A Peek into My Week
Business
New Real Estate Markets
Does anyone here invest in Omaha, Nebraska?
In our weekly deal analysis.
I was shocked to see the strength of this market.
I haven’t fully dug into the factors but this property was reasonably priced, extremely cool, and seemed to drive a very strong cash flow.
If you are interested in checking out any of the cash-flowing deals our team found in this part of the country, just respond with the word ‘Nebraska’, and we will send them over, or can put you in touch with a broker in that market.
I am going to dig into the reasons why and most likely share in another newsletter but I was curious if any of you are familiar with, or like this market for any specific reason.
PMI - Principal Mortgage Insurance
For those who don’t know.
With many loans where you put less than 20% down, you pay something called PMI (principal mortgage insurance).
It’s a monthly fee you typically pay until your property reaches 20% in equity - either through appreciation or improvements to the property.
If any of you got 10% down loans, and the loan is 1 or more years old.
I highly recommend you get the property re-appraised and there is a good chance you can get rid of the PMI on your property.
This can be significant.
On one property I have the PMI is $33/mo and on another, it’s $98/mo.
What does this mean?
It means for the cost of 2 appraisals I can essentially be SAVING $131 each month.
That is enough to cover the country club dues every month.
Remove PMI
Easier said than done.
All I will say is be careful with this.
And if anyone has advice for my situation - I am all ears.
I have 2 properties that I put 10% down on and have increased in value to where I have way more than 20% in equity.
The problem is..
The lender will not take the steps to remove the PMI.
It’s not for lack of effort, I have called, emailed, and physically mailed in paperwork to my lender SLS for over 7 months.
And they have not taken their next step of scheduling an appraisal to calculate the new equity in the home.
Why is this a big deal?
I am pretty much throwing away.
Roughly $1572/year.
So talk to your lender beforehand about the process to remove PMI.
This is the lender holding my poor PMI hostage, if you can avoid working with them, it’s probably best.
Indoor Golf Simulator
If there are any golfers here,
You know that indoor golf simulator rooms, traditionally have been very expensive.
Ranging anywhere from 25k to 75k depending on the quality of the build and size.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that these days you can build one for $2,000-$5,000.
This is cheaper than a putting green, hot tub, redesign, and other features.
And typically, garages are dead space in properties.
So the new plan in 2 properties located in North Carolina is to convert the garages into indoor hitting simulators and man caves (or women's caves - sorry ladies).
Based on this,
We should be able to raise the nightly rates at least $100 per night in peak season which would have a better return than buying any type of property right now.
It’s really important to optimize your properties before buying new ones in my opinion.
Especially if you are struggling to find deals.
My favorite YouTube video learning about this, and my favorite company so far
Also here is a notion database of options/details from my research, feel free to check out:
Project Management Tools
Your eyes might completely glaze over when you hear this but if you are a business owner or someone looking to improve your efficiency, you are going to want to read this.
I thought I was pretty good with project management and organizing details, but it’s not my strength.
For that reason, I mentioned last email, that I have hired a part-time company project manager.
I found her on Upwork (there were lots of great people there). Here is the link to my saved search:
Her main responsibilities will be:
Help us define and build repeatable process maps
Clean up our org chart and define roles/responsibilities
Rebuild our company scorecard
Run our weekly scorecard calls
Here are some of the tools I like to make these projects come to life:
Miro is my favorite. No this isn’t a sponsored post
Google sheet scorecard. Here is the template we used to build ours.
Real Estate Tools and Cost Management
A tool we are testing to find better cleaners and also to improve our cleaning operational efficiency.
With Turno, you can find cleaners in your area based on ratings, give them cleaning checklists, and review completed work before making payment.
We are excited to implement this across our properties.
Email collection from guests.
his tool integrates with your wifi provider and collects the email of anyone who uses wifi on your property.
What this means is that you can then market to those people after the stay to potentially earn direct bookings or expand your bookings beyond just the person who booked the actual trip.
I have used Airdna for years but they just completely revamped their site.
So this past week I have been refamiliarizing myself with the tool and the new updates.
Mainly we use it for quick property revenue calculations but we will be using this more to help pick new areas that are getting less attention.
This is the host management software we have been using for quite some time and just continue to find ways to tweak things within it.
They also have some of the best support I have seen of any of the platforms in this space.
Personal
Vacation This Week & Golf Tournament
At the time of writing this, I am flying back to the US from Medellin.
Later this week I’ll be playing my first tournament of the winter.
No real expectations but excited to see how the game holds up.
The tournament starts Thursday, at least we have some nice weather! 🫨
Last week when I was in Florida, I got lucky and had a hole-in-1.
Sleep (Part 2)
Chili-pads
Okay, so now I can safely say, I have lost my mind when it comes to sleep. This topic of focus - bed-cooling products.
*If any of you have any recommendations on bed cooling products, PLEASE send any feedback you have.
I wouldn’t classify myself as a hot sleeper, but I sleep better when the room is cold.
For most people,
This wouldn’t be an issue.
The temperature in Medellin is typically 75 during the day and 65 at night.
All good.
Maybe I read one too many articles on sleep or listened to one too many Andrew Huberman podcasts about sleep, but now it’s hard for me to sleep in a nonfreezing room.
In the US this is fine, but in Medellin, most furnished rentals do not have AC.
Or the ones that are due or typically 400-500 more per month.
So that leads me to the bed cooling research.
There are 2 categories of this product.
Water - being products that circulate cold water into the mattress pad
Air - being tubes that run cool air under your sheets from a device under or next to the bed.
This one seems to be the Rolls Royce of mattress pads and I will be giving it a test either the next time I’m in the US or this summer.
I know it’s expensive but for me, if I can stay in properties that don’t have AC, I would be saving about $500 per month
Here is a notion table I have been using to track the findings.
Trying To Not Get Old
When I work out, I seem to get hurt, when I don’t I feel weak and also sometimes tweak things.
I have started looking for different fitness routines to build strength but have virtually no chance of getting injured
You may laugh, but the routine I have stumbled upon / testing at the moment - is just pushups, sit-ups, and body lunches every other day.
Have any of you ever heard of someone getting hurt from doing this?
So far I am one week in, and I feel stronger. So far no injuries or tweaks but of course it’s too early to tell.
Will keep you posted.
That’s it for this week.
Wish me luck in the tournament and I will catch you next week.
If you need anything or have any questions in the meantime, feel free to reply, I see every response to this email and get back to all replies.
Jonathan.
