Today I got a call from my tenants: "The hot water tank is leaking all over the basement." I was looking forward to a quiet night at home, doing some work and getting an early night's sleep. Doh! Now I have to handle a minor crisis. In the past, when we first began property managing, I would have had a small stroke. Now, I just get annoyed. Whenever these situations hit (the house requires some repair) my first thought is always "Maybe I should sell this thing." When you own investment property this is always the temptation. Somehow you calm yourself down and look at the numbers: every month I don't sell it, I gain at least a thousand in appreciated value. Every year I don't sell it I gain an extra $12,000 - $15,000 in appreciated value. I can hold onto it a little longer! Wisdom says "stay the course."
Although I'm often tempted to sell, I realize that I shouldn't. I'm not making much money on it right now, but someday when we really need it, it will pay off in spades. Also, since we are using the bank's money, we might as well be poor but own property then be poor without property! In fact, I'm looking at getting at least one more rental property this year. I'm also looking at a fully managed condo/vacation property in Quebec City which would be an excellent long term investment. If you are interested in going in with us halfers on it, let me know! It's very little cashflow, but it's also fully managed and a very safe investment. And if you are thinking about investing in real estate yourself, what's holding you back? Take action!
May Light increase!
Church service at Holy Church near Rescue 1
4 weeks ago
3 comments:
I still don't understand how when most students can barely afford a box of Kraft dinner you can be a real estate mogul, but good luck!
Jay
Hey Jay, we actually can barely afford a box of craft dinner (well some months), but that is because we chose to save up some money and put it into real estate. So now we are poor, but with another property! Once you have one property with some equity in it, buying more homes is actually not very difficult. The payoff will only happen when we sell them. We have been blessed, no question about it, but I think that almost anyone could do what we are doing (and what Keith and Stacey are doing). Jay, this could be you pretty soon!
P.S. Today I'm dropping a thousand dollars on a new hot water tank for our property. Yes, this is extremely painful!
Ouch on the water tank!
I don't know if I'll be going into real estate anytime soon...for now I'm working on getting a rental finalized! (we've been over why I'm not buying at the moment)
Jay
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