All Forum Posts by: Gary L Wallman

Turn the utilities on.  Aside from avoiding the vacant house look due to no lighting, many municipalities require an inspection of the various utilities to reconnect after a prolonged period of no service.  This can be expensive and or time consuming, especially if the property's  mechanicals are way behind current code. 

In the county I rehab in, an inspection is required for re-connection of residential utilities that have been off for one year.  This drops to 30 days for commercial properties.

The toughest part for me is I love buying and rehabbing houses to hold long term.  This means that while I could be considered financially free, in reality I spend/invest nearly all my cash flow back to acquire more property.  You might call it a real estate addiction.  Plus I hate debt.  I probably have to quit buying if I want to enjoy the fruits of my investments elsewhere. 

Phillip,

Like you I am also a car dealer by day.  I started buying real estate during the crash.  It was a no brainer for me.  Like buying 20 dollar bills for 10 bucks.

Indy, where you live, and the suburbs of Dayton where I live have a lot in common when it comes to real estate. Primarily the rate of return on SFR's. We are able to buy in decent areas (B, B-) and easily hit the one percent rule.

I picked up 85 SFR's during the crash and after and I'm still buying today (close on one tomorrow 65k all in 850.00 rent). I do have 35 or 40 multi doors. I find them harder to acquire, rent and manage. They can provide a slightly greater cash flow though, which can be important if you're leveraging.

IMO if you want to get rich with minimum stress continue on your path.  If you want mega-rich, you'll probably need to go after the large Multi's.  Bigger risk but bigger rewards.

Either way, good luck and happy hunting.

I started in 08 at the age of 53.  I am a car dealer who never invested in RE before but saw banks selling houses for far less then the cost to build them.  Kind of like buying 20 dollar bills for 10 bucks.  A no brainer, at least to me. Bought all I could for the next ten years. SF's, MF,s and Commercial.  Flipped about 15, but kept the vast majority as rentals.  Now more then 120 doors.  Retirement is as well funded as I could have ever dreamed, including a house directly on the Gulf in FL bought 3 years ago for 400k less then it's likely worth today.

I have 85+ SFR's, 30+ Multi doors. and 6 Commercial properties. None of the SFR's have a mortgage and 4 of the six commercial properties are mortgage free. The Multi's have a few mortgages representing maybe 30 percent of equity. Could I acquire more properties quickly with mortgages? Sure. But interest is an expense I've almost eliminated entirely, As a consequence, while I can't acquire as many properties as a highly leveraged investor, the ones I do acquire are paid for going in. Overall a 12?% cash on cash return and I sleep as well as if it where invested in treasury bonds.