What does a day look like?
I’m often asked what a typical day looks like for a full-time investor. This is a hard thing to answer because any given day can be different. But to give you some insight as to the possibilities, let me tell you about yesterday.
I woke up at 4:30 a.m. (that’s not a typo.) The reason I get up so early is so I can get woken up enough to be at Calhoun Spine and Wellness by 5:15 a.m. and be working out by 5:30 a.m. My workouts last until about 6:45 a.m. and I’m back home by 7:00 a.m.
Once I’m home, I get some quite time before the kids are up at 8 a.m. During this hour, I read scripture, pray and then start planning for the day. I often answer emails, texts and contractor phone calls.
On this particular morning, I was returning messages from an email blast I’d sent out the night before to potential private money lenders about a deal I have going.
The kids got up, and we had family breakfast at 8:30 a.m.
I was out the door and to the office by 9 a.m. to have our Level 10 meeting.
The Level 10 meeting is an hour and a half our team spends reviewing our quarterly goals, going over last week’s tasks and spending time solving any issues that may have arisen since last week.
During this particular meeting, we went over some office numbers and then moved on to property updates. We have a vacancy we need to fill, and we got a great application recently. At this time, we needed scheduled an in-home interview to see if they would be a good fit for the home.
We had another house that we had to file dispossessory on. Once you file and the court paperwork has been served to the tenant, you have to wait seven days to see if they will “answer,” which means you’ll go to court.
The waiting period was longer that seven days with this property because the courthouse was closed for New Year’s Day. But the tenants did not answer, and we got a default judgement with a writ of possession. At the time of the meeting, we needed to go inspect the property to see if they had vacated.
We had another home that had recently been rented. We got the move-in inspection back, and there were a few issues we needed to address. Namely, there were cats living under the house. We weren’t sure how to remedy that, so we decided to investigate who to call.
After the meeting, I had to stop by our storage unit and pick up some materials. After that, I went home to change into work clothes and eat lunch before heading off to another property.
This one was a rental we have in Adairsville that needed a very minor rehab to get it rent ready. Mainly, the walls needed to be painted again to freshen it up for the next tenants.
Something we’ve implemented in the last few years is using the same colored flat paint on all of the rentals. This practice allows us to paint the walls without having to cut in the ceilings or trim. This is awesome because a house can be repainted in a matter of hours, not days.
When it comes to rentals, I tend to do a lot of the repairs. This allows me to keep eyes on the properties. But on this day, I had another reason. I needed to be by myself. Painting here gave me some good thinking time without tons of interruptions.
I did field some calls while I was there though. One in particular was to a potential private money lender. I had to spend some time explaining to them what a security deed was and how that instrument secures their investment to the property.
This was an important conversation because they didn’t understand how the words “first mortgage on the property” in the email blast I sent out would secure their investment and afford them the recourse of foreclosure should we fail to perform. They felt much more comfortable after that phone call.
I ended the day by lining up a cleaner and a listing agent for a new flip that’s about to hit market.
And that is what a day looks like.
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.