BDF Realty’s Blog

“Many hands make light work.” (Old English Proverb)   I remember back to my college days in sunny Arizona when I had to figure out where I was going to live my sophomore year.  Most of my friends were thinking of staying in the student housing in the dormitories for Year 2.  I had virtually no experience with rental properties and wasn’t sure what to do.   I talked to my Dad about it...

“Don’t ask the barber whether you need a haircut.” (Warren Buffett)   “Hindsight is 20/20” (Popular Idiom)   When you work in real estate for a living (especially on what could be considered the investment side in property management), you tend to get a lot of “party questions” about buying rental homes.  You hear different versions of this:   Oh, you’re in property...

The Warriors won the NBA title this month in an exciting series versus the Boston Celtics.  Steph Curry, the star of the team (and local Charlotte product!), won NBA Finals MVP and fellow starters Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson played well.  But one of the major reasons they were able to pull off a series victory was the play of their bench.  Less heralded Warrior’s players- namely Jordan...

“Every cloud has a silver lining” & “The grass is always greener on the other side” (Popular Axioms)   I’m not sure I’ve ever read an article that talked about the “joys of renting.”  I’m sure it exists somewhere.  Maybe it’s because I’m saturated with a bunch of real estate industry communications that always tout “the dream of homeownership” and how everyone should strive for it....

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Vince Lombardi (former Green Bay Packers Head Coach)   With low unemployment numbers, job applicants seem to really have the upper hand in the...

Grocery store prices have really gone up!  Whether it’s due to inflation, the war in Ukraine,  gas prices, Will Smith punching Chris Rock at the Oscars, or whatever explanation mega-corporations think the public will best swallow, it’s been sort of shocking how much more things cost percentage-wise.   This leads to an issue in my house.  My son is a picky eater (following the youthful...

“If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” JP Morgan   I recently had hernia surgery which went fine (thanks for asking!).  It lasted about 45 minutes, was pain-free (while I slept), and the recovery seems to be complete.  The process was smooth.   The issues I had were pre-procedure while trying to figure out how much it was going to cost.  I had a choice- I didn’t have to get the...

Fresh out of college, I was living in New York City and was slinging cell phones by day (they were relatively new back then) and dreaming big dreams at night.  How could I become financially successful like many of the people I was passing on Wall Street everyday?  I wasn’t overly into finance, but started reading a lot of material from the real estate gurus.  Be a millionaire with no money...

He’s making a list He’s checking it twice He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice Santa Claus is coming to town (“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie)   Oh, Santa Claus!  He’s the mythical man who causes such delight and fear in the hearts of children (and some misinformed adults).  He can be a best friend...

“The information learned while attending college is meaningless to employers; the college degree itself is the prize.  It shows you were smart enough to figure out how to graduate.” (My late brother, Gregg Furniss)   My wife and I were coming back from a weekend trip recently and stopped in for a “quick” bite to eat at a roadside Wendy’s.  Oh, I was psyched to take down my chocolate...