Sir

I'm interested in your turn-around. When you looked around at your business and made changes.

I know you stopped doing much of the work yourself, I also know that you adapted a no tolerance approach to teni tardiness.

Curious whether other changes come to mind, if there are details you could share. For example, How did you address cars and trucks? New with payments or old ?

"Pragmatic Dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations".

I constantly look around for clever changes. Everything from how to hang drywall to which bank has the cheapest foreign wire transfer fees.

Understanding that focusing on clerical work is going to make you miss out on a home that goes for sale at a great price.

My point is that predicting the future continues to be difficult. I switched from looking for a carpenter, to looking for better house cleaners.

In my opinion, my shacks are clean but they are now in their worst condition. They show the 100,000 miles teni put on them every year.

I'll come back with an example about building material storage a bit later. I need to ease my conscience and get papers off my desk while it is still quiet.

(Oh..There is a sample change. I used to have three desks...different locations. I'm down to two with each having a different assignment. (bussiness)).

Thanks for your sharing views over the years.

my most valuable less was learned on my very first rental.

we needed a new surround shower for the master bath. I went shopping for one with my father in law who was going to help me fix up this biker house i just bought. We went from West Building Supply to H-depot- to Builders Supply to overstock supply companies to Sears-- ALL day 2 of us trying to find the best price--- I had to go back to the store WEST to get the best priced. Here is the lesson: I spent all day- 2 men and I saved 15.00 on that surround. A whole 15.00 and wasted 16 hours of work and a full day. My lesson is this find your store or now you can shop on line-- don't SPIN YOUR WHEELS. You may save pennies while the dollars slip away. This lesson is not just about supplies either. Use this for your people your hiring-- employee or contract.

forgot and you may or may not be interested in my Mcdonalds investment formula but here it is. On our rentals, positive cash flow was nil, to say the least (just starting out). So I look at business and say how does McDonalds do it? I'm driving by and see the sign "sold over 5 Billion" so I'm thinking 5B but they only make a penny on each burger-- but 5B of them. So I decided then and there= I want quantity. Not 5B mind you but as many as i could buy as an investor. That was the tough part -- having over 80SFH's with mort's and buying more. (we eventually settled on 63 with only 5 mort's left on those)

Similar idea to the above: Real Estate is the most expensive investment you can make. Don't pay dollars per square foot to store things that cost pennies to buy.

We no longer stockpile appliances, or (much) leftover paint. We let Home Depot store the flooring - we just buy it when we need it and don't worry about sales anymore. (If we are doing a larger order we DO take the time to submit to the Bid Desk.)

WMH, you've hit upon a topic that is dear to my heart this year. In March, I looked at what my garage had become: piles of old materials, half used 2x4's, boxed of this 'n that left over from projects that "just might be useful" someday that have been collecting dust for almost a decade.

When my Father-in-law passed away from Early Onset Alzheimer's a few years ago, I helped my my MIL declutter her house for sale. Suffice it to say, he took pack rat to a new level. Not a hoarder, but ... SO MUCH STUFF! Little this's and that's from 3 decades of Depression era mentality "never throw anything out."

I must have pulled 50 empty boxes from their attic...packaging material from items purchased back in the 1980s...."never might know when you'll need that box, plastic bag, or piece of styrofoam." The boxes were filled with mouse droppings and had been chewed to pieces.

I've been working to declutter. Every trash day, I make sure our cans are FULL. My garage is looking much better now.

Garage sales are a waste of time any more. Spend all day pricing, setting up, sitting in the sun, then taking down the stuff that doesn't sell to store it again....all for what...$50-$75? Make more money with a McJob and an 8-hour shift!

Bottom line: if it's hasn't been used within the past year, we don't reasonably foresee using it within the next 6 months, it isn't a family heirloom and has a market value less than $50, it gets donated, recycled, or trashed. I also no longer store construction scraps.

I thought McDonalds primarily makes their money on the franchise fee, rent and royalties from franchisees?

We've found that you can even get Home Depot to store a legit, already-paid-for order! Put together the big order, get the bid desk to bid it, pay for it, HD pulls and pallets it...and then waits for you to pick it up. DH will go in and pick up bits & pieces at a time, the Pro Desk will check it out in pieces. Drives them crazy I am sure, but works for us.

Hmmm,

I'm always willing to listen. In fact I read more than I comment.

(mostly because I never have anything worth while to say).

Building materials is a tough one. I saved a ton because I had the space. I don't save much now because I don't have the free time to save it. I put an entire shack together out of leftovers. That was a win, but...but but...I have a few which sit because I don't have time to work on them. Saving materials for them would leave me even less time to work.

I like giving things away. I enjoy that. I equally enjoy having my treasures very well organized and nearly cataloged. In this way I can reach for it faster than going to the store.

My shacks are in a couple towns where the store is an hour away.

Recently. I was outside of Philly last week and had purchased 200 bucks of two by fours. I had the chance to store them and put them away however I stuffed them into another person's van and off they went. It was less effort to give them away than to put them away for the future.

These were the new boards.

As for the old boards, I topped off a 30 yard can with debris.

It was a waste of material however I didn't have the energy at the moment. It had been hot for a week or so and I was wearing down.

I have a small building now. 6,000 square feet. I find that I had plans to move all the storage to the building but now I only want to move appliances and choice building materials. I should rephrase that thought. I will move all I can into about 1,000 feet of it....what doesn't fit in that room can't come.

I'm being forced to evaluate how much energy it takes to move all these materials. I bet each person who over time fills their home with treasures doesn't appreciate how much energy it took.

When I see a packed home, I see the astonishing accomplishment.

I own many tools but ironically enjoy blank walls and open spaces.

All that aside. I wonder what is important now. Clean homes or newly painted? Plants and flowers or well written ads?

These are the questions I would ask all of you. I would love to see your approach to the small decisions....or perhaps you avoid the small decisions and focus only on the large strategic moves.

Post Script. When hanging Drywall in a basement....you can hang the ceiling with great speed if you do not stand the partition walls. You then build your partition walls under the ceiling. (you need to have a head on your shoulders to do this but it works well).

I do similar things like in Florida we didn't use window casing. The drywall turned the corner and butted the windows. (there was a wooden triangle strip which pushed the drywall like a wedge...against the window).

I bought tons of lumber and tools from my friend when he closed his carpentry shop. I have made great use of the tools and have used up 90% of the materials. I find value in keeping castoff cuts, but I regularly cut up old lumber that is ply or painted for trash and keep a separate can for the fire pit. HD culls are 70% off. Keep my eye out for anything long I can cut down to usable lengths and anything wide I can rip to trim width.

Had queries earlier about keeping toilets and got the feedback to only keep the tank lids. Have a stove in a garage for 3+ years as a backup and I know it should go to the Habitat store. Tried giving away a drop ceiling I just took down and no takers. Kept the shower doors from a remodel, for the next unit w/ sloppy shower tenants/kids. I have bought those $20+ plastic wedges for the shower but tenants always defeat them.

Storm doors are my nemesis. I take them down every chance I get. Not a chance they will ever be put up by anyone again. Honestly can't see why every home at one point seems like it had an exterior door and a storm door on the front and back of the building along with the storm door for the enclosed porch.

Bought a ton of stuff at Lowes last year on a 10% day. I learned they kept things in stock for me. Over the next 2 months I'd go to the pro desk and ask them to pull what I needed. Also was able to return items I never pulled, bought them just in case.

Smok,

There ya go cleaning off your desk again!

Change or die. People and money have changed.

We were losing money for a few years and not far from the edge of the cliff.

Traditional LLing died in the recession but we were still beating that dead traditional horse assuming it would wake up. It took a while to see the world had changed.

My best advice: much of this has to do with husband/wife teams. Wifey was the one calling the non-payers and chasing them in court, using the traditional mentality of "they'll catch up, they always have in the past" or "we HAVE TO work with them or we won't get paid". (they did not pay) But the economy had shifted and they no longer had any money.

Me, trying to be a good husband, encouraged her and took care of other matters.

But I finally had to be the boss and draw the line and face my wife with the hard business decisions. "It's not working. We must change or we'll go broke soon." Nobody likes change and nobody wants their spouse (me!) to change (read "criticize") what they are doing. I admit it did not go well and things were tense in the 20,000 household for a long time. Dot (Mrs Jeffery T) says that anything with 2 heads is a monster. It takes a while for the second head to let go.

Back when I had a job the big boss would make a change and MY boss had to implement it. Nobody liked it, we murmured and complained and lost commissions and begrudgingly adapted over time. A year later the COMPANY was stronger.

ZT works. It's simple, people pay. It's the LLs who have trouble with it. I morn for LLs who have not latched on to this. It took 2 years for Wifey and her helper to believe the benefit even tho our numbers instantly improved. 3 years later I STILL have to remind her and her helper that is our policy. It's so easy to slip back into old habits. And it's hard to not go along with resident's hoping to get money from the trustee or charity agency. Those only prolonged the inevitable and made the loss larger.

I was convinced when I added up 10 years of unpaid rent and it came to $547,000. $54K per year uncollected because we "worked with" people!

I started charging real amounts (retail prices) for cleaning and repairs which including MY time for photos and paperwork. I still see LLs at court charging $10-15 per hour for their time.

When we changed I decided I was worth $50 per hour and based my decisions on that. I now use $250/hour.

We learned how to make court and the laws work for OUR advantage. Basic stuff like settle at their house before court or in the hall at court with the right form. Agree on a garnishment amount at the same time and sign it before court. No more courtroom surprises. No more arguing. No more chasing.

More simple stuff: no more personal checks and no more US Mail. That eliminated several problems with rent arriving.

Beefed up the lease. It's now 27 pages. Again, no surprises and *I* have control.

Autodraft. No more hoping they pay. Now it's normal.

Lowes/Menards is our warehouse. But we've lost thousand$$$ in materials they were holding because of paperwork mixups or we forgot it was there. Menards drops their records every 90? days so my $45,000 shingle order (we pulled them as needed) simply disappeared toward the end of summer.

I figure it costs $50 to move anything like a scratch and dent water heater. Pick it up, put it in storage, shift it around a time or two, go back, load it, carry it to the house.

Picking up scraps and thrift store stuff got us started but now it costs us time. No more Po'Boy rehabs. Sure we watch for sales and use coupons but if we need a vanity we go get the one I like. I'm blown away by LLs offering chipped avocado green stoves with missing handles!

(gotta admit I'm addicted so I still walk the aisles but seldom buy. I DID just find a Bosch stainless steel double convention oven for Wifey at Restore for $400 (new $3288) in St Louis on vacation. Drove it 5 hours home!)

Clean/paint: as I age I must remind myself that even tho the brass handles and green marble tops we installed years ago got WOWs and still look good to MY over the hill eyes, they are out dated. Wifey and I frequent IKEA and builders' open houses to see what buyers want.

A few bucks for a FEMALE housekeeper makes our homes look and smell clean. Momma picks the house Momma wants CLEAN! She KNOWS if a man cleaned it.

Rather than fixing the home "just enough to rent" we do it all. Rents faster, no complaints, and easier to turnover. This costs a little more on the first go round but pays off for years.

Fast forward: Wifey is happy because we are profitable. She custom designed some bling which cost... a lot.

End of ramble.

BRAD