I Might Have Forgotten Something on My Application ...
Saturday, October 05
Ah, the joys of being a landlord! I had a showing today at one of my duplexes. A woman fills out an application around 9:30 am. At a little after 1 pm, I get a voicemail from her: "I looked at a unit at [address] today and I want to talk to the property show-er one more time; I might have...
Testing my boundaries
Monday, September 23
I have a little German in me, and some Russian too. So I think that's where my stubborn streak comes from. I'm not like all the other real estate investors. Most investors are male, and that's definitely not me. Many investors don't do their own handy work, and that's also not me. And wha...
Tenants as assets or liabilities
Wednesday, September 18
As I think back to Robert Kiyosaki's book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" I was pondering what he wrote about "invest in assets not liabilities". When some landlords buy rental properties, they intend for these properties to be assets. But then they make the mistake of throwing the first warm body who ...
Fun as an IT person
Friday, September 06
My regular day job is in IT -- actually I'm a software consultant, however I do deal with a variety of issues. Sometimes stories come up that I have to share. Today was one of those times. I setup a process for a customer to run at 11:30 pm every night and send a log file to the printer at...
My first experience with private money
Thursday, August 29
I was thinking this morning about my first experience with "private money" for real estate purposes. It was an individual I knew for about 1.5 years. I needed some money for rehabbing the gutted house I spoke of in my podcast. I approached him asking for a short-term loan of less than 6 mo...
Deal or no deal?
Monday, August 26
I was approached by someone who has a property they no longer want. (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) They owe $14,000 in back taxes on it and only want $5,000 for the property. It has tenants in it but they said that the tenants aren't paying. They seem like a very motivated seller. On the surf...