Starting October 1st, Kathy and I are going to go through a major shift in our finances…..we are going on a major budget to pay off of debt. Speaking of which, did you read this post by Shae that will help you get out of the rat race? Shae is the one who helped me with the actions that Kathy and I will be taking come October 1st. (P.S. Shae, I hope it was ok to say that lol)

My thinking for selling goes like this: Do I want to have a crap load of debt and collect $300 a month positive cashflow from this place? or Do I want to sell it and get rid of 1 huge debt and possibly another big one? And then work on bigger and better streams of positive cashflow? (Btw, that $300 goes right out the window when you have to evict a tenant 1 time.)

So the jury is still out with the rental property. But funny story, last night Kathy and I went to fill the strip club. Well it was Race Weekend and the place was PACKED. And I mean PACKED! There were guys all over the place and security guards all over the place. Some guy stopped us walking in and asked “Have you been in there?” And I said “Tonight? No. Why?” And he says “two women unattended…it’s probably not safe.” I lol’d and said “we come here all the time, we’ll be fine.” I should have said “I know the owners, all the girls, the manager and the tallest, badest security guard in there.” But I didn’t….

Now this was the first time we went there where there were more security guards there than their normal guy. The first security guard stopped us to try to make us pay, until the BIG GUY that we know pushed him away and said “they’re the atm people, let them go.”

Then we walked right over to the atm, right passed a gigantic security guard (one who was never there before.) We noticed the machine was unplugged (i.e. it was out of money so the owners unplugged it.) Well Kathy leaned down to plug it back in and little did we know but the gigantic security guard was following us and at this point he went for Kathy (it seemed) and said “leave it plugged in.”

Well all I could do was react, thinking this big guy was going to grab her or something, and I stepped in and put my hand around his HUGE arm (ladies and gentlemen I couldn’t even get my entire hand around his arm lol) and I squeezed realllll hard and said “BACK UP…it’s our machine.” Kathy looked at me and looked at him and he just said ok and backed up and went back to his station lol

After that split second I thought to myself “holy shit his arms were huge and he could have crushed me like a bug!” But of course, we don’t think of that stuff when we’re trying to protect our loved ones do we? Anyway, as we walked out the security guard came up to me and said “sorry about that.” I told him no problem.

Then Kathy and I thought and said to each other “hey, at least they are watching our machine!” lmao So I have to say that once again, I’m happy to be alive and so glad that mr. bad ass security guard didn’t crush me like a bug. hehehe

Kathy and I went and saw that 4 unit that I seen already….we will be making an offer on that cock-roach infested place tomorrow. If it gets accepted…the private money hunt will be on. We’re actually going to be making like a $35k offer, I’m thinking…place needs some work tho….plus 3 tenants aren’t paying so we’re going to have to account for evicting them and only getting 1 months rent while we work on the places to get better tenants in. Wish us luck!

Well I read the paper again and found another gentleman who was willing to hold some financing. Sooo in the past week I’ve looked at 4 multi-unit properties. A duplex, a triplex, a quad and a 6-unit.

The 4-unit I really liked. Keep in mind that the duplex, triplex and quad were all owned by an Amish gentleman.

I gotta tell you that I pulled up to the property and I was looking for his

I mean there wasn’t any transportation near the property and you definitely needed it to get there (of course I was assuming he lived on a farm or something.) I even asked him “how did you get here?” He said his “assistant” lives around the corner and dropped him off.

I gotta tell you folks he was filthy. I mean his hands were nasty….soo dirty. And folks will tell you well it’s because the Amish are hard workers and you know what I’m not going to deny that they are hard workers on the farm, but he definitely is not a hard worker when it comes to his rental properties. They had TONS of deferred maintenance. Don’t get me wrong he was the nicest man….really nice, calm, well-mannered, etc. but when he asked me for a ride to his other properties I kinda didn’t want to give it to him because he smelled reallllly bad. I’m not even kidding. But I gave him a ride.

So I have to do the numbers on his triplex and quad, cuz I’m not interested in the duplex. Then today I looked at a 6 unit. Veryyyy well kept property in an area that is completely new to me (actually so was the Amish dudes properties.) The 6 unit is the guy willing to hold some financing. He claims he has someone else interested in it as well…but as we all know, “being interested” and making and offer and actually going to settlement are 2 different things, right?

I’m going to do the numbers and make him an offer too. Where will we get the money for any of these properties? Hey…maybe a private money lender who wants to earn a decent rate of return on their investment. Ever since I got private money for my last 2 atms (which are doing very well, by the way) I’ve been casually talking to folks about private money.

On to my current rental property….tomorrow I will be posting a Demand for Rent notice on the property and I’m 99.99999% sure I’m evicting this tenant this month. I’m not even going to tell you his excuses because I really didn’t listen as I didn’t care. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very nice landlord, but I’m very firm as well. And I stick to my guns and start the process when you don’t pay (and especially when you don’t call and give me a heads up as to why you haven’t paid…not that I care to hear your excuse, but it’s just a courtesy thang with me I guess……ya know?)

Anyway, I really like these tenants and apparently the hubby is asking if his dad will bail him out (mind you, the tenant is a grown man, in his late 40′s or early 50′s.) I told him that if his dad or brother bails him out this time that I would be willing to sit down with him and his wife and go over their finances with them and help them come up with a budget. Basically, the guy has a spending problem….he buys crap and then has no money for the bills.

Btw, he called me and said “Thank God I got your message before Maggie.” His wife has no idea what’s going on with their finances…he started whispering to me and said “I gotta go outside, Mags just got home.” Soooo, I told him that he needs to tell his wife what is going on and that she perhaps may even be the better person to handle the finances since he can’t do it…..I said she’s gonna know tomorrow when I put your notice on the door.

Soooo I hope that his dad can bail them out and I hope that they “fix” themselves but I’m fairly confident it’s not going to happen. I was chatting with my father tonite and he said “don’t worry, you won’t have any problem renting that place in this market.” Sooo I hope he’s right because I just did my personal budget with Kathy and paying my rental property mortgage is NOT in the budget lol

More on that in my next post. Btw, my hours are changing at the BMW job. I just asked the General Manager if I could work 9 to 6 on my early days and 10 to 7 on my late days. Reason being is that school started and I need to be here in the morning to get Joe off to school when Kathy is traveling, plus I want to get home at a relatively decent time to go over his homework with him and get him to bed at a decent time. The GM was fine with it.

P.S. I’m doing ok with my diet and exercise routine. Well I don’t want to call it a diet, it’s more of a lifestyle change where I start eating better………and I’m doing better on that aspect moreso than the exercise routine, but it’s cuz I’ve been so tired from working my tail off (work work and then atm’s.) This week will be better hopefully.

P.P.S. And yes, I’ve been losing weight. hehehehe

Friday we both helped Brandon move out of the house and move into his new home….Immaculata University. Every other week now Kathy and I will be all alone at the house (unless she’s traveling for work of course.) As you know, Joe is at is dad’s one week and our house 1 week…..so we’ll have him every other week at least.

I gotta tell you guys…I was really excited that Brandon was moving out. Him and I haven’t been seeing eye to eye lately….I won’t get into why, but his last week here in the house I was really impressed with all of his initiative that he took and I think he found a new maturity and sense of responsibility that last week. (I think a part of him was doing it to say to his mom “I’ll be ok, don’t worry about me.”)

Anyway, I gotta tell you….Kathy is away now and I’m home with the kitty cats and it is Q-U-I-E-T around here. I mean seriously. It’s crazy….I mean Brandon and I may not have gotten along a lot lately but darn at least we were both here to talk to one another lol This is definitely gonna take some getting use to for sure. He stopped by today and I was all excited to see him lmao He didn’t stay long tho but that’s ok….he’s having fun. He starts school tomorrow.

Oh and on a Joe note….I drove Joe and Kathy to the airport Friday nite and I kept saying how I was tired. Joe was psyched to get on a plane (he’s 10, remember?) Anyway, Saturday morning Kathy tells me that Joe was worried about me last night (friday when I dropped them off) and I asked her well how do you know he was worried about me?

Kathy said Joe just started crying and Kathy’s looking at him like wtf? lol And she asked him what was wrong and he said “I’m worried about Carey. I”m worried about her driving home, she said she was tired. And I wanted her to come with us.” So Kathy told him not to worry that I’d be ok and that she told me to text her when I got home. He said “ok, well make sure you let me know when she texts you she’s home.” lol Cute kid, huh?

Ok now on to the Motivated Multi-Family Seller…..when I get to work I’m there an hour before the sales guys get there so I read all of the papers that we have delivered to us. Well I found an ad where a few places were listed for sale. I called and they have single family houses and smaller multi’s for sale….duplexes up to a quad.

Anyway, I got an appointment to check out 3 of his buildings tomorrow after work. Hey maybe we’ll have another “What would YOU Do” post.

On the eating and drinking end…..I just made a smoothie with Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Banana, Grapes, Blueberries, Raspberries and Almond Milk in it….and let me tell you it looked like shit, but it tasted absolutely AMAZING. Yummmmmmmy.

Blade ended up spending 6 nights and 7 days in the ER Vet. He was getting IV fluids and IV nutrients, along with antibiotics, pain meds, pepcid, etc. etc. He’s been home since Monday afternoon and he’s doing wonderful. (Below is Blade chilling in a baby crib lol pre-ER visit.)

He’s drinking water like a champ, he’s eating wayyyyyyyyyyy better now (for the most part he eats the “required amount” a day, even tho he still won’t eat his wet food yet. Grrrrr! But hey, I’ll take what I can get, ya know?) And he’s already “chasing” birds through the deck window lol

At this moment he’s laying next to me purring up a storm. (that’s definite music to my ears.) I try to sleep at least 2 days a week with him (we have 4 cats and he has to be separated from the others cuz Mr. Bladeypants is actually a bully lol) So 2 nights I sleep with him and let the other kittys chill.

So now that Blade is home safe and sound and he’s working towards 100% and I’m not working all day or all night and then traveling back and forth to the ER vet to visit my baby (and yes, I went to see him every day or night after work to spend time with him and to check on him. Sometimes I had to try to see if he’d eat for me cuz he wouldn’t eat for the vet and other times it was well that’s what we parents do….whether you got real kids or furry kids, you know!) And on Saturday and Sunday I’d go twice to see him! Needless to say the week he was in the hospital I was worthless as I was B-E-A-T.

Now it’s back into high gear. I’m getting use to the work schedule again and we’re gonna make it happen….soon. I feel it.

Oh and on an atm note….we just got a cash only ice cream place tell us they want a machine in both of their locations (one of the locations is near that slamming cash only restaurant we have in a college town. Actually, the owner of that store referred this ice cream store guy…they are good friends.) So Kathy and I are putting our heads together to try to figure out how in the hell we are gonna pay for not just one but two Atm’s!!!

Uhhh remember I was saying I’m gonna have to wholesale a house to pay Blade’s vet bill? Well maybe I’ll have to wholesale 2 houses so I can pay Blade’s bill and buy 2 atm’s! lol

Besides that I made 2 promises. 1 to Blade when I was driving him to the vet the Tuesday night I took him to the ER and I told him that I’d get on the ball so I can be home most of the time and therefore I would have been able to know sooner that there was something wrong with him (as I didn’t get home until 10pm that evening) and then of course also, so I could spend all day hanging and playing with him and the other kitty’s.

And then I made a promise to Joe. He was upset one morning because I had to take him to the neighbors house so she could watch him and he wanted to know why he had to go. Unfortunately, I had to tell the kid that I had to go to work to take care of some things right now but that his mom and I are working on building passive income so neither one of us has to work and he can always stay here instead of going to a babysitters. He was thrilled…so he made me promise that we’d work real hard at buying apartment buildings so he wouldn’t have to go to the neighbors so much. (And Joe is actively looking for a location to put an atm that HE wants to partner with his mom and I on.)

So….if I was serious before, well I’m more serious now…I made a big promise to one of my cats (well all of them in a sense) and to a 10 yr. old. That’s serious stuff folks…can’t let them down!

This week I’m gonna start analyzing some deals that have been in my inbox for a few weeks now. And making some more calls to brokers and management companies. Plus, I’m going to try to get in touch with a friend from high schools father, who has $$$$ and try to set up an appointment with him next month. Things are looking up and I’m feeling good about my situation.

I love that saying that Dave Lindahl says that I’m sure he got from someone else but it goes like this:

I think I’m gonna print that out and hang it on my bathroom mirror (I’m sure Kathy will be thrilled to read that every morning hehehehe)

Btw, thanks again for all of the support with Blade. I, well we, really appreciated it. When one of my kids is sick the world pretty much stops for me. I’m a big worry wart and I’m not right until they are home and doing well. Blade is doing wonderfully. He’s on 3 meds right now; an antibiotic, pepcid and another antibiotic but 2 of his meds are almost done……and trust me, we BOTH can’t wait for that day. Medicine time is the worst part of the day for both Blade and I lol If you have pets, especially cats, and have had to give them a couple of medicines well then I’m sure you can relate lol

Lastly, I got the book “The Power of Focus” by Jack Canfield (affiliate link) as recommended by Shae from Good faith investing in her article “Living Life on My Terms.” I’m super excited to get cracking on that book…so thanks Shae for the good recommendation.

Well folks I’m off to bed as I want to get up bright and early so I can work out, fill an atm and get some reading in and make a couple of calls.

Btw, I’ll be blogging again sooner rather than later………peace out g money’s!

Good thing I’m back on track with my thinking. Working a 40 hour work week for someone else for 2 weeks now sure has a way of bringing out your thinking cap!

Guys and gals I have to tell you that I am more psyched than ever before now. I think I got this “work” pattern down at BMW, my body is now accustomed to getting up early even on my days off and I totally feel better “emotionally” knowing that the bills will get paid. Add to all of that that I do not like working a “normal” job and I’ve got huge motivation written all over me.

I haven’t been this excited since I wrote my freedom post. It’s on like donkey kong now!

Who’s got anymore ideas that I’ve been missing? The last post I made a few days ago Esi and Al made some great comments…..does anyone else have any more thoughts on finding motivated apartment building owners?

Why try to reinvent the wheel right? I mean seriously all of the commercial folks are saying that a wave of commercial foreclosures are going to be coming………..how about getting to them before they reach foreclosure?

I think the 2 ways I mentioned above are good as well as probate deals, but the big time consuming problem that I’m thinking will arise is the fact that I’ll probably have to sift through 99.9% of single family deals to find the apartment building owner deals. Wouldn’t you agree?

I wonder if there is a way to get by that? Are there any other techniques that you commercial guys and gals use to find motivated apartment building owners?

I’ve been doing direct mail, but I’m really just sending out a mass mailing to apartment owners…I’m sure my results would sky rocket if I was sending out a mass mailing to MOTIVATED APARTMENT BUILDING OWNERS!

Soooooo fess up (please) how are YOU finding motivated apartment building owners? (Btw, going to check out some reo’s this weekend that I found on the MLS…there’s another technique. An oldie, but always a goodie!)

Hmmmm let’s see….what have I been doing all week? Basically driving BMW’s. lol And no I’m not kidding.

My favorite so far was this one:

That one above is a convertible 328i. It was pretty hot!

And than drum roll please……I learned to drive a manual on this puppy on Friday:

That one is a 335i. Nothing like learning to drive stick on SOMEBODY ELSE’S BMW, eh? (and in case you’re wondering……I did a pretty good job driving after my learning session (the other guy that got hired with me taught me how to drive stick when we were out for one of our joy rides.)

Now as far as real estate goes…that’s what you really wanna know right? Well I have to tell you that since not working a “normal” job in soooooooooo long (over 4 years) that this week was extremely exhausting. Not only did I start this job this week, but Kathy was away for work in Houston, Tx and we (aka I) had Joe for the week. Luckily our next door neighbor friggin rocks so she helped me out a great deal last week.

The bottom line is that the job is bearable right now BUT overall it’s definitely giving me the motivation that I need to do what I need to do. This week is the start of my new schedule…basically work 2 nights and 3 days (and switch every other Friday and Saturday. So if I work Friday, I have off Saturday and vice versa.) I think I’ll need this week and perhaps next week (hopefully not) to get situated with my schedule and to hopefully not be exhausted when I get home and then I can concentrate on working my real estate in.

I did start re-reading this Dave Lindahl book: Multi-Family Millions: How Anyone Can Reposition Apartments for Big Profits(affiliate link.)

But if any of you folks have ideas on how to find motivated apartment owners, please let me know. I’m going to try to sift through the foreclosure notices and try to get my hands on those that are filing evictions or that get judgments on their behalf but I’m foreseeing some issues already with that…..but I’ll see what I can do. Any other ideas?

You may remember when I went to the Greater Philadelphia Apartment Associations Trade Show a few months back. While there I met a super nice lady who actually hires folks for property management companies. I advised her that I’m looking for a property management company to work with and that I’m actually not a property manager looking for more employees.

Now on to why you should network with property managers:

1) They know the areas. They know and understand which areas most folks are buying in, which area most folks are avoiding and which areas are up and coming. (Think this type of information is valuable?)

2) They know rental values in the area. They know which areas the rents are raising, which area the rents are being lowered, which areas rents are stabilized, etc. (Do you think you’d like to know this type of data when getting into multi-units and perhaps when getting into a new market?)

3) They have good contacts. They know great brokers to work with, they know great attorneys to work with, they know great contractors, and the list goes on and on. They KNOW people that can be important to your business!

4) They know costs. They know how much typical expenses will run for particular types of properties. (More information that would be helpful?)

5) They may send you deals. This is the reason I decided to write this post. I spoke to Mary in great length after receiving her email and we spoke a few times. After building some rapport with Mary I asked her to please let me know if any of her clients are looking to sell or if she hears of anyone that’s looking to sell. She said no problem. Then lo and behold just last week Mary send me an email telling me that this particular property is for sale and that she thought she’d send it to me to take a look at it! How about that folks? Now grant it, that property may not be a great deal, but that’s not the point. The point is Mary thought of me and sent me the information about an apartment building for sale. So if she did it once, don’t you think she’ll do it again the next time she hears of a place for sale? I certainly do. That is huge! I immediately emailed Mary and thanked her. Perhaps I should send her a lil thank you as well……what you think? I think that would be a good idea.

Can you see why one of the key people that you should definitely be networking with are property managers? They could be one of the most useful contacts you make in a day.

I started yesterday morning at 8am. (Woke up at 6am OMG!!!) It was just training….can you say “yawn?” zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Anyway, at about 12:30pm I get a call from BMW telling congrats and they’d like me to come on board starting soon and they’ll email me the details.

hehehe This was the internet sales coordinator job, one of the two jobs that I would have been ok with having (still haven’t even interviewed with BOA yet.) So I get the email, read all of the details about pay, bonuses, commissions, etc. and then call the collection job and tell them I’m not coming back.

Starting on Monday, June 21st I’ll be a new employee of:

And I’m ok with it. Monday I’ll find out my official schedule (as the General Manager wants to sit down with me and the other dude he hired too so we can see if we can work out our schedules amongst one another.) After that, I’m off to the races with working around it and buying a multi-unit.

Soooo is anyone in the market for a new beamer or what? lmao Just kiddin…..well not really!

P.S. Ya think I can find some private money walking in the BMW door? I think that’s possible. I mean if you have $124k to spend on a new 7 series I think you probably have some extra cash to be a private investor for yours truly, right?

I networked yesterday and I didn’t even plan on it! Yesterday, Kathy and I were invited out boating with poker friends. We thought it would just be us and our poker friends, but turns out our poker friends brought some of their other friends. So a bunch of new people we didn’t know.

We had a lot of good potential people to network with, obviously, I didn’t know this when I first met them. After talking to folks or hearing folks talk it turns out we had in our presence:

* a real estate agent who sells million dollar properties
* a director of operations for a big medical equipment company
* a homicide detective
* a couple who own their own lucrative business

and other folks. Can you see some opportunity above? I did. So I started my networking. I spoke with the real estate agent the most. I talked to him about multi-family investing and partnering. He was interested! His significant other is the Dir. of Operations for the medical equipment company…..so I’m thinking that these 2 gentlemen have some money for investing. And they already own sfh rentals, so they understand the basics.

Now as far as the homicide detective…well I don’t know how much they really make? But I do know that she’s got a pretty nice house right on the water (we threw out the anchor out back of her house to swim) and she’s got a boat and a lot of doo-dads, if you will. I haven’t talked to her about investing with us, but I’m thinking if we could get a great deal going with either of the gentlemen or ladies above that she’d express some interest as long as she has some money to invest.

So the next time you have a holiday weekend or are spending time with some friends you haven’t seen in a while, don’t forget to take the opportunity to NETWORK. Because you never know who you will meet.