I received an email a week or so from Brett Neely; a reporter with National Public Radio (NPR). That was pretty astonishing given the fact that my political views align more with Rush Limbaugh than with most every reporter on NPR. Brett said he was doing a story on the housing market and while researching, he came across my little blog here on Al Gore’s world wide web.
After a few minutes of chat, Brett asked if he could come hang with me for a few hours. Anyone who knows me, also knows that regardless of your political views, I “LOVES” to show off my pretty houses. I of course obliged Mr. Neely. The result of our time toegther was a news report filed for radio and for NPR’s blog. Pretty cool, stuff. I’m all tingly just thinking about it.
As a newbie (several years ago) I always dreamed of being featured in a story by the Baltimore Sun. Well, I haven’t reached that goal yet, but this is pretty close.
For those of you interested in hearing what some Americans think of us RE investors, you MUST go immediately to the blog link below and read some of the reader comments. I was fascinated to see all the venom aimed at little ole’ me. Heck, I’m just out there everyday trying to make a better life for my wife and for my kids – and the readers of NPR’s blog think I’m some fat cat who lights my cigars with hundred dollar bills, all while stepping on the necks of the tired masses.
You gotta read this: NPR Blog Link
The link to the audio is here
Popularity: 3% [?]
Folks. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback lately about the blog, about my comments and about all the cool real estate investing stuff I’m doing. Heck – this
past week, I even got the most flattering a humbling email I have ever received, from one of my readers who plans to be in my town – and he just wants to meet me so he can shake my hand. (You know who are you.) I can not begin to tell you just how humble that makes me feel.
Ya’ see – I was but a fresh faced newbie just seven years ago. Like many of you – I was searching for my investing niche. I had a ton of questions and I was reaching out in a million directions to find that mentor who would show me the way. No joke – even if you are just getting started with RE investing, I can not tell you how close you are to where I stand today.
Think about it. How fast has the last seven years of your life gone?
Why do I tell you this? Over the next several months I plan to make myself more “available.” I plan to write more, email more, talk more – and I even plan to partner in deals with a very select few of you. The details at this point are sparse, and quite frankly, I’m just in the “planning” stage. But when they come to fruition, I think you all will be quite impressed.
I’m riding a sick wave of success right now. With 15 rehabs in my pipeline, 7 houses on the market (soon to be 9)
and a seemingly endless supply of crappy houses and money….things are pretty
darn good. I would venture to say that there are not many rehabbers in the country doing as much as I’m doing right now.
Sure we’ve had some pretty nasty spills over the past 8 months, but I’m bursting at the seams to share all I’ve learned so that YOU can benefit from my mistakes as well as my success.
So stay tuned. I promise you will DIG what I’ve got coming.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Ugly Duckling is Turning Into A Swan
Feel free to leave comments below!
Here’s the second installment of PJ’s mondo-Baltimore City rehab. At just under a few weeks into the rehab you can see we have the place gutted, and framed. You’ll also notice that we waterproofed the basement which as I understand, Baltimore City is requiring for all new rehabs whose scope includes a full-finished basement.
REAL ESTATE INVESTING TIP: Beware, if you plan to gut a house and finish the basement in Baltimore City, you may be required to waterproof. Listen, waterproofing is a plumbing job. A lot of plumbers don’t like to do it however, because its dirty grunt work. You have to bust up the concrete slab, and excavate a trench of about 7 inches wide and 12 or so inches deep. That my friends makes a BIG PILE of mess. Once that’s complete, the job is pretty simple. The plumber will drop in a plastic corrugated pipe and you route that to a sump pump. Cover it all over with some gravel, then fresh cement and viola’ your done. Seriously, the costs of the material for a job like this is less than $300-bucks. But the labor is ROUGH! That’s why we have a $10/hour guy break up the floor and haul the debris. Then once the plumber is done, we bring the $10 guy back to cover up the plumber’s work.
Check out the video.
At this point we are post-demo, and we’re well into framing. We’ve pretty much busted out most of the interior walls, added new support beams, and we’ve busted up two bedrooms and made them into one grand master bedroom complete with its own master bath. We also took away from the over-sized landing at the top of the steps to add space to the otherwise tiny main bath. We framed in a pantry, a 1/2 bath, and a laundry room on the main level just beyond the kitchen, and we added some nice arched entrances into the living room and dining area. The kitchen is immense and will have a sit-at breakfast bar for three to four – in addition to an adjacent dining room. The house is really starting to take on a much more modern and open layout.
Click on the picture below for more pics of our progress. Enjoy
Popularity: 98% [?]
