Tentmaking Tips

You make your money when you buy.

What does that even mean?

It means that the price you pay for the house is the best indicator of your future return on investment.

Many house flippers have learned this lesson the hard way. What looks easy on HGTV can be very difficult in real life.

Regardless of how good your remodel is or how tasteful your decorations are, if you didn’t buy the house right, you could end up making very little money, or even worse, you could lose a lot of money!

An example:

• Mr. Flipper buys a house on the market using a real estate agent who tells them they are getting a good price.

• Mr. Flipper begins the remodel and after he takes up the floors, he sees issues with the foundation that will require extra money.

• Mr. Flipper tried to save some money by doing some of the project DIY and spends nights/weekends painting, laying tile, and installing cabinets.

1. Mortgage payment (principal + interest)

2. Property Taxes

3. Homeowners Insurance

#2 & #3 are often rolled into your mortgage payment and escrowed for you until they are due.

Chances are these 3 together are anywhere from $1,000-$2,000/mo, depending on where you live and how much of a loan you took out to buy your house.

Can you imagine if that $1k-2k/mo payment was reduced to nearly $0/mo? Life-changing, right? I’m sure you can think of some other things you’d like to do with that money each month.

The solution: House Hacking

In other words, use/hack your house to earn the extra income needed to pay for your primary housing expenses. Or move to a house that can generate the extra income.

There are many creative ways to do this. Here are a some examples:

• Convert the storage building in your backyard to habitable space and rent it on Airbnb.

• Build a tiny home in your backyard and use Zillow to lease it full-ti
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You can pay off your mortgage fast, in as little as 6 years. Maybe even in 4 years if your mortgage is less than average.

I know because we paid off ours quickly! We paid off our mortgage in our early 30s. And we weren’t living in a super cheap house either.

A median priced home in our area is $135k. Ours was $250k. We’re in a part of the country where $250k buys you a really nice, above average home. I recognize that’s not the case everywhere.

Anyhow, you can pay off your mortgage quickly if you’ll do one simple thing.

Move.

Yep, you need to move. 2-3 times in those 6 years to be exact.

Huh?

You see, the IRS wants to give you a gift. I know it’s hard to believe. If you’ll buy a home, and live in it at least 2 years as your primary residence, you can sell it after 2 years and take up to $500k profit tax free for married couples. Did you hear the key words there? TAX FREE!

Are you kidding?!?!? Nope, it’s true (IRS Publication 523).

Here are the steps:

Needed: ~$20,000

Ways to earn an extra $20k (for you or your spouse):

1. Uber/Lyft Driver - in your free time, drive people around, build new relationships and make extra money
2. Virtual Assistant - using a site like Upwork.com, you can work from home as someone’s assistant on your own time
3. Deliver pizzas - the classic Dave Ramsey way to earn extra money
4. Paint houses - you can make significant extra money doing just a few houses a year
5. Mow lawns each week - many of us did this as teenagers and if you scale it up a bit, you can easily make extra income
6. Hang Christmas lights - I have a friend who makes $200-300/house each year doing this for a total of around $20k/yr
7. Virtual Bookkeeper - learn this skill and help others online keep track of their income/expenses
8. Deliver packages for Amazon - can pursue this around your ministry schedule
9. Become a sub...