Got off track there for a bit

This whole week was blown to smithereens in terms of goal setting, as I killed my back Monday morning as I was getting my youngest daughter out of the tub. The last time this happened, I just bit my lip and worked through the pain and soreness as best I could, but this time I went to the Dr., because Friday was shopping day and I didn't want anything to interfere with that. LOL!

****WARNING ---- TMI ALERT****

The Dr. also confirmed that I have a hernia. I had a hernia that was repaired back in 2006, but I guess another one has formed. I never had strong abdominal muscles to begin with, and having 3 pregnancies didn't help either. I'm scheduled to see a surgeon on June 3rd, so we'll see how quickly this needs to be taken care of. 

****END OF TMI ALERT ****

Still working on some goals for next week, but we do plan on visiting some REOs next week. I'm still amazed that these are sitting on the market - either there are no investors who are willing to to take on the rehab, or the banks are being very stubborn on their price.

Please Pray for The Freeman Family

I've been following their journey for about a month now, and it was with great sadness that I learned that their little Kayleigh passed away last night. :( I cannot imagine the heartbreak of losing a child. Please pray for them - they need prayers now more than ever.

Kayleigh's Story

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all you Moms out there had a Happy Mother's Day! We went fishing today, and let me tell you, I was surprised at myself for even making the suggestion! LOL! I don't like fishing, normally, but the kids were excited to go, and DH had the day off, so I said, "Let's go!" Everyone caught a fish except for me lol. I even put the worms on the hooks. And it was worth every moment just to hear Ruth and Molly say that they "caught a WHOPPER!!!!" ROFL!

We managed to see the REO on Friday, and it was pretty much as I expected - it needs a lot of work. Which of course is good when you want to rehab! :) There is another REO down the road from it, with a different agent, so I might call them and check that one out, too.

In other news, I've been mulling over the idea of refinancing our house to get cash out and get a lower rate. I'm not sure if we would qualify, or if we could get a better rate, but I think it would be worth looking into. I would like to pull about 10-15K out, which I think is doable. My reasoning for this is that if DH for some reason lost his job, we would at least have some $$ in the bank to cover expenses and the mortgage, rather than have that equity at risk if he couldn't find another job quick enough, and we fell behind on mortgage payments.  What I would do is take a portion of what we pulled out, and put that into a CD so we wouldn't touch it unless there was an emergency. The other portion could be used to catch up on some outstanding bills, REI earnest money deposit, that type of thing. I need to run this by DH, because I don't want him to think that that is an opportunity to go "hog wild" and buy up some "toys" (PS3, new stuff for his Jeep, etc.)

Anyway, just some of the things going on.....will post tomorrow with new goals and follow up to last week's goals.

A couple of irons in the fire, so to speak

I heard back from the REO agent today, and she said to call her when I am near the house and she will give me the lockbox code, which is cool.  They lowered the price on this one again today, so I sense some motivation. I did a quick work up of the numbers using Steve Cook's formula, and my MAO is not too off base from the listing price....and I gave myself what I consider to be a huge rehab budget for this property ($30k), which I'm going to tweak based on what I see at the property tomorrow.. I'm going to take the digital camera with me so I can get some good pics to work with.

I was also approached by an investor from my local REIA who has a rental property in my town, and asked if I would be able to handle some work with the tenant, as they are behind one month's rent. (The investor lives in another part of the state.) I ran this by DH, and he was fine with it, so he will be the "door knocker" and I will handle any paperwork for eviction. He also is looking for another tenant, and my MIL is looking to move, so that might be a deal I can put together.

So, things are looking up!

WOW!!!!

I just did a major step....

I emailed an REO listing agent about a property they have and requested a showing. This is HUGE for me.

I don't have financing set up if I want to make an offer, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to look at it, for crying out loud. LOL

It's time to get the ball rolling!

Dave Ramsey is on SALE!

Well his stuff is! LOL!

$10 for The Total Money Makeover. Plus a lot more! 

CLICK HERE!

Frustration

UPDATE: The REO is under contract. Less than 2 days on the market. Wow. DH is disappointed, but at least now I can hopefully convince him that we need to get the debt taken care of.

Life has been extremely frustrating for me lately. DH is driving me crazy.

For example:

DH got a lead for an REO that he was interesting in checking out. I thought, great! Well, turns out, DH is not interested in this for investing, he wants this for us. Then I thought.....great.....sigh.

See, the problem is, we are BROKE!!!!! Hello??? Do other people in my household not realize this reality??? I DO NOT WANT TO BE BROKE. I WANT TO GET OUT OF DEBT. I WANT SOME $$$ IN THE FLIPPING BANK SO I DON'T HAVE TO PANIC IF I NEED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR, or GASP!!!! GET THE KIDS CLOTHING AND NEW SHOES. (Sorry to YELL, but I had to get this out.)

As much as I would like to have this house, and trust me, if there was a legitimate way for me to get it, I would be all over it, because it would be great for us as a family. More room, great storage.....but it would put our payments over where we are now, and I am not comfortable with that.

So now I am the bad guy, and the downer in all of this. Whatever. There is a REALITY here and at some point certain individuals will have to get their head out of a certain area and get their act together.

Frustrating.

Accountability Monday and Follow Up Friday (postponed)

Well, I didn't get back to the computer for any great length of time, so I didn't get to update like I wanted to. A lot of the goals have to be put back on the to do list:

Finish back sales tax return - MUST DO

Budget for Flea Market booth

Finish REI business plan

clean out all clothing in girls room

I closed the Ebay store, but left all the fixed price listings up. My plan is to use my Ebay listings as advertising and redirect people to a new store that I'm setting up on BuyItSellIt.com . I'll set up a mailing list through my Ebay About Me page for people to sign up to receive discount codes, etc., and that mailing list will be for the new store.

I still need to do more REI goals.....just trying to get my sense of direction.....

Done with Ebay

Well, I am done with Ebay for now. I got home from shopping to find that the removed one of my listings for a "policy violation" which I feel is in error, although upon review, I did screw up in where I placed a word (after the brand name instead of before - it's a long story). So now my status for policy compliance is "very low". Great. Just great. One error and you're in the toilet.....sigh....

I also figured out that I wasn't really making much of a profit on anything, after Ebay and Paypal fees. This was especially true for my Olive Kids listings, since the margin on that is low already. So I decided that I'm just going to keep my listings up and then probably close my store just before the next billing cycle starts.

I have other avenues for these retailers that I'd like to pursue, so I'm not giving up altogether, just taking a break from Ebay for now.

I'll have to update the goals after I get the kids from school.