Live & Flip

Why I passed on two good properties

After a long dry spell, I had a couple wholesalers call me. Both properties would cash flow, both were near my target market, yet I passed on both. They would hurt me more than help me. Its tough to be floating on the ocean surrounded by water. Wait long enough and that salty water starts looking mighty tasty. Take a drink and your demise is only a short time away. Houses are everywhere, just gotta find the ones that help you, not hurt you. These houses simply did not fit into my over...

Good Friends

  The blogging world of real estate is sometimes very small. My wife and I had the pleasure of having dinner with Shae of www.goodfaithinvesting.com. She happened to be in town for a seminar given by Susan Lyons. Its amazing how many ideas can be shared and discussed in two hours. There is nothing more motivating then spending time with people that are making it happen. Shae and her husband certainly fit that category. Oh and by her account the seminar was great and I am kicking m...

Scary Close Call

  I got a scary phone call from one of my property managers yesterday.  A soon as I picked up, I knew this was going to be one of those calls.  I could tell from the tone of his voice. The water heater went out on one of my rentals.  Same water heater I repaired 2 years ago.  It didn't just go out, it sprung a nice big leak.  Total replacement.  Thankfully this tenant called right away to let us know of the issue.  No water drying service this time.  The water heater was not the s...

How’s that New Year’s resolution holding up?

How many folks out there are still working on their goals they set for the year? In our field I'd venture to say better than average, but still not 100%. With 1/3 of the year complete, its a good time to dust off those New Year's goals and see how far you strayed from the path you have set for yourself. My goal this year was to create positive habits. So far I have created 2 habits. Paying down debt like a hawk each paycheck and making my daily to do list. The debt part was easy, but...

Why Reserves Part 2

Needing a new property manager I interviewed 5 different companies. I spent quite a bit of time looking into each. I got the names from references and internet searching. I settled on a new company around mid August. I had the agreement signed and was planning on taking the info over after work. Around noon that day, they called to inform me one of their PM's quit and they could not take on any more clients. For one, I'm glad they did and am still willing to use them in the future, b...

Why Reserves part 1

Shae over at Good Faith Investing and Julie at at Life as Real Estate Investors recently wrote blogs on reserves here and here. This post is inspired by them and will hopefully emphasize what they are saying. Every landlord has a closet full of horror stories on problem tenant, property managers, houses, cities and anything else under the sun that may keep you up at night. This is my story. Around 6 months ago, my wife and I married and were off to our honeymoon in Napa. Shhhh, that's not ...

Finally Closed

We closed on Wednesday on our new home. Step 2 of our plan to free and clear in a home in a few years. The house was a short sale home only 5 blocks south of where were currently at. The difference in neighborhood is night and day. So here are the numbers. Purchase of 176k. First lien payoff was 170k and 2nd lien was 6k. The sellers agent got them down from above $8500. The sellers paid half and we paid half. The house is 3900 sq ft 5/2.5. Its a monster. Its far more home than we nee...

Umm Opps

Well, I made a bonehead move.  I have been waiting on the title company to set the closing date on my flipper.  Sent emails directly to the sellers agent asking for the date, had my Realtor ask as well.  Turns out it was set all along on the addendum the bank sent.  None of us caught it.  Opps.  My original contract said 44 days after MEC (Mutual Execution of Contract).  I think we all assumed that left the closing more or less open ended to be set at a later date.  The closing is set fo...

Property Manager part 1 “Finding New Property Managers”

Many of us have chosen to utilize property managers for our rentals. Its a pretty big industry that has a surprisingly low barrier to entry. This means that just about anyone can be a property manager. So how do you find them and pick the best one. Here is a small list my agent and I came up with. Its certainly not exhaustive. Finding a new Property Manager There are two main and very obvious ways. Google and word of mouth. Google can be very useful when finding information on pro...

Silly Bank Profits are for Investors

I just sent an offer out for a property in my target area. $550 above listing. So why bash the banks as wasteful? This is the same property I bid on almost exactly 1 month ago. It was in short sale back then. The bank refused to go below their asking price. Now it is bank owned and listed for 5k below my original offer. Since there is one other bid out there, I am bidding just a hair above. Still its 4.5k below my original offer. I'm sure they have a valid reason (okay maybe not), but I...