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Aug

29

House #2: Rehab Progress

August 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

As mentioned in a previous post, The Bulge House will be used as a rental for a family member, and from closing to move-in, I have 2 weeks to get the place ready. This includes getting the major things fixed (A/C, Furnace, Water Heater, Roof), getting the finishings completed (new lights, fans, appliances, doorknobs, […]

Aug

28

All About Paint (and Systems)

August 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

This post is about paint. It’s also about the need to create systems to streamline my business (remember my business philosophy?). Yes, both of those are boring subjects, but they are important topics to address while trying to systematize my investing business to the point where I can manage several (i.e., more than […]

Aug

27

Census Bureau & BLS

August 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment

In some previous posts, I discussed the fact that population trends are a key defining characteristic of real estate markets. And, I also pointed out that employment trends were a key driver behind population trends.
So, where can you find good information about population and employment trends? Two great places to start […]

Aug

26

House #3: Scope of Work

August 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment

With The Second Chance House past its due diligence period (and thus almost officially mine), I’ve spent the past few days walking through the property with my wife and putting together a Scope of Work that will be used to convey details of the project to my contractors. This is likely going to be […]

Aug

25

House #2: Scope of Work

August 25, 2008 | 1 Comment

The Bulge House is now officially mine, and in anticipation of the closing, I put together both a Scope of Work and a materials list for the rehab of this property. Compared to the other two houses, this one is in pretty good condition. While the other two houses need a lot of […]

Aug

23

2% Rule for SFH

August 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Here’s another rule of thumb that’s popular with investors who focus on single family houses. And again, this is a good rule of thumb to use to perform a quick, first-pass financial analysis on an investment to determine whether it’s worth looking at further.
The 2% rule states that, to make a good profit on […]

Aug

22

House #2: Down to the Wire

August 22, 2008 | 3 Comments

I closed on The Bulge House yesterday. While I was hoping for a smooth and easy close, I was unfortunately a bit disappointed…
The good news is that the appraisal came back very solid, at $75K. I’m paying $61K, plus getting a $2500 credit towards rehab, so essentially my purchase price was $16,500 less […]

Aug

21

Building Business Credit

August 21, 2008 | 3 Comments

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while, and a comment on a previous post reminded me that it’s probably about time. I know a lot of business owners think that over the course of their business life, they will naturally build credit, and a lot of business owners are probably […]

Aug

20

House #3: Some Details

August 20, 2008 | 3 Comments

The Second Chance House finished its due diligence period yesterday, so it’s officially too late to back out of this one. While I wasn’t able to get my Scope of Work completed for this one just yet — and therefore wasn’t able to get contractor bids, the price was low enough that I’m confident […]

Aug

19

House #1: Day 1 of Rehab

August 19, 2008 | 3 Comments

Rehab has started on The Corn House. Just to allow everyone to follow along on this rehab, I’ve took a couple videos of the house, as well as a bunch of pictures after the first day of rehab.
Here is a video of the main floor of the house, along with some front and back […]

Aug

18

House #2: Going to Closing

August 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I mentioned earlier that House #2 had some potential water damage, and that the due diligence indicated a few more problems than I had expected. Based on those things, I went back to the bank (the seller) before my due diligence period ended, and asked for a $5K reduction in price. They countered […]

Aug

15

Lots to Do

August 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I don’t have much to write about today…everything is going as smoothly as I could hope on my first three houses (though two haven’t closed yet, so things can’t be THAT bad). But, I’m finally starting to realize how having multiple properties underway simultaneously (especially when they are in different steps of the process) […]

Aug

14

Contracts for Contractors

August 14, 2008 | 1 Comment

Now that I’m officially closed on my first house, it’s time to start focusing on getting my contractors moving and getting this rehab project underway. I picked a GC earlier this week after several weeks of walk-throughs, bids, and negotiations (I wasn’t very efficient with this the first time around). Tomorrow, I will […]

Aug

13

Update for 8/13/2008

August 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Lots going on, so I thought I would post a general update on things…
House #1: The Corn House
Today is the big day — I’m closing on my first investment property, The Corn House!
Here are some of the other things going on with House #1:

I finally found a GC who will perform my Scope of […]

Aug

12

House #2: Due Diligence

August 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I’ve talked a little bit about The Bulge House, and now that I’ve gone through some of the due diligence — and am fairly convinced I’ll go through with this purchase — I’ll go into a bit more detail…
First, here are some pictures…
From a numbers perspective, I’m picking this house up at around $61,000. […]

Aug

11

House #2: Water Damage?

August 11, 2008 | 2 Comments

My out-of-town silent-partner was in town for my wedding this weekend, so I decided to take him around the three houses that we have under contract. We stop by the Corn House, and take a look around, and then we head over to the Bulge House. The first thing I notice when we […]

Aug

10

House #3: Second Chance House

August 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I mentioned the Second Chance house in a post from last week. Well, the day after I wrote that post, I received a counter-offer from the bank for $1000 higher than my bid; considering this counter-offer was still $13,000 less than my original bid two weeks ago, I immediately accepted, and now have House […]

Aug

8

I’m Getting Married!

August 8, 2008 | 3 Comments

Getting married today!!!

Aug

7

House #1: Ready to Close

August 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I got my closing date for House #1 today — it’s next Wednesday afternoon. This will be the first closing I’ve had with an investment property, and is sure to be a lot easier than closing on my first property, my primary residence. Because I will be paying cash for the house, I […]

Aug

6

House #2: The Bulge House

August 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Looks like I picked up my second house yesterday. While this one is far from a done deal, I submitted an offer, had several round of counter-offers, and ultimately we came to an agreement on terms and price (i.e., we have a contract). The reason I say this isn’t a done deal (other […]

Aug

5

A Second Chance?

August 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

A couple weeks ago, I put an offer a house that looked like a decent deal. My offer was a few thousand below list price (it was a bank owned foreclosure), and I thought that were there no other offers on the table, I’d likely get it. Unfortunately, there was another offer on […]

Aug

4

To All Contractors

August 4, 2008 | 1 Comment

I don’t know if I have any contractors reading my blog, but now that I’ve started getting General Contractor (GC) bids on my first house, I have some recommendations to all the contractors out there who want to step up their game when it comes to doing a walk-through and bidding on a project. […]

Aug

1

Update for 8/1/08

August 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

I’ve had the busiest work week in recent memory this week (even compared to back in the corporate world). Things have been crazy, but in a good way. Here are some updates:
1. I met with a number of GCs this week to get bids on the Corn House rehab. I expect […]