Tulsa Rental Update

I finally got a few minutes to call my management company yesterday to see what the status of Rental #1 is. As I mentioned before, I noticed that they had raised the asking rent from $775 to $800. The $775 figure was itself a raise from the $750 it was rented at previously. So the place was empty during November and December when I was asking $775 and I was wondering why they raised the rent again, if it could rent at $775.Turns out, they were meaning...

My First Investment In Multi-unit Properties

It's looking like I will be making my first foray into the world of multi-unit properties (aka apartments) this month. There is still a possibility other investors might fill up the available slots before I can get in, but I think I've got a decent chance right now.Kenric alerted me to a deal that a local apartment investor was putting together for an apartment complex in Houston. I've met this investor a couple times, the first being at a get-together...

Vegas, Baby!

Just got back from a quick trip to Las Vegas, where my wife and I stayed at The Wynn. We got an offer in the mail for a discounted room rate plus $100 in money to gamble with. In order to maximize the value of the free $100, we decided to play the dollar video poker machines, rather than the quarter machines we normally play. Good thing we did! From the $100 they gave us, we won $80. As my wife was...

The IRS Will Get You Every Time

Last year, I wrote about a tax credit that you could claim for the telephone excise tax that has been collected on phone bills for years. If you took the credit, the IRS also paid you interest on the amount you claimed. No good deed goes unpunished and this year, I received a form 1099 from the IRS reporting that interest ($34 in my case) as income which must be claimed on this year income tax. *sigh*There's an article about this he...

Tulsa Rental Still Empty

The tenants in my Tulsa rental property moved out on November 1. While I was glad to see them go, I was not particularly thrilled about the timing of their notice. I didn't really expect to get new tenants around the holidays and, sure enough, I didn't. The good news is that now when new tenants finally do move in, their lease will not expire during the holidays.Back when the tenants moved out, I opted to raise the rent from $750 a month to $775...

My 2007 REI Year In Review

Now that the holiday madness is dying down, I've got some time to look back over what I did in real estate last year and see if I achieved the goals I set out last year.Goal 1: Rehab two properties. I did not achieve this goal, although I can't really say it was through any fault of my own. The investors I was working on behalf of got scared with the current real estate downturn and decided they no longer wanted to flip properties. Even though I...