Real Estate Education

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

A semi-annoying ad followed me through Facebook for the last week or two. It had a picture of Christina from Flip or Flop on HGTV. After signing up for my real estate license classes earlier this week, I signed up to attend a free seminar. I knew that there would be a “catch” or that they would try to sell me something, but I thought I might learn something about flipping houses. So I went. And they did try to get me to sign up for their 3-day class for close to $2,000. They have a company called Success Path. The main benefits, in my opinion, for paying to do the 3-day class were 1) gaining knowledge about a wide range of real estate opportunities and 2) having access to their “preferred lenders” that allegedly will give you up to $500,000 per flip without a credit check.

As I continue to pay for my law degree (a.k.a my student loans), I see the value in spending a few bucks, instead of tens of thousands, on education in a new field. The travel agent class was super cheap; I got my TEFL certification with a Groupon; and I should be able to get my real estate license for less than $1,000. All of these are a minuscule investment compared to a total of eight years of college. And, I’m in the position that, even if I don’t ever make any money from these endeavors, the investment hasn’t hurt our bottom line.

There were quite a few people that signed up for the 3-day class (due to the deep-discount to sign up that day, as opposed to waiting), but there were also a lot of people that didn’t. I do feel that it was worth my time, even though it was basically an extended sales pitch, in that I learned some new things, including that: 1) REO’s (bank-owned properties) are generally great for flips; 2) they believe Central Ohio is in position for a big run-up in real estate prices in the next 3-5 years; 3) adding a rehab-estimate clause as a contingency in an offer is essential for a flip, and; 4) their system teaches never to flip a house unless you’ll clear at least 20% or $20,000, whichever is greater.

One of the factors they stressed, that I firmly believe in, is having Multiple Streams of Income (MSI’s). Part of the 3-day class is to teach basic principles of investing in rental properties. One of the disappointing parts of the seminar for me is that they never once mentioned taxes. While giving examples of the profit on flips, they never cautioned us about how much of it won’t actually make it into our pockets. I know I overly obsess about the issue of taxes, but it is a reality, and it can have a significant impact on the bottom line.

Can I claim that this was a life-altering experience? Absolutely not. But, maybe it was for someone else that attended the seminar. Maybe they are starting their own journey to financial independence.

Musings

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

I’m over this weather. Done. Just done. The freeze/thaw cycles froze (and then thawed) our downspouts and Mr. PFL and I got creative trying to keep the basement from flooding. A tarp, a plastic lid and a mixing bowl are the main ingredients of our temporary fixes.

As part of that adventure, I wore my Ugg snow boots that I bought on sale last spring. Even after standing in water almost up to my ankle, my feet stayed dry. I was very impressed. While my first choice is for the weather to be so nice I don’t need to wear boots, I’m really glad I have these in my closet.

Mr. PFL has gotten me into listening to podcasts. I listen to talk radio a lot when I drive during the day, so I hear some of the podcast stories that way, but I only recently started downloading and listening to podcasts when I walk. Yesterday, I listened to the best one yet. It was a TED Radio Hour podcast on Success. I appreciated that so many ideas and theories about success were verbalized and explored. It reminded me that I am in control of my success.

As a testament to my success, I finished my TEFL course today and have my certificate.

Finally, I have at least three more showings lined up for the two vacant units. I hope it doesn’t start snowing until after I get home tonight. I’m not counting on it. Stupid snow.

Post-Hawaii Update

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Where to start? Mr. PFL and I came home a day early from our vacation (we were supposed to be back Tuesday, but arrived home Monday night instead, cutting out one day in San Diego) and we (or at least I) am still feeling jet-lagged and off-schedule. The jet-lag and the ridiculousness of Hawaii roads are really the only negatives I have to report about the trip. Hawaii was as amazing as I had hoped.

Condo Update: So, just before we left, I signed a contract with a handyman service for our rental properties. The day before we got home, while we were hanging out with Mr. PFL’s college roommate in San Diego, the furnace broke, again. I advised the tenants to contact the handyman service; they did; he provided a temporary fix and emailed me for permission to get the new part (the same fan broke in the same way, again!); I told him not to since it was under warranty; and I got the invoice yesterday where they charged me $0 for the service call. Wow! We also now have a brand-new furnace as of yesterday for $2,500. I left the tenants a couple of bottles of wine and a thank you note; hopefully they will forget this ever happened and will live there forever…

Duplex Update: After a ridiculous amount of drama over the past couple of months, the duplex that we are selling on a land contract basis seems to have stabilized again. I nearly fainted when the purchaser actually showed up at my office with a money order like she promised. Hopefully she will get caught up over the next few months and everything will be okay. I also just received confirmation yesterday that my application to buy the vacant lot next door has been approved by the City. We will be getting it for the low, low price of $705 (yes, seven hundred and five dollars) plus $100 processing fee.

BD 6-Unit Update: Unfortunately, between the holidays, the weather, and all of the traveling we have done in the last six weeks, I haven’t cleaned and listed the empty unit yet. I also received an email from one of the other tenants a couple of days ago telling me that she will be moving out on the 26th. I was getting ready to evict her, anyway, because she was so behind in her rent, so this was actually a blessing and saves us both a lot of trouble. So, I’ll have two 2-bedrooms ready to list next week (I hope!). I also need to reach out to the two 1-bedroom units to see if they want to upgrade to a 2-bedroom, sign a new one-year lease, go month-to-month, or move-out. I had a lot better luck renting the 1-bedrooms, so I’m hoping one or both will consider upgrading.

TEFL Update: I haven’t done any courses since before the holidays. Mr. PFL is nearly done.

Travel Agency Update: Right around Christmas, I had a group planned. Then it fell through. Bummer. And a lot of work for nothing, except experience. I am working on a couple other projects now, though, and I should get some commissions from our trip to Hawaii (hotel, rental car).

Real-Job Update: Ugh. We still have them. As I told Mr. PFL when he was getting anxious to come home: I’m not looking forward to dealing with difficult people and therefore I don’t want to go home. It would be amazing to live in a world where nobody needed a lawyer; I’ll settle for living in a world where I don’t have to be a lawyer anymore.

Life-Plan Update: I want to have a small coffee farm near Kona on the Big Island, Hawaii. I know this sounds totally insane, but it is actually a practical possibility. Mr. PFL and I have been doing some research since we got back, and it just might work. I’ll share more about this soon.

For now, I need to get to work on some lawyering and travel planning.

Let me just leave you with this picture of sea turtles. Aloha!

 

Entrepreneurship

by ⋅ 2 Comments

I imagine most sane people aren’t trying to run three small businesses at once, and adding blogging and learning to teach English as a Second Language on top of it. I am, though. I have my law firm, my travel agency, and our rental property business. At least that marathon is over and I can walk almost normally again. I have been sleeping extremely well this week, too, mostly due to exhaustion.

Entrepreneurship is a blessing and a curse. It is liberating to have total control over my work-product, but that requires that I produce. I also have the ability to schedule any time off that I want, but I can’t expect to make any money (PTO=fantasy) if I’m not working and I also need to be available or have someone ready to cover for me. While I can also technically set any hours that I want, demands are always placed on my time and schedule by clients and the court. Working on the rental properties can quickly kill an entire weekend. There really aren’t any true “days off.” It is impossible to “leave it at the office” when the office primarily resides in my computer and my brain, which are both always with me. Besides Uncle Sam, I don’t need to share any of my profits, although he might take more than his fair share.

After being in control for so long, it is going to be difficult to find someone I trust to manage the rental property business when we move on. The rental property business is the linchpin to our ability to be paycheck-free, so the importance of this decision cannot be overstated. I’m getting used to the idea that I won’t be a full-time lawyer for much longer and I’m glad. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to sell my practice to some young, aspiring attorney. The stress of dealing with everyone else’s problems isn’t something that I will miss. I also won’t miss clients deciding not to pay their legal bills - you wouldn’t believe me if I told you how often this happens.

I’d like to devote more time to building my travel agency business. I simply don’t know where to fit it in right now. Work continually ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows, so I’m confident that the time will materialize soon. At least I’m following my own best advice about starting a new business and keeping my overhead low (write that down - it is a good one). Right now, though, I better get back to work. I think I’ll start with the pile on the left…

Big Week

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

My first and only marathon is on Sunday. I have under-anticipated how distracting this would be for the week. It started this past Sunday when I saw the course arrows painted on a couple roads while I was out running errands. Since then, I’ve pretty much had a nervous stomach. The weather should be good for running on Sunday; it just can’t get here soon enough.

Last night, I finalized my first real sale as a travel agent. My client already gave me a shout-out on Facebook this morning. I’m excited for my client and for myself. I hope this will turn into some leads and new clients. I still have so much to learn, though, and I still need business cards! I also need to get access to many websites and booking engines, which is time-consuming, but necessary.

Mr. PFL also generated his first blog post yesterday, which is pretty exciting. I know he’s been working hard and has so much information that he wants to share.

Finally, I’d like to get started on my TEFL training since I have a light court schedule this week. Guess I better pick something and get to work.

 

Making Progress

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

I’m on hold. It has been five minutes and forty-seven seconds so far. Just before I started this call, I finally talked to a live person and set up a couple of appointments. I had left a message on Monday morning, but never received a return call. I tried calling several more times, but no one answered.

Oh, hooray! Just left a message.

Mr. PFL signed up to start his TEFL classes yesterday. I need to get started, too. I made homemade pumpkin pie with a real pumpkin and crust from scratch instead of starting my TEFL training. The pie, by the way, is delicious.

I’m trying to get motivated to jog a half-marathon this afternoon. This is the last long run I need to complete before the full marathon on the 19th. I’ve come so far, and jogged so many miles, that I can’t stop now. Mind over matter.

Some travel plans have been squared away in the last couple days. In addition to a couple of mini-vacations, I’m heading to Florida for a conference next week for travel agents. I started a home-based travel agency this year and use a hosting service. The hosting service holds a yearly convention to provide a multitude of training opportunities. I’m scheduled to complete a ship inspection on a cruise ship and see fireworks at Walt Disney World along with sitting in classrooms for about eight hours every day. I believe that I will gain the confidence I need to start aggressively marketing my travel agency to friends and family after I return.

Great news! I just confirmed a goalie for our game tomorrow night. If I only had a list, I’d have a lot to check off today!

Oh, Groupon

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Mr. PFL and I are now proud owners of the ability to become TEFL-accredited thanks to the power of Groupon. For the low, low price of $39/each, we can complete 150 hours of online coursework, receive a certificate, and then be eligible for job placement assistance to Teach English as a Foreign Language. I am skeptical, to say the least, but having the possibility to teach English in my back pocket is worth a $39 investment. I’ve definitely wasted $39 on worse things, which is comforting in case this does turn out to be too good to be true. (This was a 92% discount.)

While I was at it, I also picked up a Groupon for 5 medium blizzards for $10 at Dairy Queen. (This was only a 54% discount.) A blizzard for every 30 hours of studying sounds delicious.

Now that I think about it, I almost made all $39 back today when Southwest was kind enough to reimburse me for the changes I made for our ill-fated Sunday flights. I only asked for the $61/each back that I paid to change our flights before they liberalized the change rules (they basically had no idea how bad this Aurora fire was going to mess with their schedule), but, for whatever reason, the Southwest agent wasn’t able to parse out just that transaction, and so she is reimbursing the entire unused portion of those tickets, which was about $94/each. (I had already used the other portion to book some flights.) That’s about $33 I wasn’t expecting. So, really, I’m only spending $6/person on TEFL. Thanks, Groupon!