Dru’s New World

There is not a single person out there that knows how to do everything and is a master of all. Except maybe Thinker. The one thing I realized is you are only as good as the Professionals that you hire. Yesterday I went to court again for Child Support. Again nothing happened. I will admit the my financial status is really hurting because of the amount of money I pour out and the lack of funds coming in. This is why there are so many advertisements on this site.

After court, My Lawyer who has been great and although reminds me I haven’t payed him in a long time, said to me, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee.”

After sitting in the Coffee Shop with my Lawyer for an hour and him paying for my coffee the whole time talking about everything from the current legal status to the hot girl I have been dating, I realized something. Life can get difficult and everyone needs to have a support system. This includes those of us that need to pay professionals for things that you do not have the knowledge about.

I then looked at my life right now. I am currently working full time and raising two daughters on my own. On top of that I am looking into and own investment property. I am not that knowledgable about certain things like Real estate Market and property values and stuff like that. So I have a Real Estate Agent that I hired. She has been great. Not only has she got me into a great investment property she is great at advising me with more investments and getting me in with the right people to make this a profitable business. The reason she is so great: Because she seams to care about me and my Girls and realizes that if she can get me in the position to make a profit I will be in the position to make her more money.

I have a Lawyer I have had for almost two years. Why is this a great person to hire although he charges more than most other lawyers? The whole fact that he has stuck to the feeling from the beginning, “You are a great man, Dru. You are a great Father. I will not let you get the wrong end of the Stick.”

This whole situation with my lawyer taking me out for Coffee was the proof of that. He saw that I have been depressed and wanted to talk to me as a person that knows that if I get the best work from him I will always require a Lawyer around to get my life in a better place. He also knows that if He provides the best service to me he will get me what I need so I can pay him.

This is why I always say that if you have something that you need but you are not an expert in that field hire for how they are not how much they are. My Investment Property will get me a $2000 a month Profit once i get tenants that will pay the rent. For this I have a great Lawyer that will help me get the wrong people out and the right people in.

Thanks Demo and Holli for being the best people you are.

When I was manager of a large contract there were certain perks that I would do for a job well done for those team members that showed the initiative.  While taking on my new “Second Job” as a landlord I would have never though that I would recieve a job well done.  My goal in this new endevor was to never have my tenants say, “DruU, is a Slum Lord”  I have lived in some pretty crappy places and I want to make sure that my Tenants will never say that about one of my properties. 

One of my tenants payed her rent on the First and I thought it was great to open up the envelope and see the rent check was there and there was also a little note, “DruU, Hope you are having a great time with your new property.  This area is great and you are going to love it.”  This was surprising to me because when ever I left notes to my old landlords with the rent check they always said something like, “I need this Water Heater fixed or no rent for you next month.”

Well, Yesterday I was at work and I received a phone call from this same tenant, all landlords worry when a tenant calls them.  This same Tenant said, “DruU, they didn’t fill up my Propane for the Water Heater because they said it was disconnected.”  Of course my response was, “We replaced your water heater with an electric one.  You no longer require Propane.”

She then said, “That is right, you told me that before.  But I also wanted to tell you that I was actually able to take a FULL bath the other day for the first time I have lived here.  Thank you very much.”

I know this is something little but this woman is paying me to live there and it makes me feel better after all of this stress to see that her quality of life has been raised, if even a small amount.

For most people buying a house is the largest purchase they are going to make in their lives. Most people start off with the little house for the family they want to get started on. then after the children start growing and space is tighter they realize their income will allow them to purchase a bigger house.
Well, being who I am I could not do something so easy. I talked to some mortgage company and got my pre-approval… I then grabbed my Real Estate Agent and made her show me houses. Being a single parent who has never completed any college degree out of the MANY subjects I have studied, I have a very limited income. I just could not think of paying rent so some Jackass would pay his property off with my money. That got me to thinking, why not let some losers like me pay for my property.
This is where the risk level kicks in. When viewing all of these single family homes, that should have been condemed, I was looking at 42 percent of my income being eaten by one monthly payment.
I ended up getting a 4 family building that 10 years ago I remember driving by saying I want that house. I am now getting ready to pay my first mortgage. 97 percent of the income I bring home from my job goes to the monthly bill. One tenant payed rent this month… “OUCH” Ramien Noodles this week kids… But the good news, Ramen Noodles will give us a week to go fishing so we have food next week…

First thing is first… I am not sure what it is but I hate Police Uniforms. When I lived in Las Vegas I had a friend that was a Nevada Trooper. I could hang out when he was off duty all the time but if he swung by my house while he was still in uniform it always bugged me.
This morning around 5:00 am I was awoken to bangin at my door. It woke me and my 4 year old up. I grabbed her out of her bed since she was screaming and walked downstairs. I saw a light coming though the window into the kitchen. When I opened the door a flashlight was shinning right at me. I knew right away that they were cops. They never have respect for someone that was in the middle of a deep sleep. First thing I could think of was the Emergency Room visit this weekend. The person there made me feel like a criminal because my daughter got hurt. My ex-wife made me feel like I was a criminal because my daughter got hurt, are the cops here for that?
“Are you (Mr. DruU)?” The stern voice said reminding me of my old Drill Instructor.
“Yes, Sir…”
“Sorry, to wake you and your daughter up,” this did relax me, they would not appologize if they wanted me. “You are the New Owner of this property, correct?”
“Yes, Sir…”
“Have you seen your tenant, (Mr. BertR)?”

Of course now I was totally relaxed. They would not tell me why they were looking for him except they had a warrant for his arrest. They had me take them to his appartment and I gave them a key so they could open the door without making me buy a new one. Then I took them to the vacant apartment so they could make sure he wasn’t hiding in there. I gave them total access to everything. About an hour later I was leaving for work. There were Cops at the end of the road and Cops parked on my property hiding behind the garage. HOLY SHIT!!! One of my tenants will be in jail. I guess next months rent is going to be out of the question.

I am a first time home buyer. Signing all the paperwork to take over this property was stressful enough. I am starting to realize since I decided on a Multi-Family I did not buy one house… I BOUGHT 4…

The First thing I want to explain to you all is I bought this house from a man that ownes a House Building Company. Though I am not a complete idiot I am realizing how ignorant I am. I have been living here for about a month now. This place is great and I love it but there are a lot of issues that I need to fix. The other day I had an electrician come though so I could get a new hot water heated hooked up to the electricity of the apartment it belongs to. I am not going to pay for the electricity for thier hot water. This Electrician did his walk though while my mother was here because I was at my Uncle Joe’s Funeral.
He told me that he would do it but he needs to explain what he is going to do before he starts working. So he came over this morning and I walked though with him. Now there are certain things that I look for in people I am trusting to do work for me. As an ex-Aircraft Mechanic I am used to having a job that puts other people in danger if I mess up. This contractor is going to be putting my daughter’s saftey in his hands. Beyond that there are 3 other Families that I feel I am responsible for. This Contractor made me believe that he understood that the saftey of these families and of course my daughter is my main concern.

We started in the Basement where the Hot Water Heater is this was scare number one… The current hot water heater is Propane, this is suppose to have a ventalation system that runs out of the house. There was nothing hooked up. Therefore the exhaust of this hot water heater is just blowing into the basement. Not that that isn’t bad enough but if you look directly above it there is a vent that goes into the apartment above the hot water heater, STRAIGHT INTO THE PEOPLE 18 month old babies room… I am just glad the people haven’t moved in yet.
So we leave the basement and he takes me to the stairwell he wants to run the wires to the second floor. I will be honest I didn’t look at this stairwell to much when I was looking at the building, no one ever uses it and I didn’t care how ungly it was, its all cosmetic work, right? Nope… He continued to show me wires that were tacked up the wall instead of placed into the wall. He also showed me that there were a lot of wires just hanging there without being capped, yes they are live…
As he showed me all of this he told me he wanted to run the new wires and get these old wire behind the wall. I love that idea. But he said, “But I want to tear the wall down.” of course I replied, “Why?”
He reached up with his finger and pressed on a spot in the wall paper, it ripped. All it was was wall paper, so he ripped a lot of wall paper off the walls. This wall was about to fall down anyway.
I think at this point he could see the stress level flying and was afraid I was going to pop a couple arteries. He stopped the Tour right there. He did tell me he wants to do all this work and go into the attic and terminate a couple of wires up there and secure a couple of lose wires above the ceiling tiles.

For some reason no one understands why I am so stressed…