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Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
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Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
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Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Free WebApp Alternatives to Expensive Software
Here are some free web based alternatives to common, expensive, software such as Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Camtasia, Illustrator, Acrobat, etc. These web based applications do not require you to pay anything or download anything. You can upload, edit, and save documents from directly within your browser.  Microsoft Office – Google Docs Microsoft PowerPoint – Preezo Adobe Photoshop – Splashup Adobe Illustrator – Aviary Adobe Flash – Ajax Animator Instant Messenger Clients – Meebo Camtasia – ScreenToaster Windows Movie Maker – Jaycut Quicken – Mint Fax Software – FaxZero Adobe Acrobat – PDF Escape  Special thanks to the suggestions by MikeTheDJ4 found here and here.Free WebApp Alternatives to Expensive Software
Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
Monday, November 22, 2010
Home Sales and the Post-2012 Medicare Contribution Tax - Spread Gain of Residential Sale Over 2+ Years
Article Link: Here Home Sales and the Post-2012 Medicare Contribution Tax
by Ken WeissenbergA recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report tries to reduce fears that the 3.8% Medicare contributions tax on unearned income (added by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) effective for tax years beginning in 2013, is a “real estate” or “home sales” tax. As noted below, part or all of the gain on the sale of a residence will be subject to this new tax, along with many other items of passive income.The Medicare contribution tax is a 3.8% additional tax that is imposed on individuals, estates and trusts on the lesser of (i) unearned income and (ii) Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) in excess of a threshold amount. The threshold amount for married individuals filing jointly is $250,000 ($125,000 if filing separately) and $200,000 for all others.The CRS report stresses that the tax is not limited exclusively to real estate transactions and does not apply to the portion of gain which is excluded from tax under Internal Revenue Code section 121. Currently, under code sec 121, when a taxpayer sells his or her principal residence, there is an exclusion from taxable income of up to $250,000 of the capital gain if single or $500,000 if married filing jointly. Certain ownership and use tests must be satisfied to qualify for the exclusion. Gains in excess of the section 121 exclusion will be treated as capital gain for regular tax purposes and investment income for purposes of the 3.8% Medicare tax. However, given the exclusion amount only a limited number of taxpayers would be affected, especially since many home owners have experienced a decline in the value of their homes in recent years. It should be noted that gains on the sale of second homes (i.e., those which are not a principal residence) will not be eligible for the exclusion and may very well be subject to the 3.8% Medicare tax, in addition to the regular income tax.If you are planning on selling a primary residence with a significant gain in excess of the $250,000/500,000 or a second residence, it may be a better idea to sell before the end of 2012 to avoid this additional 3.8% tax. For sales after 2012, installment sales reporting may be helpful to spread the recognition of gain into more than one year. An installment sale would also spread the regular capital gains tax over more than one year, but you are also delaying the receipt of the cash. An unknown is what would happen if you made an installment sale of a home in 2012 with some of the proceeds payable in 2012. Would the portion of the gain reportable in 2013 for regular tax purposes be subject to the 3.8% Medicare tax?Finally, for regular tax purposes a loss on the sale of a personal residence is not deductible. Will the same rule apply to the 3.8 % Medicare tax or can that loss be used to reduce the tax on other investment income?
Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
Monday, October 25, 2010
Excerpt from The 100/0 Principle, by Al Ritter
Excerpt from The 100/0 Principle, by Al Ritter
What is the most effective way to create and sustain great relationships with others? It’s The 100/0 Principle: You take full responsibility (the 100) for the relationship, expecting nothing (the 0) in return.
Implementing The 100/0 Principle is not natural for most of us. It takes real commitment to the relationship and a good dose of self-discipline to think, act and give 100 percent.
The 100/0 Principle applies to those people in your life where the relationships are too important to react automatically or judgmentally. Each of us must determine the relationships to which this principle should apply. For most of us, it applies to work associates, customers, suppliers, family and friends.
STEP 1 – Determine what you can do to make the relationship work…then do it. Demonstrate respect and kindness to the other person, whether he/she deserves it or not.
STEP 2 – Do not expect anything in return. Zero, zip, nada.
STEP 3 – Do not allow anything the other person says or does (no matter how annoying!) to affect you. In other words, don’t take the bait.
STEP 4 – Be persistent with your graciousness and kindness. Often we give up too soon, especially when others don’t respond in kind. Remember to expect nothing in return.
At times (usually few), the relationship can remain challenging, even toxic, despite your 100 percent commitment and self-discipline. When this occurs, you need to avoid being the “Knower” and shift to being the “Learner.” Avoid Knower statements/ thoughts like “that won’t work,” “I’m right, you are wrong,” “I know it and you don’t,” “I’ll teach you,” “that’s just the way it is,” “I need to tell you what I know,” etc.
Instead use Learner statements/thoughts like “Let me find out what is going on and try to understand the situation,” “I could be wrong,” “I wonder if there is anything of value here,” “I wonder if…” etc. In other words, as a Learner, be curious!
Principle Paradox
This may strike you as strange, but here’s the paradox: When you take authentic responsibility for a relationship, more often than not the other person quickly chooses to take responsibility as well. Consequently, the 100/0 relationship quickly transforms into something approaching 100/100. When that occurs, true breakthroughs happen for the individuals involved, their teams, their organizations and their families.
via business400.com
This is not easy, but if you want something badly enough, you can serve and wait for results.
Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
Stock Market Advice & Picks, Penny, Small Cap, Micro Investments - Profit Confidential
The Latest Punch to the Gut: Foreclosures Fraud
Many Americans facing foreclosures on their homes are starting to believe they may not have to leave their homes, because questions have arisen as of late about lenders and whether they have followed all the foreclosure rules. If they have not, then seizures may be halted until the regulators get to the bottom of it all. But is it really a relief, is it simply postponing the inevitable, or are these foreclosure irregularities perhaps going deeper and threatening the overall recovery?
Attorneys general in as many as 40 states so far have started investigations into home foreclosure procedures and many lenders seem to have been caught in the net of providing foreclosure documents that have not been properly validated. Executives appear to have signed hundreds of thousands of documents without actually checking any loan records or having even the basic knowledge about who owns specific mortgages.
The defense of some of the lenders is that, while there may have been some procedural errors, the underlying transactions have not been fraudulent. This is hard to believe; if the lenders are not familiar with the details of specific loans, how can they be sure such loans are not fraudulent? In the meantime, the pressure is mounting. As foreclosure levels have reached record highs in the U.S., the U.S. government has had to say something, pressuring the lenders to reduce their eviction rates. But lenders, many of them having benefited from the billions of dollars in bailout money, are quite adamant on getting their loans back, one way or another.
Regardless, suspicions are mounting that lenders facing an exorbitant number of foreclosures have taken one shortcut too many trying to collect as much money as they could before the lending market truly imploded. According to RealtyTrac, just in August, lenders have taken possession of 95,364 California homes and served eviction notices on 338,836 more.
The problem is if these deficiencies are as widespread as 40 attorneys general think they are, hundreds of thousands of foreclosures could be tied up in courts for years, including the evictions already executed as well. If that happens — and it seems right now that the problem might be turning into an avalanche — economic recovery in the U.S. could be further delayed. There is simply no way getting the economy to start moving again without resolving foreclosure issues first.
The foreclosures fraud highlights another problem — the “shadow inventory.” If the homes now in default flood the market, which is a distinct possibility, real estate prices could be further depressed. If potential buyers, who are already scarce, believe that prices have not yet hit rock bottom, the will keep on waiting to get into the market and the U.S. real estate market will continue being nothing more than barren wasteland.
As for the resale homes turnover rate, the data point to an even more dismal picture. Data collected from 23 states where faulty foreclosures are now flooding the courts indicates that the average time between borrowers defaulting on their loan payments and sales of their homes has widened to 25 months in August of this year from 18 months reported in August 2007, at the onset of the financial crisis that has led to the crash of 2008.
The widening of the turnaround time is not only having an adverse impact on resale prices, but it may also serve as a signal to other stressed borrowers that it may be okay to stop paying, because their cases could also end up in courts for years. Considering the number of foreclosures, lenders are very likely to deal with the worst-case scenarios first and leave delinquent homeowners of less valuable properties in their homes longer.
Even when defaulting borrowers are trying to find a resolution and renegotiate their loans, they are hitting six-foot-tall brick walls. In far too many cases, no one can tell them who owns their mortgages, let alone how to go about refinancing them.
Posted via email from Brian Gibbons REISkills.com's posterous
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