Ed Icionsub

One of the best parts of our monthly commercial real estate brokers meetings comes at the very end of the meeting. Usually we start with a short mixer as people arrive. Then we are invited to take our seats at the dining tables and we are served lunch. About halfway through eating the lunch, when it is easier to get people’s attention without the distraction of servers dashing about the room, asking to pass the butter or the salt, and the exchanging of pleasantries with your tablemates, a speaker begins the program.

The talks and presentations continue as we finish our lunch and then right before we adjourn, the President invites the attendees to take turns standing and declaring any wants – such as looking for a particular type of property – or any haves – such as a listing just signed since the last monthly meeting.

The announcement of haves and wants is a great advantage to people with hot properties or anxious buyers. This is when we hear about deals that are underway or have just been signed. We hear about the deals before they hit the internet and we also have the ear of the brokers involved. Access to this type of information is invaluable and there is no better way to get an edge on the competition then eating lunch with and rubbing shoulders with the dealmakers.

Have a good friend who is an actor and he lives in Philadelphia, which is why I titled this post “Always Sunny. . .” like the hilarious TV show. Keith loves that show and has actually hung out with the cast and is in a couple of scenes as an extra.

I would not think there is that much work for actors in Philadelphia. But actually, it is not far from NYC and is a lot cheaper to live in Philly than to live in New Jersey or New York. So when he gets work in NYC he gets a short term apartment in New Jersey. New Jersey is actually nice once you get away from NYC and the banks of the Hudson River. In fact, most of New Jersey has nothing to do with New York City.

My favorite spot in New Jersey is Atlantic City. Most people probably think of Atlantic City as a min-Las Vegas, but i think of it as the beach and the boardwalk. I spent many summer weekends on the beaches of the Jersey Shore, swimming is the surf and walking for miles up and down the boardwalk and the beach looking for seashells. And I promise you, my summers at the beach were nothing at all like the TV series, Jersey Shore.

Keith’s parents live in rural New Jersey, about an hour east of Philadelphia and that is too far for him to commute to NYC for acting jobs. They have a small dairy farm and we were out there visiting his family over the holidays. I flew into Philadelphia and Keith picked me up at the airport. Then we drove out to his family’s farm in Jersey. That was a nice drive – nothing but open fields and a lot of cows. It was nothing like the opening scenes in “The Sopranos” when Tony is driving from his home in New Jersey across the river into the city.

I’ve know Keith and his family since college and they are like a second family to me. I’ve been to their farm several times and they always make me feel like I am one of the family and very welcome. On this visit, we hung out with Keith’s dad a lot, while his mom was busy shopping and baking – getting ready for Christmas.

Keith’s dad was telling us about Arosa Energy, a company that helps homeowners, farmers and businesses with New Jersey solar power. He says that there are a lot of ways to be able to afford switching to solar power or adding solar power to your property. Now there are federal tax credits and rebates from the state, which really help with the initial cost of installation.

His dad is planning to work with Arosa Energy to add solar panels to the dairy barn and the farmhouse. He was told that there will be so much energy generated from that many solar panels that he can actually sell the excess energy to the electrical utility provider company. I think that New Jersey solar energy is going to prove to be a great investment for his dad and the farm. We might end up back at the farm in April to help with the solar panel installation. I wouldn’t mind going back to help – I think I would learn so much from working on it – and it would be great to spend time with Keith and his folks, too.

Seriously wish one of the candidates for President would promise to get rid of the IRS. I would vote for that man regardless of his position on other subjects. I absolutely hate doing taxes and yet I firmly believe that every citizen should be able to complete their forms on there own and file them without fear of an audit or questioning by the IRS because they could not understand the complicated tax forms and tax law.

Thankfully, we citizens do have the ability to get help with our taxes. There are people who are trained and licensed to help us prepare taxes, and they have to stand behind their work. If someone other than the taxpayer prepares the tax forms, that person has to sign the form along with the taxpayer. If you were smart and hired an enrolled agent to help you prepare your taxes, the enrolled agent can appear before the IRS if you get audited, and they can even negotiate with the IRS on your behalf.

Becoming an enrolled agent requires formal training, which is available online now. You have a variety of courses that you have to take, such as the enrolled agent ethics course and about 50 hours of study on a list of required courses.

A lot of people like to file their taxes as soon as they receive their W-2s in the mail, around the end of January. These are usually the people who are expecting a refund. However, a lot of other people wait until the first or second week of April to even look at a tax form and try to figure out whether they will get a refund or have to pay in. I know that I need to get busy organizing my home filing system and get the receipts sorted so that when my W-2 comes in the mail I can do a rough estimate and find out if I need to start saving up to pay in, or if I can expect some money back for a change.

Farewell to 2011 and HELLO to 2012! I’ve been looking forward to this year, and we had a nice party last night to properly welcome 2012 into our lives. I hope this new year is kind and generous to us all!

Posted by Gaylord Campbell

Moving wasn’t something we really did because we wanted to, we had to for my husband’s new job. I really miss my family but I went to http://www.wildbluedeals.com/satellite-internet/oklahoma/m/muldrow/ after we got settled to ensure I’d at least be able to email them and keep tabs with my sister’s blog (she’s got a new baby so she posts pictures all the time.) I actually like this new town although it’s smaller than I’m used to and I’m going to start looking for part time work once the boys start school. I don’t think I’ll have trouble making friends through church and all that but I think the biggest challenge is going to be finding a way to fill the void that I feel now that my family is so far away. I love them so much and they were such a big part of my daily life it’s really going to be an adjustment getting used to them not being around as often as they were when we lived just down the street, you know?