Interfering with real estate investing
This week has been a busy week for me. And at the end, I’m ready for Sabbath to get here. But some great things happened, and I would like to tell you about it.
At the beginning of the week is when we had that predicted cold snap. This was not so great because we had five different houses that were vacant. One was waiting to close sale later that week, one was on market to sell, one was on market to rent, one is sitting as we finish some legal leg work on it and the last is being rehabbed.
Now, something that we have to be proactive about is getting pipes dripping in vacant houses. And with lows being in the 20’s and highs not much above freezing, we had to make sure we got water moving at all those houses to prevent pipes from possibly busting on us. And since the houses were spread all across Gordon County, this took a major part of Monday to get accomplished.
They had forecast colder temps for Tuesday, but thankfully the cold front moved on and by Tuesday afternoon it was safe to get the water turned back off. In between stops at those properties, I was taking phone calls for insurance and from our attorney to make sure things were good to go for the upcoming closing. And I was continuing to project manage the rehab we have going.
I was also playing investigator a little bit on two properties. The first is one that I visited. There we have a title issue we are having to fix. To make a long story short, the property was held by an investment company that went out of business. And in order to get the title correct, we need to locate one of owners to get things signed off on. And after some internet digging, I think I found one of them in Dallas, Ga. So that is good.
The second house is one we are under contract on. There, the daughter, who’s also the sole heir, is selling her father’s place. The problem is she’s not local, and something has happened to her phone. Now the number we have for her is not working. So, we’ve been trying to locate some locals that may be family. I found some, but no one has her contact info.
On Wednesday morning I served on the Board of Equalization. That went all the way until noon. And something I wanted to say is I noticed the tax assessor office used at least one comparable from 2022 on all the cases we saw when getting their average price per square foot number used to determine the taxable value. The reason this is important is 2022 had lower values than now. But by using those older values in the average, it is lowering the tax assessor’s taxable value. This is beneficial for tax payers and I thought it was worth noting that our county is trying to be fair with values, especially with as much appreciation in value have seen in the last few years.
Later that day I got to do something cool. My oldest’s school was going door-to-door in multiple neighborhoods with donation bags to collect food for Thanksgiving. I volunteered to drive some of the kids, and we went to the Riverside subdivision and passed out a ton of bags. I very much enjoyed watching the kids doing a service project and watching them have to come out of their shell when people came to the door. We celebrated with a blizzard from Dairy Queen and headed back to school.
Thursday was a blur. But I got to have lunch with a friend from fellowship and close that other house. And here we are today on Friday. This morning the homeschool co-op my other children attend went to Chattanooga to tour replicas of the Niña and Pinta, two of the boats that Christopher Columbus used to sail to the new world.
It was very fascinating. We learned there that Christopher Columbus never made it to North America. He did, however, make it to Haiti and the Bahamas. We learned that the vessels were only 50-70 feet long, and only 16 feet wide. That sounds like a lot until you see all the rigging, the masts, the anchors and all the other gear on the deck. Plus, the crew of 24 young men lived, worked and slept on that deck for two to three weeks at time. I couldn’t imagine living like that. And my kids couldn’t either.
Now you may be asking, “What does this have to do with investing?” And here it is. Peter Fortuanto always talked about how his notes and rental property gave him the financial freedom to “interfere” in his kids lives. He was the dad that was the chaperone on field trips. He got to do coaching and be present with his kids all through school. He thought it was funny that all the other kids just assumed he didn’t have a job and that’s why he was always around.
When Pete would tell those stories I would feel a deep down longing for the same thing. And this year, I’m getting to do it. I’m interfering in my kids’ lives on so many levels. I’m chaperoning, I’m coaching and I’m at field trips. And it’s because of real estate, and through the blessing of Yahweh, that I can be there, with them, present. And I am so grateful for that freedom.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.