All Forum Posts by: Michael K Gallagher

@Dave E. I wouldn't say that what you have is a real problem...unless its just a personal desire that you want her to be interested in things you are passionate about.  My wife and I have a similar relationship, where I am the one passionate about investing, and about crunching numbers all that...but I'm lucky in that she loves the high level strategy.  So she's into looking for areas, looking at specific houses, designs that kind of thing.  She could care less about the numbers, until we find a potential deal, and then she's just going to ask me to explain the bottom line to her, the risk that kind of think.  Perhaps theres an issue with us getting financing, or something to that effect, then she's interested.  But on a day to day basis, she couldn't care less and it works.

I'd say that if you want her to be more interested don't focus so much on the REI portion of it, focus on the financial freedom and long term goals of it. I think if you can both agree and align on a long term view, goals, that kind of thing, then she will become more interested in what the specific small things you are doing to get you both to those goals. SO again she may not give a rats behind what a specific deal looks like, but she might want to talk about specific cashflow, or the location of that property, that kind of thing. At the end of the day as long as you are both invested in the long term goal and have clarity from that, I think you'll both enjoy the ride.

@Jonathan Ramos congrats on the deal!  it looks great!  Glad to see success in the 603, I grew up in Enfield NH (exit 17 off I89) and relocated to OH for college, so very glad to see that there are still good deals to be had back home.  Congrats again!

@Johnson Michael fantastic to hear!  I too started by listening to the podcast, and finally made the leap into investing by selling my house in the burbs and moving downtown Columbus OH to House hack and Duplex...and I've never looked back.  Did that in October of 2018.  I have been fascinated recently with the "business" of being a real-estate agent, and have been helping my agent look at, analyze and focus on what would be best to scale her business.  I'm sure you've already read it, but if you haven't read "the millionaire real-estate agent" or "the one thing" they are must reads, especially if you are in the Keller Williams family!  I'm not even an agent, but I have a small (just me) consulting company and all of the principles in those books sound true in my daily work life as well.  

I'm a Process Engineer by experience, did many years in an automotive supplier plant, so I like to think I have the eye and mind for breaking things down, finding the root of the issues, and building systems, so anytime you want to talk shop, or just shoot the bull I'm always down!  

Looking forward to hearing about your success on here in the future!

Cheers, 

@Jake Davis I currently use the BP calculators, but like you I started with just plane old google sheets or excel.  Built something similar to you it sounds like and just did it manually.  In order to incorporate what you referenced, current market data, comps, etc I just did those things manually via Realtor .com, also get on the email newsletter of my realtor.  She sends out local market data monthly on house prices/costs/transaction numbers etc.  Realtor has a decent "recently sold" filter that is helpful also for running your own comps if you don't want to bother your agent.

I'm a fan of doing it this way and manually in the beginning because you really learn the math and how different levers that you pull effect the outcome of the returns calculations.   

I used Zillow to list my property and to screen tenants.  If you are looking for Zillow to make the decision for you, it will not do that.  But if gives you all the data to make the approve/deny decision in under 5 mins.  The only supplemental thing I did was to call previous land lords for references.   

@Erwin Groenendijk Thank you for all the insights.  Barcelona, and the Riax Bias region are on My wife's and my acquisitions list for sure!  So this was a super helpful thread!

Does anyone out there have similar experience or insight with Scotland?  I'm looking to understand what the limits or regulations around buying property in the Edinburgh, and Oban/mull areas are.  

@Joey Copper interesting post, My issue with just hiring a property manager is that like most things in RE there is a crazy low barrier to entry, and therefore the vast majority of PM's, REI's, Agents, contractors, etc as quite frankly garbage. So my desire to do it myself came from the desire to know what I'm looking for when I do go hire someone. I only manage one unit at the moment, and its a house hack so its pretty easy...I also considered it a business from the beginning and set it up as such. My main objective was to learn it so that I know what I'm looking for when I hire it out. I don't mean this to be pomposity or anything but if I'm hiring you to do something you better be able to do it faster, better, and of higher quality than me, otherwise whats the value add to me?

So if I set myself up to be an elite property manager, I figure I have two exit strategies, either just train people to do it for me under my own company, and hold them to my same cultural and productivity standards....or if I do go with another company I'll be able to confidently pick a fellow elite manager to do so.  

@J Scott It was a fantastic episode!  I was essentially mowing my yard listening to that episode and stopped mowing and added the book to the top of my "read next" list standing in my back yard.  

I'm only about 30% in and am loving how many of his concepts have crossover to "root cause analysis" and "5Ys" and many of the standard problem solving and Six Sigma principles that you learn in manufacturing.  I think that's primarily why it's been such a lightbulb moment...or book rather.  

@Dwayne Johnson Not sure if you are still looking for recommendations or not...but I just started "fix this next" by Mike Michalowicz and it is a game changer! It's not specifically an REI book but it certainly applies to any business in general.

@Mike Dymski Absolutely fantastic congrats! I assume you are looking for something more productive then...."buy a porche!!" I think it depends on what you are passionate about, or what you want to do. Obviously many people on BP will say dump all that into some cash flowing property...which I'm a huge fan of and you really can't go wrong there. But if you don't enjoy REI that much then maybe it doesn't do it for you. Or if you like the RE side of things but don't want to be as active, I have several friends making great returns in their SD Roth IRA's. They basically max out those after tax contributions every year and lend it out to flippers and such to get some big returns. As we've heard on the BPB podcast their are plenty of small business out there that need taken over...perhaps there is a local business you love and would love to see do even better under your tenure.

  So I guess I'm saying make sure whatever you do with it aligns with either you and your passions...or with your goals.  but don't be afraid to stretch outside your comfort zone...especially now where your downside is very low.