Hi Gary West
Great goal! Mine is to acquire 5 properties by the end of 2014 and to funnel the cashflow back into the mortgage with the lowest balance until each is paid off.
To address your question and your wife's question, read the 3rd post here by @Ned Carey http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/90638-next-step
As far as the spreadsheet, I'm pretty sure a template doesn't exist. Couldn't find one. I wanted the exact same thing last week so I could map out my goal.
PM me your email, and I'll send you what I built last week. No idea how to attach files to the BP boards.
Here's my disclaimer: there are very few labels, and it was never meant to make sense to anyone but me. :)
If you want to start from scratch, here's all you need (and if anyone can lend further insight, please do)...
1. lots of time!
2. you need 2 worksheets, one with your math, and one with a mortgage amortization schedule. Google it, and the 1st link from office.mircosoft.com should be the template you need.
3. for the Excel spreadsheet, think of time progressing downwards; the further down in the rows you are, the further through the months
4. to map each property, give each one 5 columns {Month #, Mortgage Balance, Principal, Interest, Additional Payment}
* that is the month you're on in your repayment to the bank (1-360)
* balance due to the bank
* that month's principal payment (this is why it's handy to have the amortiation worksheet)
* interest for that month
* and what additional payments you'll kick in from the other properties.
5. when adding a new property to the sheet, just list the following as headers so you can add them into your equations {purchase price, down payment, P&I, cashflow when mortgaged, cashflow when paid-off}.
6. to make this all work, you take an iterative process
* start by charting your 1st and only property, and plot it out so it takes 360 months to pay off
* add in your 2nd property, and add its cashflow to the "additional payments" on you 1st (or have your 1st property's cashflow pushed into your 2nd .. whatever you like)
* keep doing this up to your 15th (or in my spreadsheet's case, my 5th property)
Some insights I've gained:
* the snowball effect works! I found it REALLY interesting reading the blog of another BP member, http://investfourmore.wordpress.com/
* with 5 properties, you can hypothetically pay off 1 of them in about 3 years time (all properties around $110k and 25% down)!
* paying off the mortgage with the lowest balance created the greatest cashflow & brought all properties to a zero-balance fastest (mathematically, this is not always the case, and you could easily find a counter-example if the purchase prices are very far apart)
I really want to learn how you're going to amass 15 properties!
Ryan
