Slightly cooler, but still damp with a chance of rain. We did get some overnight yesterday that I forgot to mention. I hope we don’t get any overnight last night. I guess overnight is better than during the day when I want to be doing stuff, but we could take a couple of days off of rain… It did end up pretty nice yesterday, if a bit on the humid side. Wife and child got a brief and light shower shortly after arriving at camp but it didn’t dampen their spirits.
I spent the morning driving to the waste of time ‘man stuff’ estate sale. Hit the bins for a quick walk through on my way home, then did taxi service for the teens. Did some sorting while waiting for them to need the Nick Taxi, Nixi? and of course someone shot up a mall… yeah, I don’t even like going to the mall and I left my kid at one. This whole idea of striving to give them as much of a childhood as I had is very trying. (the mall is less than 10 minutes from the house)
Took the kid out for dinner, then called it an early night.
I really need to clean and organize the house today before W1 and D2 return. Or I’ll be looking for W2 shortly. My auctioneer put me off for another week as he’s having trouble clearing space. I might need to send a load to another auctioneer in the mean time. Maybe some of the lesser quality stuff since the guy I have in mind doesn’t get great prices.
I still need to do more cleanup in the stacks too. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
And stacking, keep doing that too. Even if it’s just a little bit.
nick
76 F and muggy in the ¾ acre back yard here in the wild wild west side of Fort Bend County. The 15 lb Siamese male is refusing to come back inside, he is a tough guy, he thinks.
I ain’t picking him up. He has ruined several of my shirts. The hawks and owls around here are scared of him.
All of the malls around here have a Texas 30.06 notice at all doors. Those signs seem to attract crazies. Schools have them too. So do the movie theatres.
https://www.walkertaylorlaw.com/texas-no-gun-sign-laws/
A lot of people now ignore the signs and carry anyway. They would rather be judged by 12 than carried out by 6.
I’m guessing that the mass shooting suspect is not white or the headlines would be screaming this morning.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/06/active-shooter-opens-fire-at-allen-texas-outlet-mall/
Nothing about the race in The Texas Tribune, the media think tank/clubhouse which tries to pass itself off as the state’s newspaper of record. If anyone would hit the point, it would be that group.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/06/allen-shooting-outlet-mall/
In order to shoot down a missile travelling at ten times the speed of light, does the interceptor have to be launched ten years ago or ten years in the future? In college I didn’t have room in my schedule for the Physics class which covers broken causality.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/critics-take-aim-at-bidens-ai-meeting-with-ceos-from-google-openai-microsoft/
The man has no intelligence. Why would he even discuss artificial intelligence? Clearly he is out of his league on this effort. Well, almost all his efforts. I wonder who changes his Depends.
@Nick
Physical true estate sales (not online) around here discount 50% on the last day. “Estate” sales with a vertical seller are the ones that have problems. Went to one about ten years ago that had vintage lighting, antiques radios, vintage high-end stereo and great books. Weather was terrible, but people were lined up at 6:30am for an 8:30 opening. At 8:30 a clearly disgusted sale employee came out and announced a 30 minute delay. Seems the seller had insisted some prices were too low and was revising them.
It’s common to see “downsizing” sales, and if the company is good they will have pricing under control.
I went to a downsizing sale last year that had a lot of machine tools. Bachelor had the house pretty much given over to his hobbies. The jewel was a restored vintage lathe, and he was there to answer questions. Price was decent with the tooling included, snd he was very interested in passing it on to a fellow enthusiast.
Shoot. Just had a long reply about the sale disappear.
https://www.estatesales.net/TX/Houston/77015/3641958
Even at 50% prices would be ok not good, and he was exempting lots of stuff from the 25% discount yesterday.
This sale should have been “make you a pile” and then a price for everything. Writing a price in sharpie on every screwdriver, file, chisel, knife, and drill bit is insane.
You can see the resistors I tried to buy in two of the pictures, they are in their packaging, on edge in a drawer. $100.
n
added- I found this in his profile “. We have an antique store with a ton of regular customers who wait on our sales ” That explains a lot. Antique stores have crazy high prices and very low turnover, so his idea of valuation is out of whack, and I’d bet a dollar that he does a buyout at the end of the sale and then sells in his store or thru fb marketplace.
Overcast and damp. Not too hot yet.
Wife and daughter are up and hiking, home this afternoon.
D1 is not feeling well. Her minor sore throat has turned into a much more sore throat today. I’m hoping for allergy caused post nasal drip, and not a bug. My head’s been stuffy for two days, so something is active.
n
Kamala is there too. It is a “kiss the ring” meeting.
The industry has nothing left to fall back on if AI turns out to be a bust.
Apple can still sell phones. They’re probably more screwed if AI turns out to be for real.
Saw a couple of Apple II’s with what looks like disk drives. Not worth anything except to collectors. With the condition of the other stuff I doubt the machines even work.
Yes, and the look on her face is nothing but puppy love admiration. She is as dumb as Spongebrain. I think I detect a brown ring around her mouth. Mustache or Depends residue?
Mustache. Often lost in the reporting is that half of Kamala’s heritage is Tamil, through her mother.
The retro scene is pretty large on the West Coast, and the Apple IIs would be worth something out there.
I’ve never seen a 6502-based system fail to boot as long as a suitable power supply is available.
If “The Terminator” represents an accurate vision of the future, the foundation of Skynet technology is a 6502 variant CPU.
It appears the tattoo on the TX mall dead shooters hand is a gang tat. PLTs are trying to pass it off as some Patriot tat. I’m guessing the dead shooter is Hispanic, not Mexican. Possible immigrant. Looks like the parents are definite immigrants, but not known if the dead shooter was born in the FUSA. Another mentally ill goblin the PLTs are using to ban guns (not just black rifles).
The Texas Legislature hasn’t adjourned for the year. If the shooter had been white and MAGA voter, The Texas Tribune would have been screaming for legislation this morning, with Abbott sticking his finger in the wind to check the direction before making a statement by this time.
And it’s technically a parking lot shooting, not a mall shooting, any more than a gang driveby at 2am in a school parkinglot is a “school shooting”. Despite going into the statistics as such.
n
I didn’t even price the apple computers or imagewriter printers. There have been a ton of them in the local auctions lately and they don’t bring a lot of money. Guy would probably price them like hand built signed prototypes. I think the only reason I got the silentype for $10 is that it’s small. I do wish I’d looked for rolls of thermal paper, they have sold for $45 each and even the antique store guy couldn’t mark them up much.
n
@Nick
”I do wish I’d looked for rolls of thermal paper,”
For your own use there are other potential sources without the magic Apple package. Limited number of vintage manufacturers. Old fax machine rolls of the proper diameter would probably work.
Apple didn’t design their own print mechanisms. According to legend from the old HP employees scattered around Vantucky, even HP was still using Canon paper handling mechanisms until about a decade ago.
When Canon walked away from the deal, suddenly, all the retired and laid off guys got phone calls from HP.
New Hot Skillz!
Chris Lattner so I’ll cut him some slack.
Lattner is arguably part of the reason Apple didn’t buy Tesla when everyone holding TSLA stock wanted a bailout but Tim Cook wasn’t having any part of the “mojo” argument.
https://www.modular.com/mojo
The Sunday shows were really scraping rock bottom today, scrambling for guests to comment on the shooting.
https://www.rawstory.com/texas-shooting-trolled/
“I’m a gun lover who doesn’t know the difference between automatic and semi-automatic.”
Fixed It For Him
FUD with a dose of “only ones” syndrome.
n
For your own use
– that is the era of my apple use, followed with a semester of Mac use during grad school but I don’t have any apple in use. My wife and kids use the phones and tablets. I am thinking about plugging in the hotspot/backup device I have (can’t think of name) for their use, but I don’t want to support it…
I’ve got some old NIB apple networking (appletalk) hardware from Star somewhere in storage, and a ‘toilet seat’ macbook. [just looked and the old appletalk stuff is worth money again, hooray for the passage of time.]
n
Too late suckers.
At least we didn’t welcome ours at the airport with signs…
n
I upgraded my domestic portion of my seats for the upcoming Europe trip. The leg from Atlanta to JFK cost me $750.00 for the both of us. I need to be near the front of the plane as I only have 36 minutes to change planes at JFK. Should be in the same terminal, I hope. Looking at the terminal map there are three other terminals but they don’t look like domestic passenger terminals.
The leg from JFK to Detroit I upgraded using my points. I had enough for both my wife and me. Why upgrade, because I can. I have premium comfort on the leg from Detroit to Amsterdam. That upgrade to Delta One was $2,500.00 a person. Not going to happen. I see no value in being able to lay down as sleeping on those flights is difficult. The premium comfort seats will have to suffice.
For overseas travel two checked bags are allowed, or at least used to be allowed. By being 1st class on the domestic legs there is no issue as 1st class gets to check two bags for no charge.
Yes, and expensive trip. Almost $6K in plane tickets. It should be a more comfortable trip and it is time I start enjoying my money. If I run out of money all you saps can support me on welfare in public housing.
Upgraded to 1st class.
One of the retirement guys I follow, Josh Scandlen, says this is hard for a lot of retirees to handle. They’ve spent their whole lives worrying about funding their retirement, and the mindshift to spending down in a controlled fashion is hard.
My grandmother was always poor. At one point I found out they were filing for a benefit of $50/mo. because “it would make a difference in her life.” I started sending her a check for $50 every month. She never spent the money. She just put it in a savings account.
And after she died, and mom discovered that, did I get it back? No, it got divided with the rest of the estate.
Didn’t seem fair to me, but in my mind that money was gone anyway, so I didn’t dwell on it. I am sometimes reminded of it though.
n
It is. It is a change in mindset, one from saving, not getting unnecessary items, being frugal in purchases, looking for all the discounts possible. Letting go of hard earned money is not easy. My MIL had the same problem and I criticized her for doing so. I now catch myself doing the same thing.
I don’t spend unnecessarily, but I am trying to not skimp. When traveling I no longer stay in hotels with exterior entrances if I can avoid. Interior entrances are generally a better option to cleanliness and noise level (most of the time). Inner city like New York interior entrances can still be dumps. For those locations I stay with the name brand, upper (not top) tier hotels.
On this trip I sprung for upgraded seats, Delta Premium Comfort, then upgraded to 1st class for the other portions. Yes, cost me about twice what I could have paid if I had gone the cheap route. I have done that on 9 previous trips. Not this time.
For my projected life span of about 15 more years, I can spend an additional $50K a year over my regular income and probably still remain solvent. Problem is, I find it very difficult to spend that much extra a year.
Anyone with extra money can fund my kids’ college savings account… *
—————-
sweet jebus the stupid, it burns…
And it could have been less white, if the gold digging social climber hadn’t separated herself and her husband from the royal family….
n
*Not really, just kidding, we are fine…
“Adjoa Andoh”
Such a proper English name. She needs to go back to /her/ homeland.
Anyone want to try pinning the tail on the donkey?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12056951/Alabama-cheerleaders-injured-Sweet-16-party-shooting-fighting-lives.html
Scott Adams said it out loud.
n
Nothing good ever happens after midnight. 330am.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12056897/Justina-Stubbe-killed-five-injured-drive-shooting-California-house-party.html
When the fights start and the guns come out, it is past time to go home.
n
I still believe Harry and Meghan is a long game run by the real power at Windsor, something cooked up ~ 50 years ago with payoff not happening for another 50 at a minimum.
ITV. Wait until she asks for a raise. Just ask the cast of “Downton Abbey” what happens then.
Yeah, I understand. I talked to my financial planner about giving gifts to my college-aged granddaughter, and he pointed out I need to be careful not to jeopardize her financial aid and grants by increasing her income too much. So I’m going to coordinate with her.
Her dad did an amazing job raising her, considering his limitations. He’s a single father (mom’s a flake), alcoholic (back in recovery for 10 years now), many tattoos, Harley riding convicted felon, dedicated pothead (so not sober by my definition). She’s 18, working full time (they keep wanting to promote her to manager), going to college full time, good student. She saves her money and has trouble spending it on herself. Got her own car loan at 18 without a co-signer.
Say, wasn’t there a shooting yesterday which was a big deal this morning?
Police released a name. NBC is still trying to make the neo-Nazi label stick, but, cue Don Meredith – the party’s over.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/texas-mall-shooting-live-updates-rcna83240
I have 17 years until I reach official retirement age. If I actually retire earlier is still tbd. Whenever I do, I can definitely see myself having trouble spending the money. I’m actually tripping to spend a little more now too.
“All of the malls around here have a Texas 30.06 notice at all doors.”
Is that permission to carry only that caliber?
@lynn, thanks for the gun sign link. I was at Niko Niko’s last night with D1 and she asked about the signs. They have the blue one, and the 30:07. I was pretty sure the blue one wasn’t relevant any more, but didn’t understand about the 30.05 I saw at the rodeo this year.
There is one other sign, it’s on the bayous and flood district property. No one I’ve shown a pic to understands it or where the legal authority comes from.
n
“All of the malls around here have a Texas 30.06 notice at all doors. “
– yep, and I treat it the same as a speed limit sign.
n
@Greg Norton
“Apple didn’t design their own print mechanisms. According to legend from the old HP employees scattered around Vantucky, even HP was still using Canon paper handling mechanisms until about a decade ago.
When Canon walked away from the deal, suddenly, all the retired and laid off guys got phone calls from HP.”
The printer market was much more consolidated than most people realized, as was the photocopier market that preceded it.
That problem is easily solved by telling one’s wife that one has extra money.
Or buy gold coins…
n
This is true, though I am only in my late 60s, I have noticed this. And yes, grew up poor.
Fortunately the Democratic Party in general – and the Biden administration in particular – are right there to help me.
The range’s replacement clock arrived yesterday. Looks just like the eBay pictures and Hey! that “scratch” on one of the button? Cleaned right off with a spit wet fingertip. And it was “price reduced”. Go figure
It’s part # blabla – b. My part doesn’t have the -b. The -d version is for ranges with self cleaning cycles. I don’t know if -b and -d are interchangeable. Heck, I don’t know if part # blabla will swap out for a -b version.
Anyway. Looking at it today and the thing I thought was a capacitor that released the magic soot is labeled on the circuit board as “MOV1”. There’s writing on one side. I can’t read it, but it’s there. I’m smart enough to not bend the mov over so I can read the number. I just look stupid. So maybe I can replace the smoked mov. Just for grins. And pack it all away so when the new to me clock dies in 20 years, maybe my 85 year old self will remember where the hell I stored it.
It’s a plan.
Interesting data point.
https://digital.militaryaerospace.com/militaryaerospace/202211/MobilePagedReplica.action?pm=2&folio=42#pg45
– like science fiction
n
Spongey will not help you spend the money, he and his incompetent administration will rip the money from your accounts. And give the funds the welfare leaches to purchase votes.
If the board is multi-layer, don’t.
“I’ve got some old NIB apple networking (appletalk) hardware from Star somewhere in storage, and a ‘toilet seat’ macbook. [just looked and the old appletalk stuff is worth money again, hooray for the passage of time.]”
Early 90’s I did a weekend upgrade in our lab and used Apple Localtalk to share two HP Laserjet 4M printers between six Macs. Generic equivalent was Phonenet. Used ordinary 4-conductor modular phone cords. Worked flawlessly out the gate. Ex coworker in another lab spent nearlt $10k trying to network two IBM’s to a printer. Ours worked flawlessly for 4 years before they brought in Ethernet. I tossed those connectors long ago. Can’t imagine why they would be worth much.
@Ray Thompson
“If I run out of money all you saps can support me on welfare in public housing.”
Sorry. Not going to happen for native English speakers.
So today is lite Tesla day. I have only seen four Teslas so far today. I saw five Teslas last Tuesday.
I was asked what I’m going to do with the money from selling Mom’s house. I don’t need anything extra. Sure, replace the 55″ Vizio with an 80″ model is on the list but that’s way way way down. Pay off the truck early, I suppose. Just to not mess with it anymore.
Go to the bank and toss most of it into CDs seems like a good idea. Pull money from the 401k at less than the standard deduction to avoid the income taxes and put that into CDs seems like a very good idea. ←- gotta work on that.
I have a goal. Might be a silly thing. When I log into Frost Bank it shows how much money I have in checking and savings. I want to see that number over $100,000.
Hey. I’m that kid that wandered all around on the weekends picking up coke bottles and whoa, getting 10¢ instead of 5¢ a bottle was a huge raise. And way before Sam’s Club or even 7-Eleven was a thing, Mom could shop at the same places where the grocery stores shopped. So…. I sold candy out of my bedroom window. For grocery store prices and not doubled priced like the golf course.
Ate all I wanted, my sisters swiped a lot and I still made money. My little brother? Hey have what you want, just scribble down what you ate so I can keep track of inventory.
When we moved to Texas in ‘72 I had to close my savings account at the big bank in Mobile. $160 was a lot of money back in the days when gasoline was 23¢ a gallon. The bank folks thought I was sorta weird for wanting $100 in ones. Candy bars and sodas were 10 or 15 cents… But hey, a ten, even a five, was a lot back then and a 13 going on 14 year old kid with that kind of cash was suspect. I still have a few of those dollar bills. Because I’m something.
Anyway. I have a goal.
I heard yesterday that NYC is putting some illegals up in $700 a night hotels. My first response would be that if they have that much money or that little fiduciary responsibility they should get less money from federal grants. My second thought was that I bet their are lots of U.S. citizens living in substandard housing that would gladly give it up to illegals in return for $700 a night dugs.
It’s like 1980 Radio Shack stuff. There’s a normal looking circuit board and all of the parts are discrete. No tiny surface mount stuff like in your phone that you can’t replace.. Just a bunch of normal looking parts. There’s a ribbon cable to the touch pad part. Don’t know what that looks like. Yet.
But I think I can replace the part. Just some solder……
Puedo aprender a no hablar inglés.
MOV = Metal Oxide Varistor?
A little research says they exist to protect against voltage spikes, but over time and several spikes they may expire.
If that’s what it is, yes, I think it should be replaceable. Which one to get? I dunno, but this article might help.
Of course, if it’s just a dead short, you could cut it out of the circuit and fly naked. Until the next spike.
>> And after she died, and mom discovered that, did I get it back? No, it got divided with the rest of the estate.
Didn’t seem fair to me, but in my mind that money was gone anyway, so I didn’t dwell on it. I am sometimes reminded of it though.
All the more reason to have a solid estate plan in place and when they’re old enough, that the kids are aware of the details.
Same for financial and medical POAs.
“California panel approves reparations proposal of up to $1.2 million EACH for black residents… but activists demand more than $200 million at heated public meeting”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12055465/California-panel-approves-reparations-proposal-life-long-black-residents-1-2million.html
“Previous calculations from economists predicted the reparations could cost around $800billion- more than twice California’s $300 billion annual budget”
Freaking crazy. Ranging from undoable to totally insane.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
@paul, I think you should go for it. Give it a try, it’s already broken and it’s fun to fix stuff.
—————-
First the state and now Bidden, ordered flags to half staff. I really hate that we have debased one of our high honors to the point we have today. We honored those who DID something, not who had something done to them.
n
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj4u93evOT-AhX8kokEHaqIAVAQFnoECAsQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fm.littelfuse.com%2F~%2Fmedia%2Felectronics%2Ftrainings%2Flittelfuse_varistor_mov_products_training.pdf.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2btqeN5dJiZkE-yRdZjns4
is a pdf with a bunch of good info on varistors/MOV
I had one I suspected was an issue for an oscilliscope that had a ‘no power on’ issue. I never got around to actually swapping the part (I had lots of MOVs on various boards in my junk box) and finally sold the thing at this year’s hamfest.
UPS boards are loaded with the things.
n
California politicians vote to support reparations, but they’re not actually going to vote to issue the checks.
The activists are correct that $1.2 million is nothing after everyone buys a house and a Tesla Model X.
Violence is escalating.
n
First day with a new Republican president in Jan 2024. The president sits down with the heads of CIA Fbi and other alphabets. Puts a copy if a list of 20 names in front of each one. The question is: How many of these people do you not have a plan for arrest and/or rendition. First name is Soros. Pink slip to those who don’t have a plan. 19 names to go.
We can dream.
I spent the morning shampooing the cat pee out of our dining room carpet. The living room is next weekend
No more pets for a while.
And never again with the PET material carpet. It is a crock when they tell you that it doesn’t stain, and the crush resistance is nil.
Don’t worry Marrisa, I hear Tumblr is just waiting patiently for TikTok to get shut down.
https://fortune.com/2023/05/06/netflix-marissa-mayer-yahoo-ceo-tumblr/
Weird. I’m looking for my own BOL, and got so far as to actually call a realtor last week.
It’s been a week, and no call back after our first call.
I’m a motivated buyer with cash. My ex was a realtor briefly, and she worked like a dog developing prospects, searching for properties, showing, and closing. Never let a prospect go without calls.
I’m not used to a sales person being this aloof.
We’re gonna need a bigger list. I bet I could name 30 in half an hour, and I’d miss several important ones.
First day with a new Republican president in Jan 2024. The president sits down with the heads of CIA Fbi and other alphabets. Puts a copy if a list of 20 names in front of each one. The question is: How many of these people do you not have a plan for arrest and/or rendition. First name is Soros. Pink slip to those who don’t have a plan. 19 names to go.
Hopelessly optimistic. Those people would be scheming already since before the election. They were last time, why would they change their behavior ?
No, Trump needs to fire every single supervisor in the government. Almost all of them are corrupt and figuring out which ones are honest is difficult.
We did have a pleasant experience with the IRS last week. My office manager called the IRS office in charge of the country to country tax treaty paperwork. One of the underlings actually answered the phone and she asked where was our paperwork. The underling replied that their main fax machine has been broken for a year or so. But, the underling had a personal fax machine and he gave her the number. My office manager refaxed the paperwork to his personal fax machine and we got the tax treaty paperwork within a week. Usually it takes six months to get. Otherwise, countries like Greece withhold 20% tax on us for customer payments. You would not believe what it takes to get money out of second world and third world countries, they all have severe capital controls but the USA has tax treaties with all of them for small businesses.
Weird. I’m looking for my own BOL, and got so far as to actually call a realtor last week.
It’s been a week, and no call back after our first call.
I’m a motivated buyer with cash. My ex was a realtor briefly, and she worked like a dog developing prospects, searching for properties, showing, and closing. Never let a prospect go without calls.
I’m not used to a sales person being this aloof.
Move on. Something is seriously wrong and you do not need the aggravation.
Don’t worry Marrisa, I hear Tumblr is just waiting patiently for TikTok to get shut down.
https://fortune.com/2023/05/06/netflix-marissa-mayer-yahoo-ceo-tumblr/
Nah, she would have ruined Netflix.
@lpdbw
“We’re gonna need a bigger list. I bet I could name 30 in half an hour, and I’d miss several important ones.”
The list is going to be different for each and the basis for terminating, arresting, and holding without bail the recipient of any list that gets leaked.
Yep, move on. Lots of fish in the sea, so make sure people know you are looking. The property we bought never hit the market. She had mentioned on her FB that she was getting it ready for sale, and that was all it took. Our friend saw her post, called us, and we moved fast. It’s also really helpful to drive around in your target areas. The more familiar you are, the more you can recognize a good deal when it comes along and you might see a For Sale sign that leads to the good stuff. You might also see a meth lab mobile home next door.
We looked at hundreds of properties online too, with a search of HAR.com running to notify us whenever something new was listed that met our needs. With all the experience of looking at the pix, REALLY LOOKING, and figuring out floor plans from them, looking for problem indicators, looking for quick fixes, etc. we got very good at recognizing issues. In the end, we bought with issues, knowing the issues, because that’s what it took to get a price we could afford, and in the place we wanted to be. And we felt confident we could do the work or oversee the work by others.
Google maps in aerial mode will show you stuff around the property, as will the county’s online map or tax roll tool. You don’t want to be downwind of a pig farm, or in a reclaimed swamp. historicaerials.com/ has aerial images locked to historical maps and if they have the area you’re looking at they are VERY helpful to determine what used to be around your site.
The tax assessor site should give you ownership and valuation records too. All useful for determining age of remodels, indicating if permits were pulled for work, whether the property has passed thru flippers recently, etc.
If you are looking for acreage, there are brokers that specialize in that. In our area, I’ve seen billboards on Hwy 6 for a walker county broker.
The process can keep you busy for a while…
good luck
n
“Show me your 6 month plan to eliminate this agency.” “Nothing? Please send in your next in line on your way out.” “Ok, please show me YOUR 6 month plan to eliminate this agency.” Repeat until the last minion is fired if needed.
n
@lpdbw, just another bored soccer mom who decided “selling” real estate sounded easy and exciting.
Can you sort your MLS listings by agent and pick a few with multiple properties to interview?
Are ‘buyer brokers’ common in TX?
If the big companies are begging for regulation, what they are actually begging for is regulatory capture. They’ve realized that basically anyone can enter this field, and they want to lock in their dominance before 1000 startups start competing with them.
Somewhat related: It turns out that they didn´t just train the AIs on whatever they found on the Internet. Apparently, there are armies of poorly paid folk helping the training, by entering the answers the AI ought to give. So it learns that Abdul says the answer to X should be Y. Does Abdul has any idea? Or care? Or – given the pay – have the time to research and find out? Um…
It all depends on your priorities. If you actually want to get rid of stuff, you’ve got to price it to go. When I left Texas for Europe, I had to sell my entire household – including the house – in just a few days. Garage sale, good prices, half was gone the first day. Half of the rest on the second day. The rest got donated. Small amounts of stuff got sent over. About ten boxes were sent to USAF storage until I called for them a couple of years later. One of those boxes…contained my passport, which somehow got mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. That was a fun little panic.
Funny, I actually don’t have many memories of the whole process. How did I sell my car? No idea. Too much to do in a short time. Got it done.
Anyway, I don’t get people who put greedy prices on things at an estate sale. Sure, have an expert come through and see if there’s anything *really* valuable. After that, price it to sell…
First class is expensive, but infinitely better than cattle-car class. Especially as one gets older, and can’t sit for hours and hours in the same position. I’ve done business class a couple of times, and that’s already a huge improvement.
How long you’ll live is such a lottery. All of my grandparents lived to 100, plus or minus. My parents died young. Me? Who knows…
I worry about what inflation will do to our largely fixed level of retirement income. We are certainly ok for 20 years. Maybe for 30. Not so sure about 40. I’d really rather not have to depend on the kids. Two years until retirement, so the wife is running detailed accounts to see what we really spend. It’s a lot higher than I would expect, given we don’t eat out a lot and seldom travel.
90% of realtors are incompetent. They’re realtors, because it sounds fun, or because they’re bored housewives, or because even Starbuck wouldn’t have them.
The trick is to find someone in the 10%. A prompt callback is the first filter. Paying attention to your requirements (rather than what they want to sell) is the second filter. Demonstrating actual knowledge and competence is, perhaps, the third filter.