Other Passive Income Blogs

Never one to hoard all of the glory for myself (at least I like to think I am getting better at this), I want to share some of the other good passive income blogs I have found, along with my comments on them:

Blogs (in no particular order):
1) http://www.geniustypes.com - great blog on trying to develop passive income (further proof that I'll never figure out search engines - comes up #2 in Google on "passive income" but #11 on "passive income blog")
2) http://www.theroadtoperfection.com/ - although not many new posts will be added, this is an interesting story of a college student getting very close to financial freedom - Jeremy and I keep in touch to keep each other motivated and welcome others to help
3) http://www.netpassiveincome.com/ - great site for online passive income development, especially blog related!
4) http://income-opportunities.blogspot.com/ - depite the similar website name, we are not related :) Apparently Malathy is in India, but that doesn't keep him from highlighting some interesting opportunities.
5) http://www.kchut.com/ - mostly online oriented, again, not necessarily passive (but most online ventures lend themselves to being passive - except blogging, of course, unless you can get other people to blog for you...)

I will highlight more as I run across them. The beautiful thing about the current internet is the ease with which you can find people that share your interests.

We need to get a passive income mastermind group together... (for any literary types the "..." is my version of foreshadowing)

Speaking of groups with similar interests - Anyone ever played Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 board game? Great game that really helps develop some passive income knowledge and strategy. If anyone in the central Kansas area ever wants to play - let me know!

Amazon Context Links

So Amazon has an affiliate program where you get paid if people buy stuff from Amazon by linking from your site.

SIDEBAR
From a moneymaking standpoint, Amazon is not that great because it only pays 4% to start up to 10% based upon your volume of business - but when I have checked Amazon always has the lowest prices, so I strongly recommend them as a place to buy books, especially when you get free shipping on orders over $25!


They recently (I assume - it's in beta) rolled out a new application (or "app" to use the "lingo") that scours your text for search terms and makes those words "live" where you get a preview if you hold your mouse over it and can click it to go to Amazon to buy.

e.g. if I wrote "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", this should become an active link to Amazon where if you hold your cursor over it, you will get a preview of the item, which you can then click on to go to Amazon.

I think this is really cool (putting on my "old man hat" for a minute) - it's incredible what that there technology can do these days. Seriously, I do think it is cool, and given my experience with Amazon being very cheap, the idea seems really cool, if it works.

After some trial and error (and consulting the all-knowing Google oracle), I figured out how to incorporate this into Blogger.

Please give me feedback on these context links:
1) Do you like them or not like them?
and of course,
2) Let me know if they are not working for you!

Thanks for your help!

Costa Rica Update

This has been a long time coming because I have more details on Costa Rica. (For those of you that didn't see the "formal" site before or just want a refresher - I love the pictures - check out: http://www.best-costa-rica-real-estate.com/).

Rebecca and I are headed down to the Costa Rica development September 29/30. (We will probably spend a few extra days in Costa Rica truly vacationing as well.) We are awaiting approval on the mortgage to finalize our plans - we hope to have that by next Wednesday.

The mortgages are done just like any other mortgages in the United States or Canada with somewhat higher interest rates (8.25% and up), but typical 30-year rates, up to 90 or 100% financing. There does appear to be a 3% origination fee, however. Overall, a very good program (so I've heard) compared to others for international investing. Since I've not done other international investing, I can't speak from my own experience on that one :)

If and when you come down with us, you have the opportunity to purchase the same "option package" that we did. I am slightly jealous (and extremely happy) that anyone that comes down can get the same package I did (recall that I changed plans and attended a seminar in Orlando just to get this deal). It costs $1495 USD.


This is what you get:

1) Price-freeze on lot/house (combination) until June 20, 2010 (about the time the international airport 20 minutes away goes into service).

2) Referral program - you make 3% commission on anyone you refer that purchases property and 2% commission on anyone THEY refer. (Kinda sounds like network marketing, huh?) With the average purchase being around $300,000 USD, a referral would be worth about $9,000, which would pay for this package and several trips down to CR.

3) $1500 travel voucher if you purchase a property. (i.e. if you buy something, you get this package FREE)

4) Reduced property management rates (I am checking on whether it is 10% or 20% to manage your property as a vacation rental - typically these rates are around 40% if you have looked into this in the states).

5) Millionaire mentoring - webinars with Ed Mercer (the owner of the development). In addition to being very successful, Ed is of the highest integrity, cares so much for other people, and just radiates positive attitude - a great combination in anyone, especially a future neighbor.


They will never offer this package again (they offered a similar package at a recent seminar, but as I understand it did not have a price freeze until June 2010 and had 20% property management fee instead of 10%).

Again, if this sounds interesting to you, let me know ASAP as we will be making travel plans in the next week or two. I am checking to see if this would be available for future trips down to CR, but frankly, I feel very lucky that they are even offering it for one trip.

Commercial building downtown

I haven't written anything for awhile. That either means nothing interesting has been happening or I have been so busy that I haven't had time to write. I think a bit of both...

Rebecca (my wife) and I went and looked at a commercial property for sale downtown yesterday. Now it is downtown retail space which I normally wouldn't have much interest in except that it has 2 upstairs apartments as well, and boy are they cool!

The property is listed at $99K. The two upstairs units rent right now for $350/mo each, but they are much larger (and cooler!) than the apartments in our 4-plex that we have rented for $400/mo each. We think without doing anything, we could raise the rents to at least $950/month total.

These apartments have hardwood floors, lots of brick (in the larger one especially), I would guess 12-foot ceilings through most of it, and dining rooms! The larger one even has a beautiful wood staircase up to a "penthouse" room on the roof. From the outside it looks like someone plopped a small house on top of the roof. The penthouse has hardwood floors, a baseboard heater (window A/C could be added, I think), and access to the roof, where there is plenty of space to hang out, BBQ, watch fireworks, etc.

Needless to say, I like the apartments, but I am not going to get all emotional and do something stupid! (at least I hope not!)

The retail space could potentially lease for about $800/month. There is also a 2500 ft^2 concrete basement under this the building with tons of shelves. Great to storage - either for the retail lessee (you know, the person that leases the space - I just know that term because I looked at a lease today) or someone else that needs storage.

Right now, the apartments are occupied (no surprise at $350/mo) but the retail space is not.

Where it gets tricky (for me) is the fact that it is commercial property. A loan on commercial property will be at higher rates (typically around prime with a small bank, currently 8.25%) than residential (where even for investment property we might be looking at 6.5-7.5%). They also typically want a lot of down payment. Oh, and interest rates adjust to the index rate every 3-5 years (so it is not a fixed rate). And terms are generally not as long (20-25 years).

We don't have a lot of money laying around right now (really not any with our upcoming Costa Rica purchase), so the down payment becomes a little tricky. Also, if we are looking at 8.25% with a 20-year term, we might just be break-even on cash flow even with a renter in the retail space.

There are also several repairs that need to be made. Nothing too major, but probably $5-10K (up to $30K if you wanted to make it really nice). Factoring all that in makes it less of a slam dunk than I first thought.

I think it could be a very good property, though (at the right price). I will keep you informed as to what happens!