erikahollister's Journal, 25 Oct 23

Sounds like some good news.  

You are a busy girl. I just noticed your weight. Look how close to the 90’s you are!!!! That’s so exciting. I always to excited when i see someone who is this clos because it seems like it starts to fly after that. 80’s, 70’s. How are you feeling? 

and another pound gone! I'm jealous your yard is almost ready for winter. keep up the great work!  

Glad your husband is doing better. Enjoy your day. 

I'm glad your husband's getting better no it has to be so stressful for you having to take over all of the property chores. Its wonderful to have land but one of the issues with having land is that unlike a job you don't get days off. I think it's a great idea to plant some other pretty things that you won't have to tend as much next year but you'll get to look at it enjoy. After all it'll be nice for you to be able to spend a little bit more of your time relaxing next year instead of having to work so much. 😸 Do you have any butterfly bushes on your property I'm a big fan of butterflies. I like wisteria too although it can do some damage to the property if you let it creep too much on the house. Kinda of on the edge on willow trees (getting sidetracked) though had too many instances with them trying to get into the septic tanks...🙃 expensive little buggers.  

Enjoy the rest of your week Erika. To be grateful in adversity, IMO, is no small feat. Good news with husband. Glad to see your updated post🙂 

btw… kudos on the drop ⤵️ 

I'm a landlord, so I take care of 4 properties. Today, I'm will spend the morning repainting the exterior doors on one of the houses. It's been a long, long project, planning, building, renting and maintaining these places. We are grateful for the retirement income that we planned and worked for, but we are tired of the work and the occasional irresponsible or crazy tenants. The other thing we did this week was meet with a financial advisor who can guide us through selling out while minimizing tax consequences. We are proud of our beautiful little cluster of houses, but I think it's time, as I approach 70 and hubs is in his 80's to let it go. We need to progress with caution, invest wisely and try to keep the govt from getting more than it's fair share in taxes. I'd rather pass it on to our kids. Working on the houses and yards has always been my exercise; it's kept me strong if not slim. So, I'll need to spend more time at the gym. It's been a very creative part of my life that I will miss, but I think a positive change. 

Erika, being a landlord is hard work. Before we sold our last property we thought about it, I wanted to but my husband said NO lol. Then again you folks put in the hard work and deserve the security. Our plate is pretty full because we have a nonverbal son with Autism and we're his caregivers, well my husband is now. Because of our aging this is becoming more of an issue for us. We have done this for 40 years and will continue as long as God grants us the Grace to do so. We are beginning the process of discussing what will happen when we leave. Great weight drop, Congrats 🙂💖 

Have you thought about a way you gradually gift them to your kids? Having a soft income stream while I was in school would have been amazing. 

Sounds like good news all around. 💚💜💛 

💪👌👍 

Erika im with you. I had 4 rental houses. Sold one a couple years ago to pay of my mortgage. So now down to 3. I would love to own zero but i also dont think i should have all my eggs in one basket and the market has been so dreadful this past year +. Two of the houses i want to keep for my daughter. I also have acreage in a gated community—that i do want to sell. Im not in a financial position to gift them to her as kat suggested. I need the rent for retirement but hope one day maybe. One of the things i have thought of is reducing the sale price to one or both by commission a realtor would make, then reducing again by my capital gains if i sold at fair market and then reduce a little more by what i thought i could make work with net proceeds if my daughter were in a position to purchase. This would give her instant equity by quite a bit and allow me to get out from under being a landlord. She’s not in a position currently but maybe this is something your children can do? Just a thought. Not everyone worries about leaving behind $$ security for their children but i definitely do. Sounds like you do also. 

Your doing great Erikahollister  

Nice drop Erika!! IMO, you guys are in your golden years and doing all the property maintenance and dealing with the tenants is a job for much younger folks. It would be great to leave it to your kids, but do they really want it? If they have lives and jobs elsewhere it seems to me it would be a burden to suddenly be responsible for all of that, then they might choose to sell it and have to deal with the tax fallout of not only inheritance, but capital gains. Uncle Sam is gonna pin them down for every single penny they can. Of course if they are handy persons and have the interest and the time, that's a whole nother direction! LOL My daughter has told us that she is never going to live here in GA, if we leave her the farm, she will sell it or just let it sit here and go to pot. I have gone to a few estate sales here lately and looked at all the stuff that folks spend a lifetime collecting, the kids are sitting at a table complaining about all the stuff they have to get rid of so they can get the house cleaned up to sell. All of our treasures are something that someone else is going to have to try to get rid of.  

Debra my mom was a bit of a hoarder. Some rooms were piled sky high. Her 2 car garage was piled to the ceiling and the rafters were stuffed with a trail from house to fuse box. She was very afraid i was just going to throw all her stuff away when she died. It was overwhelming while she was alive but when she passed it took me many months on my days off to get everything out. I spent thousands on dump fees, and equipment to fix what had been damaged. Yes, i threw away probably 95% of what she had or I donated useable items to the homeless shelter non profit agency locally. Took probably 4 full truckloads of clothing, towels, dishes, pans, silverware etc. i have told my child and hubs repeatedly i dont care what you do with anything when im gone. What do i care? I wont be here. Possessions aren’t nearly as important as people. Im a neat freak probably more than i would have been because of mom..but even neat freaks leave things behind. Just if you have things of value make sure you tell your children so they don’t think they are junk. I have original very expensive artwork right next to commercially available inexpensive artwork and wouldn’t want her to throw away something she could get paid handsomely for. Tho hubs knows what is and isn’t of value so just in case hes not here. I took her thru the house when i was getting ready to redo my will and showed her the things that would be easily saleable. Yikes. Ive gone on another rant again. My point being talk to your kids about how unimportant holding on to anything is in the long run. Im now paying storage for the things my daughter couldnt let go of that belonged to my mom. It’s been 51/2 years and kiddo hasn’t been there once but heaven forbid if we get rid of the stuff. 

I met some people recently who live in a house that's filled with valuable family heirlooms. I found it gloomy and oppressive. I've gotten rid of a lot already. I had to deal with 3 households for my aunt, my folks and my MIL. I would like to keep it more simple for my kids. As far as the real estate goes, it is our retirement income, so I can't give it away just yet. the way the tax laws are written it is very expensive tax wise to sell investment real estate anyway. We'd lose a lot of value to taxes, but if our kids inherit, then it's a lot less tax on them to sell. So, if we sell the houses now, they will get rolled over into another, more passive, investment, which in effect defers the taxes until after we die. We're very small time, mom and pop investors, but we get to tap into this tax loophole which was designed to be a boondoggle of generational wealth for the rich. We're not rich, just hard working folks who have had a side gig of building 2 houses on what used to be a farm. a lifetime of real estate projects; renovating old houses and building new ones.. 

What exactly is the tax loophole? The 1031 exchange? Which mean more real estate unless it is a 1031 stock market exchange which i have vaguely heard of but dont understand. Asking for a friend (lol asking for myself). 

And in answer to the question: do they really want it? The answer is no, I'm sure. they will sell and put the money into their own lives, send kids to college, move to a bigger house, whatever they want. 

A small loss is better than a gain. Good job still losing during a hectic time.