All Forum Posts by: Keith Brown

I tried the used route and will never go back. I buy only new. It is a waste of time when you put a used appliance in and it lasts a year and you get to do it all over again.

I was thinking the same thing about the deck. It's a nice feature but for a rental I would have eliminated it to save the expense. I have done the exact same thing so I understand how it works and why it happens. Nothing like me being a Monday morning quarterback:)

You stated that you overspent on the rehab, what was it that threw your budget off? I see you put a roof on it and I know they can get expensive. If you gutted a kitchen or bath that also will mess with a budget but it looks like you were able to reuse a lot of existing cabinetry.

A couple reasons why I am thinking about switching to full time. I currently work a job that is second shift out of town. I want to be around the family more than I currently get to see them. If the income is less, it will end up working out to be the same since I will have reduced expenses. So far the properties I have been involved have turned out as expected. I enjoy taking care of the properties.

I haven't asked my friend directly for help/advise. I know he will be straight with me on anything I ask however I also know he will want to protect himself. I don't blame him for protecting his assets and livelihood. He has given me advise when I have asked before. We send each other leads if we know the other has an opening. We have gone up against each other on bidding on houses. He has won two of them.

I love the rehab part of real estate. I would ideally like to have two workers working on the projects while I spend time locating and purchasing future rentals. I would like to spend about 60% of the time on future projects.

I currently have a business partner in eight buildings. Three of the buildings are single family and the rest are multi. In total there are 21 units. I own one single family home myself. We owe approx. 250k on values of 470k. We started this in 2009 with $3500 from each of us thrown in to get started. We have purchased properties that have needed a lot of work. They are not perfect and they are all not done. We have tried to remodel or replace with the understanding that it will be a long term investment. All remodels have come strictly out of cash flow. We have pocketed some money but have not made much for each of us. We have rolled it into the next purchase.

The marketplace where we are located is a small town of 10,000 people in western Illinois. There have not been the real high real estate runup or the fallout. There has been some but not much.

My partner works a very good and high paying position. He has no intention of doing this full time. He is doing it for retirement purposes only. I work a decent job with long hours but am not happy in it. My wife also works in a position that is decent pay and great hours. Here is the question... At what point could I do this fulltime? I have a good friend that already does this and appears to make good money and is happy doing it. He would be a competitor so I really don't want to ask him for advise.

This is a short breakdown of situation. I'm sure there are many things that need to be listed to get an accurate picture of situation. Any comments would be appreciated.