I tripped over this site yesterday and just wanted to say WOW!.
I read posts and listened to some audio phone seminars for about 8 hours yesterday. Like a good book I couldn’t put it down. Thank you to all that take time to contribute.
A little background about myself: I’m 45 married and live in the NE.
I have a pretty good paying job (sales) which allows a lot of free time but the few hours I have to work each week really ____! I know I know, I shouldn’t complain.
A few months ago I made the decision to do something constructive with this time. Take a serious look at REI.
Actually as a byproduct of my actions 2 years ago, I guess I’ve already started.
2 years ago my wife and I tore up our mortgage on our primary residence. Feeling that I needed to do something, I started looking for a second home/vacation spot. After looking for a year or two I found a fixer upper on a beautiful piece of waterfront property. It was a REAL dump. I could have bulldozed it but I didn’t. I could fix a house on weekends and free time but I couldn’t build a new one by myself.
I’m a jack of all trades person (master of 1 or 2) Anyway, we took out a HEL against our primary residence for the purchase price + fix up costs, bought the property, fixed it up with about $150k total investment. Someone offered $350k (through a RE agent friend) a few weeks ago, but it’s not for sale. Total expenses for the year are
$14k to keep the place open. I rent it out for $1000/weekend (cyberrentals.com) which covers most of my expenses at present and our family uses it every weekend that it isn’t rented.
The way that rental interest is increasing I should have +cash flow next year, which wasn’t my initial goal when I bought it, but now that I am learning about REI, hey, why not get the most out of it, both $$ wise and pleasure.
We’ve since bought (with HELOC money) 40 beautiful acres outside of town for 1/3 of MV to build our dream home. I plan on subdividing 1/3 and selling it to reduce our land cost by 2/3. When we move we plan on renting our primary residence with an after expenses income of $2000/month. It is in a count seat 4 blocks from the courthouse, 6 blocks from the train to NYC.
Rehabbing interests me because of my interest in fixing up houses.
I totally rehabbed my primary residence 17 years ago, had my own handyman business, fixed the second home up recently and saw the success in that.
I would really like to quit my real job in 2 years but we will see how it goes. Reading this site, I have a lot to learn besides getting through the 2 Guru courses that I bought, and the RE licensing course I just took.
If my education and time allows, I would like to buy another rehab this year, see how it goes as an investment and decide my future then.
Thanks again for all that contribute here.
Jon