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Ad Astra Realty is going to start growing and sponsoring a bicycling team in Kansas City.  This bicycling “club” will be be evolving.  But the emphasis of this club is going to be fun.

Creative Commons: Ian Sane (follow him on flickr) no changes made

Some initial thoughts.

• Our office is in Olathe with a large parking lot and Freddy T’s bar just a stone’s throw away.  And The Other Place is just up the trail. Great place to start and finish a ride, wouldn’t you say?
• The Indian Creek Trail is less than a quarter mile away.
• We can be on the Mill Creek Streamway in 8-10 minutes and ride up to the Kansas River and back.
• And the Tomahawk Creek Trailway is only about 8-10 minutes the other way.
• This isn’t a club for “hammer heads”.  Sure, I like to really go sometimes.  And we may do that.  But that’s not all we’ll do.
• This is as much a social club as a bicycle riding club.  Come for either or both.  If you just love cycling, c’mon out.

I like to ride the trails and the roads.  Sometimes I’ll throw the nobby tires back on and go ride the single tracks in Lawrence.  I like to BikeMS.  I’m hoping to go on the Bike Across Kansas ride this year.  Biking saved my health.  It helped me drop 38 pounds and get in the best shape I’ve been since I was in my teens.  And, for me, it’s just a lot of fun.

Heck, it allows me to still have beer and bbq without having to count every calorie to stay in good health. So, “I’m in.”

Let me know if you’d like to be updated about the rides.  Just leave me a comment and I’ll start announcing the rides.

Ad Astra Realty is now open in Kansas.  We were approved for business on December 30, 2014.  Now we have submitted our Missouri license paperwork and are awaiting word on that.  So we’re official in Kansas!

That makes me smile.

Looking for a way to diversify your income?  Think real estate for retirement.

I am a big believer that everyone should have a little real estate mixed in to their retirement.  For most of my clients that means somewhere between 2-4 rental properties.

MY AVERAGE CLIENT PROFILE
2-4 rental properties
$75,000 – $150,000 per year in income
Early 40’s

A couple things that stand out about the real estate investors that I work with.  Many, many, many of them are from California.  Most don’t start until they are in to their 40s.  Part of that is because many people don’t move in to higher incomes and/or have sufficient savings for real estate investing until that point.  Plus, let’s face it, you don’t (or, at least I didn’t) start thinking about retirement in your twenties and early thirties.

But to you twenty-somethings out there, why not build real estate in to your retirement with your first home?  Buy a duplex, and rent half out.  Or a smaller first home in a good neighborhood for renting?  We can talk strategies for you on the whole thing if you give me a call.

Unless you are willing to own many, many properties and do your own full time property management you probably are not going to retire just by owning rental properties.  But real estate is a very important asset to your retirement.  Let’s meet. I’ll explain why.  913-568-1579.

I want to take a moment to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas.

To me, Christmas isn’t a time of getting and giving.  It’s not a time of strife and argument.  It’s not a time of drinking and carousing.  It’s a time of renewed hope.  A time when God sent to us a second chance.

It’s saddening to look around at our country right now.  With so much we seem to be doing so little.  I’m 49 years old.  I have vague memories of the late 60’s and early 70’s.  And it feels like we are heading back there.  A country divided.

My Christmas hope is that we can all stop for a moment, catch our breath and think about what could be.  How our lives, and those of the ones we love, can be better.  And don’t forget to make an opportunity to reach out to someone you may not know, or only know superficially.  Offer them hope.  It’s good for them.  And I think you’ll find it’s good for your soul, too.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  So it’s time to count our blessings.  I for one, am glad I’m a real estate investor and that I am real estate agent for real estate investors.  It’s a busy life.  But it’s lucrative.  My work allows me to support my wife and kids and to pay for college and, well, a vacation every year.  Sure I work hard.  Sure there is risk.  But who said life should be void of hard work and risk?

I am thankful for each of our clients that has put their faith in us.  We are not perfect.  But we always try to do the right thing.  Of course, working with all these real estate investors on rental houses has led to us owning a property management firm, as well.  That has allowed us to provide better service for our clients and to grow 5 Kansas jobs. (With no governmental subsidy.)

Property management isn’t glorious.  But it’s needed.  It isn’t easy.  But it isn’t rocket science, either.  We are happy to serve real estate investors from all over the country.  Thankful, really.

I hope you, too, are thankful in your line of work.  And thankful for your family and friends.

Real estate investing just makes sense.  First, there are four ways you make money;

1. Cash flow before taxes
2. Principal reduction
3. Tax advantages
4. Appreciation

I have talked about these 4 Benefits of Real Estate Investing time and time again. (Follow the link.) And I’m going to keep talking about them.  

Cash Flow Before Taxes
If your home isn’t going to generate cash flow…DO NOT BUY IT!  (Or if you already have “income property” that doesn’t cash flow….SELL IT!  How much cash flow?  Well, that is up to you, the type of property, where it’s located, the end goal, etc.  Seek the advice of a qualified investment real estate agent or hire Chris as a Real Estate Counselor to help you evaluate a rental property.

Principal Reduction
Your tenants are buying you a house!!!!  That’s all I will say for now.

Tax Advantages
Listen, we live in a great country and taxes are necessary to keep us all free and to educate our kids and to drive on roads, etc.  But real estate can help shelter a great deal of your tax burden.  (And provide quality housing, create a larger tax base overall, etc.)

Appreciation
This is the one we can never predict with certainty, but over the life a house it almost always is an effective hedge against inflationary pressures, at the very least.  Unless, you are one of these guys that likes to chase low priced rental property in hopes for ROI’s of 20% or greater all the time. Then you are probably buying low end property in neighborhoods that could very well be on the decline.  Treat those like melting ice cubes.  But you aren’t doing the neighbors any favors.

There are a great many social benefits to being a buy and hold real estate investor besides just the money.  Helping to stabilize neighborhoods.  Providing quality housing.  Providing jobs.  Do it right.  And reap the rewards.  

Investing in real estate just makes sense.

Real estate investors need to understand that the rules today for borrowing money to mortgage your rental properties is different than it was a few short years ago.  Here are some basics that you fully need to understand;

• Today the loan process is a full colonoscopy.  I have lenders that find it difficult to find a way to loan money to an investor that can actually pay cash for the home.  While this has been this way since the crash of ’08, it has gotten no better.  You will need to have all your finances in order in order to get a mortgage loan on a non-owner occupied property.
• 99.999% of the time the lender is not going to loan you money in the name of your trust, “S” Corp or LLC.  These entities are set up to protect you from liability.  And that means from the lender.  You, your personal home and income and etc, are going to have to be responsible for your next rental property if you are going through a lender.  Just accept that.
• You need to work with a real estate agent that can anticipate what lenders will be asking for.  They want leases, get them to them early.  Make sure the leases are complete.  Make sure you transfer certain assets on the settlement statement (the lender may fight you on this so attack it early) and be sure that personal property is nowhere on the contract.

There are many moving parts to a successful real estate investment property transaction.  Educate yourself before you go in to your next one, prepare for the worst, hope for the best and just get the lender what he needs. Sooner or later the property will be in your possession and you can forget about all the little troubles you had to endure to get there.