All Forum Posts by: James H.

It's hard to say at age 33 and being quite far from financial independence or retirement, what retirement number I will need.

I think if I could manage to get 10 houses under my belt that rent for an average of 5-600/month real cash flow per month in todays dollars (some may be paid off, some not) and 20 years more 401K from both me and the wife and all personal debt paid off, we would be pretty good.

I suppose that would be about 5500/month from rental income plus around 1.5-2MM in real estate assets plus around 0.75 to 1MM in 401K monies.

I think the 401K monies, however we decide to invest them post 401K will provide a nice and truly passive component in with the rental money that should still increase with time as remaining mortgages get paid off. I would manage the rentals and that would be my work in retirement. I may do some other type of work if I find I spend too much money in my free time and get bored otherwise.

I think being a Walmart greeter would be a nice and stressless retirement job to pay for my coffees and sandwiches. Maybe a plant waterer at a botanical garden...

Yeah, I saw them.

It's just a sink, man. How complicated can it be? lol!

I might consider it with the correct contractual agreement, a fee for the time of rental and verification that they are approved for closing. I'd be wary, though.

Undermount looks better. I'd probably go that route if I was going through the trouble of granite.

I would price in the cost of paying someone to handle the eviction process for me and also repairs of a trashed unit into my analysis. With 7 people in a 2br, it will be virtually trashed upon moveout whether they are being vindictive or not.

If the numbers work with those contingencies, then I might consider buying it and dealing with the tenantsf, evicting the tenants myself or paying someone else to do the dirty work since that would be in the budget.

Ryan Watson,

Here is another funny one:

"When a developers mad at the contractor on performance, and they've had ****ty weather and cant reach compaction with mud, it goes to show just how out of touch with reality most people are."

As it turns out, I'm a geotechnical engineer and we have more dirt workers and concrete contractors calling us up with hair brain schemes and suggestions so THEY can save money and get more margin on THEIR work that they bid lump sum to the "stupid" developer. More problems arise from poor construction performance than from poor design or poor ownership by FAR. That means that it is the CONTRACTOR that is screwing up - not the designers or the owners MOST OF THE TIME. The whole reason why testing labs exist to check compaction is because your beloved blue collar worker is NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

I know all about it and your opinions are simply skewed due to your position in the project. You need to grow up and let your mind grow out. You are just displaying the typical arrogance that accompanies ignorance. Yes, you know some things. But you don't know it all and you are trying to make very complex processes into black and white statements. The problem is, you are only capable of seeing things in black and white. The reality is, there is no black and white.

This will be offensive but true: The lowest guy on the totem pole is usually a dumbass. Thank god he is not making the big picture decisions. I have worked my way up from a guy who got paid minimum wage as a roofer's helper, then a customer service agent for credit cards, then a carpet cleaner, then a cable guy, then an electricians helper then finally went to school and now work as an engineer. There are other low totem pole jobs I have had in addition to those listed. I was alway good at all my jobs.

Just because I could tell you what a good carpet looked like or a good electical fitting looked like doesn't mean you should have listened to me tell you how to grade an entire subdivision for drainage. I also probably wouldn't be much help with permits or street pavement and signage design or utilitiy infrastructure design.

Let's test your knowlege: Why are all the newer subdivisions built with curve linear streets rather than on grids? I bet you don't know without looking it up. We'll have no way to verify if you cheated, but you're an honest guy right?

double post