A Pointless Rant: My Recent Story

[Daniel Hankins]

I have spent the last 4 years learning how to buy, renovate, and then rent out worn out properties (Bigger Pockets was the biggest early source of knowledge). When I first started I was working a normal full time W2 job to cover the costs of operation. After the 3rd completed property I finally transitioned to full time effort in my own business. I was just competent enough to start doing handyman work to substitute my W2 work. Now I am finished with my 7th property, right when all this **** hit the fan, and just shy of refinancing through the bank to recoup all my investment. Without getting too into the weeds, my schedule C has been just barely into the negative the last three years, mainly because I put in a majority sweat equity instead of paying myself. Because of this I don't qualify for any of the PPP support, even though my cash stream from handyman work has dried up. I live in KS and they don't offer unemployment for self employed either. So aside from the very first IDL option, that is only going to give $1000 per head (just me), there are no options. Plus I haven't seen or heard anything from that application through the SBA.

Now back to the struggle on getting my property refinanced. Most banks are overwhelmed by their load of dealing with all the PPP, plus with interest so low, I don't think they really want to loan me money on my property. Luckily all my properties are rented out, and I only have 1 tenant who lost about 25% of their income, so I am getting most of my rent roll. Even without my normal handyman income, I am lucky enough to have a wife who is a nurse, and there has been no shortage of emergency contracts across the US, and even one that she worked on an island close to Aruba. She deserves her own full post to tell the story of the various contracts, especially the one operated primarily through FEMA. It was a complete **** show and it was devastating to have an inside look into how so much tax money is wasted due to incompetent management. Sorry, got off track, but the point is she has made more money this year then the entirety of last years normal nurse income. Even with that, the banks don't want to use that income for guarantor use, and they want us to wait until she gets back to normal employment.

The pointless part of all of this, and please take this as a reason not to feel sorry for me, we will make all of this work without support from big banks, and some small banks. This only escalates my plan to just remove the banks as middle men and just create my own private platform to get investors etc. I just want to add to the anger that CEOs making millions, got millions of dollars in support that should have gone to people like me, and others who are in even worse shape. I am just lucky to have a wife in a specific career that made it all work out.

Real estate investing can print money if you run it effectively, and I am going to prove that it makes more money than a family needs. I am only ever going to pay myself a salary that provides enough to live the way I live now. I don't need a big fancy house or a brand new sports car. I don't need to buy an NBA team. Instead I am going to put every extra dollar I don't need back into the community around me, and slowly take more and more business from the banks that only care about their bottom dollar. It is complete and utter ******** how much power money has over everyone. I know that won't change in my lifetime, but I am going to live to be 300 years old, either through science, or through legacy. The focus on that mindset, and the understanding that money is just another tool, and is no different from the hammer that helped me build my own personal foundation.

If you read all of this, I want to apologize for the rambling nature, and poor punctuation (I really like commas). I also want to thank you for your time reading through, and I hope even one person will have a new perspective on some of the faults with our current version of capitalism. We are all capable of seeing the obvious problems around us. There are two types of people in this world, those that will do something about those problems, and those that assume that someone else will. I will be part of the group that does everything I can to increase my circle of influence and do something about it.