Every Investor should do this at least once!!!

As an investor who has been in the game for a while and built up a nice little collection of properties I did something this week I should have done a long time ago. 

At first I was ok making excuses and just paying someone else to turn my properties and perform basic repairs. As my list of properties grew I freely admit I grew an ego and thought hey, I could let someone else execute the work and I can keep focused on buying more properties. 

Well I was reviewing my current goals with my mentor and reviewing the past when it came up that I had never turned one of my rental apartments are done some of the light repairs on my purchases.  My mentor was very disappointed and challenged me to give it a shot for 6 months as my properties needed work or I closed on a new fixer houses.

Keep in mind I am not handy and my skill set ends at the computer as I am an accountant by training that had never picked up a paint brush. 

I am happy to report that I just got back from a day trip to Fresno where I turned one of my just vacated apartments.  I cleaned the bathroom, kitchen, painted the interior, washed the cupboards, cleaned the stove and frig, etc.  I had planned to clean the carpets but it appears they need to be replaced (I will pay some to do this as it is beyond my skill level).

In the end even if you have never picked up a hammer you should take a shot at doing some of the manual labor with your investment properties (the sooner the better).  By doing this you have a much greater appreciation for the work of others, you can save a few bucks and best of all have a better idea when someone is trying to run a game on you.

I am confident that over the years I could have saved 30K+ of work by spending some weekends in Fresno cranking out simple activities.  That 30K could have turned into several additional properties if had leveraged it correctly.

Please learn from my mistake and go get your hands dirty!!!

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