It has been a month since I last posted here, but it has been a busy month!

In my earlier posts Tim asked me to stay vague about the type of properties I was looking at and I did as he asked.

Now, I am very close to getting a signed purchase contract for an 18 unit apartment building in Dekalb County Georgia. It has not been an easy process. The amount of stuff you have to gather and verify is staggaring before you even get to figure out the offering price.

The process Tim walked me through was to follow two paths at once. The first was to get a real picture of the apartment building as it stands right now with the current management. That means digging into and understanding all of their expenses and income relating to the building. Tim said it several times and it really is true to buy an apartment building you are evaluating a running business. Part of this process is to also look at the funding options available. Then we had several options to use if I decided to go on and try to buy it.

By the time we finished the negotiations, we were at a combination of new loans and carry backs from the current owner. They are getting a great deal and so am I.

At the same time, Tim had me digging through how we improve the property to get the net operating income to increase within the first year or two of ownership. To be honest that is even more mentally taxing than figuring out the current picture.

At the end of it I ended up with a really detailed plan on changes to make to the building to increase the noi over the next two years with the idea of refinancing for a long term hold or selling within 5 years for an amazing profit.

It has been an incredible month and I am looking forward to the next steps.