All Forum Posts by: Joel Florek

 100% correct. Friday nights are the same as a Tuesday night for me now. Its a very cool feeling. 

Was able to recently say yes to taking a 5 day sailing trip down in Charleston for a regatta. Got the offer and replied yes within a minute. Couldn't have done that if I had my boss to get approval from. 

BP,

Thought I would take a few minutes to write a post that hopefully keeps people hustling who are currently struggling with their business or frustrated with a problem that seems like a huge road block. So, here is why I love Mondays. 

A year and a half ago I was like most in the world. Sunday arrived and I was struggling to mentally deal with the inevitable situation I would end up in the next morning... work. I was a corporate pencil pusher with a cubical and all! I would wake up early, put on my dress clothes, drive to work, and make sure I wrapped up my time sheet from the week before since it was due by 10am. Thats how every Monday started for me, making sure the "man" knew what I spent every minute on over the last work week. I lived for the weekends and dreaded Monday mornings. 

Since being able to transition to investing full time and managing my portfolio of now 31 units I love Mondays. Not just because it symbolically feels like I am sticking it to the man every week. But because Monday is when I get to join my fiancee and daughter at swim class. I am able to support her being a full time stay at home mom and together we get to enjoy showing our little 11month old daughter why this world is such a beautiful and fantastic place to be. I love Mondays because its another day I choose what I want to spend my time doing. Only a couple of the dads have been able to attend a singular class and come to find out they had to take vacation days to do it... I say its great that they were able to make it but hate see the disappointment in their eyes knowing they cant do it more often. I feel for these guys. 

Loving Mondays has meant the world to me. I am truly blessed and thank all those who helped me along the way. Real estate investing has changed my life and given me the ability to live every day on my terms. I could work harder and be able to live a more extravagant life then the modest one my family does, but we travel, enjoy every day together, and know that we are masters of our time. After all our time is the most important resource we have. 

I love helping other investors and at the very least chatting and connecting to talk about the game so we can both get an opportunity to learn and progress forward! 

Comment, message me, and connect, thats why we are on BP! Lets work to design the life we want together! 

Joel

Question for the folks of BP for a project of mine. 

Are you filing your taxes using cash basis or accrual accounting? 

Bonus points if anyone knows data on how many non-employee businesses use cash basis vs. accrual accounting.

Thank you in advance! 

@John Woosley I would recommend to not focus on deals but dollars. What kind of income do you want from your real estate by that age and how will you get there. I am 24 now and live in Michigan City. Currently up to 31 units and am able to live off of my real estate and support my fiancee and daughter. Only took 4 deals to get to that point. 

Juan,

Currently about 95% is in multi family in two towns between two states. One of my 2018 targets is to start diversifying my income to other industries. However, real estate has allowed me to quit my 9 to 5 so its been an amazingly powerful tool. 

Joel

@Hardy Vibert I like Realtor.com, Loopnet for larger properties, and now I have been seeing properties on CommercialSearch by Realtor.com that havent been on Loopnet. 

@John Meyers The seller note is subordinated debt to the bank loan. Some commercial lenders will allow subordinated debt as long as you debt coverage ratio is still favorable. On page 2 and 3 of the comments I added some additional notes on the deal but the seller note was 2% interest rate which made a big difference to hitting the target financing package number. I just bought a deal in South Bend and got the seller to carry 10%... so they are out there! 

@Jessie Niu See my comment for John above. He did receive other offers but those investors wanted to steal the property. Its a small market that frankly a lot of people in the nearby cities dont fully know the good things going on in the town. The seller also did not do a good job of advertising the property. It was only listed in the newspaper for sale so unless you bought the local newspaper you would have never known it was available. 

@Fred N. In my opinion, especially since you mention you have it under contract with a new buyer I would move on. If I were in your shoes would I be mad?... Absolutely. There is not doubt about that. As I look at it though, why not focus your energy on closing with the new buyer. If your going to pay lawyer fees and spend time to try and get a small chunk of that $20k why not just spend that energy going and doing something else to set yourself up for bigger success in the future. Your goal is to sell the property, clearly you have someone new ready to help you meet that goal. I would move on and focus on finding your next opportunity be it in real estate or something else important to you.

I use MySmartMove for my 31 doors and I have had no issues with it. Super quick and easy and a great report. I have had criminal issues come up from the 70's for some of my tenants... but no experience on other platforms so my experience is limited to only that option. 

 I would not touch the meter! You could always check with the city inspection department or a local HVAC guy to see if they have any recommendations to expedite this. Sometimes they have contacts with the utility people and can move the process along. Regardless you shouldnt have to pay for any services to get things turned on.

Really sucks... no other way about it. Let me know if I can be of any help somehow. Stay strong my friend! 

 I say the other utilities as an example. If we are allowed to charge portions of rent for missing some utilities what is to stop that from going to an extreme? Its the idea of having black and white lines vs. having grey lines. In his case hot water under the law is considered a necessity and if deprived of it because of the action or inaction of the landlord then the tenant has certain rights, including not paying all of the rent during the period.