All Forum Posts by: Jeff T.

@Dan M.

I’ve done this calculation a number of times and thought about paying off my house. For me and my payoff amount and interest rate I decided to refi and gained cash flow that way.

If I were in your situation I might have paid it off. It’s a pretty decent guaranteed cashflow/expense reduction for only $70k and no risk.

At this point I get excited about adding little bits of long term cashflow because that’s what pays bills and keeps me from having to use cash or investments for income.

Actually I’m pretty sure I would pay it off. But then I don’t know your whole financial situation, but my favorite real estate investor Bruce Norris says, he sleeps a lot easier with a paid off house.

I sleep easier with low expenses, which is pretty similar.

One last thing, don’t forget the ordinary income taxes you would have to pay on that 11% loan you would be funding.

Good luck with it all, it sounds like your are in a good overall situation.

@Darrell D.

Actually I’m a little confused. It seems like you want something new but then you also said you wanted to be more passive. Laundromats and franchises are not passive as I’m sure you know.

You are in a great position. It seems like maybe you have been working hard towards this goal and now you are there and not quite sure what to do next. As I’ve gotten close to goals I’ve gotten more conservative with everything, but that’s me.

What is it that seems exciting about laundromats and franchises? If you can answer that maybe that will help sort out what you want next. Probably not helpful, but just my thoughts. Good luck .

@Christopher Reeder

Thanks for the recommendation, my father used them and was happy and I am getting a bid for 2 rentals next week, because of insurance requirements, which have been crazy lately.

@Liza Leif

I hear you! That is annoying.

I finally got a call blocking app on my phone that screens many known spam and scam and telemarketing numbers.

That helped reduce the number of call dramatically. There are a number of them . I just use the free version of Hiya which works ok, but you have to keep updating the list manually for the free version. There are many out others here.

I would recommend getting a well known one.

@Jay Hinrichs

My grandparents from Michigan bought 2 Cape Coral lots close to Lehigh Acres in the 60s for $3k . They bumped around in value, went up to $90k in 2005 then back to $3k when my parents had them.

Apparently banks were doing 100% financing on lots in 2005. Ideally they would have sold then. Hindsight, haha.

@Mike Gordon

You weren’t kidding. I’m not sure I would even call that a fence.

@Kim Smith

You can have a property manager take care of all of the bills and then you only have one transaction a month. Actually you probably want to have property manager anyway because you are not supposed to be doing any work yourself. You don’t necessarily need checkbook control. I don’t.

I use UdirectIRA but it would probably work with your current place . I would ask them.

Also, you can only borrow 50% LTV and it's a non-recourse loan. So harder to find and more interest. Search for non-recourse lender in bp.

Good luck

@Ankit Patel

It’s a pain screening them but well worth it. I went from losing money to a nice cash flow after changing property managers.

Also look for systems in place for everything.

Referrals are key also, that’s how I found mine, but I still screened them.

@John Nachtigall

I agree, it’s not like there is a lack of land around Austin.

@Steven Jefferson

Tankless gas water heater require 3/4” gas line and a separate 110v electrical outlet.

Tankless electric requires 240v electric.

So it’s not just the cost of the water heater but the retrofit gas and electric costs, none of which you will recoup.

I’ve had a gas tankless in my house and it’s been great for 14 years. But I added it as part of a remodel along with gas and electric .

FYI