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Hey guys, haven’t posted in a while, but still listening and love the podcast. I believe that lot R at Nissan Stadium (where the Titans play) is open during the day for free parking. I know it is open in the evenings when there are events downtown (pretty much every night). From there, you take a walking bridge into downtown, there is even an elevator if you don’t want to climb. As long as the weather is nice, it is a beautiful 10 minute walk. I would assume you could uber from there, but I have never ubered. I also believe there is a lot E that you can park in, but you need a free permit.
https://www.parkitdowntown.com/parking/nissan-stadium-parking-option
Let me know if there is anything I can help with.
$8 bubble wrap with free ship if you buy 4. Amazon ASIN “B073XZLV11″
peng 3/16″ 175 ft x 12″ Small Bubble Cushioning Wrap, Perforated Every 12”
Retro, if you are serious investigate in your area to see if there is a real estate investing group. Also search out someone called a “private money lender” or “hard money lender” . These guys are usually real estate investors themselves. A lot of times they will loan the initial cost of the home, but not the remodel cost. The cost is a little more than a bank loan, but banks won’t touch remodel projects for the most part. The biggest advantage is speed. These guys can close in a few days, and when a great property is available, time is the most critical element. I have never used one, but I know they are out there. You don’t want to use them forever, but they can get the ball rolling, and might even help in the evaluation process.
Retro, we funded our first with a heloc. We bought our house in 2011 while the market was still recovering, it was a foreclosure and we got a great deal to boot. Fast forward to today and it is worth somewhere around double what we paid for it. We are able to use that money as a starter fund.
My opinion. Whatever I can actively manage, I can outperform the market most of the time. With ebay, I can buy and sell for 3x or 5x my money, there is no where you can do that in the market. Same goes with real estate, if I can actively manage my capital I feel like I can move quickly and make a good return. That is the biggest reason I have not invested in rental property right now, I know I can make a better return if I can manage it. Once we get to the point where I cannot actively manage it, I want to start investing for the long term.
123flip looks like a very interesting site, I will bookmark it for later.
Here is how I have it in my mind. There is short term capital investing (flipping houses) and long term capital investing (unknown). Right now we are building up some capital to have enough to function in the flipping world. I would like to have enough to buy and renovate 1 home with enough in the bank to purchase a second home. That way if I am working one house and I come across another at a great deal I can purchase it, even if it means sitting on it for a month or two. Once the house flipping business is sufficiently funded, we can start pulling the profit off of those jobs to invest in long term capital investing. Hopefully this will produce income that we can use today as well as growth for the future. I do not know what this long term investing will be. Possibly residential rental income as you suggested, an Air-BnB in the area, storage units or commercial rental property. I have interest in all of these, and we will decide at some point in time. But I want to go into those ventures from a strong cash position, with the intention of continuing the flipping business and pouring profits into the long term investing business, whatever that looks like.
Right now around Nashville the real estate business is absolutely on fire. I am not predicting a downturn anytime soon, but I am sure one is coming. At least it must slow down a little. My real estate agent said there are 750 agents in the county and 600 available properties. Any home that is livable in any way is selling immediately. IF I can find houses that are prime for flipping I will, but I can’t put all my eggs in that basket.
I have been listening every week, but have not commented in a while. Ryanne made a comment about flipping houses, so I thought I would share a little. In the past couple of months I have sold 2 flip houses, and this week I purchased another project. The first flip house was a very small house that a friend owned and just wanted to get rid of. I paid $18k and sold for $36k. after all the paperwork and monthly bills we ended netting around $13k. I did nothing to this house but clean it up. It needed a LOT of cleaning up. It needed too much work to rehab.
Second house I purchased with a partner (my current boss at my day job). The deal was, I would purchase the house and he would pay for and manage the remodel. I also picked out all of the cabinets, fixtures, paint colors, etc. This house needed more structural work than we bargained for. We ended up replacing 25% of the floor joists. When we purchased the house, we assumed we would sell it for around $175k. Here are the numbers: Purchase $87k, remodel costs $61k, sales price $194. We listed it for $190 and got an offer of $194 the next day. We took almost 4 months to do the work, and spent too much in my opinion on the work. But we ended up splitting $36k after realtors fees. We hired out 100% of the work.
Monday of this week I purchased a home almost identical to the last one we sold for $194k. I paid $104k for this one, it needs no structural and a lot less overall work. I am tackling this project by myself while my boss and I look for another project. I am planing on doing 75% of the work myself and hiring out a few trades to keep things moving along. If anyone is looking for me over the next few months, that is where I will be.
Just for fun, amazon sales are picking back up, Last 7 days – $1,750 in sales on items I purchased on ebay. Just a reminder, I am still running %40% to 50% profit on those items. Hopefully I can keep everyone better updated on my adventures.
I think a realistic model for me when I quit my job is to flip one house at a time and do ebay/amazon in between and nights.
You guys are welcome to come to Tennessee for the eclipse. I live right on the center line of the eclipse, just a mile from I-65. 2 min 40 seconds of “totality”. Not sure how much farther it is than SC. Cross Plains is the city I live in if you want to Google it. I may be parking cars in the yard that day if I think there is a market for it (which I believe there will be). My sister created an Airbnb account yesterday for her house. Solely to rent it for the eclipse. Just a neighborhood house, 3br 2ba. $300 night 2 night minimum. Rented within 8 hours!
I should have offered him something and take it all right now, but it was like the breath was knocked out of me. It was an experience for me to hone my negotiating skills, next time I will do better.
I just hit the jackpot! I saw an ad on facebook for a yard sale on Friday. One of the pictures had some vintage stereo equipment, silver faced, but I could not tell any brands. I messaged the lady and said if she decided to pre-sell any items, I would be interested in buying all of her audio equipment. She responded and said he would be interested in pre-selling the audio because everything had to be sold, they were moving in 2 weeks. I asked what was the asking prices on some of the stereo equipment and she said $50 each. When I got there I seriously could not believe it, marantz, sony, bose, onkyo, nakimichi, pioneer, about 30 to 40 pieces, all vintage and had obviously been well taken care of. Then the man comes out, “well since we talked I have been looking some of this stuff up on ebay…”. Can you believe this sells for $1,000 on ebay? I would have to get $850 for it. I looked this cassette player up and it sells for $840, I could let it go for $700. It was like I got hit by a truck. I told him I could not pay that much as I was re-selling. You know when you are talking to someone and you really just want to leave, that was me. I left with nothing. He said he was thinking about selling it on ebay himself. He has my number, maybe he will decide to call me…. 🙁
Total Items in store: 332
Items sold:5
Cost of items sold: approx. $43
Total Sales: $128
Highest price sold: $75 – lot of 6 Bucket boss tool organizer
Average price sold: $25.6
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $1,416Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 7 sales – $940; COGS – $382; fees – $113; profit – $444
I eventually got a buyer to remove 1 of my 2 negative feedbacks on Amazon. I sent them a message every other day for over 2 weeks. I basically just bugged them until they caved. This method is annoying for me and, I assume, for the buyer, but it was the only way.Past few weeks have been slower on amazon, topped off with 5 returns in the past 10 days for over $1000. This is the most returns I have received on Amazon during a short span, but I know it will even out over time. The good news is, when I get the item back, I test it and can sell it used on Amazon, often breaking even on my initial buy price.
Today is PRIME day! My first one with a large Amazon inventory, let’s see how this goes.
6/18 – 6/24
Total Items in store: 339
Items sold:2
Cost of items sold: approx. $4
Total Sales: $45
Highest price sold: $25 Aladin blue thermos 1 Qt
Average price sold: $22.50
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $3,207Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 17 sales – $2,661; COGS – $891; fees – $329; profit – $1,441
2 negative feedbacks on amazon have put my account “at risk”. 1 item was a used calculator I bought at a yard sale and sold for $30. I thought I tested it thoroughly, but apparently not. The second was a $40 new in package item that did not work. Package was unopened and brand new. They obviously received a full refund. Over the past 90 days on amazon, I have sold over 200 items. I have received exactly 5 feedback. 3 negative and 2 positive. 1 negative was removed because it was a delivery issue.I bought an item on ebay, new in package. It was shipped in a plastic bag. It was destroyed by the time I got it, so I returned it. No problem there, it happens. The guy has been messaging for 2 weeks about giving him positive feedback. I don’t want to be that guy on Amazon, but does anyone have experience with boosting quantity of feedback on Amazon? Also, anyone with any experience getting someone helpful on Amazon for seller support.
6/11 – 6/17
Total Items in store: 341
Items sold:5
Cost of items sold: approx. $14
Total Sales: $74
Highest price sold: $28 NASCAR pit shirt
Average price sold: $15
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:0
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $0Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 16 sales – $2,850; COGS – $975; fees – $300; profit – $1,573
Nice profit on Amazon this week. Sale of the week – $699, bought on Amazon for $109 5 weeks ago.5/28 – 6/3
Total Items in store: 348
Items sold: 9
Cost of items sold: approx. $47
Total Sales: $195 (30% off sale)
Highest price sold: $45 NASCAR pit jacket
Average price sold: $21.77
Int’l sales: 0
Returns:1 (smashed coffe mug)
Number of items listed this week: 0
Amazon disbursement – $0Full time ebay goal – was March 2018; now – ????
Ebay to Amazon – 18 sales – $1,711; COGS – $652; fees – $232; profit – $827
Something different on Amazon I discovered this week: I have an item I have bought on ebay and sold on Amazon a couple of times. I can usually buy them for $100 – $125, and sell for $200 – $225. This week on amazon, the lowest price was $49.99. Amazon was the seller, but the odd thing was the lead time was 4 to 6 weeks. It seems like Amazon is drop shipping. Seems contradictory to the Amazon model.Essentially, I am only doing amazon at this point. I have listed less than 50 items on ebay during the past year. I have been averaging $500 per month in ebay sales in 2017, even though I have not listed anything since october of last year. Since the first of the year, I have been concentrating on being consistent on sending stuff into AZ.
I feel like a day trader!
