All Forum Posts by: Aaron McCurdy

Again, thanks everyone for the great advice and words of encouragement... This really helps!

@Andrew Johnson

Ok, again, I am very fresh at this whole "bigger pockets mentality" and I love the insight that you are providing. Talking about our Primary residence. We paid it off this year and prior to that we had a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons. The obvious pro was the interest write off. The loan was at 380k, punching that into a calc and looking at amortization shows that throughout the life of the loan we would have spent 275k on interest alone to get an extra ~4500/year back on the taxes... it seemed like that small return was outweighed by

1. not having an 2000/mo payment,

2. not paying the extra 275k in interest

3. peace of mind of not ever having to worry about having a roof over our heads.

So, I know you are probably going to look at this and tell me that I sound contradictory or it doesn't make sense to want tax write offs but then give up the best/easiest tax write off available to "most" people. I feel in this equation that we are not "most" people. We have a bright future ahead that includes a LOT of tax liability. In this case we are looking to secure our home as paid for and pursue another venture that may be a way to limit some of that tax liability.

I don't know... Right now, all I can say, Andrew, is that your and everyone else's insight has been great and a real eye opener on how much we have to learn and also how many options there are.  The 24/7/365 business is not what I am looking for. This all originally started when we discusses getting into a couple more rental properties, getting them to a point that they pay for them selves and we add more equity to our portfolio. I know now, just from spending a few days discussing with you all that we have a long road ahead of soul searching and deciding what exactly it is that we are looking for. But most likely not the car wash business... That, sort of, got the ball rolling for me, though.

I think I would be more inclined to go the 2.5M in plain, boring, apartments or shoot, what is that... like 6- $400,000 homes? one or two of which could be in our favorite ski resort towns... etc... 

Man, talk about some great advice here... BP is living up to what I have seen so far for great advice. 

@Andrew Johnson,  Since this is moving along to a more substantial conversation than I thought it would I will disclose a little more... Yes we are mid 6 figures like close to 500k/year... I am more close to 1/5 of that.  The reasoning behind not having a mortgage (paid off this year) or debt for that matter would be if something happened we could walk away from our jobs "free and clear".   The reason for me "quitting" my job to pursue something else would be to get me a bit more leeway with shuttling kids and being more active in their needs as they grow up... the wife calls it a "manny" job... Which I am fully on board with.  In-between my manny job, it would be nice to have a side gig as well.  Real Estate in Northern Colorado is crazy right now and I have considered getting a Realtor License but have also read that if you are just investing and managing that it's not that necessary if you can work a deal with a broker... Which I know a ton of...  

I have been looking into real estate investing and commercial investing, this one just popped up this week and piqued my interest.  I am not dead set on the Car Wash and I am not selling meth on the side @David Carte... I do get the reference and loved Breaking Bad. 

@Billy Khaliidi I wouldn't say car washes are my passion at all... Right now I am just feeling around for something to do and have always had interest in Real Estate... the car wash just seemed like an extension of that.  You have a very valid point about buying a job... If I would be doing rentals I would also be buying a job... granted, with the right properties, they would be less maintenance intensive than the car wash, i'm sure. 

@Andrew Johnson, great advice! However, our primary residence is paid off... The rental still has a mortgage.  

On the car wash business... this deal is to purchase 2 separate car washes in one deal, they are 2 auto touch free washes with 4 manual wash bays.  With my current plan, I would be the sole employee to run both of them.  I come from a highly technical/engineering background which I could fall back on to perform a significant amount of the maintenance and operation.  Where I am lacking is the financial side of this and am quickly learning up on how the business side of things work.  I definitely would not be treating this one as a hands-off business. 

@Dave Carpenter, congrats on finding a fairly easy car wash deal!  So, does yours also include manual bays or just the 2 drive in touch free units.  If you don't mind, i'd like to pick your brain a little to get an idea on some more detailed info... car counts, avg per car, and maybe a little insight on how your SBA loan went. 

@Dan Bernstein, Thanks for the response.  I have seen a lot of reference to Rich Dad Poor Dad... I'll have to go pick it up.  I have a few buddies that are REA's and will definitely be hitting them up to see if they have any advise on who to talk to.  It just sounds like there is a lot of DD to be put into this obviously with the risk and amount of money involved. Thanks for the advice, this will help as I push forward on my research!

Hello, All!  

First off, thanks for any advice that I can get.  I am learning as much as I can but there is so much to all of this. 

My wife and I have been discussing what we can do to leverage some of our money and diversify.  We both currently work in semiconductor/technology.  She is a senior level manager and I am an engineer, to sum it up, I make about 1/4 of our income which last year was over mid 6 figures... we do fairly well together but have discussed the possibility of diversifying as we are heavily invested in our current company.  

We have 1 rental which was my house prior to us moving in together and getting married.  It is self sufficient for now and has appreciated quite nicely.  Our current residence is paid off and we have no debt. 

What I am looking at right now, just as an example, is the purchase of 2 car washes here in town.  I have contacted the sellers agent and they are willing to share financials with me when I sign a CA. 

My Questions:

Where should we start?  I have been scouring BP for any and all info I can find, but there are some things that are more difficult to find. 

1.  How does financing work with something like this... the deal would be ~2.5M for both car washes.  What are we looking at loan wise for this? 

2. Should we start an LLC? and if so, I am assuming we would provide the "startup" money for this LLC then the LLC would purchase the properties.

3.  In the end, ideally, I would be quitting my day job to run this company.  My wife, the breadwinner, would be funding it.  What sort of Tax benefits are we looking at as we are quickly moving up tax brackets and are looking for write-offs. 

4.  Any other advice? 

Thanks all, for any help and patience with my complete noobieness.