horn4life

Well, you have to like the Longhorn sense of humor! SEC! SEC! SEC! The Aggies used to chant that as if they were something other than a cog in the wheel. Exactly what they ran away from, came to their house, and crushed... the now 13 year dream of playing in the SEC championship. Texas is like the cool neighbor that screwed your soon to be wife 13 years ago. Then last night, you caught that mofo banging your mom, while she screamed SEC...SEC...SEC! Texas cheers and Aggie Tears, who is to tell which is sweeter?

Fuck Yes! BWahahahahaha!

Holy shit! There is a reason Aggie Jokes fucking write themselves. At the top of the second hour of Gameday (1:00:33 to be exact) Pat McAfee is going to stand in front of the cannon to feel the concussion. They lower the swords to indicate to fire the cannon... McAfee winces and contracts waiting for the boom... and... nothing. Fucking Aggies didn't load the cannon. The background comments of "oh no Aggies..." and Fire in the hole, as the guys scramble to get the cannon loaded is fucking hilarious. Thirty seconds later they cut to the Aggies finally getting the cannon loaded and fired... but a competency Misfire! The jokes... they write themselves!

LOVE THIS! Heck any after the sale contacts are basically networking towards a future sale via referral or future move of the client. When I was trying to do research on an area I was interested in I would basically tag the houses as priced right, or lingerers with future reductions. One is a lot better than the other. Coming back and showing them you were correct in your listing advice (especially to the more resistant clients) is even better.

We used to do the dollar dance lunch thing before skipping out to play golf. I used to like to "play Indian." Which meant getting $20 in ones and fanning the cash across my forehead, not unlike the feathers of an Indian head dress.

Isn't this mostly a play on the "greater negotiability" of commissions, as well as competency? The only way I guess it would work is if as an agent you can get the owner to list for a lower price you are certain will move in the market? How many agents list too high, simply because they owner won't listen to the advice of the agent. Then the owner complains about the listing sitting on the market? I think the shocking thing here is the bidding and up front money aspect. Better damn sure have a sales price that will close! I know in Austin on the radio that some agents guarantee the price or they will buy the house. So the concept of a locked in sale price guarantee is not unique in the marketplace. I wonder if the concept will survive or not? If I was a very successful agent, might it "be worth it" to pay for listings if you were very confident in your ability to sell the house at the listing price? You would eliminate wasting time with sellers who insist on pricing too high? Only successful agents with high liquidity, could use this sort of strategy. But is there any argument to be made, that waking up every morning to a slew of potential listings? To listings you can price correctly, or move on from? Anyhow interesting concept that is way outside the norm. But as an eternal contrarian, you often don't know what will or will not work until it hits the marketplace? Of course Zillow thought they could become house flippers... Using a lot of the same (I know I can sell it at X logic) thinking I listed as a possibility for the agent bidding site.

Isn't the biggest problem with Condos that it's more difficult to get conventional financing? Might the new administration loosen the lending rules?

correct I forgot to mention that as well as a potential factor. Market liked him. Still big moves. Unbridled optimism and animal spirits? I am more looking to hedge after the first of the year. I honestly think the market is going to rally going into December. But like I heard a guy say the other day about stocks and the market. "The trees don't grow to the sky." If the market rolls and I do nothing I will be in great shape. But valuations and Buffett having so much cash on the sidelines makes me nervous. Just not nervous enough to take a huge short term cap gains hit in the last 35 days of the year.

That blip moved the S&P homebuilders index 5% this morning. https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/sphome?countrycode=xx Toll Bros up in a similar chart from $110 in early July to $168+ today November 25th, up over 6% today. As I have said before I come here almost to do research and look for contrarian thinking. My view is that is that I am having a very difficult time seeing the levels of rate cuts that WuLaw sees. Doesn't mean he isn't right, but I am not yet convinced I am wrong. The excitement of investors for home stocks, clearly shows that more folks at this point are betting on and upwards trajectory for builders as an industry. Rocket Cos up over 9% today. All related to that downward move in the 10 year. Those are big fucking moves in stock values, on very small hints at a change of trajectory. Seems too good to be true to me, so I started buying UVIX this morning as a hedge against my Palantir AI gains. I honestly want to cut my PLTR exposure down to my options but hoping this market rallies a bit more and I can shift that gain into 2025. AGAIN - not rooting against rates falling. As I want all you guys in the industry to make money, but I view political uncertainty as huge, and rate cuts as less certain than even I had thought. I still think the FED nearly has to cut in December to maintain a degree of consistency in direction. But the economic data they have prioritized of late, barely suggests that cut is needed? So are some of these stock run ups justifiable? SO IF - you thought that builders were going to have potential issues if rate cuts do not materialize, are there any particular publicly traded builders you think are weaker than the others?

I hold this in my heart as we head to A&M this week

First off fuck the Aggies. But you also have to respect desperation, Kyle Field night games, and like always for A&M playing Texas is and always will be "The Aggie Super Bowl." We have our Destiny in our hands. But so does A&M! This is the biggest single game either team has played in quite a while. A&M is playing for it's first change after 12 years playing in the SEC. I know with all the endless Aggie chants of "SEC! SEC! SEC!" You might mistakenly think A&M has won something of meaning while in the SEC, you would be wrong. This weeks game with Texas is the first time in 12 years A&M has a change at the SEC Title game. THE mighty Texas Longhorns by contrast can push their way into the SEC Championship Game, by winning their 12th game in their 1st SEC season. I expect us to kick their ass. But momentum is huge in a night game senior night final in Aggieland. So we need to stay focused. Your destiny is in your hands boys! Now go fucking kick ass and TAKE what's yours!

If I were running the tailgates, here is where my mind would drift- 1) get a food sponsor- If It were me I would call my BIL at Smithfield Foods and see what sort of sponsorship opportunities might be available. As they are the largest pork processor in the nation. If you could get Smithfield and HEB that would be the holy grail. 2) I would probably do what I used to do when I ran large soccer tournaments. Create T-shirts as a perpetual sponsorship opportunity for both large and small sponsors to get their names printed on the back of a T-Shirt. And some banner. Think of the shirts with all the sponsors you see on 5K run shirts for example. I combined the T-shirt sponsorships with a goodie bag of coupons and promotions from the sponsors. Not sure the best way to integrate this, but maybe just as a giveaway included in the cover charge? It's more about the sponsors than the T-shirt. 3) Merch - This as you said is an untapped potential profit center. This is also likely where somebody like me might find a lot of opportunities for cash flow generation. There is a reason why Merch is such a big part of the income stream for bands, and concerts. 4) Find a way to compensate whomever you choose to run this. As if they can't make money on it, they won't want to do it over time I think the deal I worked about years ago when I was running large soccer tournaments was 10% of the profit. It wasn't a lot as I had a passion for Soccer, but that little bit of cash made me do it longer than I would have otherwise. And the 10% I got was meaningless, as the profits increased far more than my meager compensation for the Association. 5) What is the dollar amount of the RevelXP contracting? Might that be an area where the person running the show might be able to do more work, but get more comp here? I never knew about Revel XP, but interesting business concept. As commercial tailgating I assume, is a lot like the party rental businesses, in that the profit is made once the basic equipment is paid for. Like the $2500 tent rental my buddy needed as a just in case for his daughter's wedding. That tent was paid for many, many times at $2500 a pop. This is the cost if I were running the event I would look at trying to shift from an expense to a future profit center. (but only if a multi-year operation) 6) Worker bees for setup and breakdown. This is a little out of the box, but I might try to develop a relationship with some of the local non-profit groups, to help with this. Sort of like UT would have group volunteers come in and run the concession stands for the non-alcohol stuff. I assume a lot of what you pay RevelXP for is simply having the warm bodies there to set up and take down the event. It might be the most fun volunteer event of the year in some places (if they don't hate us) Anyhow that's my slow moving morning take. It's honestly sort of an interesting opportunity. Seems like the areas of potential additional cash flow are Merch, additional sponsorship, and replacing the RevelXP expenses with lower fixed setup costs (may not be possible?). Probably other places for small slices of revenue, but those are the larger ones I assume.

So not a single fucking thought on the actual game time? Though I do enjoy assumptive relationship advice...

I think I would rather say yes to one of the very few favors my wife of 38 years asks of me. Of course I am not a panicky type... 😉. And, I fucking like her company more than that of others. But thanks for the McCauley Caulkin point of view...

Well shit. My wife is invited to a shower on game day. That starts at 3 fucking o'clock!!!! I assume they (sort of like me) thought the game was going to be on Friday. The kicker is the damn shower is at The Bowie on Rainey, and apparently there is no parking?!?!?! So the wife want's me to drop her off, and pick her up. I of course will adapt and overcome. But what do you guys think the odds of the 2:30 kick vs the 7 pm kick? I can say fuck it, you find parking. I guess alternatively... where the hell should I watch the game if I am playing chauffeur downtown if it's an early kick....