All Forum Posts by: Joshua Rogers

However you decide to deal with it, it's a good problem to have compared to the usual issues surrounding tenant/landlord relationships.  

Welcome Manny, I'm just outside of St. Louis in the Illinois side suburbs.  Enjoy the site, it's packed with valuable info and a great network of people.  If you ever want to grab lunch and chat real estate, send me a message.

Thanks for all the great replies, I gained some valuable insight.  I had to laugh at the comment "have you cracked a teaching book".  NO lol.  I'm out of my "oh poor me" phase, it comes and goes once in a while.  I'm going to stay more active on BP and continue the journey.  Thanks again everyone.  

P.S.  I want to add value, not just find an investor to boost me up.  I don't care if you're a newbie or Donald Trump, I just want someone with a little bit of fire to get in touch with me!

I'll try to keep this brief to some degree. I own a few single family homes, I make fairly decent passive income, but I am bored out of my mind. Perhaps it's an issue for my counselor, not BP, but I saw there was a section titled investor psychology, so here goes. My girlfriend and I are equal partners on every deal. She helps on the financing side and bookkeeping, I do everything else involved in buy and hold investing...rehab, tenants, management, etc. That said, it doesn't excite me, and unless I'm working on a new deal, it doesn't require a massive amount of my time. I see houses as a way to add $300 to $600 a month to my immediate net income, fantastic long term wealth seems "almost" inevitable (no guarantees in life and the free market), and great tax benefits. Plain and simple, yet uninspiring (for me personally). I honestly think it's being alone in my work that is the major problem, as well as being business partners with someone who brings nothing to the table aside from financing. Sure, she wants to "retire young", but I don't see her cracking a real estate book, tax book, looking at forums (such as BP), or anything else. She has a full time job as an elementary teacher, so I understand that she can't do real estate full time. I also realize that financing is a major component, but lately I have the attitude that just because you loan a welder to me and I go off and construct the Eiffel tower, it doesn't mean I want to split the finished product with you 50/50. We're romantic partners, so I suppose the money all goes in the same pot, so it's not as bad as splitting it 50/50 with a strictly business partner though. Maybe I'm crazy....I've been told that before. I want to partner with someone who I can learn from, and hopefully they can learn from me. I don't know if real estate is my calling. I always wanted enough passive income to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted...then I realized I don't have a lot of hobbies or a major "calling" (I haven't discovered it as of yet, despite reading dozens of books on the subject). Consider this me reaching out, hoping to find some local people who can motivate me and excite me. I've tried the local REIA group, and perhaps I didn't give it a fair chance, but I found bitter landlords and part-timers who seemed more lost than me. I do plan on joining again to give it another shot. This could be the ramblings of a mad man. I appreciate your time reading my thoughts.

If i had $800,000 cash, I'd pay off my current rental homes, my passive income would jump to over 12k a month, and I would retire.  Travel, volunteer, start another business, etc.  So, my humble opinion would be to find a partner with a vast amount of experience and work with them on a few deals.  That kind of cash should easily create a 10k a month income without any trouble in a short period of time.  Obviously, 10k a month means different things to different people.  It is not massive wealth, but it's enough to do anything you want if you avoid high price areas like LA.  You could live in Thailand like a GOD with that kind of passive income.  

Warning the tenants will do little to limit your liability.  In fact, it may increase your liability, due to the fact that although you are working to mitigate the risk, you have not actually eliminated the risk. It's a bit of a catch-22.  By warning the tenants, you make the problem known, and thus they may be less likely to get hurt. However, if they do slip, they can bring up in court the fact that you knew about a dangerous situation.  I don't have a solution for the moss, but I would try a RoundUp knockoff weedkiller (generics are just as effective ast RoundUp if they have similar salt concentration listed on label).  Lightly mist the bricks on a dry day and it should kill the moss.  Any remaining residue can likely be scrubbed off, or removed with a dilute mix of muriatic acid and water.  BE CAREFUL, the acid may remove color from the bricks or lighten them, and will remove your vision if you splash it in your eyes.

I networked through my existing pool of friends to find a great mentor (this was a shallow and murky pool). Turns out my high school sweetheart had an uncle that had been dominating real estate for over 20 years. I called him, asked if I could ride along and check out his deals. I buy lunch when we go out. Highest ROI I've ever experienced.

$30k is steep.  On some level, it may be like having a personal trainer for fitness.  Can we eat healthy and work out on our own without a trainer?  Of course.  Will we?  Most of us won't.  Perhaps this course lights a fire under someone after they drop that much cash into the program.  Seems crazy to me to spend that much, but I don't know anything about the program.  This is why I'm considering getting into the information business!  Most people want to purchase the hope of a result, rather than working for that result.  Hence the unopened CD's from so many seminar attendees.

Scott,

This is definitely a question I have pondered for the last few years.  When my rental portfolio reached a $4k monthly net (right in line with your $40,000 income benchmark), I began wondering why I was striving so much for early retirement and "freedom."  Like you, I chose real estate as a financial vehicle, not because I am overly passionate about it. Money buys choices, and without real estate, I would most likely be working a job I hate. However, I don't actually know what I want to do, whether in my free time or as a career.  Many people are inspired to provide for their kids.   I don't have kids, although I do enjoy creating financial options for my two very young nephews.  However, some part of me believes that responsibility lies with their parents for the most part.  I think for someone who has hobbies, family, etc, then financial freedom allows them to spend more time and money on those hobbies and family members.  Otherwise, I am still lost on the subject.   However, I have never been poor.  Sure, I've been flat broke, but with a strong network of friends, my lifestyle was always decent.  It doesn't take much imagination to see how coming from poverty would motivate one to want financial freedom, if simply to avoid poverty.  This question has me deep in thought once again.  Thanks for the post.