All Forum Posts by: Kerry Baird

I'm certain there are people here with much more experience than my fly-on-the-wall position.  Hopefully, you'll get a lead that opens doors for you!

I'll play.  Stores mean "real estate" too.  So, when I was a teen, twin my aunties opened a store.  I was raised by one twin, and was tagging along.  Here's the story: Twin A bought Western clothing "seconds" and took them on the road in a horse trailer.  The front of the horse trailer was kitted out with a mirror and carpeting, and racks of clothing was available for trying on.  Twin A took the trailer to rodeos and jackpots that she was competing in, and she sold a considerable amount of clothing.  

It was a requirement of the manufacturer that they have a "real" store, even though most of the sales were made on the road. The company attempted to stop the on-the-road sales, which didn't match their business plan.  Twin A and Twin B decided to open a "real" store front, so they could buy more volume and at wholesale prices.

So, they complied.  They ended up buying a lot of stuff at the Denver Merchandise Mart (google DenverMart) and that is what really opened the floodgates for buying in bulk.  We got Western clothing and jewelry in bulk for Christmas that year.  At some point, she was selling so many jeans that the manufacturer decided to stop fighting her, and to hire her as a VP of Sales.  Long story, but you never know what can happen on BP, right?! 

Buying from the manufacturer direct is very like the only way to go.  (Google The Clothing Broker).  Good luck with this endeavor.  

I have been attending a meetup in Palm Bay.  @Priscilla Z. is our point of contact.  We get together every two weeks, and quite a variety of experience is represented.  

Congratulations on moving through the complex process~I love your story! The exchange process wasn't even the best part of your post, in my opinion.  What a great tribute to your Mom and her ability to find and negotiate a deal.  I'm sorry that you have lost her, and loved reading about what you learned from your family's investing and business successes.  I think the apple does not fall far from the tree!  

Thank you!  So grateful for the thoughtful response~

@Mike H. Thanks for that detailed comparison.  Did you use a source of funding?  

That was a pretty rugged looking first deal!  The finish is so nice...and the photos and staging really make it shine.  Well done~

@Chris Colvin, hard money lenders charge a high interest rate 12%-16% and often up front points, for a short time period loan. This allows people to buy properties that conventional lenders cannot or will not lend on.  Imagine a fire-damaged house, for example.  They are usually private individuals, some of whom also have experience with rehabs so they know their numbers; HMLs typically won't lend more than 65 to 70% of the value.  We didn't know about hard money and got conventional loans on our first couple of fixers.  With closing and funding & closing costs, on the buy and again on the sell side, hard money would have been a lot easier and comparably priced to Wells Fargo, our lender at that time.

I track our net worth weekly.  Learned it from Keller.

I also made a CashFlow game piece to reflect our finances (with Income, Expenses, Assets and Liabilities filled in) and a time or two playing the CashFlow game with our own numbers clarified what direction we needed to take, i.e. pay off debt, buy another property, etc.

We are towards the end of our military career (I did 10 years active + reserve, while hubs is just over 23 years). We starting out by buying our first house in the UK, and improved it while living in it. We sold and had the bonus of currency exchange behind our transaction, and made a nice profit. We PCSd and bought another house in the US, to live in and improve. That has been our strategy with our owner occupied houses, while we have also added rentals near Air Force bases. We look at the housing allowance for E-5s and neighborhoods where other military families like to live; E-5s because that's the broadest tier of potential renters near most bases, and go from there. Obviously, not all of our tenants will be military, but it was a good starting point. We bought a second house in the UK when posted back there, and now another owner occupied house in the US. This last one is the first (of about 28) that we have used a VA. Slow and steady will get you there. At the end of the day, we figure that 5 houses paid-for will offset his active duty pay and complement the pension.

I have been attending a meetup hosted by @Priscilla Z. and there are a number of wholesalers who attend.  We've got at least one fix-and-flip guy, who works exclusively in Palm Bay, in addition to Priscilla and her husband.  It is a smallish group, and as a group people are quite active and have a lot of experience in a wide array of real estate.  We just met this week, so the next should be in a few weeks.  I tagged her, and you can PM her (or me) directly for more information.