All Forum Posts by: Russ Copeland

Hello. My wife and I are about to close on a house and we have been probing the idea of renovating the basement to a single bedroom or studio apartment. We are trying to think of some way to come up with some additional financing if the need arises. We have obviously already discussed the traditional options (i.e. bank loans, FHA/HUD, our own savings), but we are currently brain storming some non-traditional and creative ways to finance the project.

I have budgeted for a $40,000 renovation that includes unforeseen circumstances.  We figure we can rent the apartment between $300 - $400 per month on the low side.  We'd like to use most of our own finances/savings, but we want to have alternative/backups already planned just incase.

Anybody have any ideas, please share.

Woot for the Twin Cities!!!

I lived there for a couple of years before coming out here to Las Vegas, NV, but now I'm heading back to the area to Eau Claire, WI.

Welcome to BP, it's been a great place for me to learn and pointing me in the right direction in buying a house in Eau Claire for when we move this December.

@ Charles Kuchlenze

Hi Charles.
I talked to my contractor, who happens to be my father, he did say he would consider working on larger projects; it makes it easier for him time wise and financially. He is especially open to doing work during winter months since his home area slows down considerably during that time frame. Let me know if you are still interested, and a bit about the property and perhaps we can get something working between you two. Thanks.

@ Charles.  I do, but he is really busy and works/lives in another city.  I'll be looking for somebody in the Eau Claire area as well.  We are getting closer to finding the right house, our time frame and patience is surely being tested, but I'm holding my head high knowing I'm making a good decision that will fallow into the future.

Hello everybody!!

My name is Russ, and as the title says my wife and I are moving from Sin City to Beer & Brat Land.  With my wife's recent dismissal from her job our timeline to move back home got seriously bumped up, by about a year.  It turned out to be a blessing as we figured higher powers of some sort pushed us into our plan of moving and starting our investment in real estate. 

 We had often talked about retirement strategies and land investments, and since her father rents out storage units we looked into that as well.  We also figured paying rent isn't going to help us and I was tired of paying somebody else, so we decided to put some of our savings into buying our first property as a couple.  We have owned our own properties in the past; I was lucky enough to sell before the crash, and my wife made the decision to rent hers out and got burned by the WI Winter Eviction Law.  Now with our new circumstances we figured it was time to look, plus with her not having any income and having animals, renting was no longer a viable financial option.

So here we are today, looking at Single Family properties.  We first thought we were going to go in it alone and started our search for under $50k that we could move in and fix up along the way.  Luckily her family has been very supportive and offered to help in our move and leveraged a huge helping hand in purchasing a better property around $90k range.

Our plan?  Move in to a nearly ready property, fix and/or remodel key areas and live in it for a few years till we rebuild our savings and put back a large chunk of change that her family is helping us with.  Then use our equity in that property to purchase another, while renting our first house.  Of course plans change, but it is a start for now.

Being on here and reading through the "Learn" section has helped a lot.  My wife of course wanted the cute property with all the bells and whistles, but once I made the spreadsheet of which properties we would get our money's worth she realized the benefit and we have been able to hold our head high as we have turned out a couple houses that didn't meet the standards.  In the end our top 3 houses on the list are houses that her and I can live with, fix up, and be proud of, short and long term. 

We are still in the search phase, but narrowing our choices down a lot, gaining more insight on the properties as we dig deeper into the initial cost and over all investment.  It has been challenging, frustrating, yet fun and exhilarating.

So as a new investment seeker any and all advice is welcome.  Thanks ahead!!