All Forum Posts by: Colin Reid

@Daren H., fair enough. We have different philosophies on preparedness. I wouldn't try to force mine on you or anyone, either.

My wife was very skeptical at first. I bought my second home, with the first one rented shortly after we started dating. We got engaged in the fall of 2013, I deployed and the Air Force announced huge cuts while I was down range. I was certain I'd have a pink slip when I got home (hasn't happened yet) and needed to get my financial house in order. 6 months later, she had finished an internship and lined up a job with a nice paycheck across the country. We'd have to be separated for a year, but distance was nothing new to us.

She needed a place to live, and I had just closed on my third SFR, and first pure investment. So we got referred to an agent by my mom, and started shopping for a home for the [then] fiance in eastern PA. The whole time her parents were negative about the idea, and that only increased her skepticism of the idea. Nevertheless, she bought an end-of-group townhouse for a decent price, blaming me and my "stupid real estate crap" for every bump and scrape along the way. She had her share of problems with that house, including appliances going, leaks, snow (yup, the snow was my fault, too, lol) but also did a ton of work in her spare time. Her job is very demanding, and a little paint and spackle was therapeutic for her. She refinanced with a big down payment, and along with some appreciation, has over 20% equity in it now. When her contract at that job was up last summer, she moved out near me, got an even better job, and has it rented with about 20% cash flow.

I think the cash flow, a good PM and very short vacancy are what made her a believer. I just had to drag her to that point. We got married in September. Now, she's almost dragging me along in real estate sometimes. We're both turning into personal finance nerds, with stacks of books read and more in the queue. We're shopping for our fifth house, which we'll move into and fix up (different BRRR spelling: buy, reside, rehab, rent) in the Amarillo, TX area. I'm looking into getting my license in my spare time.

I'm not an agent, just an investor right now (looking into getting licensed, but that's another discussion.) I carry concealed, everywhere it's legal for me to do so. I am also a certified Pistol Instructor and competitive shooter. A firearm is not the only tool I have at my disposal for defense, but it is definitely one of them.

Open vs concealed has been covered pretty thoroughly except for one point. We all go to look at houses (either as agents or investors, or both) for BUSINESS. Guns are no more a part of that business than religious beliefs, political affiliations, or favorite foods are. Would you wear your candidate's campaign shirt to a business transaction? Probably not, because 1) it's irrelevant to the business at hand, and 2) it COULD alienate the other parties involved. I could go to a business meeting with a concealed handgun and no one knows so no one cares, but if I go with an exposed firearm and a "Make America Great Again" hat, I run the risk of alienating people who don't like guns, don't like Donald Trump, or both.

Originally posted by @Daren H.:

 I don't even know where to start with this one, so I'll keep it as apolitical as I can. It is true that most real estate transactions are completed without violence, just like most are completed without fire. I doubt very much you would disagree with the idea of keeping a fire extinguisher handy, maybe even in your car, in case of emergency even though it is unlikely you'll need it. A fire extinguisher can be dangerous, especially in the hands of untrained users, and there's no guarantee even proper use of one will be effective.

@Joel Owens, you make an excellent case for learning self defense WITHOUT a firearm, and while I haven't taken anything you've said to discourage carrying a firearm (as well as getting trained, etc), I feel you have missed one crucial point. Martial arts are great for the young and fit, but what about the old, injured, weak, disabled, etc? My mother is a realtor who is nearly 60, exercises regularly, but wouldn't stand a chance in any sort of hand-to-hand combat. I've met agents who have disabilities who would be no match for any attacker. But every one of them could operate a handgun with little physical exertion, and if that's their only option for protection against a physically superior opponent, it's better than nothing.

I haven't done a BRRR yet, but from my experience trying to refi an investment property, some banks don't loan to investors, or won't refi for a rental. Interest rates also varied quite a bit between banks. Shopping around always helps.

We're shopping for a fixer-upper home right now (kinda like BRRR; Buy, RESIDE, rehab, rent) and even though it's owner-occupied financing, we're getting several lenders competing for our business.

I have a day job but when I got serious about investing I finally unpacked my "office," which was basically being used for storage. I bought a big white board for one wall, set up my desk, built a book shelf, etc. When I'm relaxing, I'm probably in front of the TV, laptop on the coffee table, and totally incapable of getting anything productive done. When I need to be productive, I move the laptop into the office with the desk and get to work. There is very purposely no TV in the office.

Since I've always had a day job to "go to," I have a really hard time working from where I relax and live my life. Even the 20ft "commute" to my middle bedroom home office is a very important distinction for me.

@Raymond B. 

 Got it now. Thanks for the tip I never would have figured that out on my own.

Well, I've stopped the bleeding. I bought enough air conditioners to cool the bedrooms, and the tenants accepted that as a temporary fix until we can get the central system repaired.

@Lee Smith, Thank you! PM inbound.

I plan on calling around town on Monday to get bids and discuss these options with various HVAC guys. I will definitely research online reviews of all the contenders and I will only deal with licensed, insured, bonded (any other adjectives needed, haha?) contractors. I agree it's not worth the risk of hiring Bubba at the hardware store who does HVAC and lawnmower maintenance on the side to save a few hundred bones.

It's already empty. The tech on the original service call said it had all leaked out, tried recharging it and that's when we discovered the compressor was not working.

#Beth L., that sounds like a plan. I think I'll be shopping for window units tomorrow.

#Steve Babiak, I have no intention of playing with anything hazardous. My thought was instead of buying the unit through an HVAC company, plus their markup, paying them to take it off the truck, put it in place, hook up all the lines, charge with freon, etc, that I could do the heavy lifting and only pay them for the work I'm not qualified to do. Namely, connecting all the lines and charging the system with freon once the unit is in position.