Friday, August 29, 2008

On my way to financial freedom

There is a big difference between planning and doing. I researched real estate investing for about a year and a half before making my first investment. The biggest thing holding me back was lack of capital and lack of credit. But I can clearly remember wanting to make that first investment, and being so excited about it. Well now that I've been busting ass on this first rental property for a while, I guess the excitement has worn off a bit. But don't take that the wrong way. I simply mean that the reality is, I'm doing serious construction work on this thing, and there is no turning back. I've made the transition from wanter, and thinker, to haver and doer.

I made some decisions which increased my budget and set back my completion time by about 200 dollars and a week. I had to try and patch up this old sagging gable, or tear it off and have nothing, or build a new one. I opted for the last option. One thing they say about real estate is you need curb appeal, and you pretty much triple your investment dollars on bathrooms, kitchens and decks. So I stomped the old gable off and it destroyed the crappy metal railing when it gravity and 300 pounds took its course. So I built a brand new gable that covers the entire deck/porch and then I'm going to make new railings with baluster supports. It will look WAY nicer when I'm done. I've got the gable built but it needs shingled yet, painted and the bottom filled in, etc.

Anyhow, on as for financial freedom, I got to thinking about everything. Really this is quite amazing. In just a couple of months and maybe 1000-1500 in materials and my work, I've increased the value on this house from 13,000 to probably 30,000. So I've increased my net worth by over 15,000 and my cash flow will be +250 after PITI. Then someone else will pay off the mortgage. Amazing stuff when I think about it. I mean, most people buy a house and make interest payments and their net worth takes 30 years to go up maybe 50-200k (in this area). In 2 months I increased mine by over 15k? I think that is amazing. How many employers will give you a 250 dollar a month raise every two months? I am still blown away at how sweet the real estate business is. Its been a lot of hard work but the numbers keep me motivated. I've worked my ass off to have zero net worth and a crappy income most my life. Its nice to see that I'm finally on my way to financial freedom.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Still working on my rental


Well this is taking longer than I thought. The inside is close to done, aside from little odds and ends which never seem to end.


The exterior I have the siding done on one side.

Wow what a difference that makes. Now I'm working on the front side. There was a old crusty gable which I kicked off. On its way down it destroyed the little black metal railing, I didn't care at all, it looked way 70's. So now I'm building a new gable that covers the entire front of the deck. I'm pretty happy with how its coming along. I didn't know where to start on that project, but after reading a little on the internet and talking to some construction guy up the street I got it figured out. It makes a nice difference. The neighbor people are excited to see it take shape, its been an eyesore for quite some time I guess.

I'm hoping the for rent sign will go up next week, even though its not done, I can start the applicant screening process and for sure get someone in there by October 1st :)

Monday, August 18, 2008

Keeping the Faith

Keeping the faith
Sometimes life deals you a bad hand, and then another and another. I'm having a hard time keeping the faith here, but I have to. Lately I've turned to Tony Robbins, and I find his work absolutely inspiring and amazing. I've listened to a LOT of self help speakers and Tony is quickly becoming my new favorite!

Affiliate marketing IS next to impossible
I'm losing money on adwords. I am starting to think that the only people making money are the ones selling success kits and tools to all the fools who are buying this junk. Keyword tools, tools to steal someone elses campaign. Wow, can I steal your money losing campaign so I can lose money too? It's insane. I had one day where I profited and then the next day lost all my profits and then some in further advertising costs. I'm going to put this project on hold until land some new work and can fund this insanity again.

Rental is rocking
My rental is coming along really good. The interior is about done and I've got the most difficult outside wall mostly covered in siding. Why was it so difficult? Well its the side covered with electrical boxes, water spout, and both windows needed to be rebuilt the boards were rotted, and the foundation was fubar on one part so I had to mess with that to make the siding work. Like it was higher in the front than the back so when I wrapped around the doorway there was no way it would work. So I cut a board and extended it down, etc. Lots of thinking and problem solving but I enjoy that stuff. I get a big confidence boost every time I work on that house. I wish the game industry was so easy. I mean doing the work is easy, but finding the deals is hard.

Monetizing Gore
Monetizing Gore is a challenge. I have all these players (over 1400 today, and about 15000 total) and nobody is buying crap. I'm trying to sell some in game ads, we'll see how that turns out.

Back to games
Well I need to find new work before my money runs out. I guess I'm going to work on my portfolio and try to find new contract work. I was hoping to get lucky and figure out affiliate marketing and then be able to focus on my own games again, but that has been a big waste of time so far. I'm not giving up just yet, but need to put that on hiatus until I get the cash flow restabilized.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Useful software!


As a game developer I have to use a lot of software. Either to develop games or often a new client will have a bunch of new software they require you use. I'm not going to give out all my gems tonight because its past 3am, but I ran accross one I thought was so excellent I needed to share it with the world :) What a great guy I am huh?

Perfect Uninstaller


This program is perfect. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to uninstall some programs, yet they are still THERE in the uninstall menu! Or somehow the program lost its uninstall information, and it shits out a stupid error about not being able to uninstall, and it remains in your add/remove programs section.


Oh I'm not done ranting, believe me. Even if you can get a program to successfully uninstall, I can GUARANTEE you that they left clutter behind in your registry, and probably files and folders in your my games folder. All these registry entries slow your pc down, and every file and every folder will slow your disk access down. Maybe not at first or anything noticable, but over time trust me you'll feel your system just isn't like new any more.

Perfect installer not only bypassed the VERY SLOW control panel > add remove programs menu, it properly uninstalls everything, then shows you all the junk in the registry and lets you pick what you want to take out, then it searches for rogue files all over your hard drive that the application may have left behind. Dlls, save games, all kinds of useless junk.


Anyhow, I'm highly recommending Perfect Installer, so go get your own copy and use it to clean up your computer. OH I forgot, it also found traces of programs I DID remove using the stock uninstaller, and it showed me them and cleaned them out too. AMAZING little program. GET IT!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Major progress

What a difference working full time on a project makes. I took the whole day to work on my rental today and I laid tile in the whole bathroom, bought a bunch of stuff to dress up the bathroom, like a mirror and a little cabinet thing to store stuff in and hang a towel on, mini blinds for every window, and then I started triming the 1/4 round trim around the new tile and baseboards.

The crazy thing is this rentals bathroom is now nicer than mine, I'm jealous :) I have major plans for my house though, so I'm anxious to get this rental done and work on my place. I think by tomorrow I'll have the bathroom all finished up and hopefully I can grab some pics and show before/after shots.

Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

My rental progress

Well things are plodding along with my rental renovations. The bathroom is about ready for carpet. Carpet you say, in a bathroom? My thoughts exactly, but my mentor said carpet is fine. Let em piss all over it then when they move out you toss it in the dumpster after using it for a template on the new one and your good to go. You can find bathroom sized carpets in the dumpsters of the carpet stores, often they will throw them out because they are too small to use, etc.

I'll be happy to finish the bathroom though, that aside from the siding is the biggest project this place has. It will be fun to move on to the next rooms because they can be done in an evening or two on each one. I need to get some pics soon :)

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Google Nemesis a dud, affiliate marketing could work

Google Nemesis Review
Ok after nearly a month of messing with Google Nemesis, a fancy latests get rich quick scheme I tried, I've decided this thing is not worth 66 dollars a month by a long shot.

Not for n00bs
First of all its not for people who are new to affiliate marketing. After a week or so they did provide some decent supplemental information on how to use Adwords, (which is an art of its own) and some other stuff.

What is it?
But really all Google Nemesis is, is a tool which makes it easy to write a review page, so if you are an HTML novice you can write these landing pages which review products and refer people to the real product page and that is how you make money. It has some stats that help track sales and stuff. All that would be useful, if you actually got some sales.

The deal breaker
The deal breaker for me was their software only allows you to upload your landing pages to their site, which is already blacklisted by my ISP, and now google has blacklisted the site as well, and google slapp any ads that go there. So 10.00 per click to send someone to their bogus review site, and then 66 a month to subscribe? Sorry, but no thanks. I sent in a request to cancel my subscription, but since there is no formal way to do that I just hope it works and they don't bill my credit card again.

Always take something good from something bad
After nearly a month of affiliate marketing research, trial and error I am yet to make a penny at it. I did find a good mentor though who is committed to helping me make it work. I am learning a lot of good marketing things which I feel will help my other businesses. So while in my opinion Google Nemesis is not an approachable revenue vehicle for a novice, I do think that there is some good information in it, and that affiliate marketing is possible.

Once again, find a mentor!
Overall though, I'm getting the most benefit from my mentor. I'll reveal his or her identity once I start making some cash at this.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Vinyl siding and trim Oh MY!

Well I started on the vinyl siding the other day. It looks SOOOO much better than the decrepid old grey peeling paint and rotten wood. I've only got a little bit of it done but its nice. So in the early evening I'm doing vinyl siding and late at night I'm working on the interior.

Tonight I finsihed making trim boards for the bathroom, and get them installed and painted. I'm really happy with how its all shaping up. Once the bathroom is all done the rest of the interior doesn't need much, just a good cleaning and some small odds and ends. I suspect I'll be done on the inside by mid to late August, and hopefully I'll have at least a couple sides done by then on the vinyl.

It will be very rewarding to put the "for rent" sign up. Its really a strange feeling to think that a couple months worth of work in my spare time and some money invested will turn into 250 a month positive cash flow. I mean, I keep thinking about how hard I've worked my whole life, only to be broke most of it. I mean, I've had a few rare years where I made good money, but for the most part its been a tough road and a struggle. To think if I'd just pursue rentals I'd be up 250 a month every 2-3 months is kind of an inspiring thought. I mean in 3 years if I could do 4 of these a year, that would be 3000 a month positive cash flow rolling in. Thats a lot of money to play with when you consider your normal job pays all the bills and theres some left over from that. Like usually I have maybe 1000 left each month if nothing unexpected comes up. So this one little deal will be a 25% increase in expendable income. Pretty cool really.

Anyhow my goal is an extra 3k a month. I hope to achieve it in 3 years time. Wish me luck! The other encouraging part of this is that with each subsequent deal, it should become easier to get the next one. Saving up the down payment won't take as long.