All Forum Posts by: Tim Swedberg

My brother and I just moved to Southern Utah and are in the process of buying a house which will need some work done on it. I can do a lot of the work myself, but I am busy with work and may need to outsource some of it. Looking at renovating the basement into a rental unit.

Does anyone know any good contractors in the Southern Utah area? I would love to make connections with any general contractors or trade professionals!

Feel free to inbox me, too.

Hey! I recently changed my career to work in construction - specifically renovation. I am also paying off my debt so that I will be in a good position to invest in the future (my career change will also help a lot, I hope.) But that leaves me very poor at the moment while I pay off the high interest debt.

I really just enjoy working on fixing up homes and want to speed up paying off debt by being part of deals in my time off. 

So here are my questions:

1. Would it be better to just bid on projects and have people pay you for the work you do, or to try and become a partner on a deal through contributing the labor for remodel/renovation? (I also understand most  people would want me to throw in some of my own money so I would have "skin in the game," so this may not even be an option.)

2. What are some good ways to get experience in real estate investing in person? I volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity to get shorten my learning curve with construction, I was wondering if there are people/organizations that I could be affiliated with that would be able to offer me lots of experience. Did any of you find ways to build experience before your first deal, and how?

thanks for the time! Mostly just want to utilize my time and resources as much as possible! Really love working construction, but the smaller income has made it slow work to get into a good position financially (though it did teach me how to budget, haha.) 

Happy Thursday!

Tim

 Hi Ola,

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the time you put into it. I actually heard of you first when I listened to a podcast between you and and Scott Royal Smith. I always have intentions of doing volunteer work, but never end up doing anything about it. Thanks for bringing it up. I really do want to invest myself into that type of work, I just distract myself from it constantly... 

There is a question at the end. If you want to skip to that, feel free to do so   :)

I guess I have always struggled with the "why." I have always been far too existential, probably bordering nihilistic, throughout my life. Even though I have great relationships with almost everyone in my life, at the age of 28, I still don't have a significant other and feel pretty disillusioned to most of what life has to offer. But when I engage in life I have a ton to offer - hard worker, good friend, positive influence, etc. I have worked to create lots of opportunities for myself, but now I can't seem to care enough about any of those opportunities to capitalize on it.

I don't want to define my life with negativity. Even though naturally I feel pretty depressed I am still moving forward - being bummed out doesn't really matter in the long run anyway. I just struggle since I don't have the motivation/drive/intention.

Question: What is the source of your motivation? How do you develop your vision around Legacy, control, love and helping others? I want all those things! But they are such high concepts that I don't know how to translate them into a tangible roadmap.

Sorry for the rant, once again. I am still just pressing forward regardless of the whining. I just want to work through it as fast as possible so I can get into REI in the future. Just suck at being self-motivating because I can't identify any goals worth dedicating my life to. Or so I tell myself :)

Hey Matt,

Thanks for the reply! Best of luck to you moving forward!

 I can see how that is empowering! But what do you do once you achieve the freedom? The time you spend working is no longer spent being someone's employee and instead you have the ability to call the shots when you are working. But what does that provide in your life? Are you happier? Is life more challenging but more fulfilling because of it? What has changed from who you were back then to who you are now?

Hey all! I have been a lurker for quite some time have personal question.

My question is simple - what motivates you? Why do you do the investing thing, and how do you push through the really cruddy seasons of it?

I ask this because I am in a rut and just don't care much about anything - but I know I should. I used to love building and improving most anything - and I would always excel at whatever I set my mind to. I am truly curious about what drives people, because I am attempting to shift myself into a better mindset. 

Thanks Jay! Yeah, I have a feeling I might just go do a bunch of shopping and browsing over the next few months. I've seen several resources on spreadsheets that people recommend to crunch the numbers. Do you just create your own spreadsheet, or is there a tool that you have found to be strong enough to use for your own purposes?

I love the "free calculators," but I also know that a lot of experienced investors will include specific items that may not be generic/general knowledge - or just have a personal bent toward certain criteria. Thoughts?

Hey BP! My name is Tim and I am new to this community.

I am looking at getting into investing with either a focus on fix & flips to either rent or sell (depends on the property.) I've done a bit of rehab work over the last few years and am confident in basic fixes, but I would say my strength is that I am just tenacious and figure out ways to "make things work." I've been working with a firm that offers legal services to real estate investors for close to a year now and have slowly become a convert to the idea of real estate, looking to dive in personally and build up a portfolio over the next several years (I am living in northern Minnesota.)

Other than second-hand experience I don't know anything about real estate. I am meeting with banks and some local connections I have with real estate agents to start getting a feel on my position financially as well as get a feel for the local market. The biggest struggle I face is all the unknowns. I am beginning to devour all the resources I can find on real estate and investing, but being so green I am just taking rabbit trails hoping to find wisdom.

What are some great pieces of personal advice you would have for someone who has never done this stuff before? What are some of the best tools and resources you have found? I am over-ambitious and know that in the past I have thrown myself into the deep end of projects, so I am working to try and educate myself a bit more and build out my resources - any advice is greatly appreciated! Also, let me know what kind of investing you personally lean toward and why.