Estimates are Rolling In

I took Saturday off to brew some beer with a friend and go to a concert last night, but it was back on the ball today. I called a bunch of lawn care guys off of Craigslist this afternoon. I found one who was willing to come out and do the work today. So I met him at one house and gave him directions for the three lawns that needed mowing. I talked to him tonight and he got two of them done. He mowed three lawns but it sounds like one of them he mowed the lawn at the wrong address – he went to the west end instead of the east end of the street. Somebody’s going to be happy that they don’t have to mow their lawn. But my guy is going to have to go back out in the morning and mow the right house. I’m supposed to meet him before work and pay him so hopefully that goes smoothly. I’ll be inspecting the other houses before I meet him so hopefully he did a good job. Besides that I met with the first couple painters for estimates. I can already see there’s going to be a pretty big disparity in pricing, so hopefully I get a good deal on a quality painter. We’ll see.

I Hate Phone Tag

I got through the whole list of roofers and painters today. I’ve got a couple estimates scheduled but mostly I’m waiting for call backs. In some cases the game of phone tag has already started, but that still leaves me waiting for phone calls. Hopefully contractors will be picked out by the end of next week.

And rolling, rolling…

My lawyer got the revised form letter back to me today and I signed it and faxed it back to him. So the eviction process has officially started now. I suppose I’ll be making a court appearance in the near future. I also put together a list of possible roofers and painters from Angie’s List. I’ve had pretty good luck with service providers I’ve gotten from there in the past so hopefully I’ll find a couple more good ones out of the list. My water heater started leaking at my house today, so while I wait for the plumber to show up I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow. I better make sure my cell phone is fully charged tonight. Hopefully I’ll have estimates done by the end of next week and the real work can get started.

The Ball is Rolling

I finally printed out and signed the form my lawyer had sent me a while ago to start the eviction process. I had to modify a few dates in it because it had been so long since he originally sent it to me. I faxed it off and let him know to start the process. After he reviewed it, he informed me he would have some new edits to it before it could be mailed off. So there’s probably another round of signing and faxing before it’ll be in the mail to the tenants, but the first step has been taken.

Gotta Start Somewhere

I’ve wanted to invest in real estate for about as long as I’ve understood the concepts of investing.  For a long time it was lots of reading and no action.  In the last few years, that’s finally changed.  I’ve managed to acquire a few rental properties.  I’m actually up to eight rental houses right now.  Not exactly Donald Trump, but I seem to do alright at acquiring the properties.  It’s the managing of them that’s a problem.  At the moment I’ve got 3 vacant houses and 1 non-paying tenant that needs to be evicted.  Not exactly a good ratio of occupied to unoccupied properties.  Thank God for the full time job keeping everything afloat.  But if I want to get to financial independence through real estate investing I’m going to have to turn this around.  So, this is my journal of my quest to become a better property manager and my experiences as an investor.  The short term goal is to do something everyday to work towards getting the houses rented and to document that process here.  We’ll see where things go after that.  It seems a long way off at the moment.