All Forum Posts by: Kent Verge

I also spent the last two days fixing the water heater in our personal residence. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to pay the handyman the $50 it would have cost to fix it for me. Sometimes we're all penny wise and pound foolish.

 If you have the technical ability to set up your own Wordpress site, download and setup a CRM in the site, setup the contact forms (including SMS alerts), etc., then $49 per month is steep. Likewise, you need the time to do all of this.

If you aren't so technically inclined or if you'd rather spend your time doing things that are worth more than the $49 price tag, it's probably not  bad deal.

I have built dozens of Wordpress-based sites, and I'd really rather spend my time doing something else these days. That said, I built my own for my real estate versus spending something like the $49/month, but really, the Lead Propeller sites look better than mine (and I know what I'm doing).

Does anyone know of something, other than MS Project, that will create Gantt charts of the plan (or, more technically correct, the work breakdown structure)?

There's something about tacking one of these to the wall when having conversations with subs that lets them know you're serious about your timeline.

@Cowan Bucks you have to look at two things:

First, if you were to rent out both side of the duplex (or all three units of a triplex), would it have positive cash-flow after all expenses? If so, it's a cash-flow positive deal. Period.

If you are currently renting, does the rent from one unit less expenses (assuming you would live in one side of  duplex) save you money compared to renting both sides and paying your existing rent? If so, it makes sense to do so from a net cost perspective.

As others said, look for posts on house hacking (or listen to several podcasts for examples). And don't get so hung up on is this or isn't this cash-flow positive as others seem to be.

Navy Federal had some good rates on lines of credit last time I checked. You can be eligible if you or a family member were in the Armed Forces (or if a family member is already a member). They also offer business loans, but I didn't look into a loan in the name of the LLC to buy property.

For example, if you were looking at a 3/2 1700 SF house built in the 50's, and a 4/2 1400 SF house nearby, also built in the 50's, recently sold, you would add some amount for the square footage (based on average $/sf of recent sales), and subtract some amount for the comp having one more bedroom (looking at the price differences in the area for similar 3/2 vs 4/2 sales).

Hope that helps.

Typically, you would find something close and adjust for the differences. For example, if other similar houses that sold are newer and in better shape, you would would do an adjustment down to account for the condition of yours. If others have an attached garage and yours doesn't you would come up with a value for the garage and subtract that for yours. In the end, it's all an estimate anyway, but you want to get do what you can to get it closer.

Get another job. It will give you more options to buy properties until you're financially ready to go full time. There's no reason that this has to be the slow lane.

If you know that you plan to move into REI full time at some point, have you considered looking for a job in the Real Estate industry? That may help you learn even more and get you closer to the deals (which moves you back into the fast lane).

I should add that I don't use the electronic locks on our other traditional rentals. Similar to @Leon Engle I use locks from Landlordlocks.com that allow the cylinders to be swapped out for easy rekeying. I'm not sure I would want to use anything else for a normal rental.

Off topic: I loved the smell of Battle Creek in the mornings... I lived in a rental near the Post plant one summer. :)