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The Blog of ANDREW sYRIOs

New BiggerPockets Article: You Can Avoid After-Hours Phone Calls From Tenants

11/30/2020

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My new article for BiggerPockets is up, although I don't particularly like the name they chose for it. You cannot "avoid after-hour phone calls from tenants." But you there are "there are certainly ways to deal with these problems. You just have to have a plan going into it."

The article was originally titled a "Guide to Emergency Maintenance." And that's what it goes over, which is extremely important as many people considering real estate investment and property management are scarred to death of a tenant calling at 2:00 am with some emergency. 
The most important thing to do right off the bat is to accept that emergency maintenance will happen. It is a fact of life. Don’t cross your fingers and hope for the best. Accept it will come from time to time and plan how to handle it.
The article then goes into detail about the how of creating (and executing) a plan "to handle it." So check it out.

The piece also features Phillip's and my video from our YouTube channel on the same topic, which is worth checking out as well:
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Yes Folks, Clinton was Guilty AF

11/29/2020

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So I made a Facebook post calling for Trump to pardon Snowden and Assange. Then in responding to a comment saying Snowden was a traitor and Assange an enemy of the United States, I pointed out that 1) they were whistleblowers and 2) they're crimes pale in comparison to those in our government.
​Can we at least put Clapper (perjury), Brennan (illegal torture, spying on the Senate, perjury), Comey (stealing gov docs, being a douchebag everyone hates), Clinton
(muh emails, bullshit foundation), Bush, Cheney, Tenet, Rumsfeld, Kristol, Powell, Bolton, Abrams, Rice, Frum, and several others I'm forgetting off the top of my head (lying us into the Iraq war) in prison too?
Notice Clinton is just one of many and I even implied the hype around Clinton's emails was overblown ("muh"). But some liberals just aren't that tolerant of even mild disagreement. Indeed, this is becoming a major problem on the Left. For example:
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But I digress. So here's the response I got. (I remind you I referred to George W. Bush as a war criminal.)
Explain the Clinton emails thing, please. And the "bullshit foundation". Do so with facts. I'll wait. Take your time.
OK... her guilt was obvious so here goes,
The email thing is pretty obvious although in and of itself, it was overblown. I mean, before Comey said he wouldn't bring charges for what amounted to no particular reason, he pretty much said she was guilty AF: 

As far as the Clinton Foundation. Well you could ask their own law firm, Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett.

​Or Doug Band.

Or perhaps even Chelsea Clinton.

Or the king of Morocco.

Or an endless series of coincidentally-timed large donations/speaking fees from foreign countries or Wall Street.

Admittedly Trump's foundation was also bullshit, but it was tiny and mostly dedicated to buying large portraits of himself to feed his narcissism in the weirdest way possible.
Oh, but here's the thing, "OK, so you understand that she had a private server (they all do), and that of the 30,000 emails uncovered they found ZERO that were problematic?" And a bunch of other blather. Me again,
​What do you mean they found nothing? Many of the emails were marked confidential or top secret. You're not allowed to send confidential emails over a private server. You're also not allowed to delete 30,000 emails after receiving a subpoena (some of which had confidential information) and not all of which were recovered.
​
The Chelsea link was by far the weakest as she was just expressing her concerns. The others are more noteworthy, particularly the one discussing Simpon, Thacher and Bartlett. Their foundation was really sketchy.
But you must understand that I just "wanted justify whatever preconceived nonsense you want to conjure." Here's the full semi-coherent "rebuttal,"
 Realize, that every email has a recipient, often times multiple. Even "deleted" emails ended up having recipients and trails.

Just curious, what do you think was in those emails? How many investigations into EVERY OTHER PRIVATE SERVER are you demanding?

This is a CLOWN argument. It was a CLOWN investigation.

The DELETED emails were deemed by her to be not related to work. Imagine what would happen had she deleted emails and they found ONE which was related to work, that she tried to erase? I mean, of the THIRTY THOUSAND EMAILS they weren't able to find ONE email, or recipient, that somehow displayed illegal activity?

C''mon, Peter Pan, just stop it. There's no equal action for every action to justify whatever preconceived nonsense you want to conjure.

It was a farce. It was investigated MULTIPLE TIMES. It was the ONLY private server investigated. Stop making shit up to make yourself feel better about whatever it is you believe.

it's [sic] embarrassing. Maybe not to clown show parler users, but to realists.

And I read the very article you're referencing. Did you?
The endless series of baseless assertions and ad hominems almost convinced me.

Indeed, it's weird that I keep getting told they found nothing when they found classified information, which was basically what they were looking for. (And it was probably hacked by foreign governments because it wasn't sufficiently secure.) 

​Anyways, my response,
Yes, it was investigated and she was found to have illegally used a private server, sent classified documents on it repeatedly and deleted emails after receiving a subpoena. I had no idea you got to delete emails you deemed not related to work after receiving a subpoena (even though several of them actually did contain classified information). Good to know.

And the "Colin Powell did it too" defense fails badly BTW. Again, from the not-so-Trump friendly WaPo:

1. Clinton exclusively used a private email account to conduct State Department business. Powell did not.
2. Clinton had a private email server, located at her house. Powell did not.
3. The rules governing electronic communication changed considerably — and got more strict — between Powell's time in office and Clinton's.

Again, while she was blatantly guilty on the email thing, it wasn't especially huge compared to normal government corruption. (I remind you I was originally comparing what Snowden and Assange have done to various politicians, not singling out or even highlighting Clinton).

And yes, Trump's nepotistically inclined daughter and son-in-law as well as others in the Trump admin used private emails. And they should have been punished too. It was definitely hypocritical (which is not unusual for Trump). Though none of them were Secretary of State nor did they set up private email servers for all business. I haven't seen it confirmed that they used them for classified info, just government business. Which would be a big difference.

I mean General Petraeus went to prison for keeping classified materials in his desk and sharing them with his mistress. A navy cadet was sent to prison for taking a selfie with a radar screen in the background and sending it to his girlfriend. Clinton set up a private server in her own home. I mean, why would she even do that?
And alas, yes, I read the article. And I quote,

"What the governance review lawyers found was a board and charity in disarray organizationally. It was staffed mostly with insiders, practicing weak oversight and inattentive leadership, and possessed of a loose dedication to best practices for foundations of its size and to Arkansas state and IRS regulations governing conflict of interest...

"...But the issue of conflict of interests went beyond the fact that the board did not enforce compliance with its written policy. The review seemed to find some of the issues that have come up on the campaign trail recently. 'Some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts,' according to the review."
​
That's pretty damning from an internal review by a law firm they hired themselves.
For all the liberals complaining about "whataboutism" and demanding conservatives "defend Trump without referencing Obama or Hillary" it's amazing how pretty much every defense of Hillary comes down to X Republican or Y member of the Trump administration did it too.

Yes, Trump was corrupt. So was Hillary. Indeed, it is blatantly obvious Hillary Clinton was guilty in the email scandal and that the Clinton Foundation was, at least in part, a pay-for-play scheme. 

Partisanship makes people stupid.
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California Butthurt

11/28/2020

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So Phillip and I released a video for our YouTube channel on the new trend (meme?) of "Leaving California" where we amusingly (if I can't say so myself) explained that were were moving to California in order to leave California so we could leach off this meme. I then followed up with a BiggerPockets post asking whether real estate investors should leave too. It was one of my all-time most popular posts with 141 comments so far. And while most people agreed with me (probably two or three to one), there were a lot of butthurt Californians to say the least.

I try not to be petty and I do hope California pulls its act together and reverses their downward trend. But given how many Californians (and "coastal elite" types) love to mock "Flyover country" and particularly the South, it's awful hypocritical to get so upset when someone makes fun of you back. And furthermore, I wasn't making fun of them. I was pointing out the many problems the state has and asking whether investors should flee. (My answer, by the way, was they should not, but of course that was ignored.)

There were a few that actually made rational arguments. Most notably they mentioned the large GDP of California (that I discussed) or high returns from the past (which I discussed) or the continued population growth (from mostly poor immigrants, California has had seven straight years of internal outmigration).  

Some just merely asserted it, like this comment on our video, "As a California Real Estate investor who's selling their out of state properties to buy more properties in California I'd love to debate some of the misinformation you've stated." My request he start of by correcting us where we went wrong in the comments, of course, went ignored.

Others went something like this,
Blah, blah, blah. If I had a quarter for every article regarding California's demise. Even as far back as the early nineties, Time ran a headline regarding the shine coming off the Golden State. My investments in LA and SD have yielded 500%+ appreciation in the last 20 years, and my CAP rates are double digits. I'm not even going to get into the glaring numerical errors in the article. Stay in KC, I'll remain in Cali.
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Sorry, I couldn't help myself...

But I must note that again there are the "numerical errors" (with something like 80 links for citations) that are not referenced. Of course, I don't say he should sell and mention that California had had great appreciation in the past so the comment belies an ignorance of the article's contents. It's almost like when you assume an article says "blah blah blah" your reading comprehension goes down.

Regardless, because of California's extraordinarily strict building codes and increasing population (due to immigration), prices will likely rise. It just means the middle class will get shredded even more so. (Although probably not as they have in the past as affordability has become a huge problem. And cash flow is bad in California, so it wouldn't be my first spot to invest.)

Or this, "This reads as merely anti-California propaganda. California leads in new job growth." (Well, not per capita. Indeed, it's not even in the top 10. And the problems of poverty, inequality, homelessness, commute times, a stifling political environment, housing affordability and inequality and just filth aren't going to be fixed by a large GDP (nor bans on plastic straws.)

There's a bunch more like that, but I shouldn't be too harsh, though. I would say there were three agreements for every disagreement and two agreements from Californians or ex-Californians for every one disagreement. For example, comments like this,
Great analysis. As a resident of the state, our family has seen many friends leave the state over the past few years and know many others who plan to leave but are waiting for their opportunity
And of course, we should hope California's politicians right the error of their ways. Perhaps with Trump out, the hyper-liberalism of the past few years will subside since there's no super villian to oppose. Hopefully. California had the benefit of huge industries (Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the Cal Tech university system, tourism, etc.), near perfect weather, great amenities (beaches, mountains, Yosemite National Park, Napa Valley, etc.). 

It really would be a pity if they pissed it all away.
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Do it Donald...

11/27/2020

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Tulsi Gabbard urges Donald Trump to pardon Edward Snowden and Julian Assange https://t.co/deqtbXMm9F

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 26, 2020
Tulsi's right Donald. You did the right thing pardoning General Flynn. Now pardon Assange and Snowden. 

Do it.
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Happy Thanksgiving!

11/26/2020

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Here's a good wholesome meme for you all for Thanksgiving:
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And here's a more appropriate (and funny) one for after your Thanksgiving feast:
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Voter Fraud???

11/25/2020

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The election has been over for three weeks now, but Trump has yet to concede and many on the Right are sure there was widespread voter fraud that stole the election from Donald while the Left continues to accuse him of wanting to be a "dictator" and pretty much every other terrible thing under the sun.

Indeed, it's hard to believe there wasn't at least some voter fraud. When outlets like The New York Times say "there is no evidence" of it, it raises an eyebrow. After all, we know that several dead people ended up casting their vote for Biden (and probably a few or Trump too). And two men were charged with filing applications for thousands of homeless people to vote in California. 

And of course, it's happened in the past. The 1960 election was infamous for voter fraud in Chicago (although it was unlikely to be enough to have swayed the election), which also happened in the 1982  Illinois gubernatorial election and the 1987 Chicago mayoral election. (What the Hell is wrong with Chicago?)

Further, the Heritage Foundation has a list of 1285 confirmed cases of voter fraud. And issues with mail-in voting caused 100,000 ballots to be thrown out. And add to that the general issues with ballot harvesting and electronic voting machines.
​
And then of course, there's the fanatical hatred of Trump. Indeed, Arizona's Secretary of State said Trump was "pandering to his neo-nazi base than being @POTUS for all Americans." If she actually believed that, do you think she would be unwilling to cheat?

And there's all sorts of weird anomalies about this election.

- The late vote dumps that erased Trump's lead in the day (which, of course, don't "prove" fraud)
- The Michigan postal worker who alleges he was forced to back date late-arriving ballots.
- Allegations of trucks arriving in the middle of the night with ballots that were mostly for Biden. 
- Five Milwaukee wards with turnout of 89 percent; many, many standard deviations outside the norm.
- And, of course, Trump becoming the first ever sitting president in the modern era to gain votes in his second election but lose. And he gained about 10 million votes over 2016!

Of course, there have been a lot of bullshit claims too and it has been hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. For example, no, Wisconsin did not have over 100 percent voter turnout. And even the Trump campaign is distancing itself from Sydney Powell's extreme claims.

Still, there's evidence of a bunch of shenanigans. The question is; how many? I don't like Trump. I think he's impulsive and shallow and caters to the neocons even though most of them hated him. But, of course, I despise the Democrats as well. And the election seems questionable to me.

But there's a bigger problem. A new poll found "Roughly half of Republicans believe President Trump “rightfully won” the election, with 68 percent saying they had concerns about a “rigged” vote counting process in favor of President-elect Joe Biden." On the other hand, not long ago another poll found that, "Three-quarters of Democratic voters believe that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to steal the 2016 election." (He didn't by the way.)

We're getting to the point where neither side sees the other as legitimate. It used to be that you had a preference for the Democrats or the Republicans or perhaps, like me, you hated both. But now, it's intolerable. 

How can we live together if we can't accept our party losing an election? Perhaps peaceful secession is the only way out...


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New BiggerPockets Article: Is It Still Possible To Find a Good Deal on the MLS?

11/23/2020

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The answer to that question given by those at BiggerPockets who write the titles is "maybe" although for me it's really "yes, but it's much harder than it once was." 

As my newest article points out,
Yes, there are still deals on the MLS, even ones that hit the 70% (or 75%) rule. But they are very few and far between, and you have to keep your ear to the ground and act quickly to get a shot at those few diamonds in the rough.
​
That being said, while there might not be a lot of good deals to be found there, there are still good reasons to use the MLS (which you have to be a real estate agent to access), particularly for assessing a property's value.
Indeed, the most valuable part of having access to the MLS is its use in helping value properties (especially now). But yes, there are still deals out there, especially miss-listed properties. 

To know how to catch those, check out the article.

It also features this video we did for our YouTube channel, which is worth watching as well:
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New ThinkRealty Article: How to Resolve Tenant Disputes

11/19/2020

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So I'm back to writing for ThinkRealty again after a long hiatus and my new article is up, "How to Resolve Tenant Disputes." As I note,
Every disagreement is between two (or more) opposing sides. But what if you put yourself on the tenant’s side to argue against something else entirely? By doing this, you can radically reduce the tension and hostility between you. After all, why would there be any hostility if you are on the same side?
My second article for them was also published (I will probably be publishing about an article a week). ​"How to Screen Tenants." (I believe my proposed title was "How to Screen Prospective Tenants" as it's a wee bit to late to screen someone once they are already a tenant.

Both also link to videos on our YouTube channel. The first one how to resolve tenant disputes:
And how to screen prospective tenants:
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On Cancelling Christmas...

11/18/2020

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So Jake Tapper had Fauci on his show about Coronavirus and thinks that Christmas is "probably not" this year. Fauci seemed less convinced at least.

CNN's Jake Tapper this morning: "Christmas is probably not gonna be possible." pic.twitter.com/z56ifNCr3G

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 15, 2020
So ummm yeah, fuck you Jake!
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New BiggerPockets Article: Top 10 Personal Development Books

11/17/2020

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My latest article for BiggerPockets completes my three-part series on the best books to read (and in which order to read them):

1. Best Real Estate Books
2. Best Business Books
3. Best Personal Development Books

It starts with the best book I know (or perhaps second-best, see below) on overcoming fear,
1. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers

Fear is the biggest thing that stops people from going after their dreams. The fear of failure, rejection, humiliation, etc. can be debilitating for just about everyone. And that’s what makes Susan Jeffers’ book so worthwhile.

She flips the concept of fear on its head. Instead of hoping that fear will go away, this book will change your paradigm about fear. Instead, fear becomes something you should cherish and seek after. As she notes, “The fear will never go away as long as [you]continue to grow… The only sure way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.”
​
Once you begin to embrace fear and living “just outside of your comfort zone,” you can learn to handle and confront fear instead of avoiding it and vainly hoping it goes away on its own.
Then it lists nine more and a bunch of honorable mentions. 

Unfortunately, I got ahead of myself and somehow forgot about one of the all-time greats. As I note in a comment to the piece,
​​I must have lost my damn mind and somehow forgotten about Dale Carnegie. How to Win Friends and Influence People as well as How to Stop Worrying and Start Living should both be added to this list.

The article is still definitely worth reading (just remember to read the first comment too). So check it out!
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    Andrew Syrios

    "Every day is a new life to the wise man."

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