I had fully intended to clean the brush out of the back yard of one of our rentals today, but that just didn't happen.
We have a Peachtree Patio Door at the back of my house (my personal residence). The handle has been broken for the past couple of months. Since it has been so cold, I have been waiting to fix it until the weather warmed up. Today, it was 75 degrees and it is expected to be warm the rest of the week. We like to grill out frequently when the weather is suitable and therefore need that door (which leads to the deck) to work. Therefore, this morning seemed like the perfect time to work on it.
If you've never had one of those Peachtree Patio Doors - don't rush out and buy one. This is the second time in 15 years that I've had to repair that door and that seems excessive to me. At any rate, the door latch mechanism is badly broken and will have to be replaced. The door is quite complicated and requires quite an effort to disassemble. It was nearly noon by the time I got it taken apart and was ready to take it to the local parts supplier for Peachtree.
By noon, it was sunny and in the 60's, so I decided to take the rest of the day off. I rode my motorcycle into town to order the parts for the door. I took some country roads home, which made for a very enjoyable ride. I then decided to change the oil in the motorcycle, so I rode my motorcycle into town to get the filter and oil. After changing the oil, I felt obligated to take another ride to check for leaks (yeah right). So, I took another motorcycle ride through a local state park. I made it back home for supper and then decided to go back to the state park for a bicycle ride before sunset. All in all, it was a very nice day.
I'll be taking tomorrow off also. My dog (who is like a member of the family) has an enlarged liver and must go to the big city of Columbus to see a specialist and have some tests done. That will take a big part or all of the day, so I'm not expecting to do any real estate related stuff tomorrow.
To me, this flexibility and freedom is the best thing about operating rental properties. I really like the ability to set my own schedule and take a lot of time off.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Finished!
Today was a very good day. I finished rehabbing the apartment I have been working on. I installed a ceiling light, repaired a cabinet door, put glazing on a window, and installed a new toilet handle. DONE!
Next, I had a meeting with the owner of the 4 apartment buildings we're taking over. We're "buying" these buildings using a unique lease option. The "unique" part is that the option price will be fully amortized over 30 years, just as if we were buying it directly. In other words, our price gets lower exactly as if this were being financed by a bank. The owner is tired of dealing with tenants and quite anxious to get rid of these buildings, thus the good purchase terms.
Finally, I got home in time ride my new V-Star motorcycle. It was a great day for a ride and a great day overall.
Next, I had a meeting with the owner of the 4 apartment buildings we're taking over. We're "buying" these buildings using a unique lease option. The "unique" part is that the option price will be fully amortized over 30 years, just as if we were buying it directly. In other words, our price gets lower exactly as if this were being financed by a bank. The owner is tired of dealing with tenants and quite anxious to get rid of these buildings, thus the good purchase terms.
Finally, I got home in time ride my new V-Star motorcycle. It was a great day for a ride and a great day overall.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Another Exciting Day of Real Estate
I'm still looking for another property to buy. I have looked at several properties; attended two auctions; and been actively hunting a property to buy. I looked at another house today. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a 1 car detached garage. The house is in very good condition and only needs cosmetic work. It is a REO and is being offered at $37,500. It is a fair deal at that price, but would be a great deal at about $30,000.
There is currently a big demand for 3-4 bedroom rental houses in our area. I will probably make an offer on this property tomorrow. Normally, I would have made an immediate offer on this property. However, the housing market is very fragile and I am expecting (and starting to see) an avalanche of foreclosed properties hit the market. I believe that it is critical that each property is bought at a Huge discount. This particular property has a retail value of about $80,000 and will only require about $5,000 in rehab to be in retail condition. This property will rent for $700 per month.
I also found a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house that is being offered for $24,900. This is also a REO and I will look at it tomorrow. It would be a GREAT deal at something less than $20,000.
Tomorrow, we are finalizing the deal on the 4 apartment buildings that we are taking over at the end of the month. The owner is coming over and we will finalize the details. This deal will add another 10 units to my portfolio.
Today, I worked for about 3 hours on one of our rentals. I did some general painting and am hoping to finish with this unit tomorrow.
Summer (or at least spring) is scheduled to return to Ohio this week. We are planning a 3-4 day camping trip later this week. With temperatures returning to the 60's and 70's, I'm looking forward to getting out of town. I've got a lot of work to do this week to prepare for our trip. I need to de-winterize the motorhome; get the motorhome restocked with food; check the oil/water/and fluids in the motorhome; change oil in my motorcycle; and much more. It is going to be a busy week. The sun is scheduled to start shining tomorrow!
There is currently a big demand for 3-4 bedroom rental houses in our area. I will probably make an offer on this property tomorrow. Normally, I would have made an immediate offer on this property. However, the housing market is very fragile and I am expecting (and starting to see) an avalanche of foreclosed properties hit the market. I believe that it is critical that each property is bought at a Huge discount. This particular property has a retail value of about $80,000 and will only require about $5,000 in rehab to be in retail condition. This property will rent for $700 per month.
I also found a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house that is being offered for $24,900. This is also a REO and I will look at it tomorrow. It would be a GREAT deal at something less than $20,000.
Tomorrow, we are finalizing the deal on the 4 apartment buildings that we are taking over at the end of the month. The owner is coming over and we will finalize the details. This deal will add another 10 units to my portfolio.
Today, I worked for about 3 hours on one of our rentals. I did some general painting and am hoping to finish with this unit tomorrow.
Summer (or at least spring) is scheduled to return to Ohio this week. We are planning a 3-4 day camping trip later this week. With temperatures returning to the 60's and 70's, I'm looking forward to getting out of town. I've got a lot of work to do this week to prepare for our trip. I need to de-winterize the motorhome; get the motorhome restocked with food; check the oil/water/and fluids in the motorhome; change oil in my motorcycle; and much more. It is going to be a busy week. The sun is scheduled to start shining tomorrow!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Frustrating Tenants!
It seems that all of my problems this month are focused on a single apartment building. A few days ago, I received a call that an angry boyfriend had thrown a brick through one of my tenant's windows. Of course, this is the responsibility of the tenant. She will either have it fixed by the beginning of the month or I will evict her.
Last evening, I got a call from one of my tenants in the same building. He complained of a gas smell. After asking him a few questions, he said that he had smelled the gas a few days before also. This tenant is a mental health patient who is paranoid-schizophrenic. He often thinks people are after him and calls me to see if people have complained about him.
Obviously, I couldn't ignore the possibility that there was a gas leak, so I went down to the building to investigate. I entered the tenant's apartment and didn't smell any gas. The tenant said that he thought the gas smell was coming from the adjacent apartment. I entered the adjacent apartment and again found no smell at all. I also checked that the stove and all other gas sources were off. When I told the tenant that there was no gas smell, he stated that he had a bad cold - he couldn't smell anything at all! Ughhh! I honestly wondered if he was taking his medication and now wish that I had asked him.
I rarely get called out for these after hours maintenance issues and I'm glad that this was a false alarm.
Tomorrow, we are going to look at another house that I discovered for sale. There is a tremendous demand for 3 bedroom rentals right now and I'm hoping to add another one to our portfolio. All of mine are currently rented.
Last evening, I got a call from one of my tenants in the same building. He complained of a gas smell. After asking him a few questions, he said that he had smelled the gas a few days before also. This tenant is a mental health patient who is paranoid-schizophrenic. He often thinks people are after him and calls me to see if people have complained about him.
Obviously, I couldn't ignore the possibility that there was a gas leak, so I went down to the building to investigate. I entered the tenant's apartment and didn't smell any gas. The tenant said that he thought the gas smell was coming from the adjacent apartment. I entered the adjacent apartment and again found no smell at all. I also checked that the stove and all other gas sources were off. When I told the tenant that there was no gas smell, he stated that he had a bad cold - he couldn't smell anything at all! Ughhh! I honestly wondered if he was taking his medication and now wish that I had asked him.
I rarely get called out for these after hours maintenance issues and I'm glad that this was a false alarm.
Tomorrow, we are going to look at another house that I discovered for sale. There is a tremendous demand for 3 bedroom rentals right now and I'm hoping to add another one to our portfolio. All of mine are currently rented.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
No Camping for Us!
My wife and I were hoping to start our spring fun with a 3-day camping trip this weekend. Unfortunately, mother nature decided to spoil our weekend with the return of winter. Kind of a gray ending to a gray week.
After my 26 hour marathon of tax preparation fun earlier this week, I really haven't accomplished much. Yesterday, I worked for about 3 hours on one of my apartments and showed a couple of apartments to a potential tenant. (Boring!) Who said real estate investing was exciting?
Last night, my wife and I went to see the movie "Premonition." It was an OK movie, but not nearly as good as Wild Hogs, which we saw the week before. We will definitely be buying Wild Hogs when it comes out on DVD!
Today, after lunch, I'm going to go do a little more work on one of our vacant apartments. There is a little painting to do and I need to install a new Flushmaster Valve in the toilet. I'm planning to work for about 3 hours and then call it a weekend. The weather is COLD and miserable today and therefore I won't be able to go biking or have any other outside fun. Fortunately, with my rental business, I can set my own schedule. If the weather improves, we might go camping this week! I'm anxious to get out and enjoy some good weather! C'mon Spring!
Have a good weekend.
After my 26 hour marathon of tax preparation fun earlier this week, I really haven't accomplished much. Yesterday, I worked for about 3 hours on one of my apartments and showed a couple of apartments to a potential tenant. (Boring!) Who said real estate investing was exciting?
Last night, my wife and I went to see the movie "Premonition." It was an OK movie, but not nearly as good as Wild Hogs, which we saw the week before. We will definitely be buying Wild Hogs when it comes out on DVD!
Today, after lunch, I'm going to go do a little more work on one of our vacant apartments. There is a little painting to do and I need to install a new Flushmaster Valve in the toilet. I'm planning to work for about 3 hours and then call it a weekend. The weather is COLD and miserable today and therefore I won't be able to go biking or have any other outside fun. Fortunately, with my rental business, I can set my own schedule. If the weather improves, we might go camping this week! I'm anxious to get out and enjoy some good weather! C'mon Spring!
Have a good weekend.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Taxes Finally Complete!
My appointment with my CPA was Wednesday (yesterday) at 9am. I had already completed entering the tax info for several of my rental property companies and only had two to go when I started working on Tuesday morning at 6am. All I really had remaining to do was put all the info into Quickbooks Pro so that it would be ready for the accountant. Unfortunately, I didn't realize quite how much data was left to enter. One of the checkbooks had over 400 checks to enter.
I worked and worked and worked on these companies. It wasn't until 9pm that I got one of the companies finally done. By that time, I knew that it was going to be a very long day. I continued to work on the second company and at about 2:30 am had it done. By this time, I had been working over 20 hours. I started gathering all of the company folders in preparation for the trip to the accountant the next morning. Then it dawned on me that I had forgotten a company. I was tired and ready to go to bed, but I was determined to finish my taxes and have it done. So, I started working on the last company and finally finished at 8am, a full hour before I had to be at the accountant's office. I had worked 26 straight hours and had pulled my first all-nighter since college, many years before.
You may be wondering why I have so many different companies. The answer is that we have the rental properties divided into different LLC's for asset protection purposes. With several dozen rentals, we try to divide them into companies with no more than 10 rentals each. Therefore, it takes several entities to do the job.
I spent about 2 hours with the accountant yesterday and then took the rest of the day off. After working 26 straight hours, I was quite tired and needed a break.
Today, I worked on cleaning one of our vacant apartments and got caught up on my e-mail. Nothing too exciting!
I worked and worked and worked on these companies. It wasn't until 9pm that I got one of the companies finally done. By that time, I knew that it was going to be a very long day. I continued to work on the second company and at about 2:30 am had it done. By this time, I had been working over 20 hours. I started gathering all of the company folders in preparation for the trip to the accountant the next morning. Then it dawned on me that I had forgotten a company. I was tired and ready to go to bed, but I was determined to finish my taxes and have it done. So, I started working on the last company and finally finished at 8am, a full hour before I had to be at the accountant's office. I had worked 26 straight hours and had pulled my first all-nighter since college, many years before.
You may be wondering why I have so many different companies. The answer is that we have the rental properties divided into different LLC's for asset protection purposes. With several dozen rentals, we try to divide them into companies with no more than 10 rentals each. Therefore, it takes several entities to do the job.
I spent about 2 hours with the accountant yesterday and then took the rest of the day off. After working 26 straight hours, I was quite tired and needed a break.
Today, I worked on cleaning one of our vacant apartments and got caught up on my e-mail. Nothing too exciting!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
I Hate Tax Time!
Well, I've been working all day on the bookkeeping for my rental property businesses. It is now 11pm and I've still got 200 checks to enter before I can quit. I HATE TAX SEASON! I HATE TAX SEASON! I HATE TAX SEASON! You get the idea.
My appointment with the accountant is tomorrow morning at 9am. I am going to get this done tonight (early tomorrow morning) so that I'll be done for this year. The good news is that I've set up a very good accounting system with Quickbooks Pro. Once we're finished, well have a lot of valuable information about my rental property businesses.
My appointment with the accountant is tomorrow morning at 9am. I am going to get this done tonight (early tomorrow morning) so that I'll be done for this year. The good news is that I've set up a very good accounting system with Quickbooks Pro. Once we're finished, well have a lot of valuable information about my rental property businesses.
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