It suddenly jumps out at you. 
You sit in your bathrobe on a Sunday morning watching the tail end of some informational program on real estate investing.
A light bulb comes on over your head..one that is 15 watts like the inside of a refrigerator. Suddenly the pitch of Joe Moneymaker on the tube hits home. You have decided to send for the tapes, books, propaganda for three easy payments. You are passionate about investing in Maine rental properties...lots of them with a dollar down. You should have done this years ago and plan to make up for lost time. It seems so easy on the tv talk show...you plan to hit a real estate home run. You approach a nice lady with blue hair that owns a triplex. You ask her from the script that is tattooed under your lip if she would take a second mortgage for 15 years at the same rate a local bank is charging on the 80% first mortgage. She says sure...the place is one you heat. You do the same financial set up with five other rentals and figure you can putter on them on Saturday afternoons once in awhile...just having to mow a few lawns...which you will farm out to your kids for spending money. You add up all the rents...forgetting to factor in what if they don't pay, cost of eviction, wear and tear, taxes, insurance, mortgage and the big nut..heating costs on these section 8 apartments. You are about to wrestle with a Maine black bear.
There are so many houses with your name on the mortgage now to service the debt on. The 100% financing leverage talk tape in your head starts to get jammed as the heating bills of winter take their toll. Some of the units have broken or missing casement windows and heat loss is happening. You don't even notice because you have so many homes to worry about. Not enough money in the cash flow to hire a manager...let alone a good one you can depend on. You are up til midnight all week trying to remove garbage, fix wall holes and to get rid of that pet smell the permeates the empty unit you want to get on line. Tenants are calling you at your real job complaining about loud music from next door, that someone keyed their car and local police are tracking you down in the middle of the night due to parties disturbing the police. Local neighbors to the properties are starting to call in the middle of the night ..holding the phone out their window screaming "Can you hear that?" as they relay the Metalica song blaring thru the neighborhood. And you wonder how you are going to keep the places heated this winter. Solution...go slow...buy one, manage it, get your feet wet, see if you are cut out to deal with tenants, repairs, or an extra property in addition to your day to day obligations at home and work and with family. Is this the right time to take on being a landlord? Are you cut out to be a landlord? Also what type of housing market are you going after? High end retirement crowd, low end slum lord or something in between that is neat, clean, maintained and affordable? In Houlton Maine there are 560 apartment units and less than 2% vacancy so the demand is there. But juggling too many places that you heat can cause a real estate nightmare. Too many too fast can jeopardize your credit rating and can cause ulcers let alone bankruptcy. Do you want your kids to see that happen? Are you too old to recoup from a financial setback and do you want to take a chance jeopardizing all your worked so hard for until now?
Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers' Houlton & Aroostook County Real Estate Information
I love the picture the bear wow can you imagine a hunt for that. good luck with all have a happy 4th of July
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