Vlocity

Jim,

I just wanted to tell you that I am really sorry to hear of this development. You added a lot of value to each and every purchase that I made from 928 International.

I am literally in the middle of nowhere. I trusted your advice and experience to help me avoid many of the pitfalls that come with owning a 928 that is subject to regular abuse at the track.

Do you remember helping me through my automatic to manual conversion?

I do.

I certainly know that without your help, knowledege and above all patience that the project would not have come togehter as quickly and smoothly as it did.

I also remember being in San Diego a few years ago for buisness and finally having a free afternoon. I drove up to meet YOU and to see Mark's car. You were kind enough to find some time in between phone calls to chat with me.

I hope that you find exactly what it is that you are looking for.

While I have made purchases from all of the 928 vendors , knowing that you are no longer picking up the phone at 928 International just somehow lessens that experience.

Please take care and thank you for all of your help over the years.

Ken

bronto

Jim, I think you'd better keep your day jo..... oh. eh. sorry.

James Bailey

Yes , I was long should have been short and know better than most that the market is driven by emotion. Point being when the despair is greatest and EVERYONE KNOWS it is going down....that is when the market turns. And most are pretty darn negative right NOW !

macreel

Best of luck Jim, and keep stroking.

I really appreciated your help and super attitude.

I hope Mark gave you a good reference.


G'luck

marton

Even the mighty have their problems, from yesterday's paper;
"Berkshire Hathaway reported today that its net worth fell in 2008 by $11.5 billion, a decline reducing its per-share book value by 9.6%. That was Berkshire's worst result in the 44 years that Chairman Warren Buffett has run the company"

Marton

WallyP

I wish that mine had only declined by 9.6%!!!

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net

Plenty of movement, so plenty of money to be made there, you just have to "predict" the direction it will move

dr bob

It's some sad testimony that the Berkshire in my portfolio is the close to the best-performing element. The good news is that equities are trading at very low levels right now. There are plenty of bargains to be found, including Berkshire. Anybody remember that old how to make money theory "Buy low, sell high"? To make money, start buying when prices are low. Like now. You may not see instant 10% day-trader returns, but you will make more money than the "buy higher and hope" crowd. Berkshire bought Harley Davidson Financial notes with a 15% return a few weeks ago, three year redemption, secured with preferred stock. If they default Berkshire owns the company. Great return, great security. H-D didn't call me first. I wonder why? Berkshire bough Constellation Energy at a fire-sale price, because the market was concerned that they couldn't come up with the cash to support their natural gas trading monopoly on the east coast. Huh??? Guaranteed long-term cash flow with plenty of float, a ratepayer base that well established. People heat their houses and run their lights. Pay your bills or freeze in the dark. Snapped up for a lot less than the value of its hard assets, regardless of the cash flow value.

Homes 30 miles from here are selling at foreclosure auction for less than 10% of what they were selling for two years ago. Land and homes here will be worth more, and soon. How soon? Within my expected lifetime. Homes I own are not likely to fail due to management fraud. People will need places to live. This isn't rocket surgery, folks!

[928 Content]
Perhaps with a few timely investments I'll be able to keep my car for a while longer.
[/928 Content]

marton

Agreed, the key questions are
How long can you afford to wait for the recovery?
How long will recovery take (6 months, 1 year, 2 years, x years......)?
Will you be worried if you buy stuff now & it is cheaper next week, next month or whatever?

928 content; if it recovers soon then the next thing on my list is a supercharger...

Marton

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net

Glen Beck had a good piece on the other night, showing how with adjustments to inflation a homes price has been @100K for the past 100 years. There have been some peaks and values, but never a peak like the one we just had and that if history is a model, there is still quite a way to go down...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCx-EWwh0IA

Dean_Fuller

Jim,
I and my first wife had Italian Greyhounds...I have a Whippet now. Good dogs. Here is a pic of Miles...my present dog....he likes television when theres a dog on..

dr bob

-- fair warning given!

The key questions are more like "how long do you want to sit on your hands waiting for others to start benefitting from a recovery?" How long will it take? A lot depends on your definition of "recovery". How long to get to the same overspending consumer-centric must-have-everything-now economy that folks seemed to love? Hopefully that will be a long time. A better outlook is when people decide that living within their actual income is realistic. That's a tough sell in a booming economy, tougher in our current trailing economy when actual income is tougher to predict. We are in what's obviously a self-reinforcing cycle, where folks only want to buy on the upswing and sell on the downswing. Emotion is driving out good sense. You'll do a lot better buying near the bottom of the downswing and selling on the subsequent upswing. Buy things that will have intrunsic value no matter what the market does. Land and homes here fall into that category, as do consumable products compainies. Panic selling is still the norm around here in homes, a great time to cash in on the emotional weaknesses of the moment.

I'm sorry that folks find they can no longer qualify to buy homes they can't afford. OK, not really. 80% of every job is managing expectations. Our current regime has a lot of managing to do. At some point, when the dust has settled, folks will shake their heads, realize that they are really OK, and our economy will start to recover at a more realistic pace of 8% annula growth or so.

Bank and financial stocks will not be included in the GDP anymore, since they don't actually produce anything on their own but merely enable others to produce. Banks may or may not be nationalized. In the US so many banks are foriegn-controlled that we don't dare instantly make those holdings worth nothing, because that in turn would case treasury note values to wither. Fed could no longer print money at will as they have.

We are WAY off topic here. Tried Rob Edwards' JDS diagnostic tool on my car, and found errors for failed rear knock sensor and a failed hall sensor. I'll clear those and see if they come back. I have the new knock sensors in anticipation of my intake project soon, and will likely add the hall sensor to the WYAIT list of things I need.

I'm taking bids on the parts kits, BTW. Off to see Tom and Mark at 928 International soon I guess. Buy stock in those guys in the next week, and share in my little project bonus.

marton

Out of interest - do you have any idea why people whose house value has dropped want to sell it even though their regular mortgage payments are the same (or mostly even lower).
The folks next door who are renting very much the same property with a similar house value drop are happy to carry on paying the same (not reduced) regular rental which is often higher than a mortgage payment?

& why are 928s not offered at 10% of last weeks price?

Marton

Charley B

There are two basic reason's people are moving onto another house. One is the home they are in currently has a mortgage or mortgages totaling $450,000 and the value has dropped to $150,000. They can go down the street and buy a newer bigger house for $150,000 and rent out the old home. If at some point they can't hang onto the old home they just let it go to foreclosure.

Reason number two is they have a loan that will adjust in the future to a much higher payment. they can go down the street and buy another home with a 30 year fixed rate loan and have the same or lower payment than their current home with no payment increase looming in the future. In most cases they will also end up with a much smaller mortgage.

In both cases they will get a larger garage to house their 928's.

dr bob

Charley, that's an ugly truth. Folks 'forget' that a mortgage contract is just that, a contract. Too many are just walking away because the apparent market value has dropped temporarily. Many decided to sign up for contracts that included subsidized loan interest for a few years, secure in the knowledge that properties would continue to increase at 25% a year forever. When the time comes to start back-funding that subsidy with bigger monthly payments, we'll just sell or refinance our way out of that little negative amortization detail. News Flash: You knew it was a negative amortization loan when you signed up. Nothing in that contract has changed. Did you take imagined equity out to buy that new Mercedes? Do that vacation trip? Leverage that to buy other properties? And now your principal property paper value has shrunk back to a realistic price? Unless you've lost your job and can't, keep paying on that original contract. If your income is the same and your original speculation just hasn't quite happened yet, nothing has changed except the timeline of your expectations. A property or asset that was worth the investment then as a place to live is still an investment in a place to live.

The good news is that more folks are looking for places to rent.


It's a good time to buy.