Monday, March 10, 2008

Will I Continue?

Bloging for the past ten weeks has been a different experience for me. For one thing I never had to keep a weekly writing journal for anything, and because of this I never had to think ahead. Thinking ahead mad me thing of topics that I would never have though of ever writing. If I was not forced to keep the blog for ten weeks, I believe that I would never have begun to write on a weakly basis. I am sure that I will keep my blog updated for the next few weeks, but I am not sure that I will after that.

I don’t believe that will keep the blog updated after a week or so, but I will try to publish some thing new when I get a good deal. Because writing about cars all the time will eventually get boring.

I am not sure but I mite if I have the time create a blog about spa’s. Since I have found an investor that is interested in my idea of opening a spa in downtown Columbus. The funny thing is haw I meat this investor, I was sitting in a sauna at my gym and this old guy comes in. We started talking about all the different saunas that are out there and how people just like to go and relax in them. He told me about how he went to China and how they have these amazing spa’s there. I told him that I worked at a spa for a while and that I have some contacts that are wiling to help. He got really excited after that and offered me a building downtown and a lot of money. So I mite create a blog about spas so that hopefully I get some feedback about what people are interested in a spa.


Wish me Luck!!!

Finding the Biased

In this day and age, finding information on any topic that has ever been thought off is as easy as typing in a phrase on Google. Blogs are a great way to do research, because these days everyone has a blog, and they write about all the events that are going on in our society. A reader should be weary of trusting one blog, because blogs written by one author could be biased. Doing research on different topics has gotten much easier, because of so many people posting blogs. Not all the blogs that are out there are true; a lot of the blogs are biased in some way or another. Deciding on an opinionated blog like research on car or for an informational blog like news events depends on the information being researched.

For instance if someone is interested in purchasing a vehicle, but has no idea on what kind of car they want to buy, they can read about some online. If a particular vehicle caught your eye, and you want to know more, just find a few blogs with people’s opinion on the certain type of car, and see what they have to say. Usually different kind of blogs should, for example, when searching an Infiniti G35 on Google blogs; you get blogs that come up written by different authors about different aspects of the car. In one of the blogs written by The Car Family they explain the feeling that you get from sitting in the car, and they also compare the infinite to other cars like the Nissan 350z. With this blog there were also blogs that came with this one, that explain how the car performs after a year and another blog that was written about how the car performs after three years. This way the reader has a opinion of the car that they are considering to buy, after a year and after a few years.

If the research is about a certain event, it’s a good idea to search for blogs written by different authors on the same subject. On blogs, it’s never a good idea to rely on just one author when you are doing research. If you base your opinion solely on one blog, there is a great chance that the blog is biased. By reading more blogs about this event that is being researched you can have a better chance of ruling out the biased information that you found.

Since the blogs are a free form of writing, they have the greatest chance of being biased. There are no forms of regulation on the writing of blogs, anyone can just sit behind a computer and write. There is no one that proof reads them, before they are posted online. With having this freedom in writing the writer leaves their “attitude or tone [in which] they enjoy to write in.” Having the author’s feelings in their writing is great in a way to know what they were felling during the experience. Reading blogs written by the 9/11 victims are a great way to know how it felt to be there during the attack on the trade centers. There is no way the writer of a published works can leave the feeling of being there during the attack, no matter how hard they tried, because they have to fallow regulation so the they don’t leave their opinion in the paper.

All in all blogs are a great way to find opinioned information. The best is to find information on cars, and their performance from different author. They are also great to find, on how the cars will perform after a few years. Blogs are great way information but a reader should be weary of biased information; a reader could avoid biased information by reading blogs by different authors. But blogs are a great way to get the feeling of being there, which you don’t get from published writing. that’s what’s great about having the freedom of blogs.

ReFlipping on Flipping Cars

If driving a car for a few months for free and then getting paid to drive a better car interests you, then this article is for you. When I was only fifteen years old I began looking for a car to buy for when I get my license, but the prices just terrified me. I could not afford any cars that the dealerships were offering me. So I turned to my friends in order to find out how they were able to drive nice cars and not buy any of them from dealers. After finding out their secret, I was on my way to driving nice cars for a cheap price. Their secret was flipping cars, but it turns out that everyone is doing it. After a few clicks on the web, you can read about how people are profiting from flipping cars. After flipping cars for a few years I have learned a lot, and now I found a blog post of someone doing the same thing that I do, but just starting out. I will improve on what they are doing and give some of my pointers.

In the blog post “More money Mondays: Flipping cars”, “E” writes about how she flipped one of her cars for a profit. Finding the car on Cars.com and then checking the private property valve of the car on KellyBlueBook.com, she bought a 98 Land Rover Discovery for only $5,300. The car was already below market value but she brought cash to negotiate a lower price, which she received. Driving the car for only a couple of months, she decides to sell it. Deciding to put the car on Cars.com, which costs an upfront price of $40.00, she then took it to the cleaners in order to be cleaned and detailed. She put the car just below market value because she was in no hurry to sell it, with hopes that she wouldn’t have to lower the price for anyone. “There’s an ass for every seat, and that’s what I’m looking for.” She didn’t necessarily care whether or not the person interested in the car fits in her seat, but more so that they take it off her hands. When selling the car and someone calls to view the car, she meets with them near a bank or a grocery store parking lot because of cameras. Accepting only cash, to lower her risk of getting scammed, she has the buyer cash the checks in their names so that she can have the cash in hand. As soon as she has sold her car she has another vehicle lined up to purchase, to keep her money flowing in a circle.

E’s experience is so similar to what I have done; I bought cars for a lower price than the value of the car, I drove them for a few months and resold the cars for a profit. One big difference between E’s and my experiences is that she buys cars that are fixed and just below the value of the car, I on the other hand, bought cars with some kind of major problem and way below market value. Sometimes the price of the car is half the market value, and there have been occasions where the price is 70% below market value. I can afford to do this because I can fix most of the problems in cars, but if there is a problem that I can’t fix, I take the vehicle to a family trusted repair shop. At the shop they know my family and I, so I get the work done on my car for a really cheap price. For example, last summer I parked my car next to a building that was under construction. It just so happened while I was in the building some bricks fell on my Toyota Avalon and damaged the front end. I took the car to a regular repair shop and they quoted me $5,000 to fix the car, but my repair shop fixed it for me for only $1,200.

For first time car flippers it is a good idea to start small. In this post the buyer only invests $5,300 into the car, which is great for first time car flippers. When I was just starting out, I started with cheaper cars just to see how flipping cars would go. On my first car I only made $500 and that was great for my first car, but when I invested that extra $500 into the next car I made $1,200. Staying with low cost cars is good in the beginning, but as you make more money it is a good idea to buy more expensive cars. Since you can only flip five cars a year in most state, you want to make the most money as possible off of the cars. Buying cheap cars and then reselling them brings in little money, if you were to buy a car that is a little higher in price and resell it the profit is much higher than the profit from a cheap vehicle.

After giving car flipping a try and you are very successful at it, try moving up. What I mean by this is most people buy average priced cars, resell them, take the money that they make, and instead of investing it into the next car they spend it. Invest your money into the next car until you hit your specific limit everyone has a limit which is the highest price they are willing to pay for a car. After hitting that limit you can try flipping real estate, which brings in more money and never depreciates in value, but cars do and that’s why you can’t keep them for too long.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

At the end of the Line


With winter, there are so many accidents: this means great business for body shops. Even thought I have the money to fix my Toyota Salora, the body shop is will take longer to fix it. Since I get the cars fixed cheaper than anyone else, this also means I am put in the back of the line.


Like anyone else, the shop wants to make money. Since I’m the least paying customer that the body shop has, they put my car at the end of the line of vehicles to be fixed. You can’t really blame them; I mean if I was in their shoes I would probably do the same thing. Put the cars that pay more to get fixed at the front of the line, to keep the customers happy. But the people that get discounts can wait, because they won’t go anywhere else.


This technique of putting the higher paying customer ahead of other people is used in our society whether we like it or not. When I turned sixteen I worked at a day spa, for a while. They perfected this technique; the spa sold gift certificates five percent of the original price. Most people tried to take advantage of this five percent off, but what they didn’t now is when you buy a gift certificate you are under the companies’ control. What the spa did is, if a person had an appointment with a gift certificate and a person walked in wanting a massage. The customer with the certificate would be rescheduled, and the person that walked and is willing to pay full price would be accepted right away.


This way the business makes the most money possible, but what is bad is that the customer that purchases the certificate thinks that they the number one person in the company face. The truth is, the customer is never number one in the face, they know that the customers will always be there.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Running Low


With spring break around the corner, I find it hard to concentrate on school work. For one thing my expenses have brought me to my limits with cash, buying another car and spending a lot on my girlfriend put a strain on my wallet. Running low on money really stresses me out because I won’t be able to fix my car that I have in the body shop and another thing I can’t do things with my girlfriend. Buying another car without selling any of my other cars is where I went wrong.


The car that is in the body shop is a 2007 Toyota Salora, it’s really nice. Outside it’s a dark green color and inside its all black leather. With 20,000 miles on the speedometer which is not bad for this type of vehicle. The cool thing is that it’s a convertible, and has the coolest eighteen inch rims. It has some damage to the rear, which should cost around one thousand to fix. It wouldn’t have been a problem if I had the money.


For one thing I didn’t anticipating that this winter to be really slow; no one wants to buy a car in the winter. And with no money coming in and all the money leaving my wallet, I decide to go to my parents for help. I convinced them to lone me $3,000 to fix my car and go to Mexico with my girl friend on spring break. They agreed which is no shock to me; because they know when the weather gets wormer I will be able sell one of my car and I will be able to pay them back.

Monday, February 25, 2008

The Guest Blogging Experiment

There was a big difference in the style between the guest post and my own posts. For one the content was very different, I pretty much talk about the money that I make from flipping cars. But the guest blogger talks about the car it self like what it stand for. The sentence that the guest used were much more complexes than mine. I try to stay away from complex sentences because when I try to use complex sentence structures I use them incorrectly. The word usage is one of the biggest differences in style, whether the writer uses sophisticated words or just uses word fillers in order to make the post longer. For example the guest post on “my office space” was very different in style. Anyone could tell that the author of the post was not the author of the blog. The sentence structure so different as well, the way the guest blogger worded his sentences was much to different than author of the blog.

What this means to me, to have this post on my blog is that I have a new perspective on how to shape this blog. When I picked this topic, flipping cars for a profit, I thought I had to write only about how I flip cars and what to do right and what to do. From having this post on my blog, I can talk about the cars them self. Not just about my experiences in flipping cars. I can talk about the cars performances, and also find some other information about the cars them self and put it on the blog to help the readers understand the vehicle much better.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Guest Bloged by, KOE, -- Torn love....A3


I think my favorite car was an Audi A3. It was my mom's car when we were in France in 1998. It was sweet little car with manual transmission. I like the 5-doors of the hatch which could blaze air when you step on the accelerator and shift gears. I liked the dual clutch in that car. It almost felt like the drive itself rather than someone has to drive it.

Audi pride itself for safety and reliability which played a great role on purchasing that car, but in a year or so the car had problems with the engines and stability was compromised. My mom was deeply upset on the matter of "health" of that car. We paid out dearly for a new engine which was next generation engine for the car. It didn't totally restore the car to its former glory that a motor company prides itself for.

My parents were great admires of German and Italian branded cars, but companies like Fiat and Audi have tarnished their own self respect of their brands. My parents are not going for any European or American branded cars because for the gimmick of the culture of the car brands. I think more you buy a car for the "country of origin", greater the chance you will receive a inferior packaged product.

I am waiting for the day these car brands could transform themselves like great South Korean Hyundai, which completely changed their overall brand reputation. Some companies charge highly for an inferior products.