Next Month our new President is being sworn into office once again. One thing that the President Elect promised to implement is Foreign Trade Tariffs. This will raise the price on Appliances by a minimum of 10 to 20 %.

I just picked up some $488 dollar 18 cubic foot 2 door refrigerators, some $388 Gas Stoves and a few $429 top load washing machines. These were older models on sale for Christmas. The normal prices should have been closer to $700 each. Add the future Tariffs-- and now we have $800 plus refrigerators, ovens and washers/dryers.

I'm only glad that one investment was a Public Storage location, so I have the space to STOCK UP ON APPLIANCES...MAYBE you should too.

Eh...it's one tiny sliver of the pie, and Real Estate is our most expensive investment bar none. To use expensive real estate to store cheaper appliances that can get damaged, leak refrigerant, get infested with mice (all happened to us back in the day when we tried to save on sales...)

Me, I'm hoping for favorable tax treatments for landlords and other tax changes.

Saber rattling to get Mexico's attention and help in solving the flow of drugs and illegals across the border. I really doubt we will see tariffs with Mexico or Canada anytime soon.

You are gambling that the interest loss having your funds tied up in inventory, product loss/damage, theft, and storage costs is less than potential future cost savings if a tariff happens.

I don't just store appliances on the ground, I also own several "Man Lifts", capable of lifting 1000 pounds up to 20 feet high. I can stack to the ceiling -- that's 2 to 3 per floor space.

My partner on one building went to Best Buy/Pacific Sales and got a low lever gas stove delivered and installed for close to $900 with a 3 year extended warranty.

For $388 plus tax, I picked up almost the same item for $425. MEANING doing it myself with no extended warranty, I can buy TWO for the Price of ONE!

Since I own over 100 rentals myself, and more with partners, with turnover's, eviction and flips and not worth repairs, I can easily go thru 20 refrigerators, 10 dishwashers, 15 washers and 10 dryers per year.

Part of that rattling is to ensure that their isn't a coordinated effort to change the world currency standard of the US dollar to a bread basket of currencies. I think targeting Mexico and Canada are foolish ideas, because devaluing the US dollar negatively impacts these economies as much as it would ours as they world market is so mixed together.

Looking back at the economy in England after the pound lost the title as the world's standard, that economy went south fast. Do you suppose countries like Russia, China, North Korea and Cuba would like to knock the US off its thrown? Is the US helping itself by deficit spending? Then again, elections have been a contest on who can out promise the other person.

The real question in my eyes is how would a basket of currencies impact the value of the dollar. I know the Fed would have less control on our economy then they have even now.

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As for storing appliances, you bet I store them. I picked up four pieces in November and am down to only two of them. I have four more ordered for delivery end of January. Where I understand what others have expressed as concerns. Once you order a single appliance, does the factory build it there and then? Nope. That appliance took two months to get here after being shipped via a cargo vessel from some sweat shop in a third world country. Bulky items have been in warehouses for a couple of months automatically before they are sold. You hope that mice doesn't get to them. You hope they don't get damaged in shipping or in storage.

The special that HD had was over 50% off. I am willing to risk the loss or damage of appliances. Where I might on a rare occasion get one dented or damaged, I am confident that it doesn't happen half of the time.

I do believe it is foolish to keep several months of materials at the ready. But the eight units I ordered will be used up by within 30 days of delivery. That is a function though of the size and scale of everyone's business model. That will change from person to person.

Around here - winter is a time when people honker down for the season. It is also the time of the year where I overhaul any place that needs some special love. I tend to start cranking up my marketing in January (targeting those who over spent on the holidays) and by February I have the pipeline filling up again. Now though, I am getting projects buttoned up.

I understand about having too much inventory. I have a lot of stuff in stock.

Maybe some time last year there was a good discussion about storing VS buying as needed. Using the box stores as your warehouse.

For the most part this is a sound move, but it has faults as well. Lack of inventory at the store, store is closed when you need something right now. Store is long out of the way.

I have slowed down a lot since then. I still buy stuff, but now most of it is for upcoming projects that I know about.

For me the main place I store stuff is in an old house and a barn. Although I still have some things in a garage that I am selling on contract.

This house will be torn down when I no longer need the space for storage. It is in terrible shape. I have owned it for years and it has always been used for storage.

I have ten units that take 18k AC units. I still have 8 of those in stock. None of them were purchased more than 50% of retail. Some I got, new, for $75 instead of over $600.

Ray turned me on to the HD appliance deal. That save a ton of money. I will use two of the four items in the place I am working on now. I will have a new fridge in stock and plan to gift the DW to my father. With the discount I got on that deal I got the spare fridge and DW for free.

During a slow time this summer I really got into organization at the place. I know I do not need over 20 tub spigots. I have them, and won't get more. Same with toilet guts. I have more than I care to count. I can replace old ones as I have turnovers for years.

The last times I needed same or next day appliance replacement the blue and orange boxes couldn't deliver until weeks later. Apparently very little inventory is at the store, most at warehouse.

A tariff will not raise prices as much as four years of inflation just did.

Ray, you have me wondering. How long do these appliances actually last, as in, how many years of service do you get out of each of them?

So to be clear here was his quote and where it was said "“Vote Trump and your incomes will soar. Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down,” Trump pledged at the rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania in September.

Someone quotes what Trump actually said -- something easy to prove as fact -- and NE calls it "TDS". So typical.

As usual, NE hates facts and research!

Believe it or not, many appliances are still manufactured here in the USA. Whirlpool and it's off name brands are manufactured here in Ohio. No tariffs there folks. It's the crap that China, India, Korea, and Mexico dump on us that will be affected. Steel coming from Poland will be affected and I'm talking mega tons of imported steel will again be manufactured here again in the USA. Ohio has a huge steel mill in Middleton Ohio. I'm talking miles of huge. Guess who owns it. Japan. That's right it's called foreign investment putting American workers to work.

Here in the mid-west we have the Asian highway on interstate 75 from Tennessee to Michigan. Why? Because we have the lowest electric rates in the country and get this.......it's reliable. Subaru, Honda, GM, Ford, all have major, major manufacturing facilities in this I-75 corridor. Labor here is plentiful and again reliable. People show up to work and then proceed to just that.

NE: The "fact" was a QUOTE from Trump. Pretty sure he's not a liberal.

Again, I just find it funny that you won't even believe a quote from Trump when it is trivial to confirm.

This whole "stick your head in the sand and pretend nothing is true as long as it comes from a liberal" is getting old.

Jim: From what I've read, Whirlpool makes their motors and electronics in Ohio, but gets most of the plastic and metal components from Mexico and China. So, "no tariffs there folks" seems like a stretch.

As for what happens with steel... We'll have to see how much is suddenly manufactured in the USA. We import over 28,000,000 tons of it. The entire state of Ohio can only produce about 14,000,000 tons (that is already being used).

So we'd need to build new plants TWICE the size of the production of the state of Ohio right now.

That's going to take a lot of time and money and resources. So, yeah, we're going to see a big hit on steel for quite a while before there is any chance of the USA catching up on the production that would be needed here.

6er,

Not only do they get beat up, but the components do not last as long as they used to.