My First Flip – What It Takes To Flip A House – Part 2
It’s been over a month since Part 1 of My First Flip – What it Takes To Flip A House article series :). I promised that I will disclose what it takes to flip a house, the expenses, and the headaches. Well, it has definitely been a huge expense and a major headache! I was hoping to update on the progress of the flip in this article, but unfortunately, the most upsetting, #wtf event happened. If after reading this article you do not feel upset or actually feel sorry for me, then you are a cold-hearted person!!! Okay…that wasn’t nice of me to say. Let me restate…after you finish reading this article, you might think that I am ridiculously dumb, stupid, dimwitted and all those nice words. I honestly feel pretty stupid, banged my head on the wall several times, pulled my hair out and even want to shave my […]
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My First Flip – What It Takes To Flip A House – Part 1
I bought a fixer upper at the end of August 2017. It was a pretty quick buy, took less than 2 weeks to close, cash transaction. It had to be cash. Most fixer uppers do not qualify for financing, too risky for banks to give loans. You can do hard money loans, but you won’t make as much profit and the closing process takes much longer. For this property, I plan to flip and sell. This is not my usual business. I usually either: buy properties in okay condition, renovate a bit then rent, buy fixer uppers, fix, then rent, or buy properties in good condition, hold for a while, then sell However, this time, I want to experiment with flipping, as you can make some good-ass money doing flips. Many real estate investors have made some awesome money flipping houses and sell to make a quick profit. I am […]
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A Tenant From Hell And How To Deal With Them
Having been a landlord for about 8 years, I have never dealt with what many landlords called, a ‘tenant from hell’, until just recently. Of course, over the years, I get some tenants who are a little on the difficult side to deal with, but they are not what you would consider a ‘tenant from hell’. I have been pretty fortunate to have great, long-term tenants. But with the good, you will eventually encounter those that are terrible, I mean ‘f#$%ing terrible’. Sorry for my french, but you will see what I mean by that.So, let’s get started and see what a ‘tenant from hell’ is like and how to deal with themIf you are a landlord reading this article, I hope you are smarter than I am and do not have a tenant from hell. If you are a tenant reading this article, I hope that you are remotely […]
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How I Turned A Decent Closed Floor Plan Property Into A Beautiful Open Floor Plan And Rent Out In 1 Day
When I first walked into this property, my first reaction was “It’s kinda tight, small and dark” (like a snobbish person would react ). I have valid reasons to back up my snobbish reaction, as I explain below. I will also list all the things that I changed/updated for this property and the total renovation cost.As the title of this article stated, I turned a decent closed floor plan into a beautiful open floor plan. After the renovation, the property is completely opened, bright and airy. It looks like something from a magazine, but that’s just my opinion . You can judge for yourself after you see the after photos below and all the things I did to it.The property at its current state was not bad at all. I like the huge game room upstairs, the nice pergola in the backyard, the family room is quite a good size, […]
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Medical Expenses Ailing You? How to Grow Your Health Savings Account Dollars and Get Free Monthly Money
Roughly half of the people (that includes you Millennials) who have Health Savings Accounts (HSA) do not know that they can invest and grow money using their HSA dollars. I am here to tell you that YOU CAN (yes, I am yelling), and I’ll show you prove of my HSA account and how it’s yielding. It’s good stuff! Before I show you my HSA account, I just want to say “START INVESTING IN YOUR HSA N-O-W!” and yes, I am yelling again. It takes less than 10 minutes to sign up and you need only do it once (unless you are one of those savvy investors who want to re-balance their own portfolio, which I personally do) then forget about it and once in a blue moon when you remember that you have an HSA account, log on and see your money grow Feel the satisfaction of having free monthly […]
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Disaster to Desirably Decent – Another Home Renovation
As I stated in my previous articles, I have done a few home renovations that I will share with everyone. In this article, I share with you one of my very first home renovations. This is before I knew about Chip and Joanna of Fixer Upper and Drew and Jonathan of The Property Brothers , so this is not one of my best renovations. Nevertheless, it is decent enough to be in high demand from renters, buyers, and investors.By the way, love Chip and Joanna and The Property Brothers! These shows are two of the few TV shows I watch, other than The Big Bang Theory (freakin’ hilarious). I know…what a nerd, right? Well, I am proud to be called a nerd, because nerds are smart-asses! Here’s a sneak peak of a before and after photo so you don’t have the urge to scroll down and look at all the photos before […]
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Transform a Boring Condo Into a Modern Condo and Maximize Rent Income
I purchased a freakin’ cute, little, cozy condo around mid-2016 in a prime area in Dallas. “How cute”, you ask? Scroll down and see for yourself (but scroll your ass back up and read everything that I wrote! ). It’s surrounded by shopping, dining, clubs, and bars; walking distance to running trails where you can walk your lovely little pooch, and a $5 uber ride to downtown Dallas and all the cool areas.The condo was in great shape, well-designed and I could lease it out immediately if I wanted to. But I didn’t. I wanted to modernize it and maximize the rent income.For the area that the condo is in (surrounded by new, modern condos/townhomes that easily cost $350k+), there was excellent opportunity to maximize rent with a modern renovation. People who live in that area and those who want to live in that area are young professionals who like […]
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How to Lease to Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program Participants and Get Guaranteed Monthly Rent Payments!
Leasing your properties to the Housing Choice Voucher Program participants can generate some good-ass, consistent monthly income, as I stated in my previous article, Why I Lease to Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program Participants. The process is not as difficult or tedious as some people believe it to be (don’t listen to them!). In this article, I list the steps you need to take in order to have a smooth application process. Every Public Housing Authority (PHA) is different, so be sure to check out their guidelines. I am in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas. However, most of the steps are very similar. Step 1: Attend the Free Landlord’s Workshop Click here to find your local PHAs and check out the workshop schedules. The workshop is mandatory and you only need to attend once. If you don’t have time to attend, you can send your agent. The workshop […]
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Why I Lease to Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program Participants
A brief information about the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program: If you are not familiar with the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, it is a federal government assisted program to help low income families find decent living outside of subsidized housing projects. These participants can rent apartments, condos, townhomes, single-family homes or duplex from landlords who are willing to participate in the program, and the program will pay landlords on behalf of the participants. The program is run locally by the Public Housing Agency (PHA). Each PHA runs the program differently. Click here if you want to find out more information about the Housing Choice Voucher Program. Getting to the main purpose of this article: Ok, now I’ll get to the point. I can hear you say “dude, get to the damn point, already!” A few reasons why I rent to the voucher program participants: Guaranteed direct rent […]
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My Awesome, Badass ROI on My First Real Estate Investment Property!
ROI – Return on Investment. ROI calculation: Let’s see what kind of ROI the property generated for me with the cash transaction. Two examples below. Cash Transaction: Year 2012 Cash Transaction: Year 2013 Annual income: $14,400 ($1,200/mo rent) Annual income: $18,000 ($1,500/mo rent) Total investment: $111,159.88 • cost of home – $80,000 • closing cost – $385 • cost of renovation – $26,200 • home owner’s insurance – $789 • property tax – $3,343.88 • pest control – $1,142 ($500 one time setup charge + 107/every 2 mo) • estimated annual repair expense – $1,500 Total investment: $98,959.88 • cost of home – $92,685 (80,000 + 385 + 26,200 + 500) minus $14,400 annual income from year 2010 • home owner’s insurance – $789 • property tax – $3,343.88 • pest control – $642 ($107/every 2 mo) • estimated annual repair expense – $1,500 As you can see, even paying […]
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Hey, Welcome! I am Thuy. I learned how to live frugally and saved money during my early 20s and purchased my first investment property in cash. I also invest in stocks, ETFs and Mutual Funds.