Inheritance etiquette PSA

The sniper may not have been aware he was under the flag, he was simply in the headquarters building, and the tower had suitable windows.
 
Albany Tom said:
Reading through this thread again, I'm kinda reminded that in a lot of ways some previous generations were a lot smarter than us. In the sense that they didn't live in the mostly disposable society we do now.
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Another major difference is that previous generations stayed put a lot more than we do now. We're a very mobile society. It is a lot easier to buy new stuff than haul a bunch of old stuff around the country, especially given just how large our country is.
 
Half Fast said:
After flying back from Alaska and landing in Orlando, I remarked to my wife that in less than half a day we had gone from one corner of the continent to the other and from the arctics to the tropics.
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Yes, while in my book taking a Tri-motor from Fairbanks at dawn. Landing at dusk and sleeping as we traveled south-east in a Pullman car. Then continuing in another Tri-motor . . . taking two days, would be "the Bee's Knees" (Mom's expression). I agree.
 
I have seen many battle flags, all swastikas.

One was used to wrap a fine, civilian grade officers 9 mm automatic, when it was shipped home. The flag was a smaller one, from the motorcycle side car transporting a now dead colonel and his driver. Another of my acquaintances whom you did not want shooting at you. Deed was done with a 30-06 from hundreds of yards, driver first to stop the motion, then colonel. He waited until the next day to collect the souvenirs, as he was on the leading edge of the advance.

edited to add:
I was 12 when the war ended, so saw a lot of returning military men. They brought home some odd equipment, including 2 CO 2 inflated belts, and a pilots Mae West, which were given to my brother and myself. A Japanese bolt action rifle with the head space so mal adjusted you could not close the bolt (Dad figured out how to adjust, and fixed it).

A lot of unit flags, both ours and the enemy.

Artificial legs and arms too, more than I wish to remember.

If you read my story of a bike ride to Shenandoah, there is a crippled GI in that adventure. It is in Bikes Bikes Bikes, the kind you peddle.
 
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geezer said:
I have seen many battle flags, all swastikas.
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German battle flags have swastikas, but not all swastika-bearing flags are battle flags.

The national flag was a plain swastika in a white circle on an all-red flag. The German battle flags (Reichskriegsflagge), flown by Army, Air Force, and Naval units, replaced the eagle on the German Imperial flag with a swastika and had a red background instead of a white.
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John Wayne starred as a German merchant captain in the movie "The Sea Chase." As they get chased down by British destroyers, he strikes the Nazi battle flag and runs up the Imperial one as a last act of defiance.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
German battle flags have swastikas, but not all swastika-bearing flags are battle flags.

The national flag was a plain swastika in a white circle on an all-red flag. The German battle flags (Reichskriegsflagge), flown by Army, Air Force, and Naval units, replaced the eagle on the German Imperial flag with a swastika and had a red background instead of a white.
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John Wayne starred as a German merchant captain in the movie "The Sea Chase." As they get chased down by British destroyers, he strikes the Nazi battle flag and runs up the Imperial one as a last act of defiance.

Ron Wanttaja
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The Nazis were pure evil, but they did have some talent at graphic design.
 
wanttaja said:
German battle flags have swastikas, but not all swastika-bearing flags are battle flags.

The national flag was a plain swastika in a white circle on an all-red flag. The German battle flags (Reichskriegsflagge), flown by Army, Air Force, and Naval units, replaced the eagle on the German Imperial flag with a swastika and had a red background instead of a white.
View attachment 144028
View attachment 144030

John Wayne starred as a German merchant captain in the movie "The Sea Chase." As they get chased down by British destroyers, he strikes the Nazi battle flag and runs up the Imperial one as a last act of defiance.

Ron Wanttaja
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Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorf shot himself upon the Imperial Battle Flag after scuttling the Graf Spee in Uruguay in 1939.
 
geezer said:
That depends on your point of view. He had killed several American soldiers before he was killed. The owner of the flag was a competitive marksman before being drafted, and that sniper was not his first success, just the first with a flag flying above him at the city hall bell tower.
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Made me think of this...

 
Ed Haywood said:
The Nazis were pure evil, but they did have some talent at graphic design.
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I'd agree. From a purely objective standpoint, their imagery and formal displays were all pretty captivating and awe inspiring. Which should not be confused with saying that they were anything to aspire to. Probably the worst "movement" of people/thought in modern history. But like you say, they certainly mastered a blend of art, dystopia, and conformity. The Soviets in their heyday might have been a runner-up for the crown of authoritarian masterpieces, and perhaps in the sense of architecture they might have taken the lead, but I think they were mostly just emulating by that point.
 
also dont put sticky notes with your name under living relatives furniture.

Dont ask me why this disclaimer has to be said.
 
Corin said:
also dont put sticky notes with your name under living relatives furniture.

Dont ask me why this disclaimer has to be said.
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yup, sticky notes are too easy to remove :-/

(I do understand what you are saying and why)
 
Corin said:
also dont put sticky notes with your name under living relatives furniture.

Dont ask me why this disclaimer has to be said.
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Yes, put other people's names on the aticky notes, then sit back and enjoy the show.
 
My bride and I were just reviewing our wills. Our thoughts have changed over the years and we do not feel compelled to pass on the leftovers to family. we have no children, I have an adopted daughter by my first wife who hasn't spoke to me since the child support stopped, 20 years ago. My brides family never calls or visits, it was always us driving or flying to visit especially over the holidays. I have a brother and sister that i am very close with and they are also retired and need nothing. Out of all the nieces and nephews only one has always called or stop to visit everytime they come to the beach. We have always made holidays, graduation and all those typical events. Now her daughter is the same, always checking in on us and her and her mom share every horse event. Girls after my own heart, owned three horses many yearsa go and still have my saddle here in the office. Mary and I both agree to leave money to each and maybe our paid for beach home. The rest, when liquidated, to go to our favorite charities (T2T and animal shelters) and set up a scholarship for trade schools.
 
GMascelli said:
My bride and I were just reviewing our wills. Our thoughts have changed over the years and we do not feel compelled to pass on the leftovers to family. we have no children, I have an adopted daughter by my first wife who hasn't spoke to me since the child support stopped, 20 years ago. My brides family never calls or visits, it was always us driving or flying to visit especially over the holidays. I have a brother and sister that i am very close with and they are also retired and need nothing. Out of all the nieces and nephews only one has always called or stop to visit everytime they come to the beach. We have always made holidays, graduation and all those typical events. Now her daughter is the same, always checking in on us and her and her mom share every horse event. Girls after my own heart, owned three horses many yearsa go and still have my saddle here in the office. Mary and I both agree to leave money to each and maybe our paid for beach home. The rest, when liquidated, to go to our favorite charities (T2T and animal shelters) and set up a scholarship for trade schools.
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Your niece and her daughter sound like good people. It’s your legacy, use it at your pleasure. I like the scholarship idea, it’s something I’ve thought about, too. And there’s nothing that says you have to wait until you’re gone to start these things, if able.
 
judypilot said:
Another major difference is that previous generations stayed put a lot more than we do now. We're a very mobile society. It is a lot easier to buy new stuff than haul a bunch of old stuff around the country, especially given just how large our country is.
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I wonder what the data is on that.
A large part of the slow recovery of the 2008 recession was because so many people did not move to where the jobs where, home ownership has gradually crept higher and was effectively creating an anchor around the ability of people to move.

Tim
 
tspear said:
I wonder what the data is on that.
A large part of the slow recovery of the 2008 recession was because so many people did not move to where the jobs where, home ownership has gradually crept higher and was effectively creating an anchor around the ability of people to move.
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Here's the data: https://sherwood.news/personal-finance/americans-are-moving-half-the-rate-they-used-to-why/

tl;dr people are moving much, much less than they used to. Driving factors are that people are locked into lower interest rate loans, dual incomes make it harder to move away for opportunities, remote work.

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tspear said:
I wonder what the data is on that.
A large part of the slow recovery of the 2008 recession was because so many people did not move to where the jobs where, home ownership has gradually crept higher and was effectively creating an anchor around the ability of people to move.

Tim
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I think the 2 big contributors of not moving are:
Remote work becoming more of thing and

Getting ass-hammered on taxes or interest rates if you do move. If I sold our house right now, and moved down the road into an equivalent dwelling, our property taxes would more than triple. A lot of places the property taxes are based on purchase price and they get bumped incrementally. 2020 skyrocketed the housing prices and outpaced the property tax bumps. The property taxes on a new purchase set you behind where you currently are. Unless you're moving from NJ, IL, other high tax places, to south central US. Then you have the purchased at 3.5% vs what it is now.
 
EdFred said:
I think the 2 big contributors of not moving are:
Remote work becoming more of thing and

Getting ass-hammered on taxes or interest rates if you do move.
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Don’t forget the 6% that goes to the RE agents.
 
Bill said:
Hurts more with the big run up in prices.
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Maybe to the seller, but it’s usually transparent to the buyer since the vig is taken off the top, not added after the price is agreed upon.

We’ve been looking at a moving for several years now and the #1 reason we haven’t is the properties we’ve looked at haven’t been worth the asking price compared to where they were priced pre-pandemic.

We’re seeing the same properties listed at 2x what they sold for in 2019-2020 and all that’s happened they’ve it’s gotten older.
 
TCABM said:
Maybe to the seller, but it’s usually transparent to the buyer since the vig is taken off the top, not added after the price is agreed upon.

We’ve been looking at a moving for several years now and the #1 reason we haven’t is the properties we’ve looked at haven’t been worth the asking price compared to where they were priced pre-pandemic.

We’re seeing the same properties listed at 2x what they sold for in 2019-2020 and all that’s happened they’ve it’s gotten older.
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My brother does real estate in Florida (Naples) and he said that recently, it's started to slide back from the peak. Maybe 30% drop in prices. Some people are hurting on that because they bought thinking they could flip as the prices kept going up, but they paused. Now that's only one small area, but I also noticed when we bought our property, shortly after the prices on the remaining parcels went up, then slid back down. Still above where we bought, but not a continual rise.
 
When I was buying rental properties a few years back, we dealt with a realtor who's in her 30s. Her entire frame of reference was a market where prices were going up at a rapid rate, and listings selling within a couple of days - often less than 24 hours. I explained to her that there would come a time when a house being on the market for weeks or months would be the norm - she just flat did not believe me. It took us about six months to sell our last house back in 2001, and we took a lower price than we listed it for. She was convinced that if a house had been on the market for more than a couple of weeks no one would even look at it.

I don't know how well she'll deal with the next down cycle, and there will definitely be one, where things aren't quite so easy.
 
TCABM said:
Maybe to the seller, but it’s usually transparent to the buyer since the vig is taken off the top, not added after the price is agreed upon.

We’ve been looking at a moving for several years now and the #1 reason we haven’t is the properties we’ve looked at haven’t been worth the asking price compared to where they were priced pre-pandemic.

We’re seeing the same properties listed at 2x what they sold for in 2019-2020 and all that’s happened they’ve it’s gotten older.
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I can see that here: my tax assessment is based on selling prices of comps. I drove around the neighborhood to see for myself what they looked like, and yeah, they are legit comparisons. I like the idea that my house has appreciated, but what good does that do? My taxes go up and if I sell, I still have to find another place I can afford, and those prices might have increased faster than my house value. There was an empty lot a block or two away that was platted as 2 lots. It’s not really big enough for two houses, but that’s how it’s laid out so the developer built 2 small houses there. They share a driveway entrance: so neighbor 1 has to enter on neighbor 2’s driveway to reach his. They were listed back in Feb and still sit empty. Everyone that hears the asking price responds with, “For both? Really? That’s EACH?” Those 2 houses are our local reminder of how crazy prices have gotten. Whoever does buy one of those is going to have to deal with the whispers in the background every place they go, “See them? They bought one of those houses.”
 
I raised the asking price of our house in (just outside of) Reston, VA a few years back right before it went on the market and it sold the first weekend for full asking price. We had a rougher time a few years later when it came time to sell the townhouse. We got one lowball offer. I suggested to the agent that we do the "Don Corleone" counteroffer, where we offer back more than the original asking price, but he talked me out of it.
 
Pugs said:
And that 6% is now legally entirely negotiable.
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In theory.
In practice, to get the seller to stop covering the buyer agency fee when asked asked (not allowed to advertise it), there will need a few years of a very strong sellers market. Only then, will sellers start to have the confidence they will have a second offer with a lower buyer agency fee (or none). When the settlement came into effect, the market had already started to turn from a strong sellers market to a weak sellers market.

What I find the most fascinating about real estate news currently is how the news is being reported. No longer do I see a focus on the national numbers with a mention of a metro area here/there exceeding the national number in some way (both were same direction, difference was magnitude) which was the norm I recall for most of my life until this year. Now, I see much more references to regional numbers, with New England doing well, Mid-West doing OK, North West also OK, the south sucking wind. I am speculating that the news reporting change is because we have never had such a regional divergences real estate markets being sustained and getting larger.

Tim
 
Pugs said:
And that 6% is now legally entirely negotiable.
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At least in the three states that I am familiar with (MN-MI-WI) there has never been a legal requirement to use a broker / real estate agent. Nor was there any law saying how much they must be paid. Certainly, there have always been industry standards. And some individuals have contractual obligations to other individuals and / or organizations. Outside urban areas most real property sales up here are person to person using an attorney. Those who do use real estate agents, tend to go for the 1-2% or flat fee to list a property on the MLS. But with the internet I think that has fallen off. Giving any four people $15,000 to show a $250,000 property is a bad joke when an attorney would charge $1,000 or $2,000 to do all the paperwork and filings.
 
Have a VERY flat real-estate market in Seattle right now. Our agent suggested a lot of clean-up/upgrades to the house (repainting rooms, replacing carpet, etc.) which we had to pay for, of course.

Yet with that flat market, she managed to sell the house within two weeks of it being listed. Two other houses on the same street (group of 12 houses) went on the market earlier, and STILL haven't sold. What she's getting from our sale, she's earned.

Ron Wanttaja
 
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