Life of an Investor

It’s official - We own investment property

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.

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It’s official - We own investment property

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