All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Are we to infer from your posts on this topic your dream you are living is to unclog toilets among other unpleasant tenant related activities?

We are going to have to agree to disagree on the use of great property managers and other professionals. Being as a real estate investor does not mean you have to trade your current job/career for a low wage, manual labor job where you are on-call 24/7 365 days a year.

Throughout history the biggest profits are in owning the means of production, not in being part of the production machinery.

Wow, Mike you are absolutely right. We are all total morons because we don't do business the way you do. Please forgive us for not being as enlightened as you are. :roll:

As I said before, personally, I don't care whether you or anyone else does it all themselves or not. The fact is what works for you will not work for everyone else.

I am perfectly capable of doing the maintenance, repairs and rehabs on my properties but I choose not to do it. I did the full remodel on the house we live in myself but I see spending my time doing low pay scale manual labor as a waste of my time, no matter how else I choose to use it.

Property managers over paid? Perhaps the ones you have tried are, the ones I use are worth every penny I pay. Maybe I am better able to find and retain great property managers than you have been able to do. Whatever the reason, I use property managers for local and distant properties. It works really well for me and millions like me. :cool:

There is no "The" next level.

Think about an athlete in training, perhaps a runner. They have a training regime and a goal of running a marathon. Then their goal changes to running a marathon in less than X minutes. Then it changes again. Each time they reach a goal they set another one.

To reach each of those goals at some point they have to take their knowledge, training and exercise routine "to the next level".

Some are content just being able to run the marathon and never progress beyond that, which is absolutely fine. Others of us want more. So we work not just harder but smarter too. We maximize our efforts by not trying to do everything ourselves.

Mike, it appears your life long goal was to be able to semi-retire and you do that by owning and managing rentals. Great, wonderful. For you there is obviously no "next level".

However, I, like millions like me want more than that. We want the security of knowing if we were in an accident or fell ill our family would not suffer a drop in income just because we were unable to do the things we had done in the past. In my case it was fortunate I did that because when my wife was diagnosed with cancer I didn't have to make any uncomfortable decisions between cleaning a unit for rent and taking care of her and my son. Nor did I have to worry about it when my appendix ruptured and I was pretty much useless for physical labor for over six weeks due to the over foot long vertical incision in my abdomen.

For me, more than twenty years ago, my "next level" was reaching the point where I knew I would never have to worry about money whether I could work or not.

It had nothing to do with having a million dollars in the bank, I don't. It had nothing to do with driving expensive cars, mine is eight years old and approaching 100K miles. It has nothing do with living in a mansion, I don't. It had nothing to do with giving large sums to get buildings named after me, my wife and I have always given anonymously and I still continue that to this day. It is an incredible feeling to take my son shopping for Christmas gifts for kids who otherwise would have nothing and donate them anonymously. No receipts for tax deductions, nothing. That is the true spirit of Christmas and I get to continue to play Santa even though my son is way too old for that.

Late last year, when it was very apparent my schedule was impacting my ability to take care of my son the way *I* thought I should... It was a really good feeling knowing I could leave my job to focus on him and never once worry about anything other than him.

Sure, I miss "working" full time but I can do that once he goes off to college.

In another thread, you talked about being content with what you have. For me, it isn't a matter of being content, I have always been content and always lived below my means. But, things in this life are fleeting and your health can be taken by any number of means. You are never truly financially independent as long as your finances depend on your continued labor. That is true even if your super human abilities allowed you to manage 1000 units in only 2 hours each week. You still must be able to do the work and sooner or later there will come a time when you can't.

I have been preparing for that day for the last 24 years and that is what continues to push me to the "next level" in security and peace of mind.

I have been a consultant most of my adult life and this is whole thing is just the same old build verses buy debate those of us in the software industry have seen forever. The software is just ones and zeros, programmers are over paid lazy bums, we can built it internally ourselves, etc. etc. etc.

There is a very simple fact, investors like Mike don't see the value in using a really great property manager have never had a really great one. Sadly, their attitude about the process and the expectations surrounding it would preclude a really great property manager from working with them.

Rentboy,

It has nothing to do with freeing up your time to find more deals.

Mike has a business model built from the basis of him being an employee and actively doing the work on his properties. It works for him.

When I was starting 24 years ago, I did much the same thing. Then I learned a little more and figured out I didn't have to do all the work to make a decent profit on my investing activities.

It is a completely different business model built from the basis of being an investor.

Neither my model nor Mike's is perfect or right for everyone in every situation. I encourage you to figure out what is right for you and to follow that path. You can always decide to do it differently later.

Your average profit per unit might be higher than mine, I don't know whether it really is not but for the moment let's assume it is.

So what?

It is possible, (hint hint) I have enough units to make up for that difference.

I do know this with absolute certainty, since you do everything yourself if you get sick, injured or just fed up you still have to do it for it to get done.

No, I am not talking about this hands-off autopilot dribble you often hear. But, since I am not the one doing the repairs, rehabs, clean outs, painting, plumbing, marketing, showings, evictions and everything else on the list all by myself, I know my income is much more stable than yours in a whole host of scenarios.

I am an investor first, you are your own (only?) employee first.

Different business models and your way is not the best way for everyone or every situation.

I'd give him the boot. It is a small step from "smoking weed" to dealing and if he deals from the house and gets caught you might find yourself in the middle of criminal charges and a seizure action to take the house.

Of course, the reason you use to boot him is the lack of rent payments since when he pays you the second half of November he is already behind for December.

One possible scenario ...

I buy sub2, rehab and either sell outright or L/O to a tenant-buyer. If they buy outright or when they exercise the option they get new financing.

No loan was ever in my name.

Sub2 and L/O work in every state as long as you follow the rules. Some states make the rules harder to follow than others.