The Philosophy of Painting & Life

Today I did some painting in my own home. I actually really enjoy painting, but only because I do it on my own terms.

OK, before you yawn and click away, let me tell you a little about how I paint. There is no tedious taping. no drop cloths. No pushing all the furniture into the middle of the room. No messy rollers and trays. Just one gallon of paint and a stubby paint brush. I may paint for 20 minutes or 3 hours, the point for me is that I am doing the painting. The project is getting done.

I have freinds who have lovely houses with not a lick of the walls painted since they moved in years ago. Usually they say its just such a big task to tackle, they never have enough time, energy, or motivation to undertake such a big project. Well, I have an acute lack of all three of those as well, and yet my house is slowly becoming a cozy, colorful abode instead of keeping that stark white institution look.

I have a sort-of philosophy in life. Nike stole it from me about 15 years ago but I still hold it as mine... Just Do It.

If there's one thing I can't stand its wasting time to get something started. I have a motivation problem (do they make a support group for that?), so when I get in the "mood" to do something, I need to do it NOW. To me, all the set up that most people think is necessary to start a paint job is a non-issue. Just grab a brush and get going for God's sake! Or else you may never find the time to go through all the steps you supposedly need to get to the final result.

The thing is, this philosophy holds true in so many other areas of life and business. We hear all the time about "analysis paralysis" and "fence sitters" and people who get lost in the prep work only to give up and never make it to the actual meat, the fun part of the project. Why in the world would anyone beat themselves down on the minutia of start up details when really all they need is a good brush and a bucket of paint?

Of course, it is true that I have painted a wall or two, or several dozen, before. True, someone who's never held a brush should absolutely take more precautions and do some practicing. But this is not rocket science, and the things most of us do in life and business are not either. It shouldn't take too much prep for even a newbie to be ready to dive in and get started. Anyone who does suffers from one of the two other afflictions that should also have support groups: Fear and Laziness.

Keep it simple, people. Most projects and business endeavors need not be so monumental that you just don't want to think about getting started, and so never do. Do yourself a favor. Buy a little paint, dig out your brush, do a quick test run or research if you feel the need, and then JUST DO IT. You'll figure out the best methods and your own style as you go, and you'll actually be making progress as you figure it out instead of waiting for everything to be set up just right before you even begin.

Oh, and yes, sometimes my walls are half-painted, a project in limbo, for days, months, even (my dirty secret) years, but at least I made progress. I got started. That's more than many of my friends can say, and more than so many others out there can say about starting any number of things. If you wait for everything to be ready and perfect, you're probably going to be waiting a very, VERY long time. Action, even action that may be a bit messy and unprofessional in the beginning, is better than inaction. Everything else can be learned or fixed as you go along.

Stay tuned for the next episode...

Alright, I've been debating for months if I should restart this blog. After my world sort of fell apart last September, I thought it would be useless to post all the whining and blubbering that would inevitably come out when I sat down to write. Suffice to say that nothing I was working on previously actually ended up closing, and I spent the last few months of the year wondering what in the world I was trying to do with my life, both in business and personally (which for me are so intertwined its hard to separate anyway).

But, here I am, writing the next installment. This year, in 2010, I am learning to work and live a different way. Some of the crazy passion for life and work has somehow gone out of me, which was scary and dissapointing at first. However, I have come to realize that being more level headed and less emotionally involved in everything gives me the distance to hopefully make better judgements. We'll see how that turns out, won't we?

So hello again to all my friends that were following my expolits. I'm still here! And I'm back in the saddle, although I'd say I was easing into it this time and not hitting the road at a wild gallop. On the business front, leads are still coming in and I'm still looking at houses and small multi-families. None have been that interesting... yet. I've decided to operate under the guise that I don't NEED my next deal, I can be picky and wait for the right one to come along. Its a good feeling, one I believe will work to my benefit in the long run. I hope you'll all stay tuned in for this new season of Investor in Limbo. I know I'm anxious to see the outcome of the next few episodes!

The story of quad deal #1: Ending still pending.

A little back story first.

Earlier this year I did two major things: Left my regular "day" job and started my OWN real estate investment company without my former partner. While both were scary in some ways, they were exciting and fun in many others and I've really enjoyed being my own boss. I had run the numbers before I became unemployed and knew that I could go the summer without working at all, and much longer if I could get another cashflowing property under my belt. My plan was, if things went well, to buy a quad or other multi-family building that would cash flow at least $1000 or more a month so that I could have a little more income coming in and then be able to work on other aspects of real estate with a lighter mind.

I knew I had enough money for one good subject-to transaction. I was looking for a quad (or larger if possible) that would ideally not have any immediate/large repairs, hopefully have at least a couple of current PAYING tenants, and that the seller would need no or practically no cash down from me. I had enough to pay for closing and a couple of back payments, and am perfectly willing to do minor repairs myself if needed. Yeah, I know, many people told me I was probably dreaming about nailing such a property. Who'd just sign over a quad in good shape with good cashflow potential?

So when a Realtor called me up out of the blue and told me about this really awesome quad that was bank owned and just lowered to a killer price, I was interested. I'd spent the summer looking for a multifamily building and wasn't having much luck within my parameters, so a killer REO seemed worth a look. The Realtor was right. It was an awesome deal. The previous owners had been rehabbing it and were nearing completion when I guess they ran out of steam or money or both. All the major things had already been finished, it just needed some minor stuff to be ready to rent.

I absolutely knew, without a doubt, that the numbers would qualify for a 100% hard money loan. I had the percentages and fees memorized and ran many estimates and circumstances and tried to use conservative numbers. I happily put down my $2000 earnest money deposit and after some back-and-forth on numbers I got it under contract. Although I can't qualify for a hard money loan due to not having the regular income to refinance out of it, I knew this kind of slam-dunk deal with no money down would be good enough to get a financing partner. I was right, they lined up fast.

Problem is, the 100% hard money financing didn't go quite as I expected. Turns out that even though this will be a "hold" property and not a flip, and even though it is in the cashflow's best interest to keep rehab costs down and not do any extra bells and whistles (its really in a "lower income" area, after all), the lender still requires a MUCH larger rehab budget than my contractor's estimate. Twice as much, actually. They say its to protect their investment in case they have to take the property back, but from what other people are telling me of their experiences, this 100% lender never really gives 100%, there's always some caveat that prevents it. They advertise 100% rehab loans, but everyone I know that has used them (or tried to use them) ends up actually needing cash down. So with a doubled rehab budget the numbers no longer qualify for a 100% loan, and none of my potential financing partners has the relatively small amount of cash to cover the increased budget.

So its looking more and more like the deal is dead.

But wait, its not over yet.

When I submitted the offer I was in a hurry and went online to get a quick pre-approval letter from an online bank late at night. I just needed something to lock up the deal fast, other offers were coming in. Now the bank that owns the quad is demanding to see a denial letter from this online bank that I was preapproved with in order to let me out of the contract with my $2000 earnest money. Problem is, I can't get a response from the supposed "bank" that I got the preapproval from, so I can't seem to get a denial letter. My $2000 may be going down the drain, and what's worse the Realtor that I was working with doesn't seem to care. In retrospect, I probably should have used my own agent rather than the listing one so that my own interest was better protected.

And Murphy still wasn't done yet.

The worst part is that during all this, I actually found the deal that I'd been waiting for all summer. A man called me off of a mailer I sent and said he had two quads that he was getting behind on payments with and he was ready to walk away. SCORE!

Oh, wait, some of my meager amount of money meant for just this deal was already tied up in the other REO quad. Major Bummer.

One of the two quads he owns turned out to fit all my criteria, so after some thought and consideration it is now under contract with me and a new partner (see yesterday's post) to make up for the fact that I am lower on funds than I should be.

I could lament about the fact that I should have stuck to my plan and waited for the right quad to come my way, but I still believe the first REO quad is an incredible deal and I don't regret pursuing it. I actually still want it, but am running out of ideas to get to the closing table. If I loose my $2000, I'll only regret rushing and not using a more legitimate bank's preapproval letter!!!

So, please wish me luck in getting out of the contract with my money. As an unemployed person I really need to keep every dollar I have, I have no way to make it back! Or contact me if you want to buy a quad with minimal repairs needed at a great price in Richmond, VA and can either finance it yourself or have good credit and good income and can bring a little cash to the hard money closing table.

The ending isn't written in stone yet, but Saturday is the start of our big vacation of the year and I'd sure like to go without a stressed out mind and heavy heart.

Cross your fingers and don't breathe, some quads dangle almost within reach.

I could not be happier to say that I have TWO quad deals in the making that are looking very good right now. Even though I was out of town all week, I still somehow managed to make phone calls and drive to the Panera and Office Max parking lots to send emails (I was much too sweaty and covered in paint splatters to venture out of the car!), which was enough to keep things rolling along on both deals. I must say I'm quite proud of myself for doing this unique form of multi-tasking!

I got back yesterday evening. Today, Saturday, I went to Quad Deal #1 with a contractor and hard money lender to get a firm repair estimate and figure out if its going to meet the financing requirements like I think it will. I'm thrilled that the contractor's bid came in exactly within my target. Rock on with my bad self! I've always been pretty good at estimating repairs, but wasn't so sure on a 4 unit building like this, especially after reviewing the home inspector's notes (which I had happen while I was out of town, a good and bad thing but at least I know there's no big surprises). Little things times four can really add up to big bucks. But, the contractor's numbers were good, so now I get to move forward one green space towards the closing table. Nobody breathe, please...

Of course, now I am starting to get nervous. This is the time when deals often begin to fall apart for me, and my confidence is slightly rattled from past failures. I've been doing some thinking about my past unclosed deals though, and I'm sure that this time I have better deals, more experience, and more confidence than I've ever had before. I am resolute in my determination to make these things close. IT WILL HAPPEN. And this time next month I fully expect to be the proud owner of two lovely quads that will bring me a nice chunk of monthly cash flow and ease my family's worried minds. Yes, it will happen. I know it will. I know it will. I know it will.

Still too nervous to discuss too many details and jinx the whole thing, but I do promise that as soon as the closings happen I will happily tell you all the whole story for each one. How I found them, what I did to buy them, etc.

Until then, please sleep with your fingers crossed under your pillows for me. My 2009 Big Goal #2 is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. I could really use all the luck and support I can get!

One small goal at a time!

For the first time in over a month I feel like I had a good week!

I really do struggle with time management, goals and priorities, so meeting one of my goals this week feels like an incredible accomplishment, even if it is a somewhat small goal in the grand scheme of things. This week I set a goal of getting a website up on my domain that actually works and can capture lead information for me while I'm out of town for almost two weeks. It's a wonderful feeling to have accomplished that goal!

I did have to let some of the other things I have going on slide a bit. Just based on this week though, I think I've found a good formula to work with when it comes to my own schedule. Setting daily goals and making daily schedules and to-do lists just leave me feeling overwhelmed and unproductive.

This week I set one major goal: Design website and get it up and working. Then I had a couple secondary goals: Go to my "problem" rental to mow the grass and remove all the staging items to get it ready for the new tenant, and to attend a meeting for Local Real Estate Deals Magazine to go over some new and exciting things we're working on. I also had to make time for the kids and took them to the pool and park a few days. So all in all it was a very successful week! Several of my "bottom" goals did not even get touched, but perhaps they will one day have their turn being the top goal of the week.

The working website was a primary goal for me because I am aiming to capture as many leads as I can over the internet. Taking tons of phone calls all day long is not feasible for my life, and paying a phone service is not yet in the budget (but I know the value of them having used one in my previous REI company). So my new marketing and mailers are all going to be driving sellers to my site to capture their information. Cross your fingers that it works for me!

So if I didn't email you back or take your call or meet with you this week, I hope you'll forgive me for putting on my blinders and working diligently on meeting my first of many weekly goals to come. Obviously I don't want to ignore the world every week, but think of everything I could accomplish if I could!

My problem property gets a tenant... finally.

I have this rental property that's been a thorn in my side pretty much since the day we first acquired it. I bought it late last fall with my then partner, intending it to be our first minor rehab and then to rent it out after the fix up. We got seller financing and used a credit line for the simple rehab materials, and decided to do all the fix-up ourselves. Ideally we were hoping we'd be able to lease-option it to a first time lower-income buyer and give that person the chance to become a home owner, but it seemed like it was in a great rental area and so we were fine with straight renting it if we didn't find a tenant-buyer.

I can not begin to describe here all the things that went wrong with this property, both because of the house itself, because of the time frame we bought in and because of my partner's and my various shortcomings (lack of time, lack of agreement, lack of a pickup truck, etc.). Perhaps one day I will be able to share the grueling details with you all, but I think I need a little more time to heal first. I can say that lease-optioning didn't work at all, and finding a tenant has been a difficult puzzle to solve. The neighborhood was full of rented properties, the rent was right, and the phone rang consistently, but for some unknown reason I could not get a prospective tenant to move into the house. Its shameful to say this, but the property has been vacant all this time, and carrying costs are eating us alive!

So now we have a tenant ready to move in on the first of the month. Please praise the God or Goddess of your choosing for us. I find it interesting, though, that the longer this property sat around and did nothing for us but drain our bank account, the less and less I was interested in dealing with it. I know that logic dictates that I should have become more desperate to get it rented and therefore worked even harder, but the exact opposite is what actually happened. And it wasn't just me, my partner actually "lost interest" long before I even did, and only thought of this house when he wrote the check for the mortgage and called to ask me if I'd found a tenant yet.

How did we finally get it rented if we'd nearly mentally written it off, you may ask? We finally decided to hire a property manager. Sad, but the decision had to be made. We opted to have the management company only handle finding the tenant, I will still be managing the property after she moves in. Its a big blow to my pride that I could not get a tenant in the house myself, but at least now I do not have to duck the question at my REI meetings of "So did you get that house rented yet?" Ummm, no, hey what's that shiny thing over there?

I think its important to realize when you are not performing as well as you'd like to be and to know when its time to delegate things to someone who will get the job done and/or clean up your mess. Granted we probably should have delegated a lot sooner, but at least we made the decision to do it now before it got any later in the year. I had nightmares of crossing the one year mark of holding this house with no tenant!

So as of the first we will have no vacancies, hooray! Now I can concentrate on finding more properties without feeling guilty that I still have one sitting unrented and semi-forgotten. I think I'll skip looking in the same area as this particular house for a while though!

So apparently I suck at time management.

Man, when I had a J-O-B I thought to myself, "all I need is to get rid of this horrible time-wasting job and I'll have all the time I need to finally get things done!"

Nearly one month after fulfilling that dream, I still have no time. There's just never enough. I seriously don't know how I gained 9 more hours in my day and yet still accomplish so little!

I started out with a plan. Really, I did. Sounded like a good plan on paper. I would spend my early mornings doing emails, then get out of the house to either run errands, take the kids someplace fun, visit properties or drive around neighborhoods looking for possible property leads. I would alternate the activities on different days. Then we'd come home, get the kids some lunch, put the little one down for a nap, and I'd start make phone calls and send more emails for the rest of the afternoon. Seemed perfect, but in reality it is just too much to cram into one day, every day.

My online stuff takes much longer than I time-budgeted for. Between multiple email accounts, social networking, blogging, reading articles, doing internet searches, etc I can easily fill up the entire day just sitting in front of my computer. Which is NOT what I envisioned me doing when I left my cubicle where I just sat in front of the computer.

On my list of things that aren't getting done: go to the bank and deposit some checks, call back some potential tenants for one of my properties, do searches for specific property types in the area to send letters to, go to the store to buy an ink cartridge so I can print some forms and return them to a Realtor that's asking for them, figure out a better system of organizing my leads, take the kids to the Library to get library cards and books, and many others I'm sure.

I need a new plan. I'm thinking about trying to designate certain days for specific activities, but having two kids at home makes that a bit more difficult since I am often limited to scheduling things around meals, naps, play time and the incessant need to break up the "Whaaaa!!! He stole My toy and pulled my shirt!!!" fights.

I used to consider myself a great multi-tasker. Give me a pile of work and I'll tackle it all at the same time. Now with undefined work and undefined times of doing it, I have turned into a disorganized mess. My husband even rightly teases me for not being able to do a simple load of laundry while I work from home. I mean to, I just get distracted and time slips away then before you know it he's coming home and the laundry never made it to the basket! (obviously he didn't marry me for my homemaking skills!) Not to mention I never left my computer and very few phone calls were made. Arggggg, how does the time get away?

So, I'm working on a new plan. It may take a while for me to find my right grove, but I'm trying to come up with something workable immediately if not permanently. I know I'll figure it all out eventually, after all, many other people in similar positions have figured it out and area doing well. I just get frustrated when the goals I set for myself need to be readjusted so drastically. But, if the system isn't working then its time to get a new one. There's no way I want to be still floundering at this time-management thing in another month. I'm up for any ideas and suggestions if you all have them!

When opportunity comes knocking...

This past Friday I found myself suddenly jobless. YIKES!!!! Granted, this is something I’ve been working towards anyway and was even planning on, but I don’t think you can ever be completely prepared for it until the reality strikes. So far it hasn’t completely “sunk in” that I have no set schedule to abide by, no boss looking over my shoulder to make sure my work is getting done, and most importantly, no pay check to count on every two weeks. I KNOW all of these things are what I longed for and are now the facts of my life, but I just can’t wrap my head around the full significance of them yet!

So what does it feel like exiting the normal work force, some of you may wonder…

Truthfully, it feels like a lead brick is resting in the bottom of my stomach 24/7! I’ve prepared, I have a Plan A and a Plan B, and even some ideas for other plans should those two fail, but planning alone can not ease the feeling in my gut. Oddly, this is almost the same experience I had when I was pregnant with my first child (and even my second, come to think of it). Not to loose my male audience, but its true! There are the same amounts of fear, excitement, dread, hope, and “what was I thinking???” moments as after we’d decided to bring a life into this world with no actual experience in doing so. We read books, attended classes, talked and listed to other people who had been there before us, and gathered advice from professionals until we had some level of confidence of our foundation and were ready for the leap of faith. Sound familiar?

I admit I have a parachute of sorts, I have some things going “on the side” of my real estate investing which will enable me to ease into my self-sufficient “jobless” status. Honestly, my real estate investing is no where near ready to support me on its own, but the Catch-22 of time and attention to real estate versus time and commitment to my job has been a major obstacle in being more successful in investing. I can get all the education and mentoring I need, but it does me no good without the time to implement the strategies. Now that the cycle is broken, I am excited to throw much more of my effort into real estate and see my success grow accordingly.

Just like when I was pregnant (sorry guys!), I know that I CAN DO THIS and do it well, and that the fear and doubt are minor in comparison to the rush of empowerment and excitement.

I am embracing this opportunity to strike out on my own and live my life as I wish to live it. I know the road ahead will be a difficult struggle, but it is one I believe I will vastly prefer over wasting 8 hours of every day to help someone ELSE live the life they wish to live. If I fail there will always be other jobs to turn back to, and if I must go back then I will do so without regret, but how else will I ever truly know the kind of success I might have if I never bother to try? The opportunity knocked and I gladly answered the door, ready and willing to follow it no matter what the path. Thank goodness I was ready for it when it did!!!

So tomorrow starts the first day of the rest of my life. I can’t wait to meet it, even if I do carry some extra weight for the moment. What’s a little lead in my stomach compared to the limitless opportunities that I’m about to be a part of? Sounds like I got the better end of that bargain, now if I can just find some cash flowing multi-family properties where the stakes are the same!!!