Welcome to Chez Cliff!

I can’t find a lender who is willing to give me 100% financing without the place being owner occupied.  I don’t want to live there, I want to rent it out!  There are some programs available but they required 10% down.  With condos starting at $300k, I don’t have $30k laying around.  I have no idea how to even get that kind of money!  But every book I’ve read, including the Rich Dad, Poor Dad books has told me the same thing:  Money is the least of your worries when doing a deal.  I’m thinking that maybe this means that I should worry about money at a later time.  I see so many people grind to a halt when the question of "Where do we get the money for this deal?"  Then any business ideas they might have had die.

Normally, I’d cancel my appointment with Carolina.  I will go forward.  If I must, I will live in the condo for 6 months then do a refi and get the heck out.  Then a renter can be in there.

Rich Dad tells me that I should never assume debt unless someone is willing to pay me for it.

Someone will pay me for it.

It didn’t take long for a real estate agent to contact me.  He sounds decent enough.  He’s from North Carolina and he seems cool.  I’ve made an appointment with him to go look at condos this weekend.  I’ll call him Carolina.  He has several he wants to show me.  I told him I had already found several condos and I’ve faxed in the sheets.  He said we can look at those as well. 

It’s hard to judge a place by the tiny photos on-line.

It’s good that some friends, who live in Long Beach, really know the area well.  They’re helping me weed out the bad areas.  It’s nice having that information at your finger tips.

I cannot wait for the weekend to get here!!

I called my mentor.  He’s willing to take a look at some businesses if I can find them.  So it’s up to me.

He runs a software company so I’m going to start there.  I know computers and programming quite well.  This could be a good match if I can find the right product.

I went to a few websites for businesses in Southern California.  I have no desire to live in North Dakota.  Sorry Mr. Brokaw!  The websites I visited were:

http://www.biz-exchange.com/orange-county-area-business-brokers.php
http://bizbuysell.com/
http://www.sunbeltca.com/

The number of businesses for sale is astounding!  But that’s good.  That means I have choices and I can find what it is that I want.

I’m going for businesses that have been around at least 5 years, have strong discretionary cash-flow, list areas for future growth, and are willing to "owner-finance".  I don’t want my mentor to shell out anymore money than necessary because there is such a thing as "good debt".

I figured out how much I qualify for.  It’s not enough for a house.  Definitely not enough for investment property.  But if I can get a condo, get someone renting it, then I’m at least building equity.

I found several condo websites online.  There are some nice ones in the Long Beach area.  Mostly two bedrooms, 1 bath.  I’m not familiar enough with Long Beach to know if the area is good or not.  Long Beach is weird like that.  You can be driving in the prettiest neighborhoods you ever saw and a street later, be in the middle of a war zone.  It’s nutty but I think that area will get better.  My new word is "gentrification".  Simply put, the crappy houses are being fixed up to increase property value and then, with any luck, being sold at a hefty price tag.

I contacted a real estate office today and left a message.  I’m hoping someone calls me back relatively soon.  I’m anxious to get going.

I’m surprised at how quickly my rage is being transformed into drive.  I seemed to have hesitated before and now I find myself doing things almost as if on auto-pilot.  It’s very surreal.

I like it!

I spent the afternoon, brain storming ideas.  Here we go.

I’m going to start working on two things.

First:  I need to get investment property.  A four-plex, a duplex, or even a condo.  I’d prefer a four-plex because I could live in one of the units and rent out the others.  And I could help out with the mortgage.  That’s no big deal.  I’ve decided that I’ll call lenders and find out which ones support loans for investment properties.  I’m thinking that there may be different loan programs out there for investment properties versus just regular homes.

Second:  I purchased a course on "How to Buy a Business".  (http://www.diomo.com/)  The material was invaluable and I’ve read it twice since it arrived last month.  I’m going to start contacting business brokers and find out what kind of businesses are out there.  I’ve already got some websites bookmarked for searching.  In December, I found someone who was wanting to sell a network of ATMs in Hawaii.  He had 54 machines which generated gross income around $450k.  He wanted $600k to cash out.  I approached my friend, who has become my mentor, and he was interested in the deal as well.  The deal never went through but it was a learning experience for me.

But I learned valuable things during that time.  Terms like "Due Diligence", etc. that I had never been exposed to.

Those are my two objectives.