This is the week three progress.  They completed the deck for the mudroom and outside entry to the garage, tiled the half bath, master bath and part of the kitchen, and removed all the paint from the stairs.

I’m pretty excited about the deck, it adds a very nice feature to the garage. I think it came out nice than just a couple of stairs.

Due to the size of our master bath, we went with 12×12 tile on the floor and 18×18 on the walls. It looks fantastic. The kitchen is 18×18 and the half bath is 12×12. We used 2×2 inch boarder with three rows. It came out very well. The Mesa Beige tile is found at Lowes. Word of caution for you tilers out there, we had to put backer board in the kitchen to bring the floor up so it matched the wood. It was also put in to have something to mud to. You don’t want to mud the tiles to your plywood baseboard. This adds nearly 50 cents per square foot. One 5×3 ft board is $9. I leave you with this quote and photos.

“You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.” Jim Rohn

Garage Deck

Stairs

Kitchen Tile

Half Bath Tile

I have been scouting MLS properties. I haven’t quite zeroed in on any very close properties. I’ll keep tweaking my searches. For the time being I have asked to look at 3 houses. Barring anything extremely odd, I will make an offer on all three. I simply don’t care if it is way below asking. I need to find their motivation. I can’t buy properties without offers.

On the other front I have been driving for dollars about an hour every night after work. Now I need to get some letters out. I have the letter produced and will start mailing them shortly. I time to get this marketing machine of the ground.

I’m looking at a few data lists sources. I can do some target marketing in my farm area.

HUD properties have started to peak my interest a bit, I’ll start looking at those as potential offer routes as well. If I get rejected 49 out of 50 times, thats excellent, I just bought a house. Lost going on. Build the momentum!

The property certainly needs work to get to rent-able condition, but I now have a visual. I couldn’t picture what to do with this property before. Hopefully we can work the short sale for this family. Its set for auction in July.

Its a good thing I sent my probate later. It went to the son. No one but me has contacted him. Everyone else is sending their pre-foreclosure letters to the house. The widow is picking up the mail. She mentioned she gets 2-3 per day. I don’t want to race hundreds of others. Ug. She does not have any vested interest in the property. It was a marriage just before he died. The son has all rights. Although they don’t get along well, she was very pleased to finally have someone answering her questions and was more then willing to let me in whenever I want. I just took the sage advice from many before me and shut my mouth. Let her tell her story and make her feel like I am on her side (which I am). She just wants to know whats going on. Thats an easy phone call. I’m on the side of the owners, my goal is to help them get this hair puller off their hands.

I’ll update another property experience soon. Can’t put it all in this post. It was a passer, but a good experience.

Btw, just started listening to “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz. Little more then halfway through. So far its been a great motivational book on how to change your thinking. I highly recommend it.

I want to have as much time to spend with my fiancé as we both desire. I grew up in a family oriented atmosphere and it is important in my life.

I see myself in 5 years working from home or a small business office. I will be self employed buying and selling real estate. Apartments, houses, self storage, land. I will have time to travel as I desire. There are many places I want to see. Not a single one will be out of my reach. While real estate can be fast paced, my life will slow down to a small town pace. Taking blighted houses, apartments and streets and turning them in to gems in the neighborhood is something that really attracts me. I drive by a rundown apartment and imagine it in its heyday. I desire to return it to that point. I desire to invest debt free as much as possible.

In order to reach that point in life, I will need a certain amount of passive income and earning capacity through real estate. The more passive income I have the less I have to earn to live and the more I earn as a by-product of what I enjoy doing.

Now that I can picture my life, what can I do to work towards that dream. I will clearly define my goals that are inline with my vision in the next post.

Success is simple. Have a strong desire. Create goals to accomplish that desire. Take massive action towards those goals and that desire. That’s all it takes.

I started the year by adding to my household. I have a new dog Wendell. His addition resulted in the construction of a new gate on property. Something I have never built. I’m pretty happy with the result. I also installed new windows and new plumbing in the house. I moved the washer out of the kitchen and into the utility room. Between that and the furnace, I have put around 10k into this property over the last 18 months. I didn’t have to finance any of that. I like to stay out of as much debt as possible.

This year I saw my personal development expand greatly with the help of others. In Feb last year I attended the annual Beer and Pancakes that is part of the Fastlane to Millions forum. Its a networking event for those looking to increase their entrepreneurial savvy. Its also one hell of a motivational event. I felt like I could tackle the world after that event. I’ll be attending again this year in Feb.

The fastlane event led to creation of mastermind group. We are still making conference calls weekly. 9 like minded folks all looking to benefit from the group while helping others succeed. I believe a mastermind is a must for anyone looking to improve their success in life. Think of it as as 8 other coaching cheerleaders.

I picked up 3 rentals this year, but ended up having to sell one back when I could not get financing. I went through 3 different mortgage brokers, but was not able to seal the deal. The lending requirements had changed so much from my first purchase to the last that you would think it was two different countries. I learned that I need to be very flexible when I acquire properties.

The biggest project of the year by far was learning how to be a property manager and landlord. I learned that I don’t have the time or desire to be a property manager. I also did not do a good enough job, so I fired myself. I hired a property manager to look after the day to day stuff. I went from 20 hours per month of work to 2 hours per month. Very wise move. I am glad for the experience though. I know what to look for in a good manager now.

Unfortunately, I allowed the rental properties to be an excuse for inaction. I simply got very little done for the first 6 months of the year. Learned a lot, but accomplished little of what I wanted to. Lesson to me is no time is ever a good time to get anything done, that is why all the time is great to accomplish whatever I set my mind to.

Towards the end of the year I picked up the business pace and have started into probate. I think this will be life changing. I actually sat down and wrote out my goals in the right manner this year. Clear and precise with definite time lines. I will accomplish them.

My biggest life changing event this year was by far my engagement to my fiance. No longer will I be moving forward as one. Life gets pretty exciting from here on out.

I think 2009 was a very successful year. 7/10 for the business. 10/10 for life. Can’t go wrong with that. The best part, 2010 looks to be even better. In fact, I know it will.