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Monthly Archives: September 2018

Checking Out the Hermit Haus

This room will probably be a Mandi office. It’s a blank slate.

We were able to take our friends Mike and Martha through the church property yesterday to get some more ideas on how to prioritize our renovations. Lee and Mike measured all the rooms and thought about the heating and air conditioning, while Martha and I thought about ideas for making the upstairs more appealing for different types of events while remaining neutral (we figure people’s events may have “color schemes” and we won’t want to clash, ya know.

Of course the upstairs has very red carpet and rather blue windows. We can’t change the windows, but perhaps the flooring can change at some point, I guess!

Our conference room table and other furnishings will improve this room.

While we were downstairs, we looked at the four (or five) rooms that could be offices. Well, they definitely will need some work, as you can see in the pictures of the three rooms Mandi and I have to work out. We are pretty sure the big one will be a conference room, and will look nice with our “good” conference room furniture in it.

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That Was Interesting

Paul Esajian knows a lot about money and financing buildings. He is good to share!

I realized I hadn’t talked about the workshop on multi-family real estate that Lee, Carol, and I went to in Austin last weekend. It surprised us that FortuneBuilders would send one of their founders over for such a small, specialized event, but I think they are trying to get people to move away from renovating houses in difficult markets like Austin, and move toward commercial deals, where there’s more opportunity right now.

So, we got a lot of information in a short amount of time about how to figure out if a commercial or multi-family deal is a good one, and lots of information on funding these deals.

My favorite part of the presentation was some great stories the presenters shared, including our friend Linda, who was one of our original trainers. Each speaker told us how opportunities presented themselves in unexpected ways, with the moral being: always be ready to jump on a good opportunity, because they will NOT last.

How Do You Be Ready?

It helps to have sources of funding all lined up and ready to go. Many of us have a network of private money lenders we can reach out to. Others have self-directed IRAs. And still others know non-traditional lenders. The most important thing for any of us to do is to figure out what our resources are that we can get to quickly. If all your money is tied up in renovations, you may not be able to be so flexible, so think about keeping options open. And I can tell you, our private money lenders LOVE to make investments that pay good interest, so don’t be shy about reaching out to your contacts when you get an opportunity!

We do plan to attend more of the FortuneBuilder opportunities to learn about commercial real estate. If you’ve been considering joining, now is the time, because the classes they offer are expanding. The first one Lee went to was great, so he’s all excited!

We know the organization’s not perfect, but we do feel like the advantages significantly outweigh the disadvantages. See for yourself.

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Rattlesnake Will Be Occupied This Weekend!

Some of my bedroom furniture has been moved to Rattlesnake, and the Travis bathroom has been emptied of everything that is going to Rattlesnake. The floors downstairs are almost finished. As with most of the other steps on this project, the deeper into the floors that it got, we realized that there was more wrong than we thought. It is going to be okay though. The soft spots and problem joints have been fixed. I think all bedrooms will be moved tomorrow evening. The only exception may be the two youngests’ beds, if the grout hasn’t dried yet.

I’m sure we will have an adventure in moving this weekend. We usually have adventures just doing normal things, so stay tuned! I will probably end up right back here to tell all about them.

I don’t have a lot of words to write. In this update, I think that the pictures will be better than any words I could put together.

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Is Greed Good?

Happy Dog

I’m not greedy. I’m a dog. Just give me love and kindness, and I’ll give you unquestioning loyalty.

This post explains why I give away my most valuable, non-renewable resource—time—even though I’m a typical human being and, therefore, greedy.

Gordon Gekko—played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie Wall Street—said, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” This saying either became or derived from a mantra of the Reagan Era.

I won’t go that far. Unfettered, “Greed causes the inevitable irrational exuberance that creates asset bubbles. Then still more greed blinds investors to the warning signs of collapse. In 2005, they ignored the inverted yield curve that signaled a recession, according to Kimberly Amadeo. Earlier this year, she noted that blind greed lead to the financial collapse of 2008.

Corruption is also the natural result of people trying to bypass legal restraints to get ahead at any costs. Greed leads to entitlement and an elitist mentality unless it is balanced. But balanced with what? And how? Continue reading →

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Excitement Builds

Looking forward to making this an inviting meeting space.

As our closing day of October 1 approaches, we are getting more and more excited about what we plan to do with the former church property in Cameron. It’s ideal that we can dream big and start small on the project, and still make some money, we hope.

As soon as we take possession, the building will be usable. We will be able to move our office into the downstairs rooms immediately, and then get moving on improvements.

What Comes First?

Well, in these days of social media, it will behoove us to set up a website, Facebook page, Instagram page, and Twitter feed. Oh my. We will also want business cards to share with local caterers, the Chamber of Commerce, etc.

Hmm, it does seem like something ought to come before that…oh yeah! We need a name for the darned thing! After going through lots and lots of ideas, it came to us that we already had a name; we just needed a tag line:

The Hermit Haus: A gathering place

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