webLOGfor.US

    I was perusing one of the sites I visit daily (money.cnn.com) and took their Money Ethics Quiz. All in all I found it mildly interesting but there was one item that I felt was a bit out of line more than the others. They had a question ""How often have you refused to tip a waiter or waitress for bad service". My reply to that answer was "Once or Twice". They came back with the following reply:

    Money Magazine ethicists said: While tips are the principal portion of a waiter's compensation – and in that sense, they're not optional – tips are also meant to insure that waiters provide good service. That incentive loses its punch – and service suffers for everyone – if diners are unwilling to vote with their wallets when the service stinks.

• Frequently: 8%
• Occasionally : 21%
• Once or Twice:38%
• Never: 33%

    First for those that answered "Never".  If you are going to just give your money away for nothing, give it to me.  I at least will put it to good use as an investment for myself. 

It seems that money is trying to placate everyone. I think that tips are completely optional based on service. One thing you should not hold a tip back for is a mistake on the part of someone else. If the kitchen or expediter makes a mistake, I let the waiter know and may even let the manager know that the wait service was good/excellent but the kitchen/expediter service was bad. Here's the PDM scale of tipping:

• Horrible service – no tip and a talk to the manager as to how bad the service was
• Poor service – poor tip – usually 5% – 10% depending on how poor Standard service – 15% to 20%
• Above average service – 25%
• Excellent service (or if I take a table up for the entire night at a bar/restaurant – 25% to 40%

web log for us….those that like to reward a job well done

    I'm like everyone else and get a tom of spam in my email. I consider the chain letters that get emailed from person to person just as much spam as the ads for viagra, cialis or whatever today's new wonder drug for impotence is. I always just trash it if it happens to make it past my junk mail filter.

    The National Gas Boycott seems to be making a huge impact this year. I will admit that I have received so much of it that even I noticed. I've been around long enough to see these emails circulate every few years with anger on the increase cost of gas. One can only assume that with the record posting of profit, record cost of gas, and an oil man as president and vice-president of the United States, people are a bit ticked off.

    I remember about 10 years or so ago I talked to a friend about the boycott that was circulating then. He happens to work as a chemical engineer for a major oil producer. His words to me. Go ahead, everyone needs gas. If you don't buy it Tuesday you'll just buy it Wednesday. The "record day loss" will be followed by a "record day of profit".

    If any states are like Wisconsin, the prices can't drop too far as they are tied to a percentage over the wholesale price. Just ask this poor gas station owner who was trying to do give senior citizens a discount on gas.

So I figured that I couldn't be the only person out there with my interests who decided to start a blog.  I mean after all, the blogging world, I've noticed, is huge.  

I went to Techorati, typed in my keywords an viola, there is a blog that I think it worth-while.  Many of the same Interests and of course, problems.  Anyway, I wanted to give a hello to landlordshmandlord.  The blog is a good read.

    I was reading this article in Friday's Philadelphia Inquirer that is calling for a voluntary moratorium on foreclosures in Pennsylvania until the state can get together their plan for a bail out.I see two things wrong with this.

• First, the mortgage foreclosure bailout plan that PA is working on will leave the most vulnerable high and dry. Their plan will allow "…a borrower whose house is worth as much as they owe to refinance into a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage" if they truly wanted to help those in desparate need, they would help the people who borrowed more than their home is worth.
• Secondly, am I wrong in thinking that failed business models should be allowed to fail? Sure, people will be hurt in the process, but aren't these people responsible for their own actions? The mortgage lenders will be stuck with a ton of foreclosed properties, legal bills and no income. They fail. Plain and simple.

I was speaking to someone on this topic who is a mortgage broker and he had said he's flatly told people "unless you're going to sell in two years or die w/in 3 years, this loan is a bad idea". What do the "uninformed" borrowers do? Sign the paper because all they see is the low percentage they start with.

Stupid greedy people/businesses deserve what they get. It's all a matter of natural selection. Be it in the business world or personal world.

Yesterday I was talking about some of my criteria to ensure you choose a good tenant. Back in my trial and error days I had one tenant that I always had to chase down for rent. I would occasionally get excuses, he would avoid my phone calls, call me back when he knew I was not available to answer the phone, etc. He would always pay me when I would catch him in person. This would entail that each month I go to the property multiple times to try and collect the rent. It was early in my career as a Landlord and when he paid the rent there was always the late charge added to it.

From that experience I began to think of ways to try and encourage on-time payment of rent and I came up with one of my more favorite lease clauses. Below is a excerpt of that clause

• Rent paid late twice within a lease period, will result in a rental increase of $50 per month. The right of the Landlord to make a charge for late payment shall not be construed to be a grace period. Acceptance of late rental payments with any late charges from the Tenant(s) shall not waive the Landlord’s right to timely payments in the future.

That helps with the on time payments. If they want to continually pay late, I am at least going to get not only the late charge but an extra $50 per month for my troubles.