Jonathan Goudy

I started an Electronics Design Company in 2006 that is still my "day job". The income from this business is quite unpredictable. Cash flow was the best when my boots were the ones on the ground, and my efforts to sub-contract out parts of development projects (like Computer Aided Design for Mechanical design or high-end programming developers for an app or something) would eat up so much of my margins that I am working over 100 a week, not spending time with my family, and all this for the "privelage" of owning my own business and being an entrepreneur. Well, the last couple years, business has been steady enough to keep me in my house, but I've been barely making bills and still working 100 hour weeks. So why am I pouring my heart out to God knows who at Bigger Pockets? Because I am here, and that is a testament to my changing my life for the better. This education didn't come easy and I know that people here will understand my struggle. Last month changed my life. It went from up-side-down to preparing-to-soar with one epiphany. To explain this revelation, I need to take a step back to explain. In 2010, my mother died, and we were really close. Less than a month later, my father died across the country (unrelated, but not well timed). This left me feeling like I was "on an island" all of the sudden because I no longer had anyone to reach out to if I needed help in some way. Well, long story short, my Mom was a good saver and my brother and I split her stocks and I used my portion to buy my brother out of her house, and to pay off my house. This was technically my plunge into real estate, but I just didnt know it. I just knew that I was paying off my higher interest debts first, and eventually my mortgage came up). Well, I tried to rent my mothers house for a number of years to try to cash-flow off of it, but this was nearly impossible between property and school taxes, and the managent firm we hired were incompetent and hired idiots for contractors. I would continually lose money on that place. About 7 years later I finally realized that I really can do my job anywhere, so we started trying to move to Colorado (a dream of ours). Well, we were either crazy or stupid, but we bid on the money-pit on purpose that was high up in the mountains (9100' of elevation). We put our bid in November of 2017, and it took us three months to close, because there was so much work to be done on the place, we were paying for estimates "under the table" before we even owned the place so that we could find out what it would take to bring everything up to code, just so we could get quotes. It was nuts. We had to almost double the price to roll in all of the required improvements, but we persevered. (LOTS of credit to my Wife, Nadine, for spear-heading this whole transaction) We got the house, and by the time it appraised, we were already $50K in the black even with all of the improvements rolled into the loan. Now, I get to work my butt off in a better location. Now, last month was the hardest of my life. I am barely making bills and my mother-in-law had been living with us for the past few months under hospice care dying of Cancer. She was obviously getting close to "crossing over", and my tenant in Houston calls to tell me that my former primary residence there just got flooded. This was devastating! I sold my mothers house a few months earlier to pay credit cards and try to keep my head above water for a little while longer. Well, it wasn't that long and I was busted again and running those credit cards right back up again to pay bills. We didnt have flood insurance (oversight with a story for another time) and the quotes for remediation were insane and I wouldn't have even broken even on the place if I would have done it. I had to leave and try to recoup any of our investment in that house. I had to give my mother-in-law a hug and kiss, knowing that is very likely the last time I will see her alive. She joked with me about how much I sweat when I am in Houston, and I had forgotten about that (testament to her memory up until the last). I deposited the only check I had to my name that would have otherwise went to pay a bill or two and used it to pay for gas for me to get to Houston not knowing how I was going to pay for gas on the way back. Well, when I got there, the damage wasn't NEARLY as bad as the remediation guys were making it out to be, knowing I was 1000 miles away (literally). Really, my tenants and all their critters just tracked a bunch of water in and soaked the carpet, so I started to gut the place, and immediately got contacted by the investor that bought the property next door. He came by as I was working and made me a cash offer to take it as-is that was reasonable, and then came my wake-up-call. I bought this house for $70K back in 2003. Zillow had it listed for about $140K, but the square footage was only 68% of the actual house, so I knew that was off as the estimated resale value is about $185,000. Since it needs to be rehabbed, I am starting negotiating at $155,000.