For months I have been looking for a new business venture to setup within a fifty mile radius of my home.  It has been a long time since I have started anything new, and I have been craving a new challenge.  Instead of picking something at random, I have been listening and watching the market looking for a good opportunity to jump in.

I think I have found it.

While browsing a local sale for barbers & stylists aprons I overheard a conversation between a couple of business owners.  I guess the local hair care supplies shop owner was looking to retire and was trying to sell their shop.  Like many businesses trying to change hands, this one had no one that was interested.

I decided that it was worth a look.

I met with the owner and asked if we could go over the numbers as I was interested in buying his shop.  Pouring over the accounting records showed me exactly what I was looking for – the business was profitable and had been for years.  It was going to be a profitable investment provided I could get a price that I could live with.

Which is exactly what I did.

The shop will be having its grand opening in just a couple of weeks and I am so excited to see how we make out with it.  I’m thinking that it will be the shining jewel of my investment portfolio.

• Found my Next Business
  2017-01-05T22:25:00-08:00
  Steven Locke
  Business|
  Comments

Sometimes being a volunteer firefighter isn’t all that it is cracked up to be.  Sure, we get to be the ones that can save your burning house, rescue someone from a car crash and be the first responder when someone calls 911, but there are times when our job is less glamorous.

This past weekend we had an incident occur at our firehall sometime in the evening.  Our tanker truck is old and while we knew the tank was rusting on the inside, we would never have expected that it would fail.  But when the fire chief walked up to the building early Sunday morning, he knew there was a problem.  Water was leaking out from the garage doors on the front of the building, but when he checked inside, he discovered that it had flooded the basement as well.

It was potentially a big problem.

Instead of trying to figure out this situation on our own, he called a company that specialized in flood repair to see what we should do about the problem.  We needed to make sure that all of the water was removed properly and any damage repaired as we couldn’t afford to be in a situation where the volunteers could have health problems in the future.

It was the right thing to do.

We are expecting to hear what the game plan is to deal with this problem when the come by in the morning.  Hopefully it won’t be too hard for us to fix without a lot of problems.

• Getting a Professional Opinion
  2017-01-03T19:54:00-08:00
  Steven Locke
  Business|
  Comments

After having some success flipping homes for a profit, I decided that it was time to try something a little bigger.  I had been crunching numbers on commercial properties in the city for quite awhile, but there were no real good deals that ever made it to my desk.  Since investing is a game of numbers, I knew that I just had to be patient and something would eventually come my way.

It took about three months to see an opportunity worth grabbing, but when I did I put an offer in right away.

That was about a month ago.

Since I took possession I have been working to renovate the office building that I purchased as quickly as possible so that I can flip it for a profit.  Last week, I was able to get commercial glass doors Los Angeles installed and now all I am waiting for a painter to come Thursday.  Once the painting is done, all that will be left is staging the building and then listing it.

I am hoping for a quick sale.

Provided I make enough money on this sale I will be looking for a larger project for my next flip – I think I am ready for a more challenging project.

• Commercial Building Flipping Project
  2017-01-02T21:55:00-08:00
  Steven Locke
  Real Estate|
  Comments

One of the things that I have been lucky with is finding good real estate investments.  It comes down to a few simple and fundamental steps I take for each property that I analyze and it is my recipe for success.  I am going to share it with you today and I hope that you walk away just a little smarter than you were right now.

Let’s get started.

The secret to finding a good real estate investment property is this: keep your emotions out of the picture.  Emotions can cloud your judgement, make you overlook large problems such as water damage and in my experience any emotional-based investment goes horribly wrong.

Thankfully I learned this lesson early on and I only had one property that really was an emotional purchase.  I was young at the time and I instantly fell in love with a foreclosure I was bidding on thanks to the beautiful curb appeal.  I bid more than I was going to, and when the dust settled I was so happy with my purchase.

At this point, a wiser investor would have seen the warning lights.

As it turned out, this property had so much water damage and foundation issues that it was a lost cause.  If I had just shut off my emotions and looked at the property from an objective point of view I would have seen all of the signs and walked away long before I was willing to put down a deposit.

Lesson learned.

You can learn from my mistake and make smart real estate investments by keeping your emotions out of the equation.

• The Secret to Good Real Estate Investments
  2016-11-05T07:57:00-07:00
  Steven Locke
  Real Estate|
  Comments

It has been a few years now that I have had rental properties and I am always on the lookout for new ones to add to my portfolio.  I am always looking for good value, and you never quite know what you are going to find when you look at a potential property.  I only make it out once per week to check out some of these possible investments in person, so I make sure to only look at the ones that seem to be the best on paper.

Which is exactly what I am doing today.

There are three properties on my list for today:

• One apartment building
• One single family home
• One townhouse

Each of these properties brings their own value proposition to the table, but in the end I will only have enough money to buy one.  I know that most of you will think that the apartment will be the best investment, but I am actually leaning towards the single family home.

Why?

Well, it is easy.  The home has great curb appeal, new Milgard Windows, and is located just one block from a school.  I figure that it has the best potential to attract a young family with children, and those are the types of tenants that I would prefer to have in one of my rental units.

I am hopeful that I will be making an offer on one of the properties today, but I will have to see what happens – you never know if a property is good unless you see it with your own eyes.

• Promising Real Estate Investments
  2016-11-04T20:17:00-07:00
  Steven Locke
  Real Estate|
  Comments

While I was waiting for the workers to deal with our water damage issue in the home that we are renovating, I thought it was a good opportunity to get out of the house and purchase some supplies.  I had been so worried about this property that I had not taken the time to go on a proper shopping trip to get the materials we needed to do the renovations.

So, I decided to take advantage of the lull in the work and get on the road.  You see, I heard there was a good deal on Tuscany Milgard windows in La Caniada, so I decided to hop in the car to take a look.  I know that some of you out there would rather buy your windows online, but I must be old-fashioned because I like to see the windows in person before buying them.  There have been more than a dozen times where this habit has paid off, and I will continue to check things out in person for as long as I am renovating homes.

I am hoping that I will be able to pick up all of the supplies I need today – we won’t have a lot of time to shop once we can get started working on renovating the home if we want to stick to our timeline of selling it by the end of the month.

• Searching for Good Deals on Windows
  2016-10-07T19:29:00-07:00
  Steven Locke
  Real Estate|
  Comments

Buying properties at a deep discount, fixing them up, and reselling them for a profit is my hobby.  I started doing it just a few years ago and I have had great success doing it.  Sure, from time to time it can be a mess, but there hasn’t been a property that I have not made money on yet.

It has been very lucrative for me and my business partners.

But our latest investment has me wondering if we are going to make any money on it.  You see, we bought a home that was in foreclosure for pennies on the dollar.  From the outside, the home looked immaculate, and it looked like it was going to be another sure win for us.

I wish I had not felt so confident about this property when we made the offer.  It turns out that the home had extensive water damage and we called in a company that specialized in water damage restoration malibu.  They gave us a quote that we could live with and they started on the work.

The deeper they dug, the more problems turned up.

But at least the work is underway to get things fixed so that we can do the rest of the work on the home.  If all goes well, we should be able to put it on the market by the end of the month – wish us luck!

• Working on my Latest Flip
  2016-10-07T19:22:00-07:00
  Steven Locke
  Real Estate|
  Comments