Fixer Jay’s Mom & Pop Millionaire Blog

Nothing comes ahead of cash flow! If you have it, you can continue to grow. You can transition from smaller properties to larger ones or fixers to pride-of-ownership. You can use your cash flow to buy mortgages for passive income or take a trip around the world. Cash gives you choices!

When you own the houses, you have your own personal money machine! Obvi­ously, you must maintain the property and provide the necessary management. But, in exchange for doing that, you control the money. It’s yours to spend any way you choose. The basis for wealth behind nearly every rich person can be traced, back to the ownership of a patent, a copyright or a deed! Owning income real estate puts you in with the right crowd.

In terms of investment risk, rental pro­perties are about the safest kind of invest­ment you can make. Residential renters are easier to attract than commercial tenants. Houses are considered a basic necessity of life. The risk of loosing your investment houses, with any equity, is almost nil. Buy them right and structure the financing so your tenants can pay them off and you’ll be very well rewarded for your initiative.

Houses aren’t glamorous like shopping malls and high-tech commercial buildings but they are far better suited for investors, who start with very little cash and no reserves.

Most investors and wanabees are better off to stay away from strategies that sound slick. Over the past 10 years, I can recall the names of at least a dozen so-called invest­ment gurus who expounded the virtues of a wide assortment of “get rich” techniques. Most of these pitchmen are bankrupt or working at a filling station today.

Tags: The Big Picture by FixerJay
No Comments »

It’s not a sound idea to buy houses that don’t pencil out on the day you acquire them or shortly thereafter. There’s only one reason I know of to buy investment real estate-that’s to make money. If it can’t, then I don’t want it regardless of whatever else I may like about it.

I have been sucked-in on future value, higher potential, and pride-of-ownership many times but I learned my hardest lessons early in my career before I lost the ranch.

If your goals are investing for current income and long-term security with the least amount of daily management involve­ment, then my strategies will work for you. There are many things to learn and most of it should be accomplished during the early steps of your investing. On-the-job training is most effective.

When you acquire properties with financing, you should always insist on long-term pay backs, the longer tthe better, but nothing less than 10 years. Be very careful when you agree on the amount of the mortgage payments. Investment properties that have combined mortgage payments higher than 50 percent of the scheduled income are too risky, unless of course, you have adequate back-up resources to pay for negative cash flow.

I’m always satisfied when my mortgaged properties earn small positive cash profit consistently every month. Little profits allow me to buy more properties, which in turn provide additional little profits. First thing you know, little profits add up to big bucks.

It doesn’t happen overnight, but when you consistently keep the profits rolling in, you have the money to take on bigger and better opportunities when they present themselves.

There are several, good economic reasons, why I favor keeping a flock of rental houses, but the reason dearest to me is they furnish me with cash every month, come rain or shine!

Tags: The Right Ingredients by FixerJay
No Comments »

Like most successful investors, I suffered through a probationary period! That’s when there’s almost as good a chance of going broke as being successful. What finally saved my bacon was when I started buying the kind of properties that would earn enough income to pay me every month. That might not sound like much to some folks – but to me, it was the discovery that kept my investment career alive – and my faith intact!

Fixer investors enjoy a major advantage over all the other investors because there’s no up and down cycles to slow you down. Unlike the general housing market, the fix-up strategy never changes regardless of what the economy does. Although I currently own a number of American dream houses now – I don’t mind confessing – my fixer properties bought every single one of them!

Once you have a few dollars to jingle – and a respectable cash flow, you are now in a position to acquire quality houses, so long as they’re close to break even. I could never move forward very fast until I figured out the sequence! Go for cash flow first – quality houses, second!

Tags: The Joy of Cash Flow Investing by FixerJay
No Comments »

It goes without saying, but it’s extremely important: FIXER PROPERTIES SHOULD AL­WAYS BE CLEANED UP OUTSIDE FIRST! This effort includes removal of all the trash and broken items, like falling down fences and junky sheds. Overgrown bushes, trees and shrubs must be neatly trimmed. Lawns can be raked, re-seeded and groomed. Even weeds can be turned into attractive green yards with regular watering, re-seeding and routine mow­ing.

Here’s what’s really important here! These outside improvements I’m suggesting are not using very much of your fix-up budget, You can really leverage your fix-up plan with plain old “Grunt Work”. That’s my term for non-­skilled labor. But, believe me; it counts just as much as the higher skilled stuff when it comes to making a bottom-line profit.

Avoid the Two Deadly Sins

Whatever else you do DON’T PLAY HOUSE WITH YOUR FIX-UP PLANS and DON’T SPEND OVER 10 PERCENT OFYOUR ORIGINAL COST ESTIMATE.

Both of these DON’TS are not the easiest advice to follow! I don’t expect you to get ‘em both right on your first attempt. That’s exactly what I did and I don’t know of any shortcuts to help you! It simply takes practice!

Tags: Jay's FooFoo Fix-up Strategy by FixerJay
No Comments »