Kill it, or keep it? I’ve written to you before about the story of the goose and the golden egg. Just to remind you, it’s about a poor farmer who discovered he had a goose that would lay a solid gold egg each day. The farmer would sell that egg and then live lavishly off the proceeds. Eventually, he became impatient with receiving only an egg a day and…
Sitting at the laundromat with my bank account drained So, I learned some very valuable lessons this week at the laundromat. First, laundromat has an “O” in it which is contrary to how I say it — “laundry mat.” Next, the machines there have come a long way since I was kid. They have timers on the washers now, which is awesome, and the dryers are very efficient. I…
Why we use private money lenders What I’m about to tell you may come as a shock, but I have only applied for a mortgage through a bank one time in my life… and I was denied. To make that fact more interesting, you should know that it happened in February of 2020. I have to tell you I was little surprised myself. It happened as Ashley and…
What exactly do you do? I have to confess that I’m guilty of something. I don’t do a lot of self promotion. Here is a case in point: This particular column marks the beginning of my sixth year writing this weekly article about real estate investing and then posting it to my blog. Yet I have friends and family who have no idea that I do it. I just…
A great reason to have assets I was talking with a friend recently who was going through a tough time. You see, my friend had had some medical complications that had caused her to have multiple surgeries over the past few years. (By multiple I mean 10 plus.) To make a long story short, every time the surgeon would go in to fix the problem, it weakened the adjacent…
Deeds tell a story I was talking to an investor recently that was having a hard time telling the difference between a warranty deed and a security deed. This confusion is not uncommon for investors that mainly buy houses using cash or traditional financing because the attorneys handle all the deed and paperwork. But this investor was in the middle of buying a subject-to deal. And with that…
Buying out-of-state property We are selling a house right now, and it’s not a normal situation for us. It’s not a flip or a rental property. Instead, it’s the house my Grandmother owned until she passed in 2013. There are some people who are cool with buying and owning property all over the world and back. But that idea is scary to me. I like having properties I…
Steady wins the race During a recent walk with my kids, my first-born was showing out on his roller blades and my daughter was rolling around on a three-wheeled scooter. As we were walking and talking, the story of the tortoise and the hare got brought up. Now I don’t know about you, but when I think about that story I don’t see a book of Aesop’s Fables….
Controlled chaos Sometimes, things are just hectic. In the real estate world, however, I think you have to accept that things are constantly going to come up and alter your plans. You’ll have to succumb to the fact that you will be living a life of controlled chaos at work. Take this morning for instance. I got through with my workout and went to go see V…
Is this the new normal? I was talking with a buddy of mine this week about how to evaluate the returns on rental property using the financial calculator. I’d like to share with you what we did. Before we get started, if you haven’t had your morning cup of coffee, put me down and go get. This column is going to be numbers-heavy and will require an acute…