How was your 2009?

[Jon Klaus]

What did you accomplish?

Your best success?

Your biggest mistake?

What did you learn?

Did you achieve your goals?

[Jon Klaus]

What did you accomplish?
I bought an even dozen homes. Eight are rented, one is ready to rent, one is in rehab, and two are for sale.

Your best success?
I was able to buy well across the board. All properties follow the 2% rule. I don’t feel like anything I bought this year was a mistake, though I did range out geographically a bit far.

Your biggest mistake?
I underestimated some of the rehabs, especially in an area I was weak at—septic systems.

What did you learn?
An immense amount. All homes needed some work and a few needed complete rehabs, so I learned a lot about rehabbing. I got much better at screening and selecting tenants. Most of what I learned was from BP. There is a great thread on tenant screening here: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/14637-how-do-you-screen-prospective-tenants-

I learned to seek out BP members who have a lot of experience in areas that I want to learn. I’ve met with a few of you and those meetings have been fantastic learning opportunities.

I now have a working knowledge of most types of residential investing, and even have a decent feel for multi-family.

I began the year thinking I would read a bunch of REI books and did read several. However I learned a lot more from all of you here at BP.

Did you achieve your goals?
At the first of the year I set a goal of $250K in new equity. Around mid-year I was feeling ambitious and upped the goal to $500K. I estimate that I came in closer to the middle, @ $350K. My office building probably lost value, hurting overall. However, it is a good long-term investment, so I am OK with that.

Now I have to come up with worthy 2010 goals, but need to think on it some more.

How about you?