Post #1-The INTRO!!!

Hello everyone!

First off, thanks for visiting my blog, its something new for me but I think it will be fun and hopefully interesting and maybe even informative for those of you who stop by to read it. Its still sort of free-form for now, I'm mainly looking to open a little window into my world as a full-time RE investor and RE broker here in the Milwaukee area. I'll also occasionally (attempt) to throw in little humor in whenever I can!

First off, yes I did read the guidelines and while I'm rather let down that I can't include pornography or be abusive towards people, somehow I guess I'll still make it through! (there's my first attempt at a little humor, I honestly hadn't even thought about including porn in my RE blog, but thank god its mentioned in the rules!)

A little background on me: I graduated from college in 1998 with an accounting degree and could've sat for the CPA exam but had NO INTEREST in public accounting as a career, so I took over managing a popular and successful bar in downtown Milwaukee owned by two of my older brothers. I stayed there for several years in which time we not only continued being quite successful but I was also able to improve the operational end of things and we hit new sales records many times. Yet, after a while I also realized that the bar biz wasn't something I wanted to be in forever. I could see other people who were and I could see how it often takes a real toll on people lives and I wanted something else.

I was also in the restaurant biz as the GM of a restaurant for several years, which also was a successful business (I worked in restaurants since I was 14 years old) but also saw that the restaurant biz was something I wasn't really enthused about for the long term.

I also spent several years working as an accountant for several different businesses, too. This was at first an interesting change of pace, the whole "office world" was a real switch from the restaurant/bar biz and for whatever reason, I've always enjoyed working with numbers and doing things like creating complex Excel spreadsheets. (I know, rather odd but why not!) The accounting work itself was usually interesting and I worked for several financial placement firms (basically glorified temp services) that allowed me to get experience working for a variety of different businesses, some smaller some quite large. Yet, once again I wasn't thrilled with the prospects of working in a cubicle or even a real office of my own for life. The pay wasn't bad but also wasn't anything to write home about either and I was ready for something else, again.

Back around 2004, I first got into doing a property flip. (One thing, I actually HATE the "flip" term, being called a "flipper" etc, I think it conjures up images of non-trustworthy, fly-by-night, generally dishonest characters that cut corners whenever possible to slap together a house that will look pretty for the short-term, all in an attempt to make quick money by basically pulling a "fast one" on whoever is buying the house. Yet, I haven't found a better term to describe what I do, so I'm kind of stuck with it for now. Saying I'm a "buyer, renovator and reseller of homes" may strike me as being much more accurate and appealing, but its quite a mouthful!) One of my older brothers who's done quite well for himself with several different businesses partnered up with a guy who's done many, many flips and they started taking on more projects. I got involved in several of them and enjoyed the work. I had owned my own duplex since 1999 and had done a fair amount of renovation work there, so I knew a pretty good amount about renovating and residential construction. I was involved in five flip projects from 2004 to 2007. They were somewhat profitable and I think I was getting a system down pat by 2007 where I'd learned enough to really start running much more profitable projects, but then my brother and I noticed something troubling about the whole flip investing market. We noticed that every month, there were more and more people getting into attempting to flip houses, likely spurred on by the booming RE market as well as all of those ridiculous TV shows like "Flip This House" or whatever else where they made flipping look way too easy and way too profitable. Prices to buy suitable project houses were getting bid up way too high and profitable ones were hard to find. So, I ended up getting out of the flipping biz and getting back into the restaurant biz, opening a new restaurant with my brother.

Fast forward to the end of 2011/beginning of 2012. I'd gotten out of the restaurant we started, it was off the ground and doing quite well but the pressures of being a full time GM in a family business were not what I was looking for again, I was still looking for something that would provide at least a good income and hopefully much more AND something I really enjoyed. I still had my RE broker's license, which I got in 2004 and was thinking about RE investing again when I started talking to several people in the biz who all said they thought it was a great time to get back in. One of them was a long time friend, not a close friend but someone I'd known for years who's been very successful in a variety of different ventures who's now sort of semi-retired but working in his own business as a mortgage broker. (one of the few that are left!) I'd take this guy's advice to the bank any day, he's a very astute and clever businessman and he said he thought it was a great time to start flipping homes again. So, I jumped in with both feet and haven't looked back!

In future posts, I will talk some more about the projects I've completed in the last year and half or two years, but they've all been profitable and I think between what I learned from my earlier projects and what I've learned this time around, I'm getting a good system down and can keep this one going. Yet, the really important thing for me is that for honestly the first time in my entire life (I just turned 40 in August) I think I've found a career that could at least provide a decent income and maybe much more AND I really, really ENJOY my work! I'm often doing work or at least work-related stuff from the time I get up until the time I fall asleep, yet I never feel burnt out or over-worked or anything like that. Its a great feeling, one I honestly haven't had before and one which I wasn't sure I'd ever really find. That's a nice turn of events!

Also in my future posts, I'll talk more about where I want to take my business. I'm open to anything in the RE biz that's rewarding and profitable. It could be landlording, which I'm also doing on a small scale now, could be commercial RE investing, which I'm trying to learn more about, who knows!

The main thing for me right now is that I'm happy and finally satisfied with what I'm doing now and looking forward to seeing what the future could hold!