Week 7 of Self Employment - May 28 - June 4, 2018

Midweek update: Definitely sweating it a little on Building 4. We have 4 tenants that want to be in on Friday and it's always a challenge to get them in without electrical being done. It's a pain to get the lights in and a pain getting around their stuff to make any edits. So we try really hard to get everything finished prior to move in.

Our building guys showed up in Memorial Day to pop up a few walls and get a garage door or two installed. With that nice effort they should be able to stay ahead of the electricians.

Electricians showed up today, got the meter bank up and started to work on the units. I like to think we will make our Friday deadline by a hair. Next we need to fill up the other 3 units!

Week 7 Update: 

Hurray! Week 7 concluded with the completion of Building 4 and some tenants moving in. Our contractor and electrician cranked out the 4 units that are going to be immediately occupied. We have 3 more units to finish up electrical on but we've bought ourselves a little bit of time at this point. The last step is asphalt in about 2 weeks. We should have some pretty pics of everything polished up at that point and then we will quit beating this drum. At least until Building 5 gets constructed.

Week 7 was big for the Hudson Storage Garages project too. We selected our bank/credit union and it will now be full speed ahead on that project. I can't wait!

I'm also getting to do a little consulting for a railroading friend of mine. This will be a fun way to pass the time as we continue our progress on our real estate empire!

Week 6 - Real Estate Investing - May 21 - 27, 2018

Awesome week #6 of self-employment. Took the boys to the driving range, went golfing, went to a car show (actually, I'm not sure if it's a car show or a garage show; either works for me), played baseball, went mountain biking, and got approval on our construction loan for Hudson. 
I'm still working through the options for the loans but that's better than not having any options at all. Our construction crews are back at it on Building 4. Got an interior wall or two up do our electricians can get going next week. We will have our first renters move in by Friday next week. Hurray!
With that, we also got all of our estimates for Building 5 together (finally) so we can get the funding for that building going, and therefore construction. B5 will be heated so we want to make sure we can get that up prior to winter. That is our "busy season" for the heated units, naturally. We are building mostly 25x50 units because they seem to be the most requested. I guess we could always pull out a wall if someone wanted a 50x50 but we'll have one of those at least.
On Hudson, we got our site plan approved by the planning commission for the township so that's a great first step. We.are hoping that we can get too g on the grading work by Aug 1. That would be ideal. Maybe even sooner but that seems to be wishful thinking!
Lots of stuff happening. Can't wait for next week to finally get renters in B4. I think they would say the same thing....

Week 5 - Real Estate Investing - May 14 - 20, 2018

Week 5: we finally got concrete in Building 4. It was a long time coming. The finish looks awesome. Probably the best yet. This will allow us to get interior walls and doors in next week. Then electrical the following week so we can get our tenants a place to call home. We have 4 tenants (out of 7 total units) for the new building already. This is by far our best start to a building. We will be starting Building 5 sooner than thought.

The rest of week 5 was rounded out with chasing down last minute items, paperwork, rent checks, etc for the sale of our Mini Storage in Prescott. It was a good little property but we decided to sell to roll the proceeds into bigger projects (namely the new Hudson property).

Free time was spent tracking down a truck for day to day use for the business. The funny thing is that we haven't been able to cut the lawn because the lawnmower was at the warehouse and we didn't have a way to get it to the house. The Camaro's towing capacity isnt ul to the task. Anyhow, problem solved! Yay!

More fun stuff coming soon!

Week 4 of Real Estate Investing full time - May 7 - 14th, 2018

Week 4 is in the books. I'm officially sticking with the plan. I wasn't worried but I was worried that eventually I'd have an issue with deal flow (i.e. new projects coming across my desk) seeing that we will have little capital to invest in order to give ourselves a buffer. That's when 6 new properties landed on the front porch.

I had a meeting with some lending folks and another random call to a realtor friend of mine and it turns out there are people with land looking for help to monetize or develop them. I think I'm their man. The next question I have is, can I do it all myself? Good question and good problem to have at this point. Now, with this said, they aren't all going to pan out, but if I can get one to pan out, it's a very productive week.

The rest of the week was filled with meetings and conversations and paperwork for banks. A bit less fun but I do like playing with spreadsheets so I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Week 3 - Self Employment - April 30 - May 6, 2018

Week 3:

Week 3 of self-employment: it was a short week due to a previously planned vacation. The thought of the week was sell everything hiding in the closet. It was actually kind of fun. I sold a porsche mirror I got thrown in on a other deal for $160. Not bad. That and auctioning off some mini-storage units about a month ago gave us some spending cash for the vacation.
I did attend a real estate meetup on Monday night. I found this group on Meetup.com. These groups are really cool. I've met potential investing partners, swapped investing info and helped newbies along on their journey. Very rewarding all around. I'd recommend it for anyone looking to find a group that likes the same stuff you do. It gives me energy each time I attend these events.

I also updated out ad for Houlton before leaving on vacation. I got scolded for that but I didn't want to let a week go by without getting the ad to the top of the listings. I was punished with lots of calls but rewarded with a new tenant and possibly 2 more on the way.

We had a break in at our mini in Prescott. Got a 3 am call from the police (no, I didn't answer). It turned out they found the meth-head and got our renter's things back. I'm glad for that but our poor tenant has to move units and we have to replace a latch. Annoying.

With that we are continuing to have plans drawn up for the Hudson property and working on progress in Houlton. I also got a good call while hanging out on vacation from the bank. It looks like we are going to be able to get going on building 5 in Houlton sooner than expected. Our original plan was to finish up B4 and close out the loan before getting started on B5. Now we'll be able to extend our current loan one more time to include B5. That means they start of that building is about 2 months out rather than 4 months. Yippee. That means Angie will be cranking away getting the necessary paperwork out the door. Slow and steady....

Bye for now.

Week 2 of Self Employment - Real Estate Investing

Week 2:

Week #2 of self-employment is in the books. Another exciting week. We closed on our property in Hudson, WI. We will be developing this into large storage units 18' x 40' for boats, and RVs and other big stuff. We will have big driving areas for backing trailers into the units and big doors to aim at. Engineering survey next week and then rock and roll. Hope to break ground Aug 1st. I'm cautiously optimistic on that timeline.

We also got better news that banks are suddenly excited to lend us money for the construction. Project. Not sure why such a change of heart since last week but I'm not complaining.

I evaluated a couple other properties and businesses but nothing checked all the boxes. I do have a property I'm interested in but will definitely need partners for that one. I'll report back soon.

We still have our health and our house so things are still going according to plans. Next month we will be selling our mini storage so we'll be able to pad our emergency fund. Until I find another property, according to Angie.

Week 1 of self employment - April 16 - 22nd, 2018

I thought might experiences with self-employment might help others so I'm going to be posting my weekly business updates here too.  It might get you thinking of other questions.  Feel free to message me with questions if something is either not clear or fully elaborated.  I'd be happy to tell you what has or hasn't worked for me.  It might also be worthy of a future blog post. 

Week 1:

Week one being self-employed is in the books. Ironically, it felt very similar to the week prior. Lots of action. We found out our closing date for the Hudson property (April 26th) which is exciting. I'll finally get an office to work out of. Equally exciting (not in a good way) is the bank is balking at loaning us the money for the construction due to not having a job. Imagine that. I may be looking for investors with a day job. They consider that more important than track record - which I understand.

Next, my truck isn't running we'll so we are going to need another vehicle. We knew this was coming, just not this quickly. I sense Angie is secretly happy about this. I'll get that stinky, noisy Diesel out if the garage. We decided we are going to wait to sell our property in Prescott before we pull the trigger. Not to mention with how busy things were, we didn't want to settle. So in the meantime I am renting a truck until Weds next week so I can clean out the mini storage in Prescott for the sale. Then I'll be getting the camaro out of hibernation until I can get a permanent daily driver. It does feel somewhat ironic that we have 3 vehicles and I'm renting something to drive. Judge me if you must....

Otherwise Houlton Building #4 is at a standstill with road restrictions, frost, and melting snow keeping things on the shelf. Our grading guys should be back there on Tuesday to doll things up and get it ready to pour the concrete floors and center beam footings for the structural walls.

The survey and engineering is pushing along for the Hudson property while we wait on financing. It'll go no matter what (I may be knocking on your door looking for handouts) so i want to be ready day 1 when that big loan is in place. We are also working with our contractors and suppliers to dial in our numbers for grading, concrete, and building construction.

See ya next week. I'll get to post some pics of the new building and rest of the property once we take possession.