All Forum Posts by: Louis D.

Well Jeff I'm glad you are incredibly excited about your new journey. You need to develop a "thick skin" when it comes comes to negative comments. They don't have ill will they just don't know what they don't know. 
If you talked about your plan to a business owner they would be excited for you and maybe share ideas. Maybe there are like minded people in your area you can meet and talk to. Find groups on BP for meet ups. If they don't have on, start one. 

If one unit brings in 200 a month after expenses (and savings that you set aside for bigger expenses that arise) that's $2400 year. Over 30 years that's $72,000 of income! You will own the property and someone else made your payments! If you purchase a 200k property at the end of 30 years you will own 200k property plus received 72,000 in cash flow plus tax benefits, plus appreciation, plus rents may go up! THAT'S EXCITING!!! You will be on your way to creating time freedom and residual income!! If your property goes up in value to say to 250k and rents go up even a little ........well I'll let you do that math on those scenarios. Write down your goals. Look at them often. Make a plan to get you there, develop a "thick skin" and yes you have good reasons to be excited!!

I'm new to real estate investing. I have put in a lot of hours without finding a deal at this point. Well I  Just read finding and funding GREAT DEALS by Anson Young. Good read and good information cover to cover. Great info on how to find your own deals. As for wholesalers with bad number? Don't give up looking for good people to work with, just give up working with the "wholesaler" with the bad numbers. The other book I read was by David Green "LONG DISTANCE REAL ESTATE INVESTING. Davids book, just like Ansons is full of real world useful information. There is a world of information, like "how to find agents to work with". These two books have been worlds apart from other books I have read books that just had a little data here and a little data there. I felt like I was fishing for information. These two books I read in the last 10 days and now I am making a new game plan. I am going to find good wholesaler and  agents that work with investors. Next I am going to figure out what areas I want to go find deals in and start marketing using GREAT DEALS as my manual. These two books are game changers. Try these two books and let me know what you think.

Enough cash flow that I do not have to work. I am creating time freedom. Not sure what I will do for fun at that point but having the cashflow to be, do, and have what I want is the first step. It's funny looking at my goal as I have always been a workaholic. I noticed I have been happiest when I have been fully engaged in what I was doing. NOT having to go to work just means I get to pick what I will be engaging in.

   As a remodeling contractor I have seen homes with 10s of thousands of needed repair that could have been prevented with a bit of proper maintenance. One that stands out if caulking. You can buy a home that has been painted and looks great but if proper caulking was not done and maintained this opens the door for dry rot. If it's your buy and hold or the home you live in, once a year walk around your home and check around all windows and wood trims and make sure the caulking is good. If not caulk it. Don't use the cheap stuff either. I have had good luck with Sahco Big Stretch but a friend of mine was told at Sherwin Williams that they have one that is better. I will need at least a year of evaluate. DAP makes one called Extreme Stretch and I don't have any long term data on that one. Regardless failed caulk or no caulk will lead to damage. When you have a home painted it may add a lot of $ to caulk but it will be less then the cost of repairs if you don't. This goes for inside the home too. Bathrooms get the mold resistant paintable caulk. If it is paintable then it can be cleaned when applied. You may want to check the roof vents on the house  and check the caulking/seal  on that but I have only rarely seen damage from that.

I did a lot of large crown molding in a large home (7/1/4" and 12" paintable ) and I would not want to have to caulk any of it again, especially the molding that was 21' high,  so use the more expensive caulk inside too. It shrinks less. You may want to add a calking inspection to your properties yearly or bi-yearly inspections and save your hard earned money for buying more homes.

I'm making a shift from remodeling contractor specializing in kitchens and bathrooms to home renovations. My wife took out a hard money loan and I oversaw a good size renovation on our own home of 20 years in Cameron Park. We had a good return on our time and money. Now that are old house has sold we are looking to do another. I'm looking for something in the 300k -400k and under range so that we are in the "sweet spot" when it comes time to sell. Being a general contractor I'm willing to take on homes that need more than just a little work but I'm open. I helped my daughter in Seattle renovate her home as a wedding present last year and she was happy with her return too. So I'm anxious to get going as one or two more successful renovations and I can meet my first goal of having my wife be in a position to quit her day job (in the mortgage industry) and turn her part time job (realtor) in to her full time job. She is highly motivated, customer service type person, driven to having happy customers. We simply want her self employed so we can take more time off! We have a married daughter in New Orleans and a married son/wife and granddaughter in Floridan we want to visit regularly. We both like hard work, we just want more breaks in between the hustle. I can take more time off but It's just not right all by myself. We both ride motorcycles and we are dusting those off after a busy 2018.

 Second part of our plan in rental properties in states that have a better return then California and more landlord friendly laws (that leaves what about 49 states?). I'm just starting to explore places that have homes in the 30k-50k zone as they usually return better then 1%. I really have enjoyed my work as a contractor doing very custom moldings,cabinets, kitchens, and baths but now I want to manage my home renovations and put my tool belt away so that I can pick up the pace on the number of homes we can do per year. 

I will be looking to play Robert Kiyosakis board game once a month with new people to meet other like minded individuals. My first guest for the first game has retired and got out of the rat race already.

If you know of any wholesalers in my area I'm interested to get rolling. If you have towns in states you like to invest in and are willing to share information I'm interested. If I invest in a town you are already invested in you will have one more person that can go there and be your eyes and second opinion. I'm always willing to share what I know. If I find a really good property management company in a town we are both exploring I'll share that too. Let's build success together.

I'm in Cameron park just outside Sacramento. In our area things are slightly slower with prices holding. Its what I would consider a normal market. I can't recall that in this area in last twenty years. It's always been a buyer's or sellers market in the past. Cameron park homes average about 100k more then Sacramento average of 350k.