I tell you, nothing ever goes as planned.
I get home a little late from work due to a meeting that runs over. I expect to get home and find my in-laws there ready to help me get and install the water heater. Instead, my wife tells me her father doesn't think it's the water heater at all, and wants me to call him when I get home. To make a long story short, I ended up wasting about an hour doing various things to test the system so he's satisfied it's the water heater. By now, it's a little after 5:00pm, and we all decide to just do put off the water heater thing until the weekend. Great. So, with a few more hours of sunlight left, I decide to go to the property and finish painting the shelves I started before. My wife says it would be best to not stay too late, so I spend a whopping ONE hour at the property putting another coat of paint on the shelves. After I get done, I turn the water spicket on to clean the paint brush. It slowly starts losing pressure, until finally nothing is coming out. Great. I go to the water meter and notice someone has shut it off and put a lock on it (it's a water company lock). So, now I have to call the water company to find out what is going on. It's after 6:00pm now, so it would have to wait until the next day. I get home, and check my records and see the water company's charges all cleared, so it isn't a money issue. I'm thinking someone's wires got crossed at the water company. So, in the last three days, all I've managed to do is put another coat of paint on the shelves - whoopie! The bright side is my FIL will be coming out to the property the next day to start taping.
Before I got home, I decided to look at a property I've been eyeing for a while now, which is located only a few miles away. It's a huge horse/farm bank-owned property located further out. When I got there, I couldn't see much because the gate to the property was closed and the house isn't visible from the street. I believe the asking price is something like $450k, but from what I could tell in the listing it's a very nice property. Working deals with banks, though, are tough. My experience is they'll either counter at the same list price or mark the property down just a tiny bit. This property has sat for a good two months (and maybe longer), so it may have a ways to go before the bank decides to play ball. The good thing for a buyer is the fact that the property is expensive, which means the bank is paying big $$$ each month on taxes and insurance for a non-occupied property. I may submit a VERY low offer just to see what happens.
I also found another property that seems like a steal. I have to run some numbers and find about 30-60 mins. sometime to go see it, though.
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Well, the water meter problem was corrected (or will be). Seems the water company locked the wrong meter, and will be unlocking it today. Talk about a big egg in the face. :-)
My goodness. I feel for you. People (read gurus) say that you don't need money to get wealthy. What I say is that you either need tons of time or tons of money. Lots of both would be great.
In the beginning with not a lot of cash, you use a lot of time that you don't seem to have either.
I'm spewing all this out as I stayed up until 3 am doing something for my biz, that I really would have liked to give to a contractor, but alas little money so I had to use my time.
Things will look up. Give it time;)
anon -
This is what I am experiencing. Even in those situations where a deed is simply transferred (i.e., Sub2), you almost always still need money to bring the payments current.
Right now, I'm tight on both money and time. This property has been a HUGE learning experience for me, and one thing I may change in the future is hiring contractors/service companies to do the repair/cleanup work. I bought this property exactly one week ago, and still need another week of work to go. Had I hired professionals, I could very well have this thing on the market today. It's a lot fo trade-offs. In this situation, I could have spent ~$3,000 and saved a week, or spent ~$1,000 and wasted a week. Of course, by saving a week, it also means the property would be on the market sooner, so my opportunity costs would not show until the house was sold.
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