In this episode The Ren Men take you on location as we visit a home we recently purchased to demonstrate how we automate the repair and improvement of our rental properties.
Runtime: 14:12
A quick rundown of the episode:
- A thank you to Tim Ferriss and community
- Visit a never-before-seen distressed property
- BOOB Update
- New BOOB Challenge – Out of Season Sport
- Chalk Talk – Wordpress expert
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
How do you ensure that the property you’re buying is decent without ever visiting it?
You guys are fantastic! Thanks!!
Great Video; they keep getting better. I would be very interested in learning how you automate the process of identifying, evaluating, and purchasing. I currently have a few properties but want to expand. Future vids could also be how you perfected and automated the landlord process and long term owner ship
Thanks again and good job!
RR,
We hope to hit all those areas in upcoming episodes…thanks…
OUTSTANDING! I just bought RICH DAD POOR DAD, THE CASHFLOW QUADRANT, AND RICH DAD’S GUIDE TO INVESTING and am tearing them up – thanks for the rec! #1 I second mark in wanting to know more about how you guys find financing for the properties. #2 I use wordpress based blog and definitely recommend them. Wordpress is divided into two sites for programming and coding purposes. Wordpress . com is mainly for coding challenged bloggers while wordpress . org is for those with some coding knowledge. Definitely go with wordpress . org as you can get infinitely more creative with design. Check out elance . com or rent-a-coder . com to find some really cheap coders – you can get some amazing work for super cheap. Hope this helps. Can’t wait to see it. You guys have some amazing ideas that need to be on a great looking and fuctional site. Peace! And check out my blog at lukebarry . shellsurf .com it is a wordpress based platform and we took a theme already on wordpress and tweaked it a little to fit my wants.
Luke thanks for the feedback…thanks for the great wordpress info…A fellow RenMenion contacted us about wordpress…it is in the works as we speak…thanks again…
Another great show! Keep ‘em coming. If you’re looking for ideas for future shows I’d really be interested in learning more about the financing for these types of investments. Thanks!
Jack,
Financing is on it’s way…hopefully, within the next two episodes…thanks for watching…
giving the new renters a chance to be a part of the renovation is a honey of an idea, as well as uniform products (tiles and hardwood). kudos gents. Another solid video.
where Grant gets his energy… I won’t ask. ha!
and for your BOOB challenge… I just need to find a buddy to play some stick ball with me before I head to Vegas this weekend! Alan I’ll try to polish my swing so it looks as text book as yours in the opening video.
MC,
Simplicity is key…uniform = known standards…have fun in Vegas…thanks for following…
Hi Guys- Loved this show! Lots of great info. I wanted to share an idea that one of your shows sparked for me- way back in episode 2, when you talked about offsetting the cost of hiring a house-cleaner. I’m fairly new to the Lifestyle Design community, and the thought of trying to replace my entire current paycheck with passive income is quite intimidating. The passive income housecleaning session got me thinking that you could set smaller goals, targeted at various monthly expenses. For example- create passive income to cover my cell phone bill every month ($80). Ok, so maybe that’s not a lot but still would be a start. Next it would be to cover the car payment ($380). Then rent ($780).
Question: What kinds of goals did you set for yourself when you were first getting started?
I’ll echo the other commenters in saying that I can’t wait to hear more about your automation process for property investment. I read RDPD years ago when I was still in College. I was inspired to go into real estate but my family and friends all convinced me it was too risky and would end up consuming all of my time caring for properties. So, thanks for offering proof that that is not necessarily the case.
Regards,
Ethan
Ethan,
great feedback and questions…the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning were to be successful and not go broke…we rehabbed our first house ourselves, no outsourcing/contracting…we needed to learn the lingo and the business inside and out…it wasn’t until after that first rehab we knew we didn’t want to be the ones beating on the hammer…(future episode)
Take small-tiny-baby steps with passive income if you have to…just make sure you are ALWAYS moving forward…you are on the right track with replacing monthly monies…passive income (as in life) isn’t about taking one huge blind leap, it’s all about taking 100 small steps and when you turn around you’ve taken that ‘huge’ leap, but your risk is minimal…
Pure genius guys….love your work, found your site from the 4hww comp.
My partner has been looking to get into this for a while….your techniques will certainly give her a head start
Thanks for the compliment…keep pushing your partner…everyone needs a place to live…real estate will always be in demand…
For phase 1 of your website redevelopment, I say go get some cheap hosting from Dreamhost and use their Fantastico one click installer to install WordPress. Go buy and install the Thesis theme and you’re laughing. You only have a few posts here, so manually re adding the content is not a big deal. You’ll still have a pretty basic site, but it would be a good start. Easy enough to do on your own. If you still want help, I can steer you in the right direction.
That is the exact theme (Thesis) we bought about two months ago, but never got around to installing/using it…we’ll keep you posted…thanks RJ…
Love the show! I understand the need to automate everything, but $500 for a final walkthrough? Wow! That could probably be done on your way home from work in an hour. I personally think the hour of my time would be worth it just to have the enjoyment of seeing the finished product. Maybe if I was out of the country or was doing 500 properties a year I could see the benefit in that. I only own less than 10 properties, so to me this seems expensive.
Would you guys mind sharing some financials on the house? What did you buy it for? What is the estimated rehab? What will it rent for?
Thanks for sharing.
Elim,
Two things…the $500 was a guesstimate…it ending up costing $195.00…secondly, we love to see the finished product, however, we are not nearly as good as a home inspector would be (plus we can hold the contractor’s feet to the fire if the home inspector sees a problem)…a prior contractor would say a new HVAC was put in, but in reality it wasn’t…the ‘new’ HVAC would be scabbed in or a ‘new’ looking shell would be placed over top of the old HVAC…just to name one incident that we have run into…
Once the house (in the episode) gets rented and rehabbed will we revisit this property and layout all the number and details…great feedback…thanks…
Grant and Alan,
Catching up on some of your more recent shows. This episode (7) demonstrates significant improvement over past installments – You’re making this forum into something great and it’s a joy to witness.
While performing your property walk through, you stressed the need to replace the outdated single-pane windows with more modern hardware. I’m curious if this activity is simply for aesthetics (making the house more attractive, easier to clean, etc.) or if you implement this change because of the payment approach for covering utility costs. For example, if you were covering the heating bills and passing it through as part of the tenants rent, you would want the property to be as efficient as possible. However, if you move the utilities into the name of the renter, it may be a secondary concern.
I like your use of uniformity in all properties – This is a simple, but wise choice. Do you also replace appliances with matching hardware such as only using Frigidaire or Maytag brand appliances which are recognized and reliable, yet affordable products? Do you go with stainless front, white, black, etc.? This could be a consideration for future resale value positioning I would imagine.
Additionally, I like the focused message this week. You explored one main theme throughout the show without deviating and running the risk of distracting the viewer.
Lastly, your use of the visual board to reinforce your verbal messaging was outstanding during this episode. The evolution continues.
Cheers,
Matt
Grant and Alan,
Thanks for the additional detail. It’s interesting that you plan on this being a long-term, buy-and-hold type arrangement. I would have anticipated that you would plan on leveraging your ~25% instant equity accompanied with a projected market recovery over the next five or so years to identify an exit strategy…Something like:
“Once we have an estimated $4M in home equity within our portfolio, we will begin a gradual sell-off of properties, pocketing the profit and holding a portfolio of only the most desirable units.”
It will be interesting to see if your long-term strategy continues on its current course. Another alternative that I could envision is an eventual liquidation of Single Family Units to acquire a multi-unit apartment complex. Naturally, I realize that this goes against your present business plan, but who knows where the future will take you.
Keep up the good work!
Matt
Hey guys, I am loving the videos that focus on the nuts and bolts of your real estate investing business and the systems you have developed to build your ideal lifestyle.
As a much smaller scale landlord, I have some questions based on repairs that are incurred after the initial purchase. For example, whose phone is ringing at 3 p.m. on a Saturday to deal with a clogged drain (note the time and date of my post
)
Keeping in line with the theme of maximizing your personal time, i am assuming when the basement fills up with water, your shoes aren’t getting wet. What system do you have in place to deal with routine and non-routine maintenance?
I am glad that you guys are willing to share your knowledge and look forward to more videos focusing on automating real estate investing. Thanks guys!!
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