Life of an Investor » 2008

Archive for November, 2008

The work continues

Friday, November 21st, 2008

It has now been a couple of weeks since we got the property that we’re currently working on. It’s been a lot of hard work, but I think it will all be worthwhile. One of the units is almost completely ready and we will be meeting with a new management company on Monday to go over terms and have them take a look at our units to determine a rental price. We are at various stages of completion with the rest of the units, but our first goal is to get one marketed so that we can hopefully start getting some interest and people viewing the property.

We are also working on the front of the building and entryway so that the building as a whole is presentable when people come to see it. I took about a week off of my primary work to go to the house, but that time is now gone and there is plenty more to do. I have tried to not let this affect my home life too much, but I have a feeling that I will be spending some of this holiday season working my secondary job.

On a personal note, I’m taking some time this weekend to go to a Chiefs game with some friends. Although they’ve only won one regular season game, at least we’re playing a team who has only won half of theirs. It may be a good game. The Chiefs have been showing “potential” after all. ESPN shows them only to be a .8 point underdog.

On another personal note, I just found out yesterday that my business partner’s wife is 11 weeks pregnant with their first child. Congratulations. Now you can also know the joys of working 2 jobs as well as managing a family. I just hope that pesky kid doesn’t take away from your time to build our business…

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It’s official - We own investment property

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

As of last Tuesday, it’s official. We are now the proud owners of a four-unit apartment building in Kansas City, MO. There are obviously a lot of details to work out now, including all of the business aspects as well as just getting the property prepared and rented out.

Due to the current financial environment, we were required to put a 25% down payment on the property. We also built into the mortgage $4,500 worth of repairs, plus we have reserved about $5,000 cash for other repairs. That’s a lot of cash out of our pockets, so we have to make this work. The first step is just getting it ready, which after a week, we’re doing pretty well, but still have quite a bit to go. We need to start getting the property advertised as soon as one unit is renovated. I thought we had a management company locked in, but due to some failed negotiations (you can read more about that in the comments of this article on Chris Lengquist’s site), we are still searching.

We are getting close to done with the interior painting and carpet removal, and we are in the process of renovating each kitchen (painted cabinets, new laminate flooring and a good cleaning). In a couple of weeks, we will have new carpet installed and should be pretty close to having people start moving in. Know anyone who wants to move in December?

I know that it can sometimes be difficult to work with city governments and utilities but I had no idea. I spent more than an hour on the phone having utilities put in my name. Apparently they have to manually type all of my information into each account for the 4 units plus the common area. Then I tried out KC’s new 3-1-1 service. In theory it’s great, call one number to take care of all your city services. In reality, it’s a pain. All it does is create a layer between you and the actual company providing the service. After numerous calls and two weeks of waiting just to get my trash picked up, I finally gave up and just called Deffenbaugh directly. Now I’m waiting for a call back from a supervisor… wish me luck.

So, as you can see, all in all, it’s been a stressful week for me. By the way, did I mention that I have a full time job too? Although stressful, I am confident that it will pay off in the end. Hopefully in a few months, I’ll be laughing about this as I’m depositing the monthly rent checks.