{"id":16784,"date":"2012-12-19T09:08:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T14:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=16784"},"modified":"2012-12-19T09:24:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T14:24:43","slug":"new-on-real-estate-agncs-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=16784","title":{"rendered":"New on real estate. AGNC’s surprise."},"content":{"rendered":"
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I feel confident they won’t drive off the fiscal cliff. That means I’ve nibbled at a few more equities. I’ll list some names tomorrow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

News from the real estate syndication front:<\/strong><\/span>
\nResidential is hot, but getting less so.<\/p>\n

Commercial is improving. But only selectively and only in certain places, e.g. New York City. Buy cheap. The price you pay determines how much profit you make when you sell later.<\/p>\n

Stocks have a national market. Everyone knows the price.You can see it on your PC.<\/p>\n

Real estate is local. You can pick up a bargain if you offer cash, move quickly and are patient — walk from 95% of the “deals.”<\/p>\n

Never fall in love with real estate. That’s real estate’s occupational hazard.<\/p>\n

Maybe you can pick something cheap up in the next couple of weeks? Maybe someone wants out before higher cap gains taxes kick in next year?<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

Flashlight not to buy.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe have lots of them. They give good light after you change the bulb to LED. They’re heavy. They feel good. BUT, their metal body causes batteries to leak, which expands the batteries and then they’re stuck. Which means you can’t get them out to replace them. Yesterday I sent three busted flashlights\u00a0 to the manufacturer MAG Instrument in Ontario, California. You think they’ll replace them?<\/p>\n

Only in New York. <\/strong>Actual email received this morning:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Harry
\nI believe you met my Rabbi, Rav Kalatsky in the train (subway) yesterday.
\nI am also an Australian living in NYC for a number of years.
\nI am running an interesting gold project in Nevada.. Would like to pitch it to you if you have any interest.
\nDavid Segelov<\/p>\n

Moral question.<\/strong><\/span>
\nEddie Bauer sent me a pair of pants I didn’t order and didn’t charge me for them. Should I send them back?<\/p>\n

I was tempted to send them back but they forgot to send me paperworkd and the on-hold time for an RMA was over
\nten minutes.<\/p>\n

The pants are size 12 women. Should I return them, give them to one of my fat friends or throw them out?<\/p>\n

How the U.S. benefits by globalization.<\/strong><\/span>
\nMy relatives live in Australia. In the last few years, they have discovered America. Like how cheap it is for clothes, shoes, cameras, computers, tennis and golf balls. They used to order online, have it delivered to our New York apartment and pick it up when they visit. Lately, they’ve discovered that there are online web sites that will actually take Australian credit cards and ship stuff there. What joy. Some places (like Amazon) now even have warehouses in Australia. Good idea. The Australians have money and speak a similar language.<\/p>\n

Favorite recent New Yorker cartoons.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Touching Christmas story – 2.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As George had a habit of giving his wife strange Christmas gifts, she was not surprised when he came one night carrying a tiny, branchless tree. Attached to a lone limb was a shotgun shell.<\/p>\n

“All right, George,” said his wife, truly stumped this time.<\/p>\n

“What is it?”<\/p>\n

“Why, honey.” George smiled, “it’s a cartridge in a bare tree.”<\/p>\n

Remember the story a couple of days ago about the husband meeting his wife in the bar next door to the jewelry store, which had the necklace she always wanted? The wives are getting the raw end this Christmas it seems.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nHarry Newton, who was somewhat surprised that AGNC maintained its $1.25 quarterly dividend. This means its dividend yield is 16%. Remember mortgage REITs, like AGNC, are best held in tax-free accounts like IRAs, since their dividends are taxed as ordinary income, not as dividends. Though who knows what will taxed at in the new year is anyone’s guess.<\/p>\n

Do not try and run any of Fidelity’s Active Trader Pro<\/em> software on a Windows 7 computer. Don’t even waste your time on Fidelity tech support. They seem to start with the assumption that the customer (i.e. Harry) is an idiot. which is only half-true.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel confident they won’t drive off the fiscal cliff. That means I’ve nibbled at a few more equities. I’ll list some names tomorrow.\u00a0 News from the real estate syndication front: Residential is hot, but getting less so. Commercial is improving. But only selectively and only in certain places, e.g. New York City. Buy cheap. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}