A better way to hold money in the bank

If you are a saver and have a little nest egg put away, or a person who believes in having cash in the bank just in case a great deal comes along, then you know how piddly the returns that banks give on your money.  Something like one-tenth of 1%.

Somehow we have been conditioned to believe that money in the bank is safe, and maybe it is, but what if you could do better?  Also, why is it, with the recent increase in mortgage rates, our savings rates have remained the same?

A recent post from E.B. Tucker of the Strategic Investor spoke of how interest rates are on the way up, and how to take advantage of it using government money.

The US Treasury is in debt for $21 trillion and is willing to pay anyone willing to “loan” them money, at interest rates that beat the banks.  For example, $20,000 sitting in a bank savings account at .01% will yield $20 annually.  Lending that $20,000 to the US Government for 4 weeks at their current rate of 1.59% will yield $259 annually (if you keep rolling it over every 4 weeks).  How safe is it?  As safe as you believe our government can pay.

For this reason, E.B. Tucker invests in the shortest term of 4 weeks.  At the end of each term, the principal and interest are deposited back into your bank account, ready to use or deposit again.  3 month yields are 1.80%, and 6 month yields are 2%.  The longer the time frame, the higher the interest BUT interest rates seem to be rising, so shorter terms are a better play on this strategy.

How to do it

The first step is opening an account with the US Treasury.  Here is the link: Treasury Direct website.  Complete the forms which will then link to your bank accounts.  Here is a link to a guided tour of the account.  It is rather easy to do.  Choose  either individual or entity accounts.  A personal trust account defaults to an entity account, rather than to an individual account.

There will be a layer of security checks such as choosing a picture and captioning it as well as being emailed an account number (write it down).  You then log in with the account number that was emailed to you.  A one time passcode will be emailed to you for the first time.  After that, your own password is the valid one.

You are now ready to participate in US Treasury auctions!  After you are logged in, choose “BuyDirect” from the tabs at the top of your account page.  Choose “Bills”.  This will take you to a purchase information page with all the available short term bills in chronological order.  Choose the one with the term (Aunty chose 4 weeks) and the date that you want (Aunty chose this week).

Enter the dollar amount that you wish to invest and designate if you want it to automatically re-invest after the 4 weeks.  For this first time, Aunty has decided not to do this, but will probably have it enrolled in scheduled reinvestment in the future when it feels more comfortable.

After you have chosen your term and week, click submit.  This will take you to a page that asks you to confirm this transaction (as in, are you sure you’re sure?)

Congratulations!

Confirm submit, and it is done!  After each auction, Treasury bills will show up in your account with the corresponding interest rate and maturity date.  Four weeks later, it redeems the bills and your principal plus interest is deposited back into your bank account.  Cool!

You can participate in as many auctions as you want, though you must submit each one separately.  Do NOT back out of a page or you will have to go to the home page and log in again.

To see a Tentative Auction Schedule of U.S. Treasury Securities, go to Announcements, Data and Results – though this is a spreadsheet of tiny letters and numbers that Aunty could barely read.

The process will seem daunting, but it just takes a bit of time to learn.  It also feels good – lending money to our government, and getting paid for doing so.

Update, August 11, 2018

Aunty linked her bank checking account and invested $5,000 in a 4 week treasury bill.  Rather surprisingly, only $4993.08 was swept out of the account.  Just before the 4 weeks was up (time flies so 4 weeks is a great term), Aunty opted for the automatic renewal for one term.  At the beginning of that 2nd term, $7.23 was deposited into the account by US Treasury.  Hmmm.

Then, after the 2nd term expired, and Aunty did not opt in for a renewal, $5,000 was deposited back into the checking account, and all was good!  It was perfect timing because Aunty really needed the funds.  

This is an excellent strategy to park money short term and earn more than the banks’ piddly interest on savings.

 

How to buy Bitcoin in Hawaii

Bitcoin is something else.  When Aunty first heard about it, it was not for real.  Some made up internet money that was generated by computer power that took up a lot of electricity and buying it involved a lot of steps and verification in places that were new and unproven.  And how could a regular person like Aunty with very little techno skills buy it?

Well, the easiest way was to open an account with Coinbase, but they pulled out of Hawaii in a hurry after our State regulators got too strict.  After that, it became very difficult to buy bitcoin in Hawaii, and the tax bite on profits were quite high since it was considered to be “property”.

Using IRA money

Aunty used existing Roth IRA funds, transferring monies into an account with BitCoinIRA.com.  VERY high initial fees, long processing times, limited trading times, and delays in orders being taken and recorded.  It takes patience and is a bit complicated for things to get rolling, but it has been the best thing that Aunty has done last year because of the price movement of Bitcoin, and the zero tax status of using Roth IRA money in a Roth IRA account.

Matthew@BitcoinIRA.com was super helpful and had to answer Aunty’s many questions.  It is almost like there are 3 layers of transactions – Kingdom Trust being the custodian of the account, BitcoinIRA being the sales/mediator, and Bitgo being the wallet that changes dollars to digital currencies and back again.

Once the money is deposited into the Kingdom Trust custodial account, the fun begins.  Purchasing choices are the digital currencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, or Ripple.  A call to BitcoinIRA starts the buying (or selling) process, then a confirmation call from Bitgo, and then in a few days, the transaction shows up on the Kingdom Trust account.  This can take over a week.  However, profit potential is huge because of the way these digital currencies move swiftly and spectacularly.  Some people like to just hold on for the ride.  Aunty likes to sell and buy, sell and buy.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes Aunty sells too soon.  But such is life and Aunty’s results have been pretty good.

Using a familiar broker, like Ameritrade

The easiest way to invest in Bitcoin is in a “stock” symbol GBTC.  Anyone with a trading account (Ameritrade, ETrade, Schwab, etc.) can buy GBTC at its market price, which had a tremendous ride last year, going from $100 to over $3,000 in a matter of months.  One share in GBTC represents .09 BTC, just under one tenth of a Bitcoin, held in trust.  It is something like an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), but not really.

The market price of GBTC is quite a bit higher than the actual value of .09 BTC, which is why Aunty hadn’t bought into it BUT a 91 t0 1 split will soon be taking place, for those that have GBTC in their portfolio on January 22, 2018.

When this happens, each share of GBTC will be worth about 1/1000 BTC, so the price will be less per share and much more affordable for the average investor.  Instead of $2,000 per share, the split will shatter the old GBTC into 91 smaller pieces of .001 BTC that cost $20 per share if the market value of actual Bitcoin is at today’s pricing.

It will be an interesting split, that Aunty will want to be a part of.  To do this today will cost about $2,000 each – maybe more, maybe less, depending on what the market is for the day.  If that is too steep for you, wait for the split, and the cost per share will go down to ~$20 or so.

Opening a wallet of digital currency

Bitcoin now has more of a legitimate status nowadays.  Some businesses accept payment in Bitcoin (Aunty saw a sign in the Aloha Crepes window in Kaimuki “bitcoin accepted here!”)  You will be able to pay for your new Tesla car with Bitcoin.  Because it is a digital currency with no ties to a bank, a digital currency wallet is necessary to transfer Bitcoin in or out as well as convert to or from US dollars.

Opening and funding a wallet is very difficult, especially in Hawaii, but it is doable.  There are several wallet companies, but only a few that will accept us Hawaii people.  Aunty was finally successful with Abra, an online app on Aunty’s iPhone that can convert dollars and store Bitcoin, as well as send out fractions of Bitcoin to other wallets for products or services.  A small problem with Abra is that NONE of the Hawaii banks are acceptable for funds transfers, so you must have and get verification in a mainland bank account such as Wells Fargo, Citi Bank, Bank of America, etc.  You can only fund a limited number of dollars at a time, so it will take awhile to have a substantial wallet account, but a fraction of a Bitcoin today is better than none, in Aunty’s opinion.

You can also fund Abra with your American Express card but that comes with very very high fees, so your best option is to open a mainland bank account so you can use it with your Abra account.

If you are willing and have the patience to open an Abra account, congratulations!  It will be worth the effort.  Just be sure to write down your security “phrase”, word by word, in order, and complete each step.  Keep that in a safe place that only you have access to.  Your Abra “address” is a very long account number of upper and lower case letters with numbers.  This must be entered exactly as it reads, or one can use the QR code associated with the account.

Since this will NOT be an IRA or retirement account, your gains on crypto currencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.) are subject to taxation, so every transaction must be recorded for your account.  Especially your cost basis – what you initially buy Bitcoin for, and all subsequent buy/sell activities.

Spending Bitcoin transactions such as buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks must also be recorded, because spending Bitcoin is the same as doing a withdrawal or sale.

Using a wallet

Aunty used her Abra wallet to purchase USI-tech BTC packages.  This was an investment with daily payouts based on number of packages purchased.  However, USI-tech has recently halted its business side – the multilevel marketing side of signing up new people, and the purchase of more BTC packages.  What will happen to Aunty’s existing account is still up in the air, but, like any other investment, the risk was limited to what Aunty could afford to lose without losing sleep.

If and when the dust settles at USI-tech, the Abra wallet will be utilized to withdraw Bitcoin from USI-tech, converted into US dollars, then transferred to a bank account.

Phew!

It IS a huge learning curve, and this is just a small view from Aunty’s perspective and experience.  However, once you get used to it, you will love it because of the roller coaster ride into uncharted territories.

Aunty likes checking on her Bitcoin accounts with a free online app called Blockfolio.  This is an app that you add the digital currencies that you are interested in, or it can act like your own personal portfolio tracker by entering the number and price of your Bitcoin/Ethereum/etc. purchases.

Another way to follow the digital currency movements is with CoinGecko.  This website shows the most active digital currencies with links to price charts and info on each.  There are over 1000 different digital currencies that CoinGecko tracks with very up to the date prices.

CoinDesk is where the latest news, buzz, and opinions from various digital currency writers abound.  This site also has tutorials on what is Bitcoin, how it works, etc.

Aunty first decided to test the waters because of Teeka Tiwari of the Palm Beach Research Group.  His passion and belief in digital currencies is contagious, so kudos to him for his lessons and recommendations.  His advice is, even if you don’t subscribe to his service (quite expensive), buy a little bitcoin, even if only $100.

Aunty also says Buy Buy Buy!

But only invest what you can afford to lose.

For the average person, the hoops, verifications and requirements of establishing a digital currency wallet and custodian are overwhelming, and so, the simplest and most familiar way would be to buy GBTC with one’s stock account (i.e. Ameritrade).  Today’s price is around $2,000, but it will drop substantially after the 91 to 1 stock split on January 22.

Buying with Roth IRA money in BitCoinIRA is having the best of all possibilities because of the no tax on profits, with no reporting necessary.  The drawbacks are that it is a slow process to get going and the need to call in trades and wait for transactions to clear.  So far, BitcoinIRA it is the only game in town that handles IRA funds in ways that will comply with IRS regulations, so it IS the one.

The beauty and wisdom of a Roth IRA and growing up

Aunty once did a post on opening a Checkbook IRA.  That post is the cornerstone of Aunty’s legacy, and hopefully taken to heart by Aunty’s readers, young and old.

The Roth IRA is a gift from the government, but only if it is opened, funded, and used for growth.  Aunty never thought she would be old – until she was called “Aunty” by some young kid on the bus.  From that point, there was no turning back.

Other than having a younger body, Aunty wouldn’t want to turn back.  She would lose her Ross Stores senior discount on Tuesdays and the long awaited Zippy’s Senior Discount card!  Life is shorter, but better now.

 

 

Lessons from a Flipper

Being part of HiREI has many benefits, and one of them is being part of the women’s group, Hawaii Women Real Estate Investors (HiWIRE for short).

The October HiWIRE meeting was sparsely attended with Gary DeBose as the featured speaker.  Gary has done hundreds, if not thousands of deals, most of them using other people’s money and other people’s talents to find/purchase/fix great real estate buys, and sell at large profit margins.

Gary’s style of presentation borders on insulting, and he admits that from the very start.  You may decide to bolt out the door, but Aunty sat her butt down and stayed put.  It was a good decision even though Aunty’s strategy and long term goal is buy and hold, cash flow rental income from real estate.

Aunty’s notes were very sparse because he talked a mile a minute and his figures, calculations, and projections were presented in rapid fire.  The gist of it all was that you could make excellent money buying low, fixing and/or repurposing, and then selling high.

Cash flowing rental real estate is not his goal

His goal is to buy, fix, sell – quickly, cheaply, for as much profit as possible.

One current deal that Gary is working on is a hotel complex – Holiday Inn in a semi rural area on the mainland near a freeway.  This Holiday Inn was losing money because of poor occupancy.  Using $3,000,000 of investors’ money, Gary secured the title wrapping around the seller’s mortgage (strategy that Aunty has never done), is in the process of renovating the entire complex into a resident care facility (senior citizen home), renting out units until fully occupied and cash flowing at $64,000 per month, and then selling it for $23,000,000.  This will net his investors more than double of their money, and a very tidy profit for himself.

This was Wowza.  Very Wowza.

Gary has the vision, know how, and fortitude to max out profit, and he does it with a set of formulas and street smarts to get it done.

However, this was NOT a case of, “if he can do it, anybody can do it.” 

No, because Gary lives, breathes, and consumes real estate.  He puts in a lot of time, talk, and non stop thinking, planning, negotiating, implementing, teaching, growing, presenting, traveling, and juggling.  He has a team of hundreds working with him.  He is a bulldozer.  A very admirable, somewhat abrasive, brilliant bulldozer.

Two ways to join

One of the ways to join Gary’s team is to be a finder of deals.  This means you are doing a lot of research, knocking on doors, finding distressed situations, running numbers.  If it turns out to be an acceptable property that turns a profit, you get paid a nice fat fee after the property is sold.

Another way is to put money in Gary’s hands (via escrow) and ride behind the bulldozer with him.  Results are not guaranteed, but you do get to pick your deal.  In some cases, you get paid your portion back plus a tidy return in weeks.  In some cases, it may take a couple of years (the Holiday Inn example).

Aunty in the wrong strategy?

After hearing Gary’s presentation, Aunty’s world felt a little knocked over.  It seemed to make so much more sense to flip real estate rather than rent and hold.  The ROI (return on investment) can be SO much higher doing flips rather than rentals.  Why buy and hold for returns of 8%, when you could buy and flip and get returns of 20%, 50%, 200% or more?!

Aunty found herself in a quandary – a state of uncertainty.  Not a good feeling for Aunty.  Should we be flipping instead of going for cash flow?  Aiyaayaa (pronounced eye – yah – yah) – aiyaayaa!

The very next day, as if the sound of angels’ harps strummed through the air, a calmness came over Aunty, and her world was righted back to square.  It came after reading a quote in one of the many (many) newsletters that come into my email inbox last night:

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” – Marcus Aurelius

Aunty can buy/hold/rent and be okay.  Gary can buy/fix/flip and be awesome.  That was a very nice A-ha moment.

Stick to your guns, even if they are slow

There are several pros and cons for flipping or renting for real estate.  [note to Aunty (and please remind Aunty if she forgets..) – write a more detailed post on those pros and cons.]

Most of the speakers that have programs or a call to action for you to join are flippers.  Flipping is a rush.  It is exciting to buy low and sell high.  It is fast money – you get a return of you money PLUS a nice sized profit in a short period of time.  It works beautifully, until it doesn’t.  Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame) calls it linear income – you do a deal, make money, and in order to make money again, you have to do another deal.

Buy and hold income, on the other hand, is not fast.  It is slow, but steady.  Successful rental real estate will continue to pay you with rental income month after month, year after year, whether the value of the property goes up or down.  It’s not exciting, but having cash flowing rental real estate in the right places helps you sleep at night.

Aunty learned not to share what she does with flippers

The reason is that experts who do short term flips can poke enormous holes in Aunty’s and Uncle’s portfolio and strategy.  They would be absolutely right in their analysis for their own intentions.  They would be not right for ours.

Besides Robert Kiyosaki’s sage advice, Aunty also pays attention to Jeff Brown of BawldGuy.com.  He builds a blueprint for clients ($3,000) – even for clients that don’t always follow his advice (ahem, perhaps Aunty needs to learn to listen to him better).  Please read an article he wrote for Bigger Pockets back in May 2012, “What’s your End Game?”  This was an excellent article about investing to grow funds rather quickly in order to be able to slow down later.

Flip to make money

Does Aunty ever do flips herself or with others in joint ventures?  Yup, you betcha.  The best way Aunty has found to do short term flips is in a checkbook Roth IRA because of $0 taxes, and zero tax filing requirements.  Zero!!!

We sometimes flip in joint ventures by forming an LLC in Hawaii (cheap – lucky we live Hawaii).  Our Hawaii LLC goes into a contract as a partner, or sometimes just as a lender, the controlling partner does all the wheeling, dealing, arranging, paperwork, etc. and at the escrow closing or other agreed upon time, we get our investment back plus profit or dividend (for which we file on our tax return and pay taxes).  Gary DuBose could be someone that we would invest money with – if and when we have enough to do so with.  His minimum investment criteria is $100,000 with potentially awesome returns.

What Aunty learned

Gary DuBose is a certifiable and proven expert that knows how to make a ton of money flipping real estate.  He flips for his income, we do not.  Regardless, Aunty is grateful for the information that he shared with us at the HiWIRE meeting.

Of great value to Aunty are a couple of tools for evaluation that he gave to us:

bestplaces.net is a website that is free and very useful.  Enter the zip code of the area that you want info on in order to see tables listing by population overview, statistics, and info galore.  For real estate purposes, select the “Housing” link.   Make note of the information given for the average household size (HS) and average household income (HI).  These numbers are specific to the zip code that you input.

Apply these numbers to Gary’s formula of HI/HS x 1.85 x .31.  In human talk, that is Household size, divided by Household income, multiplied by 1.85, and then multiplied by .31.  Divide this number by 12 to get a monthly figure.  This monthly figure is what you could expect to get as monthly rental for an average 3 bedroom house.

Next, go to rentometer.com.  Enter the zip code or address of the property you are researching and input that number (expected monthly rental) into the rent/mo box and the number of bedrooms of the unit.  This website will compare your property to others in the same neighborhood and show if it is too low, too high, or just right.

Another great and very simple tool to find out what your mortgage payment will look like for any loan amount at a specific interest rate is Karl’s Mortgage Calculator.  This is an easy way to find out what your mortgage principle and interest payment will be – taxes and insurance are not included.

Mahalo to Gary and HiWIRE

Aunty did not go this month’s HiWIRE meeting with any expectations other than meeting up with Martha to give her a book (The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson), and to socialize with the other wonderful ladies.  It turned out to be a powerhouse meeting that had me wired (oboy) for hours after because of SO much information from Gary.

Gary does have a website:  thedealfunders.com with his contact info and upcoming events.

Aunty is very glad that she set herself down, put on her listening ears, and came away with much more than when she arrived.  Gary even sang his latest marketing jingle – what a great voice!

In retrospect, Gary sorta kinda looks like Honolulu Bulls head coach, Phil Neddo.  Both are bulldozers, both are fearless, both are sons of preachers.  Hmmmm.  I wonder if Phil can sing?

 

Gary the deal funder

Gary the deal funder

Phil the soccer coach

Phil the soccer coach

For Young People

If you are young and starting off, get a job that you enjoy and do your best at that job – you owe that to your employer.  It is not just that they owe you a paycheck.  You owe them your best effort to earn your pay.

Learn about investing.  Learn from as many people as you can at first.  Just don’t buy those super expensive programs or courses.  Lots of them start off with a lot of bull and hype and tell you how easy it is to be a millionaire in a few short months.  Not true.  You must commit to working hard at it.  Learn hard first. Save instead of spend because you will need some money to start.

Rent cheap and save expansively. Your very first real estate purchase should be an investment property, not your home – especially if you live in Hawaii.  Once you get your first investment property, enjoy the positive cash flow, even if it is just $100.

If you feel you must buy a home first (we seem to be programed this way), buy a duplex and rent out one side.  Burdening yourself with a high monthly mortgage that eats up your paycheck will leave you without any discretionary income.  Having discretionary income will allow you more options such as savings and investments.

Be careful about investing in the stock market to get rich fast.  Some people actually do, but they are the very very tiny minority.  You are not smart enough to know what the market is going to do.  NObody is smart enough, unless they are evil market manipulators who don’t care about you.  Invest a bit if you must, but study and learn the market first, then get good tools to help you.

Start building a relationship with a banker, smaller banks are more flexible than the big banks in town.  Use bank money as much as you can – Rich Dad calls that leverage – using other people’s money.

Because Hawaii is so expensive, look at markets on the Mainland – in this current economic times, you can get a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath house for under $80,000 fee simple that will rent for $900 easy.  If your credit is good, you can put 20% down ($16,000) and finance the rest.  Your cash flow will be less because you will have a monthly mortgage of about $400 that way, but you are only putting down $16,000.  Less cash flow, but you can purchase more properties.  Keep going, keep buying, keep the cash flow coming in.  If you can be disciplined and focused, you will build up a portfolio of rental properties and have serious positive rental income.  At this point, you will be able to purchase your own home with the rental incomes paying your home mortgage.

That will be a beautiful day!

Imagine, if you are in your 20’s, by the time you are 40 years old, you could be a landlord or landlady overseeing 10 or more of your own properties!  This is very very possible on a rather slow pace of buying one property every 2 years.  You may surprise yourself and as your knowledge and income increase, you will probably find yourself buying 2 or more properties every year!

Time is on your side.  Imagine if Aunty had started investing in cash flow real estate 40 years ago.  I could be teaching Robert Kiyosaki a thing or two!

Not only is time on your side, right NOW is a fantastic buying opportunity for anyone with a depressed real estate market with bargains and more bargains, and the lowest mortgage interest rates that I have ever seen.

No money?  Make money.  Here is a page on some simple rules to live by – and one day you will look back and be glad you paid attention.

Get started on eBay!

One of the best teachers to stop me from buying stuff I really don’t need (doodads) is selling those unused items on eBay.  Rarely will you get what you bought – though sometimes you get pleasantly surprised – a Louis Vuitton bag that was bought for $800 actually sold for $800 on eBay with heavy bidding at the end!  Most things we have laying around will sell, but not for retail.

Here’s how I sell – it’s not as hard as it used to be.  Please give it a go.  It seems daunting, but once you’ve started, it’s easy peasy.

First, gather your items, at least 6 or more.  Reason to do this is to do bulk steps which cuts down on time spent on editing photos.  It helps if they are the same type of things, i.e. clothing, or pictures, but it doesn’t have to be.

Next, find a good uncluttered spot on your lanai, lawn, entrance, or nice floor (no patterned rugs) and take pictures – the better you can with the best lighting.  This is kind of a pain, but well worth the effort.  Pictures sell, period.  Take front, back, side, details, and especially take a good picture of the flaws or damages.

BIG NOTE UPDATE:  eBay now has an app for your iPhone.  This makes is super duper easy to put an item up for sale and take your pictures on your iPhone without having to go through the photo uploading the old way.  Fantastic stuff!!!

If you have an iPhone or smart phone with camera capabilities,  go to your iTunes account and download the free eBay app.  Name the item, choose the category, shoot the pictures, select the shipping and other options, do a brief description, and either save or post.  After that has been done, then use your computer to sign into your eBay account, and edit the item that you just posted with your iPhone.  It is easier to edit and add to the description from your computer but be sure to do it before anyone places a bid on your item (otherwise you are more limited in editing).

The following in bracket and italics is if you DON’T use your smart phone and the eBay app to load an eBay item that you want to sell.

[I have a Mac, so the following is how I upload and edit my pictures.  Using the cord that connects the camera (I use a Kodak EasyShare Z210 which is an average digital camera), connect to USB port of computer and the camera.  Turn the camera on.  iPhoto automatically opens, the camera icon appears on the menu bar of iPhoto, and it asks if I want to download all pictures.

I usually say yes, and if I have old pictures that I have saved on my camera, iPhoto will ask if I want to also download duplicates, which I say no.

After the (newer) pictures are downloaded, iPhoto will ask if I want the pictures that have been downloaded to be deleted from the camera.  I usually say yes, but if you are just getting started with editing and such, you might want to say no for now, just in case you need to download the same photos again in case of disaster.

Eject the camera icon, then turn off camera and disconnect cable from both computer and camera ports.

The recent photos are now in the newest event folder.  I open the folder and “select all” of the photos.  Using iPhoto, I crop each one – just to tidy up each photo – eliminating background space or whatever doesn’t need to be in the picture, and advance to the next photo using the forward arrow on the screen.  I also “delete” the photos that I don’t think I will need or if they are really poor shots.  At this point you will know if you have a bunch of good pictures, or if you really need to shoot the items again in better light, better background, better focus.

Next, I create a folder on my desktop, and name it “ebay [today’s date] photos” (you can name it anything you want).  Going back to iPhoto, I choose the recent event of eBay shots, “select all”, then drag all of those nicely cropped photos into the folder of “ebay photos” on my desktop.  You many have to put the “ebay photos” folder near an edge of your computer so you can see it outside of the iPhoto window.

All of your pictures should now be in the desktop “ebay photos” folder.  Open the folder.  All of the photos will be listed with a bunch of goobly gook numbers.jpg.  These all need to be named so you can identify which picture is for what item.

Single click on the goobly gook number of the first item on the list.  Give it an identifying name – i.e. if it is an Ann Taylor blouse, name it “annfront” if it is the front of the blouse, “annback” if it is the back, etc, etc.  Keep it simple but keep the first part of the identifying name the same – “ann”.  Each time you do this, the item on the list moves down, and the next goobly gook number jpg is at the top of the list.  Go through the entire list and name all photos.  The “.jpg” will remain as part of the identification, so leave that alone.

After all the photos in the list have been named (you should see a pattern of all the same items being grouped together because of how you have identified them), pat yourself on the back.  (I usually have my cheetos and coke at this time.)

Now, “select all” the photos in the list and double click to open.  With the Mac computer, the photos open in “Preview”.  I love this part and how easy it is to size the photos, with options to edit if needed.

All your pictures are open, but you will just see one at a time, with a vertical slide show on the side of what is next.  From the top menu bar, select “Tools” and choose “adjust size”.  I usually enter 1000 pixels in the first box (for width), and because the default is set to “size proportionately”, the height dimension will change automatically.

Go to next, and do the same for the next picture, entering 1000 in the width box.  Continue for all pictures.  You can also edit the color, saturation, exposure for each picture if you want, but if you have taken good pictures in good light, you won’t need to mess with that.

Close out the window, and it will ask if you want to save changes.  YES!  You’ve done all that work, you really should save it.  If for some reason you are really unhappy with the editing you have done and you have saved all changes, you can always delete and go back to the originals in iPhoto and go through the process of naming, editing and sizing until you are happy.

That was the hardest part – taking pictures, and formatting them for eBay.] 

Now, open up eBay.  Go to eBay.com, the greatest auction site on the planet.  If you don’t have an account yet, open one.  It is free.  The hardest part is choosing a name.  This is how you will be identified, so choose a good one.

You will also open a PayPal account (eBay owns PayPal) from which you will get paid.  Ebay and PayPal will make money from fees that are charged to you automatically.  People grumble about that, but it is way cheaper than a booth at a craft fair or renting a store front.  And we get to sell our junk as well as our treasure.

I find that eBay has been very slow in opening up to sign in, but hopefully they fix that soon.  Be patient, it will be worth it.

From the eBay top menu bar, choose “Sell”.  A big blue arrow will point to “List your item”.  Put a brief description in the “What’s it worth?” box (i.e. “Ann Taylor blouse”), click the “look it up” tab and the program will show you a range of past prices.  Pretty cool stuff.

Or, just bypass that and click on “List your item”.  This will bring you to the sign in page (if you haven’t already signed in). You can also register this way if you haven’t ever registered yet.

Enter keywords for your item, and a bunch of categories will be displayed.  Choose the category that best fits your item.  For now, just choose one category or else your fees will be more.  Click “continue”.

Now you are on the real page of your listing, and your adventure is at the starting gate.  Put the title of your item, and make it sound good.  List the condition, and specifics.

About half way through, you will add pictures.  The first picture is free, subsequent ones are 15¢ each.  Sometimes eBay has promotions with free listings and free pictures.  Put your best pictures that show the best to wow the buyers, but make sure you also have good pictures of the flaws and drawbacks so they know what to expect.

This is where you will be so happy that you have named your photos and already edited, cropped, and sized for ebay.  Click on “add pictures” and you will need to find your folder on your desktop that you named earlier “ebay pictures”.  Select “Browse”.  Choose “Desktop” and then choose your “ebay pictures” folder.

The “ebay pictures” folder will open a list to display all of the photos you have.  Click on a picture for the item you are listing, and “open”.  The photo will appear in the add pictures box.  You can continue to add more photos by clicking on “Browse”.  You can add up to 12 photos this way (but remember usually on the first one is free).  After you have selected the photos for your item, click on “Upload”.  It will take a little while to upload all photos.

The pictures will be displayed, and you will have the option of moving the photos in different orders, or deleting.  The first picture in the queue is the one that is going to be seen foremost, so make sure that is the best one that represents the item.

Next, describe the item – and do your best!  Take measurements, gush about the item, how wonderful it looks, feels, etc.  Just don’t over sell and over promise because the buyer on the receiving end will get ticked off if they get a frog when they were expecting a princess.

eBay has a lot of options that you can choose from for listing your items.  I like to choose free shipping because I think that appeals to everyone and helps sell my items.  I also try to list items on Friday for a 7 day auction so it ends on Friday.  Just make sure the time of day that you list is a good time for people on the Mainland.  I once listed some killer stuff on eBay and worked through the night.  Most of the later items got posted late at night, which was in the wee hours of the morning for the Midwest and East Coast.  Not good – I didn’t do well on that bunch at all because there was no frenzy at the end of the auction.  Everyone was asleep.

To compensate for this, eBay has an option to set your start date and time for a fee of 10¢.  Well worth it, I think.  I have used the option to start all my auctions at the same time and on the same day.

Choose your shipping options and method of payment (I use PayPal).

After going through the options, press “continue” and you will be on the final page, where you will see a brief picture of what this listing will be like, as well as a display of the fees owed for posting your auction item.

Click on “List your item” and you are live!!!

After your listing is live, you can go back to your iPhoto library and delete all those ebay photos, because you don’t need to store them there anymore, and you will save some space.

When your item does sell, eBay will send you a message, and you will use that to email your winning bidder.

After they pay (very easy through PayPal) print a shipping receipt, put it in a box or bag (learn about the Forever stamp, rates using priority mail, and other mailing options), and mail it out.

I like to inform my customers that the package has been shipped out.

PayPal will automatically collect your money for you.  You can leave feedback for each person that bought something from you, or you can wait until they leave feedback for you before you decide what rating to give them.  I usually give them all 5 stars.

That’s it – very briefly!  There are courses and books on how to sell better on eBay.  I do have Chris Bowers’ program, but haven’t used it – and I should.

Good luck on your eBay sales.  Make some money, clear out the clutter from you home, and have fun!