cause the delay demanded he get back his equity investment before
he would consent to the sale of the house. The active MM who completed the house
said the other MM decided not to contest the sale.
The house sold for $9,000,000 and after $450,000 of real estate commissions and
approximately $190,000 of other selling costs, the net sale price was $8,360,000. The
MM reported that the total acquisition, construction and financing cost was $10,528,196,
so the loss was $2,168,196.
The MM who has been involved in completing the house is a CPA. We have requested
much more detail than just a summary of the expenses. We will continue to work on
obtaining the detailed information to determine if the expenses were legitimate and
there was an actual loss. We are also taking steps to determine if there is any recourse
against the MMs for the apparent loss on this investment.
======

This is outrageous.  Here is the original listing for this investment:
======
The total investment, including purchase price, hard and soft costs, and closing costs is approximately $5,572,642. The senior debt will contribute approximately 47.5% of project costs, while RealtyShares investors will contribute approximately 35.9%, leaving the sponsor with a 16.5% contribution to total project cost. The estimated sales price upon completion is $6,600,000, or $3,185/sf (1). However, in order for the Sponsor to return the investors' equity, preferred return, and annualized exit fee upon sale, the sales price need only be $5,112,903, or $2,468/sf.
======

Suddenly a net sales price of $8,360,000 comes out as a loss.  Something stinks about this one!
#39
Real Estate Crowdfunding / Re: Thoughts On RealtyShares C...
Last post by cgblack - June 11, 2021, 12:46:07 PM
A disappointing update on 1 Sand and Sea:
=====
IRM currently classifies this investment as a Tier 3 asset. Distributions from this
investment have not been distributed in accordance with the original business plan.
Since the last update, the house did sell. It was previously mentioned the closing was
delayed primarily due to the actions of one of the Managing Members (MM). The MM
who was trying to cause the delay demanded he get back his equity investment before
he would consent to the sale of the house. The active MM who completed the house
said the other MM decided not to contest the sale.
The house sold for $9,000,000 and after $450,000 of real estate commissions and
approximately $190,000 of other selling costs, the net sale price was $8,360,000. The
MM reported that the total acquisition, construction and financing cost was $10,528,196,
so the loss was $2,168,196.
The MM who has been involved in completing the house is a CPA. We have requested
much more detail than just a summary of the expenses. We will continue to work on
obtaining the detailed information to determine if the expenses were legitimate and
there was an actual loss. We are also taking steps to determine if there is any recourse
against the MMs for the apparent loss on this investment.
======

This is outrageous.  Here is the original listing for this investment:
======
The total investment, including purchase price, hard and soft costs, and closing costs is approximately $5,572,642. The senior debt will contribute approximately 47.5% of project costs, while RealtyShares investors will contribute approximately 35.9%, leaving the sponsor with a 16.5% contribution to total project cost. The estimated sales price upon completion is $6,600,000, or $3,185/sf (1). However, in order for the Sponsor to return the investors' equity, preferred return, and annualized exit fee upon sale, the sales price need only be $5,112,903, or $2,468/sf.
======

Suddenly a net sales price of $8,360,000 comes out as a loss.  Something stinks about this one!

#40
Abbreviated from Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDCs are digital or electronic representations of national fiat currencies. Leveraging distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain, CBDCs enable central banks to increase payment efficiency while drastically lowering transaction costs.

Although similar to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ether, CBDCs have substantial distinctions. While the former is mostly unregulated, CBDCs function under the governance of a nation's central financial authority. Furthermore, CBDCs are mostly stablecoins, backed by physical assets of value, such as gold or other foreign currencies; this eliminates the volatility crisis facing ordinary cryptocurrencies.

Combining these factors, then, CBDCs are more secured, efficient, transparent, and cost-minimized versions of money deposited in your bank account. In 2020, China's central bank began an experiment with digital yuan in Suzhou, Chengdu, and Xiong'an. According to its governor, Li Bo, the 'testing had shown that the issuance and distribution mechanism of the digital yuan, or e-CNY, are compatible with the existing financial system, and help minimize the impact on the banking sector.'

Following suit, the Reserve Bank of India has also expressed plans to explore CBDCs; so have Bank of England, Bank of Canada, and the central banks of Uruguay, Thailand, Venezuela, Sweden, and Singapore, among others. Against this backdrop, let us discuss how central banks can build robust CBDCs over the XinFin Digital Contract (XDC) network.

Creating CBDCs with XinFin XDC Network

Having discussed the overall benefits of using blockchains for CBDCs, and especially why central banks might prefer using XinFin, let us now look at the creation process. As such, based on the asset backing them, CBDCs can be of four broad types: fiat-collateralized, crypto-collateralized, commodity-collateralized, and non-collateralized.

While collateralized CBDCs usually have a 1:1 backing, non-collateralized ones leverage Seigniorage Shares Systems. But for each of these types, the process of creating CBDCs on XinFin is mostly similar and extremely easy. It only takes a few minutes, and the steps are as follows:

Step 1: Visit the MyContract website, to start creating your stablecoin, either on the XinFin Mainnet or the XinFin Apothem Network.

Step 2: Log in to the portal, either with XinPay or your private key.

Step 3: Enter the details of your stablecoin, such as name, symbol, supply, and so on.

Step 4: Review the details carefully; mistakes can lead to loss of funds and also credibility among potential users.

Step 5: Click on the 'Issue Token' button, and voila, your CBDC is ready for use; confirm the issuance using XinFinScan.

Read original article: https://www.thecryptoupdates.com/how-to-create-central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc-over-xinfin-xdc-network/