Update

Time for another monthly report on the Houston apartment complex! In short, everything seems to be going according to plan. Income and expenses are pretty much on-budget, once the repair expenses from the hurricane are reimbursed from the renovation impound account. Also, the hurricane repairs are now complete, so there will not be any more of those expenses going forward. Management is working on upgrading the office entry and resurfacing the swimming pool deck to enhance the overall look of the property. Cash flow for January was just over $20,000. Occupancy dipped in January to 94%, which apparently is typical after the holidays. At the time the monthly report was written (last week), occupancy was back up to the phenomenal 97% again. In going over the financial reports, I see we made close to $400 in pay phone income. That surprises me. I can't believe pay phones get that much use anymore! To put that figure in perspective, the pay phone income was about $20 more than the income from the laundry machines last month and 50% than the income from the vending machines. I should find out if we are getting any sort of monthly payment from a phone company to have the telephone on the property.

As I wrote about last time, hard money loan #6 should be closing soon. I don't have a specific date for when the sale will close escrow, but I am guessing it will be the end of the month.

And finally, next month, my one remaining loan from prosper.com will be paid off. I'll be glad to be able to get rid of that thing. Three of my for loans defaulted and the final one was only bringing in about $3 a month. Hardly worth the time I had to spend keeping track of it.

On a personal note, last week, I achieved my Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist certification for SQL Server 2005. Whee.

Hard Money Loan #6 Wrapping Up

It was just a short couple of months, but Hard Money Loan #6 is closing sometime this month. No late payments and everything is in good standing. We got a call from a title company asking for a payoff amount, so the property is in escrow and will be sold. I should have my funds back by the end of the month.

There is also another apartment investment opportunity on the table right now. This is another apartment complex in the Houston area and is being offered by the same group that found Multi #1. The terms are close to the same and in other circumstances, I would invest in this property. However, this investment only distributes profits quarterly and right now I am looking for something with a monthly distribution. That likely means another mortgage on a single family home, like HML #6 was. I also like having a combination of short term and long term investments. The apartment investments are typically for 3 to 5 years while the hard money loans are 1 year or less.