a way to get a discount

is to buy gift cards from ebay.

the current valuation:

• home depot cards are cheap, you can get around 10% discount.
• the hottest is Walmart cards. you get 5% if u r lucky.
• basically every chain store cards are available.

extras:

1. pay through paypal, you get protection. you can distribute and get refund.
2. ebay gives you about 2% rebate to spend in the next quarter.

confusion: some people make the sale guaranteed to loose money - they must have some tricks that i don't know about. i once bought a $100 walmart card at $95. i got the card directly from Walmart with Walmart envelope.

also, i have seen some (especially low value cards) cards are being sold for more than face value. e.g. $25 card is being bid at $26.

with ebay commissions, how did the seller make profit?!!!

credit scores - bad model of me

did not grow up in this country makes me not very aware of the importance of credit.

learned my lesson once again - citi bank closed my shell mastercard before the expiration date. chase bank earlier this year lowered my credit so now i have only one c-card with $1K limit.

• i used to have a BoA card with over $10K limit. they closed it after it expired two years ago.
• i had a BonJovi logo card from BoA with $6K to start with. i only applied the card for BonJovi photo on the card, as well as a t-shirt and a cap with BonJovi logos. i cancelled the card as soon as i got the BonJovi gifts.
• i had a Amex card with "unlimited" credit (but the bank must have a confidential limit thus rejected some big purchases) but cancelled it after they started to charge annual fees.
• I had a chase card with $5K deposit to secure. but it was a credit card. it was used to build my scores when i first arrived. (at the time, many of my crdit card - such as the shell gas card - were rejected because i didn't have enough credit cards, IRONIC!!!) i closed it as soon as i had too many cards.
• ...

at the peak i had 4 cards with over $14K limit. but how come my score has become so bad?

1. one time i got a late fee from my Banana Rep. card (you know how the merchant charges the late fees, $39 on a balance of $19.) and the bank would not waive them. so i refused to pay it. they finally sold the balance to the collector. the collector was very hard to deal with. i refused to pay the $100+ balance. my wife got a call from the collector and paid in full (in contrast, she is very aware of the score.)
2. i did not use the online pay features and was tight on when to send the checks for payment. so the payments were late quite a few times.
3. for some reason, i have been victims a few times of identity hijacking. people used my card in Mexico (when my card is actually with me); people opened bank accounts using my name but different address. they even had set up online access with their own username and PIN and stuff.

Foreclosure buying

Just bought a foreclosed townhouse. having a contractor fixing it right now and hopefully can resell it soon.

I basically jumped into this blindly. did not read any real estate investment books, no siminars attended. no expert / experienced help.

got the idea with a friend of a friend mentioned that a bizman here wanted to get a loan with 10 half-completed-but-foreclosed houses. the guy got rejected by the bank. those houses are too expensive for me but i thought buying a foreclosure and flipping it might work.

thanks har.com, i recently discovered that it has a section just for foreclosures. spent some time filtering through, bookmark the interested ones; also a realtor friend does not only offer low commition but has been very helpful and patient indeed.

however i have discovered that buying foreclosures are not an easy task:

• since i am not an expert at fixing houses, i need a contractor to give me an estimate. i have not found a contractor that is 1) very trustful; 2) capable of doing a lot of stuff, not only painting/installing floors; 3) easily available to view the property and have time to take the job. i guess the contractor might end up making more money than i will.
• many foreclosed properties have foundation problems. i don't buy those even though sometime they are so cheap. foundations are difficult to fix.
• foreclosed houses attract multiple bids. this bidding is always closed, i.e. you don't know how many others are bidding and you don't know their bidding price, or even whether there are any other bidders at all or the selling agent is just bluffing.
• foreclosures are owned by banks, who are very ignorant even they have a bad property in hands and are already loosing tons of money on it.
• some strings are probably attached with the documentation. i always fear some potential traps.
• i am buying it with cash (so you know how small investment it is), so no loan involved here. today's banks probably don't want to give me a loan for flipping foreclosures.
• right now i am not confortable with leasing it out. but we will see.

i start with this small townhouse, which is not my best pick in mind. I prefer single family w/o monthly maintance fee. after all these obstacles, i just want to sell it with a few grands of profit. maybe 10% in a few months is satisfactory to start with.

Wish me luck.

Stock activities - sell sell sell

Recently sold a lot of stocks, even some loooong time holdings (i.e. the tobbaco company). first, to rais cash to invest in real estate (will talk a bit later); second, not sure about where the mkt is heading to - but i am not a good timer. so mainly it is for the first reason... will reduce stock holdings futhur. probably don't have much money for stocks. only little cash left in IRA.

sold some LFC $70.80.
sold MO $18.55
sold some PM $50.75

Just bought one stock for IRA money - APOL at $59.90. have been watching it for a few months. this SEC probe hopefully won't affect it too much too long.

Recent Bond Activities

sold 172967AZ4 $103.35 (see old post for bond details)

bought 02635PSK0 $85.50 Americdan General Finance 4% due 03/2011. S&P rating BB+