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All Forum Posts by: William Hardie

William Hardie has started 1 posts and replied 10 times.

Post: Bangor Maine meetup?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@Nathaniel Seekins I'm getting ready to move to the house we just bought in Winterport and would like to get on your email list, if you wouldn't mind. Unfortunately, we don't pull into town until June 6th, so I'll miss the upcoming meet up. Thanks!

Post: Any Maine residents doing buy and holds?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@David Marshall Thanks! We've checked out the website and the number look good for mini-splits. We're just trying to convince ourselves they will work for in the really cold temps. We definitely need to keep a system for the backup.

Post: Any Maine residents doing buy and holds?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@Jon Mccarthy Thanks for the run down! Have you heard of any drawbacks when the temps get down to about zero?

Post: Any Maine residents doing buy and holds?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@Ed Emmons I'm talking about the mini-split heat pumps; however, you've given me another option to research (monitors).

We plan to either use the oil as backup, or possibly add a pellet stove. In the long term, I wonder if tenets would choose another place to live just to stay away from the pellets or keep up with the work to operate it.

Post: Any Maine residents doing buy and holds?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@Ed Emmons I hope I'm not messing with proper protocol on this forum, but wanted to ask all of the Maine investors what they're thoughts are on mini split heating/cooling.

We just bought a house in Winterport that we might be able to turn into a buy and hold; however, I've seen mixed reviews on using mini splits. Most of the reviews are great, but I can't convince my wife of their effectiveness in Maine. We're trying to figure out what system ) to switch over to from the existing oil furnace.

Any thoughts/opinions are greatly appreciated.

Post: How Do You Manage Your Money?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@Eric Fitzgerald congrats on graduation!

There are a ton of good suggestions about using apps, but I think your initial success will come from establishing great habits centered around tracking your daily spending. My wife and I weren't good at getting ahead with money until we created a tracking spreadsheet that we updated daily.

My recommendation:

1. Debit not Credit - to start, get good with maintaining a positive checking account balance. Once you build the great habits below, expand into credit card advantages (2% cash back rewards, travel hacking, etc). Be patient, they will soon come if you stay true to these habits.

2. Make a spreadsheet - put your checking account balance in bold at the top of it, then create categories (columns) for various things like income, housing, utilities, auto, medical, groceries, out to eat, fuel, etc. Make the spreadsheet calculate the total value of each column and the either add or subtract those subtotal to/from your balance. At any moment you should know how much you have in that account.

3. Always get a receipt - this is the game changer! Every time you go somewhere and spend use your debit card, get the receipt and shove it in your pocket.

4. Dump your receipts by the computer - this habit makes it easy to input those values into the spreadsheet.

5. Log your expenses - enter those receipts into the spreadsheet and be sure to look at your balance as of that moment. You don't have to memorize your balance but at least have a good idea of whether you are sitting at $1500 or $5 before your next paycheck. As time marches on, that balance will get bigger by the time you are ready to receive your next paycheck.

6. Become/stay humble - you don't need the latest and greatest if you know you have the means to get those things but you would rather build your wealth.

Post: Are Current FI Success Stories Sustainable?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

I love listening to the Money Show podcast to get some extra motivation and tips; however, I am the dad of 3 teen/pre-teen boys. Given that perspective, I often wonder if the success stories we hear about are sustainable once/if kids are brought into the equation. When FI to some is living on $30k a year and getting enough passive income to do so, what happens if they ever decide to have kids, or the toddlers they have now grow up and start costing more to feed and take care of?

Hopefully, and most likely, they are continuing to add to their wealth in such a way that their passive income grows to match their growing cost per year.

Nonetheless, they are great stories and still motivate me. Keep going strong!

Post: What is the minimum cash flow per door per month you use?

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

@Mark Fries I am also a newbie to the idea of real estate investing, so I was wondering if the $400-500 cashflow you were talking about accounts for repairs and Capex? There was a part at the end of this post where you mentioned something breaking and there goes the $200. As I am learning to do the rental analysis, I am allotting somewhere around 10% of monthly rental income for each repairs and Capex.

Post: Bangor, Maine

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

I'm getting ready to retire from the military and move to Maine, with a focus on the Bangor area. We are interested in getting into real estate investing while we are there. Of course, we understand the reality of being "from away" and know that might be a barrier we have to overcome. Nonetheless, I thought I would start putting myself out there and would really be interested in any advice you might be able to provide. We will likely be moving there at the end of June/beginning of July.

Post: Central Maine Monthly Investor Meetup

William HardiePosted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Madison, AL
  • Posts 10
  • Votes 3

Nathaniel, I'm getting ready to retire from the Air Force and move to Maine this summer. I've never lived in Maine, don't know much about the Bangor area, but a buddy of mine from Brooksville introduced us to the state and we were instantly drawn to it. We're focusing on moving to the Bangor/Brewer area.

In an effort to diversify my investment portfolio, I'm really interested in buying an SFR or duplex that we (family of 5) can live in for a year or two, fix it up a little, then rent it out, while purchasing another property and doing the same. Ideally, we'd like to get up to about 3 properties.

As I'm analyzing a lot of the properties, I'm noticing they don't seem to have much cash flow, especially once you include maintenance, Capex, and utilities. As a whole, do investors in Bangor focus on covering the minimum expenses (MTI, management, and utilities), or are there lots of opportunities to get SFRs well below market, fix them up, and then get positive cash flow with all of the factors included?

Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated!

Bill