Weekend Happenings

My Objective
After compiling a shortened list of properties from the 350+ my RE agent has given me all week, I decided to go out and look at eight of them. The houses were scattered pretty much all over my farm area, so it took us a good two hours to look at all of them. From the eight we say, only two were private residences - the other six were HUD/VA homes. I'm not yet comfortable dealing with government-controlled properties, mainly because they expect $1,000 for earnest money upfront, and the remainder if you are the winning bidder. While I have access to sizeable cash via my 401k and a HELOC, if necessary, I am hesitant on using it all for a single deal - especially my first. That is why I want to stick with non-government-controlled properties for now.

A Nice Surprise
After telling my wife on Friday what I planned to do on Saturday, she asked if she could come along. While I wasn't shocked, I was a bit surprised she was willing to take a big step in supporting my REI venture. After the property search was over, I could tell she wasn't 100% enthused about the ordeal, but it was a small achievement for me nonetheless. I just keep wishing she had the same excitement as I do, since she has much more time than I to get a lot of things done regarding REI. While I'm working, she could be compiling a list of homes, farming the neighborhoods, making phone calls, handling the paperwork, and so on. As it is, I have to do all those things with the 1-2 hours each weeknight, and a few more hours on the weekend.

Summary of Properties
As I said earlier, 75% of the properties I visited were government-controlled. Of the two that weren't, neither seemed like an ideal candidate (i.e., they were both nice looking, weel kept, no appearance of needing rehab, etc.) - but one never knows. I was planning to submit offers on a total of 18 to my RE agent, but have drastically scaled that back after some more thought. The reason being is I found myself chasing houses instead of owners. Also, I don't want to overwhelm my RE agent with a lot of properties that will probably not amount to anything.