September 2018
I've decided to try and do monthly updates to catch people up on all my projects at once rather than weekly random articles with no particular coherence. This will be the first of many!
Personal purchase update
My latest purchase has finished rehab! We had finished it and tried to rent it for about 10 days and then went through and made a few more adjustments. The house had wood paneling on the interior which was quite a bit outdated. I was confident that we could get the house rented as-is, but I wanted top range of rental income, and I really wanted to make sure this house will appraise for 85K or better. So after the rehab was complete, I looked at the pictures and decided it was worth sinking some more money into. I had my team pull the wood paneling down, install new counter tops, and a few other small odds and ends. Now we are back to looking for a tenant. The pictures are before we went back to redo those items.
This project has been going a bit slower than my last one. My contractor has a ton of his plate lately (somewhat thanks to work I’ve brought him) so this has fallen a bit to the wayside. Fine by me really because we have both been focused on other mutual projects. All that said, I’m happy to wrap this one up and get it profitable.
I started my side of the underwriting for this deal 2 weeks ago! That means as soon as tenant signs the lease at this property I can go apply for a mortgage with my lender, he’s going to ask me for a laundry list of “stips”: loan documents to satisfy lending requirements. This will include W2’s, tax returns, bank statements, insurance for all my properties, hoa statements, paid tax bills, etc. I have all these documents prepared already so as soon as the processor asks me for that list I can give them to her instantly, this speeds up my underwriting immensely AND it makes the loan processor’s life really easy. Win/Win/Win
I spoke on a panel regarding long distance investing
Thanks to Neil Henderson of www.summerskycapital.com for snapping this great picture of me! And another big thank you to Outback real estate investor group of Las Vegas for giving me the opportunity to share what I know.
Here is an article for Biggerpockets about why it’s important to build a team BEFORE you buy a house
The link to that article is here:
Newbies, if You Want to Land a Property Within 12 Months, You Need to Do THIS Now
I started using my talents and knowledge to help other people duplicate my process
Towards the middle of the month a guy reached out to me expressing interest in replicating my process. We made quick friends and started ramping him up to understand how I make money so easily. I showed him how I buy houses, introduced him to my ground team, and on August 21st we had an offer accepted on a GREAT DEAL.
Purchase price - 34K
Rehab estimate - 25K
ARV - 85K
Rent - $950/month
This is a sick deal and very happy I could help a stranger to make money using what I’ve already learned. I certainly couldn’t do it without my great ground team in place, so I’m thankful for them stepping up so well to take on these new clients.
It seems as soon as we started making some successful progress in this area another client reached out to employ my skills in the same manner. I’ve begun to move towards this opportunity in what I’ve tentatively called “Alexandria Consulting”. I will look to expand on this new demand and try to help as many people as I can.
What’s going to happen in September
I’m going to buy another single family home
Maybe my last for the year. I really want to move into a commercial purchase next year so I’m trying to slow down my cash usage for the time being. I fully intend to spend the majority of my cash assets on a large apartment and it’s unlikely I’ll have access to that income again for a while. So I’m hoping to get one more deal done and then shift my focus on the next big obstacle, although I will continue to assist others
I’m going to fincon 2018
My friend Lee Huffman goes to Fincon every year and raves about it. My FOMO was kicking in hard this year so I looked into it. It’s a conference for financial bloggers which neat but I’m not a blogger, rather I WASN’T a blogger. I literally started this blog so I could go and network and have a reason to participate. That was in December and since then my blog has provided me with far more opportunity than just one conference. If you’re on the fence about content production then my suggestion is to just get started. Put something together and start practicing, the results I’ve had in just 8 months have been staggering. Highly recommend.
Books I read this month
Are you reading consistently? This has been the massive life changing habit for me. Sad I wasted so many years thinking I was smart rather than working hard at actually learning. I clean off books at a blistering pace these days to make up for lost ground, you can see my list of August additions here:
Never Split the Difference
Raising Private Capital
Hitch-22
Guns Germs and Steel
Change your Mind
Want to get involved?
People are always asking how they can bring value and get involved with our process, but I'm not always sure what talents people have. Here is a short list of things we could always use help on. If you are looking to be part of a growing operation and think you can help us do better, reach out!
Blogging/writing/proofreading
Finding multifamily deals in North Carolina
Social media strategy
Photography/videography in Las Vegas
Podcasting