Story

Shadowed a BRRRR guy for a Saturday and ended up in a crawlspace by 4pm

I want rental income without a second job, so before I put money anywhere I asked a guy from my old office if I could just follow him for a day. He does this full time, four or five houses a year, buys them rough and refinances them once they're rented.

8:30 we walked a house with his painter and argued about whether a stair rail was going to pass. 10:15 we met an appraiser at a different house and he said almost nothing the whole time, which he told me later is deliberate. 11:40 he took a call from a lender in the truck and I got to hear him ask the same question three different ways until he got a number he trusted.

One o'clock we showed a finished house to two applicants back to back. Second one asked if her brother could paint the second bedroom and he said sure, send me the color, and I could tell that was a yes to more than paint.

Then at about 3:40 the tenant in the house he refinanced in the spring called about no hot water, and we drove over, and I ended up on my stomach at the crawlspace hatch holding a light while he looked at a pan full of water.

He dropped me at my car at 6:15 and said that was a light Saturday. I believe him. I also know now that I am not doing this myself.

4 replies

gregpowell66AG4BPRO8

The stair rail argument at 8:30 is the most accurate detail in this. I came from the building side and I still lose that one to inspectors about a third of the time.

The part that would have taught me the most is the truck call. Asking the same question three ways until the number stops moving is a skill nobody writes down.

tonyv88SO4CPRO6

On my side of it, the paint yes is the whole story. Tenant who wants to change a wall color usually stays three years.

luis_carrera Get yours

@marlow this is closer to useful than the last four months of spreadsheets I've built. I've been modeling rehab lines to the dollar and I've never once stood in a crawlspace.

Did he say what happens to his cycle when a hot water heater and a refinance land in the same week?

samantha_ruizAU4APRO6

@windlass they land in the same week constantly, and the answer is you handle the heater and the refinance slips, because the heater has a person attached to it.

I'm four houses in and the ceiling I hit isn't deals, it's Saturdays. My capital recycles slower than it used to because the rate makes each cash-out smaller, so I'm holding more houses to get the same income, and every house I add takes another chunk out of the week. @marlow figured out in one day what took me two years.