...It's December 1st, what did you do last month?

Question

This year has flown by and it's December 1 already.

Last month I was able to find a renter for my Arizona property.  The market changed and I learned a few things.

-  External factors could affect the rental market (the military base required short term attendees to live on post rather than off post)
-  Have a reserve when your rental doesn't rent as fast as you'd like it to
-  Utilize the internet (My renter found a post I had on craigslist)
-  It's about marketing (there's so much noise out there, the internet, news etc, that you need to do something to be different to attract your tenant)

Also I built a website for my other side business.

What did you do last month?

Tom

Brian Burke · Answer

Bought 5 properties to fix & flip, and 4 rental houses.  Sold 8 completed flips for $1,982,976 that were bought for $1,352,300.  That doesn't include costs obviously so profits were much less than the difference between the two numbers.  Got a bunch more houses in contract to close in December.  Should be another busy month.

Mike McKinzie · Answer

Jon
Here are the numbers and it is a 1031.
Sold:  Price $360,000, Mortgage $1,500 ($100,000 Bal, 15 yr)  Rent $2,095

Bought:  Price $150,000, Mortgage $600 ($100,000 Bal, 30 yr) Rent $1,595
Bought:  Price $131,000, Mortgage 0, Rent $1,395
Bought:  Price $56,000 + $10,000 in upgrades, Mortgage 0, Rent $895

Totals:  OLD  Rent $2,095, Mortgage $1,500   NET  $595.00
Totals:  NEW Rent $3,885, Mortgage $600  NET $3,225

Using the 50% Rule
OLD:  -$452.50
NEW:  +$1,342.50

There are other considerations as well.  The sold house was over 30 years old, the bought houses are 14, 8 and 6 years old.  I had to do about $20,000 in repairs to the SOLD house just to make it sellable, tenants are rough on property.  The three bought properties are in three different market areas, all showing signs of good potential appreciation.

My first payment on my new mortgage was $5,000 so I am going to pay that down in 2 to 3 years, increasing my cash flow by that $600 a month.  I am doing that because it is a private lender and the rate is higher than market, but the money had no points, no fees, no costs whatsoever.

I also sold two other properties, and used some of that to pay off high interest mortgages, max out my IRA and dabble a little in the stock market.  The mortgages I paid off increase my monthly income by about $3,000.

On another side note, Chase offered to rewrite two of my mortgages, changing one from 6.5% to 4.25% and changing another one from 5.5% to 4%, lowering my monthly payments by about a $1,000 on the two mortgages.

All in all, in the last 60 days, I have increased my monthly income by about $7,000.00.  Plus, I have quite a bit of money to invest, hoping to raise that number to $10,000 a month by next summer.

DISCLAIMER:  All of my numbers above are rounded, except for the sales prices.  No need to get down to the penny.

Jon Klaus · Answer

I stayed at 100% occupancy through the month.

Did a yellow letter mailing in Austin.

Put one home under contract from the yellow letter mailing. Should close next week.

Got a building permit for a new home construction in Austin.

Made progress in lining up financing on two other Austin construction projects.

Began construction of a shop/office on my ranch.

No home runs, but base hits and walks win games, too.

Dennis Tierney · Answer

We finally got a deal under contract that will close (had one this summer that had too many capital needs found during due diligence and the seller wouldn't drop the price so had to walk away). This is a mixed use property that is a former high school that is now a combination of apartments, commercial offices and a preschool and social hall that rents for occasions. We close on 12/31. He did a great job on the rehab of the buildings as it is a historical landmark in the town and he had tax credits for it and had to preserve the exterior look.

Nathan Paisley · Answer

Well... I completed my first wholesale deal. Probably one of the most difficult deals known to mankind but I did it. Got my second deal under contract and close next week. Learned SOOOO much in such a short period of time this month. I feel like I can do anything lol.

Bob Hank · Answer

We finished the first few of the 42 house deal we are working on.  We decided to stage a few and to a few realtors open and open houses.  We closed on 3 of them and have 4 under contract.  The other 2 were rented out.  Were currently talking to 2 clients that ant us to flip to there finishes, but still working out the paper work.

My daughter paid off a loan we financed her for a restaurant.

Our rental income was at 92%.  With not paying for lawn care during the winter we try 97%.

My son found a warehouse that he wants to buy for his company.  He out grew his current warehouse and is limiting him.  Hes has 3 years left on his lease, but wants to buy a huge warehouse and be out of the old one in 9 months.

Rob K. · Answer

With all of that real estate business going on, how do you find time to write all of those funny episodes of Family Guy?

Joel Owens · Answer

Right now just closing commercial deal for my buyers and sellers. It is the highest and best use of my time income wise an return wise.

Looked at buying a few businesses but nothing yet that I just have to have. Looking at vacant commercial bank foreclosure parcels that I am going to hit them with low offers for years end clearing of the books.

Hold for a few years until market cycles back and cash in. I am staying away from any investments that take up a ton of my time away from my core business.

Jon Klaus · Answer

One thing I forgot. We rented out our guest cabin, Caddo Star Cabin, every weekend in November.  This weekend is the 7th straight booking, a record.

John Espinosa · Answer

Closed a deal on a SFH home that is going to be our first completed flip for the year 2013. Waiting on architects drawings now to get the addition approved by the city.

Acquired a 4plex that we intend on bringing back to its glory days using historic tax credits.

Started amassing emails/phone numbers/fax numbers for our buyers list.

Hired a elancer to build company website

Hired a videographer to start our youtube channel and marketing.

Waiting to get word on any of our 10 or so offers out there, plan is to have 4 flips to hit market spring time.

Read 2 books

...It's December 1st, what did you do last month?

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