From the category archives:

Building the Business

Pro or No?

September 2, 2008

One of the decisions I need to make this year is whether or not I plan to file taxes as a “Real Estate Professional.” For those not familiar, let me take a minute to explain the advantages of claiming professional status: If you invest in real estate part time (not a professional), you may be [...]

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All About Paint (and Systems)

August 28, 2008

This post is about paint. It’s also about the need to create systems to streamline my business (remember my business philosophy?). Yes, both of those are boring subjects, but they are important topics to address while trying to systematize my investing business to the point where I can manage several (i.e., more than 5) rehabs [...]

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Building Business Credit

August 21, 2008

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while, and a comment on a previous post reminded me that it’s probably about time. I know a lot of business owners think that over the course of their business life, they will naturally build credit, and a lot of business owners are probably spread [...]

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Lots to Do

August 15, 2008

I don’t have much to write about today…everything is going as smoothly as I could hope on my first three houses (though two haven’t closed yet, so things can’t be THAT bad). But, I’m finally starting to realize how having multiple properties underway simultaneously (especially when they are in different steps of the process) can [...]

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Update for 8/1/08

August 1, 2008

I’ve had the busiest work week in recent memory this week (even compared to back in the corporate world). Things have been crazy, but in a good way. Here are some updates: 1. I met with a number of GCs this week to get bids on the Corn House rehab. I expect to have four [...]

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My Business Philosophy

July 31, 2008

I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about what parts of the rehab work I’ll be doing myself, and why the hell am I planning to hire the expensive contractors vs. just picking up day laborers to do the easy stuff or doing it myself. The answer is obvious (to me, at least), and is [...]

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Getting & Building Credit

July 25, 2008

As I start to build my business, I keep getting the recommendation to build business credit earlier and often…as when I actually need credit, I won’t be able to get it… So, I’ve been focusing this week on finalizing my financial setup (opening a business bank account, setting up Quickbooks, etc), and I’ve put together [...]

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My Strategy From Here

July 18, 2008

A lot of people who have been reading my blog have been asking why I’m focusing so much on single family houses recently when my plan was originally to focus on apartment investing. It’s a good question, and I can understand why those following this blog would be confused…I haven’t really clarified my plans in [...]

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Update for 7/17/08

July 17, 2008

I know, not the most creative of blog post titles, but it will have to do… Lots of “fun” stuff happened the past couple days: 1. Met with a couple more banks. While they aren’t going to be able to get me the financing I’d like, I may not be in a position to be [...]

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Lish Properties, LLC

June 11, 2008

A couple weeks back, I hired a law firm here in Atlanta to handle the incorporation (actually, organizing the LLCs) of both my real estate company and my fiancee’s communications company. The firm was tremendously professional and had the filings completed within a week. We just received our official notices of LLC organization, our boiler-plate [...]

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