Financial Freedom One House At A Time
FOCUS like a lion Ashley and I just got back from a mastermind meeting in Dallas, Texas. It was made up of real estate investors from all over the U.S. who are seeking to build better businesses by developing their systems and processes. Ya’ll, it was phenomenal! Each investor gaves a 15-minute presentation where they told a little about themselves and their company. Next, they told the…
What is better, notes or rentals? If you’re like most investors, you have a renewed perspective on your business right now. That’s because you’ve just analyzed all your rentals, done an inventory of your cashflow and have gotten things ready to send to your CPA. We call this process our end-of-year review. During this process you’re seeing what kind of cashflow your properties actually brought in. The reason…
Believe There was recently an all-day Star Warsathone on TNT. Google says it takes at least 15 hours to watch all seven movies. I wasn’t prepared to spend 15 hours in front of the TV, but periodically, I’d switch it on to see what the Skywalkers were up to. I found one scene during “The Empire Strikes Back” very insightful for this time of year. It was…
Do your tenants meet your core values? We recently welcomed a business consultant by the name of Gary Harper into our office. Gary is with Sharper Business Solutions, and He and his wonder wife Susan, helped us with a number of things ranging from writing out a vision for our company to properly defining all of our departments. They also helped us set up an accountability chart for those…
Moving in before closing: Just say “no.” A question that often comes up in our house flipping business is whether or not we’ll allow the buyer to move into a house before closing. The buyer’s reasons for this request run the gamut. Maybe they’re selling their current home before buying ours, or maybe our closing date got extended past the first of the month and they don’t want…
How we did our first deal When Ashley and I realized we needed to make our living as real estate investors, it was 2009. We were freshly married, just out of college and didn’t have two nickels to rub together. To put it bluntly, we were completely broke. On top of not being able to find jobs that fit with our bachelor’s degrees, we had a mound of…
What happens when you die? Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. There’s just something about making a gratitude list and eating great food with family that puts a smile on my face and cheer in my heart. This year, however, things went a little differently for me. On Thanksgiving day, we learned that a man we had been praying for had passed away. His name…
Keep your eyes on your goal The normal bedtime routine for the English house starts with the telling of a story. Most of the time, I contrive some sort of imaginative situation where a little boy or girl goes off and does something spectacular. The story ends after a grand adventure with the little one feeling so tired that they “go home, get in their bed and go to…
Think hard before killing your goose I’d like to tell you about one of Aesop’s Fables. It is one called “The Goose and the Golden Egg.” It’s a great story and it goes something like this: There once was a farmer who had a goose he visited every day. One morning, he went to see the goose and noticed it had a glittery, golden egg laying in its…
Overcoming obscurity I will never forget that day. I was at a function at my congregation and Britt, one of my friends there, pointed over to my truck and asked who it belonged to. The truck had a “We Buy Houses” wrap on the tailgate, and Britt had never seen the vehicle before because we normally show up to functions like these in Ashley’s van. When I…