Anyone know of a person / place in Los Angeles where I can adopt a rescue betta fish?
Don't want to buy one as I don't want to support pet stores, most of which keep them in terrible conditions. Looking for a rescue betta fish: either saved from a pet store, owner can't take care of their any more, etc.
Is now a good time to buy a home in Los Angeles to rent out? What about recessions happening? Would rent go up or down?
You should check out statistics on your location. I have rented in recession too, and did not see any major decrease in revenue for the property( property was in Romania, Europe). The rent was stable, but prices of properties dropped. So maybe purchasing for rent is not a bad ideea now. But if you have a bigger budget to invest, invest some now, buy a property for rent, to have some skin in the game. Then wait for recession to kick in and prices to drop and buy some more properties.
What are the steps to get a house loan, and what benefits do first time buyers have?
Contact a Loan Broker or hit one of those web sites that offer loans, and fill out their quick form. They will then start to ask you for documents to prove what you’ve said. Tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements, so on. Prove them the documents they ask for and, if you have good credit, and enough money to put down, you are set.There are few benefits for first time buyers. You really need 20% down or more, or you have to buy Mortgage insurance (Which will make up for the bank whatever they lose if they have to take your house because you don’t pay the mortgage). There are some federal programs that can help buy a house in distressed areas if you are a teacher or police officer who works in that area (if you want a house in South Central Los Angeles, and you work in South Central as a teacher or Police officer, you can get a cheap house). Outside of a few programs, there isn’t much to help you.
Los Angeles or Miami?
I think LA has better weather. True its often cooler in the winter than Miami but it is not sweltering and humid in the summer. Great schools in LA--UCLA and USC among many others. The cultural life in LA is probably more exciting than in Miami and for extracurricular activities LA has beaches, mountains, deserts, Mexico is nearby, Disneyland and many other amusement centers. Nothing against Miami, but if I were to chose it would be LA. Yes, you do need a car.
How can I afford a house in Los Angeles?
Two thoughts:When I was young, and working on my first feature film, I was making about $120k/yr. That was 20 years ago, so adjust that up for inflation. I also had no idea how I could ever afford a house here in LA. I didn't save anything and I don't know where it all went. After starting and growing a company, then having it crash, I was forced to optimize my lifestyle. Today I can easily live on about 1/3 of that. In hindsight, I spent money on a ton of crap that had no lasting value. I got a new car every 3 years. My wife and I took a lot of expensive weekend trips. We ate out a lot. I bought a lot of "collectibles" (which refers to the dust they collect, not any value they maintain.) I could have easily put 50% of my salary toward an investment like a house if I had understood what I was doing with my money.Second, is it really advantageous for you to own a house in Los Angeles? For me, it's not. I rent a nice place in a nice neighborhood that I would never buy a house in (2+2 bungalows with no yard are $1M+). Here's a calculator to help you figure out the buy/rent threshold for the area you want to live in. Is It Better to Rent or Buy? BTW - keep in mind when you buy a house, the price you negotiate with the seller is the price the bank pays for the house, not the price you pay (unless you're paying cash). You'll pay 150%-200% the loan amount by the time you're done, plus property taxes, repairs, etc. The tax break isn't free money either.
If the average home in Los Angeles is around a million dollars, how do most people buy homes?
I can't speak for others, but I can tell you exactly how I came to own a home in LA.I moved back home with my parents.When I was fresh out of college I landed a nice job in downtown LA, moved to Hollywood, and worked weekends as a club promoter.I was making a lot of money but spending even more on the high rent, restaurants, dates, clothes, trips to Vegas, etc. It wasn't enough to go into debt, but after 3 years of hard work at 25 years old, I had nothing to show for it financially.So I made the torturous decision of moving back in with my parents, took a sabbatical on nightclubs and drinking, and spent my free time opening up a side business on eBay and Amazon. I was literally working, working more and then coming home to my parents. LMAO. My parents offered to allow me to stay rent free but I insisted I pay something, and we eventually agreed on $600/mo., much better than the $2,200/mo plus utilities I was paying before.I saved about 80% of my income for a couple of years, and by then I had enough for a 20% down payment and a nice brokerage account. I now have about 8 years left on the mortgage and I can pay off the entire amount today with my brokerage account if I wanted to, but I would actually get penalized (yes you can get a penalty for paying mortgage too early) and the brokerage has been earning me higher interest anyway.Long story short, I changed my entire working, living, and social situation drastically for a period of time.
(Judaism) Are there health benefits of never eating meat & dairy together?
When a kosher kitchen has seperate plates/utensils for dairy and meat, is it more symbolic or is there a health reason? Also, is drinking anything generally discouraged until a bit after the meal's finished?
American housing bubble?
The collapse in the housing market that many were predicting has been regional. Some areas are almost unaffected. Prices should certainly ease off some, but there should not be a collapse, unless the economy collapses. Here are some reasons why that may happen, from an article by Dr. Irwin Kellner for MarketWatch. Economic Crisis All recessions that have occurred since 1970 followed periods in which the Fed was actively tightening money. And all tightening cycles except two have produced a recession within at least two years after they ended. The two exceptions took place in 1983-84 and 1994-95. They were called "soft landings," because the economy slowed enough to dampen inflation, yet not so much that growth disappeared altogether causing a jump in joblessness. But these considerations aside, there was plenty of pain during these soft landings, as well as during the more widely recognized hard landings. This is because a number of collapses and bankruptcies occurred in the wake of each tightening cycle. What follows are some of the better known crises and the years in which they occurred: -- Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970; -- Franklin National Bank went bankrupt in 1974; -- The Farm Belt and Latin American Debt crisis in 1982; -- Drysdale Securities and Penn Square Bank collapsed in 1983; -- Continental Illinois Bank went bankrupt in 1984; -- Stock market crashed in 1987; -- Savings & Loan crisis/real estate collapse/junk bond crisis in 1990; -- Mexican Peso crisis/Orange County went bankrupt in 1994; -- Asian currency crisis/Long Term Capital Management/Russian default in 1997; -- Internet/telecom/ bubbles burst in 2000; -- Stocks collapsed into worst bear market since the Great Depression in 2000. For 2006, we have a number of events to choose from, starting with the bursting of the real estate bubble. Two other industries with problems that could evolve into something worse are autos and airlines. And, of course, something completely unexpected could arise -- as it has many times before. The message: whether the economy experiences a hard landing or a soft landing as a result of the current round of Fed rate hikes, it will most likely be only the tip of the iceberg.
Should I buy a condo or a house as an investment property in Los Angeles?
I think the best way to determine this is by searching investment properties in L.A. and look at which types of properties have the highest projected returns.Click on different potential properties and see which ones have the higher cash on cash return, cap rate, rental income, etc. I’d also look at the comps and see how much income those are getting.In general, I personally think single-family houses are better overall. The first reason being condo fees - and I image L.A. condo fees being very high.This blogs gives a comparison of condos and single-family homes as investment properties:Invest in Condos or Single-Family Homes?