Ilyce Glink Show Notes - October 11, 2009

Great real estate advice and personal finance advice on this week’s show. But first, this week’s news.

This week’s news:

I spent a lot of time this week explaining why I think that the official unemployment figures are understating the problem. I also talked about why I just don’t understand the GDP figures and how they’re now calculated. Karen called in. Here’s what she had to say:

“I think there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on with the unemployment numbers that our government is giving us. Not sure about with GDP. If they’re calculating unemployment and making better than it is, then they’re probabyl making the GDP numbers better than they are.”

Karen also said that companies are working hard to cut costs to get product out of the door, but once you’re at the bone, you can’t do more cost cutting. I think that’s true. What do you think?

There were some terrific calls from listeners who have had their pay cut significantly, but who have been creative about expenses.

Ken called in to say: “I sell real estate in Atlanta. It’s been a tough year for me. In the process of that, my partner got a 50 percent reduction in pay. You told one of your callers to sit down and talk to his partner about money. We did not skip a beat in 6 months since my partner took a 50 percent reduction in pay. We looked at where we could immediately cut costs. We got rid of our house phone line. We both have cell phones, so we didn’t need it. I work from home. I switched to efax and cut costs from $30 to $7.95/month. We eat out 50 percent less and cook more. It was amazing how much money we were saving. We called our cell phone company and canceled our international calling plans. I wanted to make comment to people struggling and are in same situation or going to be. If you talk about it and look at some of the expenses, you can do it. It’s a lot of work. But instead of going to movies, do pay per view for $4.99. You’ll also get more quality time.”

These are great real-life suggestions from Ken. Do you have any others to share?

How to Profit From Foreclosures – DON’T MISS OUT

Holly called the show a couple of weeks ago to find out how she can allow some of her employees to profit with the next commercial property she buys. I suggested she join me on October 24, 2009 for our next event, How to Profit From Foreclosures.

Holly, and other folks interested in investing in real estate, might want to start a separate LLC for a new commercial real estate purchase, and give selected employees the opportunity to be come limited members of the corporation while Holly would be the managing partner. (For more details on limited liability companies, simply go to the SEARCH box and type in “LLC” and up will pop hundreds of stories that discuss LLCs and how investors use them.”

The Georgia Association of Enrolled Agents will be at our How to Profit From Foreclosures event on October 24th, and will be happy to answer questions about how this might work, what are the pros and cons of such a move, and how you’d have to report it to the IRS.

You’ll also hear from:

Mike Rose, Bank of America will be on hand to help you figure out how to finance your foreclosure purchase.

Ricky Novak, a 1031 tax free exchange specialist, will be on hand to help you figure out the rules associated with a 1031 tax free exchange.

Mark Lackey from the Atlanta Housing Source will be there to answer question about how to find foreclosures and negotiate successfully for them.

There may also be other options for Holly, such as simply setting up a profit-sharing plan. But that’s what this day is all about. If you’re interested in buying foreclosures to live in or invest in, you’ll want to meet our experts and have them answer all of your real estate investing questions.

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Check back for the Foreclosure conference agenda to find out who else is speaking.

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