Filed under: Estates

I spent some time last week in the oceanside town of Laguna Beach, California so I was particularly interested to see this property for sale. Laguna Beach is a town full of hills and canyons which lends itself to homes with truly breathtaking vistas of the sea. The LA Times Hot Property column reports that today’s estate belongs to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer. Palmer’s home is a four-bedroom Mediterranean perched on a hilltop with beautiful views out over the ocean, the town and an open canyon. Like many hillside homes, this one has a bunch of levels. The top level has an entry deck, oceanview front office and a two-car garage. The home also includes a gourmet kitchen, formal dining room, living room, a full-floor master bedroom suite which has a cedar-lined walk-in closet, an office, sitting area and master bath. The lowest level has two two bedrooms with a big balcony. Massive Time Listings reports that Palmer also owns a home in Del Mar, California and a five-bedroom home in Cincinnati. This home is listed at $2.949 million.

For more prime properties and lush locations, see Luxury Homes and Mansions.

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Continue reading The Quarterback in Laguna, Estate of the Day

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Filed under: Small business

I recently talked to a business owner who was in the process of raising capital. To this end, she paid a $20,000 upfront fee to a finder (a person who brokers equity investments and loans).

The result? Nothing. The finder stated that a variety of banks were not interested in the deal.

Oh, and that $20,000 fee? Unfortunately, that was non-refundable.

With the credit crunch — and slowing economy — entrepreneurs are certainly having trouble raising money. But, there also appears to be a rise in so-called “advance fee schemes” (this is according to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, which is a paid publication).

In fact, the FBI is investigating the matter (and also has some helpful resources on its website). Although it could actually be pretty tough to prove fraud. Essentially, there must be evidence that the finder had no intention of raising the capital.

So, how can you protect yourself? Here are some tips:

• Verify: Do a background check on the finder, such as by using an on the internet service. Also, does the finder have a website? A real physical address - not a PO Box? Customer references?
• Payment: A small upfront free is OK. However, you should really be paying for performance; that is, a solid introduction to a financing source.
• Contract: Sign one and have an attorney review it.
• Be wary of language like “guaranteed”: In the world of finance - especially with small businesses - there are no guarantees. Simply put, raising capital is extremely tough. So, don’t get sucked into grandiose promises.

Then again, you must ask yourself: why do you need a finder anyway? After all, if your business is credit-worthy, why can’t you go directly to the bank? Hey, many business owners do this successfully, right?

Perhaps a better approach is to hire an expert to help fill out the loan documents and prepare a business plan. For such services, the fees can range from $1,000 to $10,000 or so (again, make sure you do a background check and don’t pay the full amount upfront).

Or, on the other hand, you can craft your own business plan. And the good news is that there are several books on the topic - such as Mike McKeever’s How to Write a Business Plan - as well as software, like Palo Alto’s Business Plan Pro.

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Under Barak Obama’s self-described tax plan, the “rich” would pay more taxes. And he states that $250,000 a year in income is rich.

Let’s say you are a baby boomer with a small business - not a C-corp. If your business is an S-Corp, an LLC, or a sole proprietorship, your business income is included in your personal 1040 and taxed right along with other income (like a pension or spouse’s salary).

If your business profit is, say, $150,000 for the year, and you and your spouse also make $100,000 from other sources, you’re considered “rich” and you’ll pay more tax.

Back to my question: Is $250,000 a year RICH?

Tags: baby boomers, barak obama, income tax, small business

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Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the LA Times Hot Property:
–Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have picked up a home on the Malibu beachfront that had been listed at $5.45 million. Big Time Listings found the property website which is here.
–Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer has listed his Laguna Beach, California home. It’s our estate of the day later today.
–Michael D. Kunce, the president of Armstrong Garden Centers and his wife, Marianne, have listed their palatial Claremont home, Villa Di Fiori, for $3 million. The listing is here.
–Stuntman-turned-director Scott Gillen has listed his midcentury modern in Malibu at $5.475 million. The property website is here.

From Huge Time Listings:
–Teri Garr has sold her two-bedroom home in Brentwood. It was listed for $3,995,000.
–Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman have sold their two-bedroom condo unit in Encino after it had been on the market for $750,000.
–Andrew Alexander, who co-owns the Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Chicago has paid $1.395 million for a house in the Beverly Hills Post Office area.

From the Real Estalker:
–Denise Richards has put her Hidden Hills home on the market for $4.25 million. The listing is here.
–Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly’s Brooklyn home has gone to contract. It was our estate of the day in May.
–Brett Butler has sold her home for $2 million.
–Producer Mark Brazill is still trying to unload the 1920s home in Los Feliz he purchased from Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. He paid $4.795 million for the home, relisted for $4.885 million and has now cut the price all the way down to $3.995 million which means he’ll take a massive loss on the home. The listing is here.
—-Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance seem to have finally sold their Hancock Park home. The home which was originally listed at $5.999 million went all the way down to $3.9 million and is now listed as “looking for backup.”
–CSI: Miami actress Khandi Alexander’s home is back on the market for $2.995 million. The listing is here.
–Real estate agent Joe Babajian has put a home in Westwood on the market for $1.95 million. The listing is here.
—Ellen Degeneres and gal pal Portia Di Rossi have picked up a third property on Cabrillo Drive which will grant them to request permission from the city of Beverly Hills to gate the entire street. It is rumored that Ellen might have spent around $40 million total to create a new huge compound.
–Candy Spelling is selling a pair of condos in Century Woods, a small gated community in Century City. Both condos have five bedrooms but the one with over 8,000 square feet is listed at $7.895 million and the one that’s a bit under 5,000 square feet is listed at $4.795 million.
–Musician Beck and Marissa Ribisi have put their Hancock Park home on the market for $9 million. The pair bought for $6.75 million a tiny over a year ago. The six-bedroom home also comes with a professional recording studio and rehearsal room in the guest house. The listing is here.

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–Ralph Fiennes has paid $2 million for a one-bedroom condo loft on West 13th Street.
–Veronica Hearst sold her Upper East Side co-op (two apartments) at 4 E. 66th St. for $36.5 million.
–Diana Ross is planning to renovate her Sherry-Netherland hotel apartment and raise its price from $9 million to $11 million sometime after Labor Day.

From the NY Observer:
—-Another massive listing in New York City. This time a Fifth Avenue duplex, shown above, belonging to Karen Fleiss, who founded the hedge fund KMF Partners, and her husband, David, a Fifth Avenue orthopedic surgeon has been put on the market for $47.5 million. The listing is here.
–Exiting Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello and his wife, Edith, director of financial aid at the Trinity School, sold their two-bedroom co-op at 25 East 86th Street this month for $2.195 million. The buyer is graphic designer Holly Okner, whose dad is the investor Peter A. Aron, the chairman of the South Street Seaport Museum from 1987 to 2000. De Montebello has moved to another apartment nearby.
–The founder of Rag & Bone David Neville and his wife, celebrity makeup artist Gucci Westman just bought a duplex penthouse loft at the Spears Building, a former warehouse on West 22nd Street for $4.426 million.
—-Charmaine Ho, a 22-year-old handbag designer and freelance fashion write purchased a 25-foot-wide Greek Revival townhouse on West Ninth Street earlier this year for $8.1 million. Her parents, who live in Hong Kong, are paying for the bulk of the mortgage and will pay around $200,000 to renovate the floor-through apartment that she’ll live in. A three-bedroom apartment downstairs and the one-bedroom place upstairs are being rented out.

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Well, I didn’t want to rain on the parade yesterday, but it looks like no good news in sight for the US economy. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that, for June:

• Jobs were cut
• Payrolls fell
• Unemployment remained at 5.5 percent (too high)
• Home prices continue to fall
• Gas prices continue to rise (causing people to adjust their 4th of July travel plans)
• And Starbucks will close 600 U.S. locations. I consider Starbucks kind of a bellwether- if they are slicing back, that means people are drinking less pricey coffee, which means discretionary spending is being cut back. People are doing a lot of belt-tightening.

Is this a recession? What does this mean for your business? What are you doing differently?

Image details: Economic Warning Signs Increase served by picapp.com

Tags: baby boomers, gas prices, small businesses, Starbucks, subprime lending crisis

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