Noobie from Madison, WI - familiar with central WI

[Luke Aubut]

Hello BP!

My name is Luke and I live in Madison WI, previously from Stevens Point, WI. I have been dreaming of owning a rental property for many, many years. I’ve always thought about rentals as an ongoing paycheck and I knew I had to get in the game somehow.

My wife and I bought our first house 2 years ago (our residence, not rental). While looking for homes we could not find a home with enough space for our family of 5. We eventually found our 3BR ranch home with an unfinished basement. With no experience, I designed and finished the basement in my current home. I framed an office (BR), family room, 2 closets, a 3/4 bath and an area we call a dry bar. We nearly doubled the living space of our home. I hired out the rough plumbing, drywall, and carpet install and got family help with the electrical. I installed duct-work, insulation, doors, bathroom vanity, shower, toilet, also sanded drywall and painted. I learned a ton by watching and helping the tradesmen which has given me the confidence to do additional repairs or upgrades in the rest of the house such as installing a new bathtub and surround in the main bathroom, adding fixtures, drywall fixes, and even moving some electrical. All this happened within a 3 month time-frame before the in-laws came to visit.

Currently I work from home doing some form of drop shipping over the internet to bring in part time income and also take care of my kids during the day. My wife brings home the real bacon for our family doing a job she really loves and is really good at. This leaves me afternoons, evenings and weekends to work on my real estate ventures.

I have read many books about business and self improvement over the past 10 years including most or all of Kiyosaki’s books as well as some other Rich Dad books by the other authors. I would love some more suggested reading for a newbie. Currently I just started reading “Investing in Real Estate” by McLean and Eldred.

By joining BP I want to connect with those of you who have similar goals and I want to learn from you. I’m primarily interested in multi family units for my long term goals but I am interested in learning any other facet of real estate such as finance, creative financing, landlording, setting up systems and flipping. I also would like to find people to work on some deals together. I would be interested to partner up on some flips to build capital and experience.

A couple of my biggest fears as a beginner are 1) Being taken advantage of, 2) Not knowing how to landlord, 3) The tenant/landlord rights in Madison WI – I’ve heard the law favors the tenant heavily (I may have wrong information, I welcome your comments).

I am here to learn and to get started. So far I find the forums and podcasts to be pure gold. So hello to everyone and I look forward to connecting!