All Forum Posts by: Mike Hasson

Just got to Mansfield to try something new! Just finishing up a rehab on my primary residence and looking to start the next chapter. Would love to connect with some locals!

Just moved to Mansfield, OH from San Bernardino, CA (we were practically neighbors! lol) 

Finishing rehab on this place this week and need to start furnishing it. I will gladly come pick up some furniture! :-D 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in San Bernardino.

Purchase price: $175,000
Cash invested: $25,000
Sale price: $365,000

First project! Was renting this home while researching real estate, and basically just bought it from my landlord! It was kind of a dump, but i fixed it up gradually, mostly DIY, and made it a nice place to live. This was an incredibly rewarding learning experience.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Was renting it from the owner when I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, and started learning about real estate. About the same time that I got serious about making a purchase, the owner/landlord informed me that he needed to sell - so I bought it!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

It took several months to actually make the purchase because the owner wanted more than it was worth. He priced it according to already fixed up homes, but did not have the funds/time to make the upgrades required to get it up to value. After he declined my $175K offer multiple times over about 4 months, and chose to put it on the market to try to get more, he did finally accept. Since I had a long term lease on the property, I had a bit of leverage in timing to wait it out.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional mortgage with down payment assistance program = 100% financed with no money out of pocket!
In fact, I actually got a check at closing from the remainder of the first-time buyer program.

How did you add value to the deal?

New floor, new roof, new appliances, subfloor repair, removal of dangerously large trees, full yard landscaping and irrigation install.

What was the outcome?

Due to purchasing just before the pandemic, and then the skyrocketing of home prices resulted in a handsome profit, and a wealth of knowledge gained from the ups and downs over the 2 years of holding.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I learned so much about negotiation with buyers/sellers, working with contractors (good and bad), costs of materials/labor/upgrades. Some of the biggest challenges were how to pay for the repairs needed, and while I would not recommend this approach, I put most of it on credit cards which I anxiously paid off immediately after closing. I also took a hit on the sale price due to taking mortgage forbearance which added a significant and unexpected sum to the payoff balance, and while disappointing, the end result was still better than any of the other plans that I had calculated for the property.

@Rase Peters I love what you're doing! I'm in the process now of selling my CA home to move to Columbus to build my core 4 and portfolio. I'm only 1 deal into my career, so I'm going to do a few more solo deals for experience before looking for partners, but would love to connect, and who knows, we could work together on something in the future

@Babu Ramadoss of course every area will be different, but here in California I just had the ceilings painted of an 815 sq.ft. home for $1000, and painted the interior walls myself for less than $500 in materials and supplies.

Hope that helps.

@Brent Barnes I wouldn't recommend anyone take my path of 100 hour workweeks working 2 jobs and DIYing my house during the little time in between both jobs, but I'll tell you what I did/am doing to keep going. It's more like the motivation finds me, rather than me having to conjure it.

I saw working on REI as my only escape from what would have surely been an early grave or dire illness should I have continued overworking. While I'm still In early stages of REI myself, it's the excitement of the possibilities ahead that keep me engaged.

Kind of like when you know something exciting is going to happen tomorrow, it's hard to get any sleep - REI legitimately gets me excited, I use that time lying awake in anticipation (or soemtimes worry) to read and listen to books/podcasts, research markets, browse the forums, and otherwise prepare myself. When I wake up sleepless in the middle of the night I jump onto zillow, or dive into a podcast; When I get an unexpected break from work, I check out homes for sale; when I'm out and about, I talk to people about the homes they've purchased/sold; when I'm playing with or walking my dogs I have audiobooks playing in my ear.

I also set tangible goals that keep the process real - like attending open houses, or viewing available homes; when looking for my first deal, I had set the goal of one viewing per day, which was usually just driving by a property (didn't want to to waste Realtors time since I knew I wasn't ready to buy yet), even if just on my way home work. But those little actions helped to develope my intuition, knowledge of the area, and kept me working harder with my eye on the prize, and actually seeing the prize with my eyes, and not on a screen, kept me excited!

I think it was Jim Rohn who said something like, "with the right reasons, you can achieve anything".

It might be just a matter of asking yourself not "how", but "why?"

@Max T. I love it! I was thinking maybe a BP Pro membership 🤔

@Deren Huang oh man I think there's a lot of truth in the poverty mindset. "Not enough" is old thinking that is no longer serving me. I realize now that there is excess, for me, and for those around me!

Working my way through Profit First, the book is helping a lot by outlining exactly how to break that away from that thinking by physically separating an acceptable profit BEFORE anything else, among other steps.

@Daniel Fitzroy Thanks for the support and encouragement! I like your approach and you framed it well particularly how to differentiate the luxuries from investing in yourself. I don't know why that wasn't even an obvious separation until I read it, though I have been trying to use reshape my habits. 

For me, one of the time investments that I've been investing heavily in is training my 3 dogs - when the newest pup is full grown that will be like 250 lbs of dogs lol but after considering your approach I think one of the best investments I can make right now is professional dog training. I don't know why it wasn't clear sooner, since I've been struggling to get all 3 of them on that the same page, that when these same principles apply to real estate of DIY vs bringing in professionals, to lessen the physical load and ensures better results, I realize that this concept must spill over onto non-business things as well! So after considering, I think my strategic break/reward of professional private training will yield like 15 years of joy with a balanced and well-behaved pack!

Also thanks for sharing that you shared your wishlist, though I'm kind of curious what else was on it! I find things like that inspiring. Like just when I think I'm doing well, I see someone the next tier up and it just makes me realize that I have a lot more work to do. For example I had a wealthy client explain to me once how he actually got bored of Lamborghinis... And here I thought it would be epic to have just 1, let alone get bored of them, how do I become THAT wealthy lol. I nearly shared in an earlier post that all I really want (in addition to the house in the forest) is, just 1 McLaren, but could already feel the impending judgement lol. I'm even a long way off from getting a 370z just for fun, let alone the McLaren, but was wondering if I could scratch the itch with renting a Ferrari or something for the weekend... Or will that make me want one more... and maybe encourage me to work even harder for it? hmmmmm. 

But I usually dismiss those thoughts pretty quick and return to frugality lol

In any case, the number I've come up with for enjoyment along the way, is 5% - with 3% going to fun, and 2% for vacations, which I'm pretty excited about. If I keep reinvesting the rest in my business (and in myself) I hope to bump it up to 10%, once more passive income is being generated! 

@Dan H. I like your approach and I find it very inspiring! I think I need to start building those non-financial interests at this phase, and since I don't seem to find interest in the activities I used to enjoy, I'll take that as I sign it's time for me to just try some new things.

I think the approach I'm going to go with is to simply allocate a portion of my profits towards enjoyment, I think that will keep me interested enough to keep building bigger but without getting burned out. It will be fun to watch my rewards get bigger as my wins get bigger!

Thanks for reminding me that it's okay to enjoy things along the way!