Stress Free Move

My forthcoming e-book on stress-free moving will give you lots of tips and tricks to get through the big day. In the meantime, there’s this article out of the Miami Herald.

• Pare down. ”Clean, cull and downsize before you even start the process. It’ll be easier to set up afterward,” Theriault said.

• Create a system. As you pack, put room labels on each box — ”kitchen” on the box of dishes and ”living room” on the box containing trinkets for the coffee table. This system will save steps whether you use professional movers or friends.

• Start a portable tool kit. Easy-to-reach tools and supplies are useful for emergencies and necessities as you pack, move and re-assemble your possessions. Creating a portable tool kit ”is a great way to hit the ground running in your new location,” Theriault said.

That last tip, about the toolkit, is one that I do on auto-pilot. I should be sure to jot it down for the book. To me it seems to natural to fill a tool belt with everything I’ll need and have it with me for the move from one place to the next. Others may not think to do it, and it can save a lot of hassle and expense, especially when hanging curtains and putting bed frames together.

Like the Boy Scouts say: Always be prepared!

The current state of the housing economy is bad for sellers, but fantastic for buyers. I had the chance to talk with one such a buyer last week.

Bridget lives just outside of Phoenix, AZ. She is currently snapping up homes in the Western Phoenix Metro area, including Glendale, Peoria and Litchfield Park. Buying these “distressed” homes was too good a deal to pass up. Given a combination of smart investing and a little good luck, Bridget is able to buy homes facing foreclosure and fix them up as rentals.

I would guess luck and timing are at least 85%, but knowledge and connections are an important 15%.

In her case the connections are having family and friends in the construction business to help her fix the homes up at cost.

My brother-in-law is an executive at a roofing company - so roofing is handled quickly & I know the price is fair. My boyfriend is a licensed contractor - so I know the repairs are done right and paying him is like keeping it in the family.

Bridget knows that the market will eventually recover. Real estate is always a good buy.

The real estate market will recover since it is based on actual ‘product’. Hopefully the growth next time will follow the slow steady path which is much more stable.

Once the current crisis ends and people begin buying again, Bridget can sell these homes off for a nice profit. In the meantime, people who have been displaced by the crisis have places to rent, and Bridget has no shortage of tenants.

Current plans are to buy and hold, so I am looking to rent them out as an income stream. As rentals the fix up is basic; cheap but durable. These aren’t high end rentals, so I can’t afford to invest in/risk high end fixtures. Somewhere down the road I may decide to sell them and will have to weigh the benefits of fixing them up nicer for a higher asking price. After being rentals for a while, they will probably need some TLC anyway.

She’s not planning on being a landlady forever. Eventually the renters will be buyers, and the work of being a landlady and all it entails will be too much, and Bridget will begin to unload the houses. However, that is some years into the future. In the short term she will rent these houses out. In the mid-term she may refinance to invest money elsewhere. And of course the long term goals are to sell and retire young!

Asked where she thought the housing market would be in a few years, Bridget replied:

I think it will take a few years to get back to stable, and a lot will depend on what Obama and his buddies do to the economy. If they turn this into another depression, in 5 years may we may be worse off than now, or at this same level but climbing up. I am choosing to think more positively for a number of reasons. Not the least of which, things happen wicked fast now. … [W]e should see recovery quicker than before just because of the times we live in. Products & services go from innovation to extinction in years rather than decades, hopefully the economy can go from depression to renewal the same way. Obviously, buying multiple properties is a gamble. I am optimistic that it is the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. We’ll see if I am right or just another sad statistic down the line.