Week 25 of Self Employment:

Storage Garages of Hudson update: We started the week off with finishing our first building in Hudson. It really turned out great in my opinion. We haven't had anyone tell their not renting because it's ugly so up to this point, mission accomplished. We got through the week with 4 units rented with a number of additional interest. I'm setting my sights on full rent-up by the end of next week. Maybe not likely, but a fun goal to shoot for. We got electrical run for the lighting and for the security gate and an overhead light. Good to have that out of the way. We also got the parking lot final graded so it's ready for asphalt when the crews can stop in and put down some black. With all this rain, I just hope the weather holds out sometime soon so the pavers can get their other jobs done and come over to our site and knock it out.

Houlton Storage Garages update: Our crews got started on Building 5 in Houlton. "Started" being the important word. Rain killed any momentum that the crews had going from Hudson. They did make some serious progress for only having one dry day onsite. They nearly got both of the long walls built on the ground and ready to stand up. But out of 3 possible work days, they worked 1. They did really well on that 1 day, so I can't complain. Next week is supposed to be stinky too so we'll see what they can get accomplished.
I talked with an electrician about dividing a large unit we have available into two small units. That's going to happen in the coming weeks. When I initially dreamed up this property, I thought people would be all over the larger units (50 x 50) but people just can't ignore the pricepoint of the small units (25 x 50). So we'll try to satisfy demand and build more small units. The customer has spoken. I guess you learn something every day. I'm happy to report this lesson didn't make or break us but I do want to create what people are looking for.
Still working on getting the overhead powerline buried. They tell me the week of Oct. 15th. I sure hope they are right because I have paving lined up the following week. We won't have much more time in the season than that to get pavement in so we're bumping up against the end of the paving season.

Development Update: Still working through the idea of buying a 39 property housing development. I will only do it if we can come up with a product that costs $250k or less. I think people need a damn house that doesn't cost $400k+. If I can't do it, then I'll skip the project altogether. But at this time, things are looking good. So we'll keep working toward this project.

Other: Attended a webinar for an apartment complex project in Houston, TX. The returns looked really good. The project looked really good. It was also interesting to watch how they structured their investor meeting to maybe mimic this someday. I may or may not invest but I'm trying to learn how to structure the process better. In that regard, this has been very helpful.
I got a call to do a track evaluation project that could be interesting. We'll see if that pans out. Funny thing was that I think it was supposed to be confidential but I knew exactly who they were talking about just based on the location. I may have done some railroad repairs there before. 😀
I'll have to do a post of my favorite businesses/tenants that have rented from me or inquired. There are so many cool businesses out there that it'd be fun to compile them. Ok, I'm committing. That post will come later this week!