All Forum Posts by: Deborah Burian

@Al Williamson - I'm a little late to the party but I'm really working on recognizing that if something I'm trying to delay won't leave my brain, my brain is trying to tell me something. And I should listen.

@Charles Ray - hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, wiping tears from eyes.

Sorry, that's all I got. Good subs, yes. Good general, nope. Not after 10 years.

Perhaps more in real estate than anywhere else, you really do get what you pay for. It shouldn't come as a surprise that my $19/sf multi-unit, in a decent neighborhood, is the gift that keeps on giving.

When I had the structural engineer look at the properties before buying, he said that we could probably plan on doing most of the structural repairs 'over the next few years.' Well, for one of them, the next few years has arrived and the foundation work starts tomorrow.

You can see the whole story here...

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/3976/blog_posts/29654-foundations---the-sky-really-is-falling

On the bright side, that makes this unit about $23 a square foot so it's still not looking like I overpaid...

@Tom Goans - thank you. I have read enough of your posts to really respect your input and I appreciate that positive comment. I AM having fun. Every day.

@Dawn Anastasi - I have some really wonderful photos of some of my daughter's friends from those days. They can't resist wielding power drivers like they are weapons. I think the parents were half horrified, half intrigued and entirely confused... why were the kids working and thinking it was play, lol. The first time the boyfriend now husband came to visit... you guessed it. Here's the job, here are the tools. Do you want to paint or build X? They always pick the power tools...

@Seth Williams - I completely agree. From the very beginning we meant to be large enough to support ourselves independent of the 9-5. We set up systems and engaged support team members in the very beginning, always with the eye on the goal of independence. Because we began those systems 10 years ago, we can disappear off the grid and have a full team that will take care of the tenants and the properties while we are unavailable. Our team members, all contract or professionals, banker, accountant, etc, have provided us with extraordinary service on more than one occasion.

For those of you who either are property managers or who hire property managers... is mileage paid separately from the fee, like a maintenance expense, or is it usually included in the base fee?

Thanks in advance.

Fatigue. Working a 60 hour professional job while building a real estate portfolio was exhausting.

Family time? No problem, let's go work on a house. Dinner out? No problem, we'll bring a picnic. Kid and friends home from college? Great. More hands to work on a house. Hands-on work done? Great. Let's go driving for dollars and find the next house.

This was our life for about 5 years, then we got big enough to hire some help. At about 8 years we were big enough for one of us to quit the j.o.b. Until then, the problem was fatigue. We strongly believed the time for balance would come but it wasn't while we were working full time and growing our business.

@Uwe K. - the question was me versus the appliance guy, not if it would get fixed at all. And that's exactly what I did as it turns out, popped the top on a sealed burner gas stove without taking out the screws first. Broke, as it turns out, both front burner feed tubes.

@Dawn Anastasi - exactly. Wheaties girl, that's me. It's not the first time I've broken something by acting like a bull in a china shop. *sigh*

I admit, my first thought was that it would be a cool space for an uppity, artsy, lofts above, cafe and gallery below type development... @Bill Gulley , you have crushed me...

And, @Jared Cox - welcome to BP :-)