NeoTokyo

Hey everyone, I made it out to Missouri from Cali safly and now I have internet access again so I am back!

I had to leave my mustang in Cali but I am going back for it soon and then I am completing the engine swap and QA1 swap. Remember that Ford Test car 03' Mach IFS w/o brakes is coming up for sale soon.

I work at SRC now building engines all day long. I mainly build and hot fire Mercruiser and very few Delco engines, all GM pretty much. I get to mess with these HUGE HUGE 4-bangers these 3.2's with a Ford Big Block head on them, golf ball sized ports. We also have a fair share of GMP engines so performance engines are in the mix too, but we dont hot fire those, just USON (Check oil and water leakdown rates.) I am only making $10.35 /hour right now but that will go up to $11.15 in 90 days. Its a far cry from the $18 bux an hour I was making in Cali but cost of living is so much cheaper here.

I am looking for a house right now to buy seeing that its cheaper then renting (About $650/mo w/tax-insurance for a $75,000 house.) and I will flip it and do that a couple times. I figure I am going to have a couple rental properties in my name before I go back to cali to start CrainRacing. I want to get about $50,000 from Real Estate and a possitive cashflow of at least $1000/month before going back to sac. But for the next 2 years I am here in Springfield Missouri.

Welp its late and I have to get to bed, night.

-Neo-

BlkWidow

Good idea on flipping houses - there's good money in it. I don't know what building is like there but building spec houses gives you an even better return on your investment. I live in an area where building has just been insane over the last 2 decades. I did the numbers & by the time I build my 7th spec house, I will have the money to build with cash from there on out. It's in my five-year plan...we'll see how it goes.

Are you taking maintenance & a property management company into account when figuring the cash flow needed? A PM company will save your life if you're going back out to Cali. Don't forget the cost of turning the property (paint, carpet cleaning, locks, etc.) in the cost of maintenance when you're running figures. Those little things add up quick.

Sounds like you have your plan figured out - hope it goes well!

Oh...funny that you call your car Penny. I've never heard that as a name for a car before. That's my name, btw.

NeoTokyo

Nice, Penny is a damn good name

If you want to know where the name came from then please dont tell anyone else, please!

I was riding in the car after we bought her with my wife and she stuck in her Hanson CD (I tolerate it though for her) and a song that she likes played and it was called "Penny and Me." She said "Hey thats a good name for this car" cause we also found like 100 pennies in the seats so the name stuck and I liked it too.

We try to name all of our cars, they do infact have personalities.

She has 4 cars all with names and I have 3.

Hers
1968 Mustang -Nelly-
1971 Mach1 -Baby-
1993 300ZX -Ling Ling-
1996 Mustang -No Name- (Litterally its No Name )

Mine
1970 Chevelle -The car isnt done yet so we havnt gotten a name.-
1995 Mustang -Penny-
2005 F150 FX4 -Clifford- We named him clifford after we got him because he is a BIG RED SLOW TRUCK [8D]

Our three cats have car names too.

Cleveland
Shelby
Z!

We named Z after finding her in the hatch of our 300ZX after her mommy brought her there. We named Cleveland after she slipped and fell through the cylender of the 351 from aprils Mach1 on the engine stand and we named Shelby because she zips all over the place. They are all girl cats.

Now as for flipping houses, I took into account all the things I would need to fix them up and maintain them when I leave again. I will hire an agency to make sure that my houses are always rented and kept orderly outside. I will add the cost of yard maint into the rent.
We actually just got a house today, its not too bad, its been nicely remodeled and I think if I add a little more work into the house I can sell it for more. We got it for $54,500 and I want to sell it for $69,900 here in a few months. Its a Two bed 1 bath house with decent living room, big kitchen and a laundry room. Has a concrete front porch and a wood rear. The lot is .25ac which is nice and has a 1 car garage with front and rear parking. Its about 850sqft so its not that big but its nice enough for a small family. There were cheaper in the MLS's but most needed more work. The inside really just needs paint to be perfect so I am going to work on the unsightly outside yard. I am going to build over the concrete porch and put in a nice FULL wood porch. There isnt fencing on two sides so I am going to put up nice 6' wood fencing for privacy, I am going to extend the single detatched garage to fit two cars and clear a space for RV parking. The front is going to get a short 3' white fence and some cheap shrubs like boxwood. All the storm windows are going to be replaced with dual pane flip out windows and two bay windows will be added to either side to break up the box look. Because the property is on a slight slope I will add a French drain on both sides of the property all the way front to back to drain propperly. Then I just need to landscape the backyard with a couple white Fir tree's to add shade in the summer and a few other decerative plants and it should come out pretty nice. It already has brand new siding on it which makes it look very nice and it has new updated electrical and new R30 insulation in the walls but the attic is the old blow in stuff but still works. I plan to invest about $2-3000 in the property depending on material costs so I should hit my estimated profit.

I checked out what houses generally sell for in that area and the average is about 55-60k and peak is 80k on a couple houses that really didnt look as good as ours. That was last years specs so this summer I should be able to sell that house with no problem.

welp I have to get going, have a good night.

-Eric-