Week 18: Engineer turned Real Estate Investor continued....

We finished up Building 5's slab in Houlton and are now ready for some structure. Luckily I stopped in before the apron got framed up and poured as it didn't have any gravel under it. We are having an issue with the apron in front of one of our other units and I think it's due to no gravel under the apron. So we put that on temporary hold. Grading contractor made a quick mobilization and took care of it for us. Thanks Total Excavating. So that is ready to go whenever the concrete guys come back to finish up. 
I spent most of the rest of the week working with Xcel Energy to get an overhead power line moved. I think this is going to be a reoccurring pain in my rump as I know this stuff doesn't happen in a day. I started the process in October of 2017 and I keep getting kicked down the road. So now it's going to be last minute and it may impact opening the building up for rent. Let's hope not. I really like the people I deal with at Xcel but they're overworked. Construction in western WI is going like gangbusters right now. We also found out that this is going to be about 3x as much as budgeted. We knew it would be more, but not this much. Reshuffle funds, reshuffle funds....
Oh yes, I turned in my sign permit application for Houlton. I originally submitted in June (actually, I think first contact was in March - I could be wrong though) and finally got some response from the County. Did I mention that western WI is super busy right now? I feel sorry for the staff....but need my stuff back too. Hopefully that will come back soon. Having a phone number up at the site would probably be helpful. 
We applied for our Footings and Foundation permits for Hudson Buildings 1, 2, and 3. I hope to get those back next week because....drum roll please....we started grading in Hudson! Well, not actual "grading" but site clearing. They started on Friday morning and got all but the SW corner of the property cleared. Pretty amazing for one day's worth of work. The lot looks so much larger without all the shrubbery. Next week (this week as you read this) we'll be digging holes for the foundation and off and running we go. I'll try to include pics of the site as we continue on because pics are more fun than text.
Interesting side note - we might have to change our name in Hudson. It turns out our neighbors don't like our name (their argument is that it's too similar to theirs) so we got a nice letter from their attorney. We'll have to resolve this to a certain degree. I don't think our name would be much of an issue, but I'm not going to call them crazy either. Hopefully we can resolve this like adults. By mentioning this I'm not saying I'm right or wrong, just trying to detail some of the things that come up when you're building stuff. 
Other stuff:
I was going to get into property management until we figured out that you need a real estate or broker's license to do this. Lame. I can manage 3 facilities without one but can't manage a friend's house? Sure, got it. A lot of sassy words were said over this rule and I had to leave a friend somewhat hanging. I don't like that at all. 
New opportunities/properties/networking. I have been talking with a number of people who are looking to invest in some deals so I'm searching for storage facilities and other properties that would take a little work to spruce up. I'm evaluating a couple properties to see if I can't figure out a way to make some additional income while helping others make some additional income. This is uncharted territory and I'm reading and studying this facet of real estate as fast as my little eyes can read. I'm ready to start small and help others find investments. I'll keep you posted (whether you like it or not)! 
I'll leave you with a parting shot of our soon-to-be bonfire pile. It's big, it's real big! I'd say it's 100'wide and 20' tall. S'mores anyone?