All Forum Posts by: Thomas Handy

Thx Curt!

I am getting ready to go on a trip in a month but want to do a deal. I have a pretty good background with buying SFH but want to get involved involved with flipping or bird dogging. If you had a month what would you do?

I listen to BP on my way to work and will provide my rating on my iPad.  Really good stuff.  Not sure why or how I lost track of BP the last couple of years. 

Hi everyone,

It's been some time. Just busy with work and life.

But wanted to give everyone an update. My wife and I are selling our first place. Hate to let it go but the timing is right.

We bought the condo in 2003 while we were in Hawaii and now selling for close to 50% more than we paid ($182,000 to $320,000). We owe a little over $140,000.

I know we'll pay some in taxes, real estate broker fees, etc, but wanted to get some advice from the community.

If you had over $100,000 would you pay off one of your other rentals, thus getting more cash flow (I owe less than $20,000 on one of my rentals), or buy another rental to get more cash flow?

I don't want to get into specifics but trying to get some ideas. Work has kept me busy lately.

Thx,

Tom

Good question, I have no idea.

This was a lengthy process but it looks like my wife and I own the home. My mom's tax accountant was the middle man and worked through the bank. I signed out paperwork in August and continued to make the payments on the home. Today I just received paperwork to take over the home from my mom for $1 and the deed will be in my name.

Bill, the home was purchased for approximately $115,000 about 13 years ago as a new home. I'm not sure what the market value is but similar homes in the area sell for $150,000 and higher. My mom made a few upgrades to the house, added a deck, ripped up the carpet and added hardwood floors, and I'm impressed by the curb appeal my step dad did with the flowers and bushes put into the front and back yards.

Hi! It's been a little over a month since I've been on Bigger Pockets. My hobbies have kept me busy. My PM told me that prospective tenants may not make an offer on a rental due to a barking dog adjacent to the property. I googled the city and dog barking and this comment came back.

[b]Barking Dogs: Cochise County has an ordnance prohibiting barking that disturbs the peace. Violations of the ordnance may result in citations being issued and repeated violations may result in the animal(s) being impounded and the owner being required to attend a hearing in Justice Court.

I don't want to take this to court but not having a tenant is driving away $1000s of dollars from my pocket.

Has anyone had issues like this and how did you handle it?

Thx,
Tom

This year has flown by and it's December 1 already.

Last month I was able to find a renter for my Arizona property. The market changed and I learned a few things.

- External factors could affect the rental market (the military base required short term attendees to live on post rather than off post)
- Have a reserve when your rental doesn't rent as fast as you'd like it to
- Utilize the internet (My renter found a post I had on craigslist)
- It's about marketing (there's so much noise out there, the internet, news etc, that you need to do something to be different to attract your tenant)

Also I built a website for my other side business.

What did you do last month?

Tom

We're already in November and I can't believe how fast time has gone by this year. I've been working on finding a renter for my Arizona house so I dropped the price last week hoping to get some more applicants.

I'm planning to refinance a home in Louisiana and plan to talk to a mortgage broker latter this month. Fortunately rates are still low.

Also I met someone at a real estate conference who handles self directed IRAs. I'm planning to talk to someone about rolling over my IRA to a self directed IRA and want to get this started before the end of the year.

So what did you do last month and what do you plan to do to finish off the year?

Tom

I'm reading a book now that Kiyosaki did with Trump, "The Midas Touch", and the part I am on now talks about bad partners. Kiyosaki talked about bad deals he did with people but after each event he came out stronger than before. The same can be said of Trump. I'm sure there's more to the story than what the papers said.

Tom