All Forum Posts by: Matthew Rutledge

Awesome perspective. I'm also glad to hear you aren't giving up.

And electrician you say... If things get slow drop me a line. I might have something.

-Matt

That is my general understanding as well. If I'm wrong this could be a wonderful learning experience.

Welcome aboard!

If we're taking votes, I say plan 1. But I only say that because that's pretty much where I want to be, and I tend to be conservative & pessimistic about such things.

But I'm starting with plan 2 in order to get to plan 1 faster. If that makes sense.

Owning two properties outright is a huge head start over most. I think the biggest mistake you could make would be to grow too big too fast. (Again, why plan 1 is a great start.)

-Matt

These guys might sound like they are preaching doom and gloom. They aren't.

If you read between the lines, they are saying it sounds like a great deal and a great program (50% house price?!?! Sign me up!), but if you don't know the rules and play by the rules it's not going to end the way you think it should.

Oh, and it sounds like inventory may be low as well...

Good luck. I really hope you can find one and make it work.

-Matt

A quick update on the work I've done so far.

I have identified three, possibly four parts of Colorado Springs that are financially possible for me to operate in. One of those areas I know very well. I grew up there. I'm not a big fan of that part of town. But the numbers should work, so I will continue to consider it. (It is all about the numbers, right?)

I need to do a bit more refinement to see where I want to focus buying efforts. The focus of this research will be primarily on exit strategy. Some areas just don't flip well. I need to know what my options are.

Timing stinks. Trying to rent a place between November and January is a painful process. If I were able to find and close a deal in the next 30 days, I doubt I could have it rent ready by October 15. (I work slow. I know this.)

While this seems unfortunate, it may actually be a blessing. Selling a house over the winter isn't all that easy either. If a house is listed between thanksgiving and new years the seller tends to be pretty motivated. If I play it right, I just might be able to get a bit more house for my dollar.

If I were rehabbing (had a wall open), I would either go hard wired or run a dedicated plug for the CO detector. I hate sacrificing an outlet for something like that.

Personally, I would like to see more common sense being used with the CO detectors. CO is heavier than air. You want your detector low to give occupants the best chance. The original post about having one up high in a loft makes me cringe.

-Matt

Funny you should chime in, Anson. I was just thinking it might be time to reach out and formally introduce myself. If you don't mind, I'll be sending you an email shortly.

Cash in hand.

We closed on the HELOC yesterday. That's the good news. The bad news is they weren't able to give me quite what we had been speaking about when I went in for the loan. It's still enough to get started, but I need to shift my thinking and redefine the parts of town I was looking into.

To restate (perhaps as much for me as anyone) the plan is quite simple.
Long term goal - monthly income (Retirement level income will be 10k/month, but we're starting small.)

How we do it -
Passive income. This is via buy-and-hold rentals, possibly getting into notes and owner financing somewhere along the way.

Immediate plan -
Buy a rental house. Probably something that needs some work. I would simply love to have something in the Denver area, but I'm fairly certain I don't have the cash to get into that market right now. So we're looking at Colorado Springs and surrounding areas first. I had a few neighborhoods picked out, but the change in funds is probably going to mean a change in geography.

That's my work for the next week. Sit down with zillow, realtor.com and craigslist and see if I can pin-point a couple other likely areas with a lower buy in cost. I plan to have this done by August 7.

The next step is to take a realistic look at the calendar. I work slow. I know I work slow. I also know trying to rent a place between November and February usually leads to lower rents and higher holding costs. I need to be honest with myself here and see if I can really get something purchased, rehabbed, and rented by then. Sanity check will be done by August 10.

Plan B: DO NOT STOP LOOKING! If a good deal is found, do something with it. Something could be defined as bird dogging it, attempting a wholesale, or taking on a fix-n-flip. If the deal is right, even buying it and holding until spring might be acceptable. Oddly enough, a fix-n-flip over the winter seems more palatable than holding a rental. I doubt the holding costs would be any less, but the potential return is greater and that helps justify the risk.

While all that is working, I plan to start building some teams. I have a good plumber and handyman. I know a couple contractors I want to reach out to. I also know a couple others doing REI work in the area I need to reach out to. Being honest with my schedule, I plan to make one phone call a day and see what happens.

Thanks for reading. This is about to get fun.

Awesome! So with the 50% rule we're looking at about 300-500 (depending on rent) left over for actual repairs/maintenance, etc. That seems very reasonable for a condo.

So I guess the only remaining factor is any mortgage for the purchase.

I really have nothing useful to add other than saying thank you for taking on such a project.

In the back of my head are ideas for doing similar things with dis-used waterfowl habitat.

-matt