I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I didn’t know you were that rich.” a friend of mine said to me one day.

“What?” I replied

“You are quitting your job, you have to be rich!” he added.

“I’m not rich.” I said as I chuckled a bit. “You don’t have to be rich to quit your job. You just need to make enough passive income to replace your earned income.”

He looked a little puzzled as the thought of my quitting sunk in.

“Yes” I continued. “I am not rich but I have all my needs met with my rental properties and online businesses that I do not need to work. It has taken me nine years to get to this point and I am ready to quit.”

As we sat in the waiting room of a large hospital, I went further into detail on two things: the “How” and the “Why” of my quitting my job. You see, he believed that only rich people did not work. Well, I guess if that is the definition of being rich, then I am truly rich.

Some people desire to have expensive cars, fancy homes, and a lavish lifestyle. Those things are fine for some but that is not what I desired when I made the commitment to myself to quit my job. With the ability to no longer work for someone else and spend more time with my family while doing the things I want to do. So, yes, I most definitely am rich by those standards and I agree.

Honestly, this is what my entire goal was 9 years prior; to be independent and not have to work for anyone. Now that I am just two short months away from quitting my job, it seems as though these 9 years have flown by and it was all SO WORTH IT!

---

Only 2 Months To Go Before I Quit My Job!

Since I told my boss in September that I will quit my job at the end of the year, I am just counting down the days. As of my writing this post, I have 51 more days to the end of the year and 5 holidays off and 140 more hours to spend of my vacation hours. My plan is to work the rest of the year and then take the month of Jan off to spend the rest of my vacation hours before I quit completely.

It is almost surreal the feeling of quitting my job. Thoughts of happiness, fear, concern, doubt, etc. flow through my mind as the day approaches. I have meticulously planned and detailed my escape from my job that it is just about full-proof. I have documented many things you will need to think about in my monthly updates. You can check them out here.

---

Making Money with Rental Properties FREE Investing Course

---

So, here are some updates on the things going on in my businesses for the month of October.

---

Rental Property Business

The last two years I have been shoring up the income that comes from my rental properties. Fixing up properties, replacing heaters, painting, etc. have been necessary project s for my properties to attract and keep good tenants. This has dipped into my income but that is what is to be expected when you have 90 year old houses that bring in $525 a month in passive income.

My properties in Youngstown, Akron, and Cleveland have been doing very well. The new property manager I hired has been implementing many much needed business processes into the management of my properties. Here is a short list of the things that needed to be stronger to keep good tenants:

1. Tenant placement
2. Collecting of rents
3. Process of eviction

Each of these processes can make or break your rental property business. I will explain these more in a future blog post because each of these require much more than just a quick blurb to really explain well.

When I hired my property manager in Jan of 2016 I gave him the ability to fill the properties with tenants as he saw fit. He runs criminal and credit checks on all potential tenants as well as checks all references for prior history. So far, I have not had an eviction on the properties he has filled. This is a huge relief.

Evictions eat up your passive income tremendously. I expect $1,500 in loss for every eviction. With the costs of eviction, cleaning, repairs, carrying costs, and loss of rents makes one eviction very expensive. Reducing the vacancy rate on any property is money in your pocket.

I have not purchased any new properties this month but I am ready to purchase more. Actually, I find that the winter is the best time to purchase a property and the worse time to sell a property. So I am currently looking for more properties in the Akron and Cleveland areas.

Refinancing the 4 Properties to Purchase More Rentals

I have done this many times. Buy a property with cash or financing, get it fixed up and rented, then rent it again. I have come to affectionately call it the B.R.R.R.R. business model. This stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat.

In October, I started the refinancing of 4 of my higher valued homes to pull the money out to purchase more properties. It took some time to find a good commercial lender but in the end settled with a bank that will give me 3.9% interest rate on my commercial properties and not charge me any points. This is huge!

Another banker/broker was going to charge me 6 points for the refinance and give me a horrible 7% interest rate. The points are a percentage of the loan amount. So 6 points is 6% of the loan amount which will go to the lender. For a $150,000 note, that would be $9000!

To some that is nothing, but to me, that is another rental property!

Currently we are in the process and I have locked in the 3.9% interest rate.

Once I have that money in my pocket I will be able to purchase 5 more properties that will bring me another $600 each. That is another $3,000 a month in cash flow! After I have those properties, I’ll refinance those and do it all over again.

Online Businesses and Book Writing

I personally love helping people achieve their dreams and I have found that books and online businesses a great way to do this and be able to make money to support my family. In the passive income business, the more people you can help, the more money you can make. As I seek to teach people the things that I learn, I am blessed more and more with the benefits that come with it.

My first two books are doing well and bring in money each month without me doing any further work. Once the book is done, it sells itself and makes money for me.

My next book is finished and is ready to be launched to the public. There is a lot that goes into launching a book successfully. Timing, promotions, marketing, and spreading the word is basically the tip of the iceberg of book launches. In the future, I plan to share my book launch secrets that have helped me earn more passive income from all my books.

Launch Team Invitation for My Next Book on Passive Income

For my next book, I am looking for some key people to be a part of my launch team. What a launch team does is help the book be a success in return for some goodies. The soft launch date is Nov 22^nd and the hard launch date is Nov 28^th.

The book is called: “How to Quit Your Job with Passive Income – The Ultimate Guide to Beginners Guide to Wealth and Riches with 12 Proven Businesses You Can Start Today”

There are only a few things you would need to do to be a part of the launch team. In return, you will receive some goodies as well as have the opportunity to be first in line to be a part of my future book launches.

If you would like to be a part of the book launch, here is the information about it.

What a member of the launch team would do is:

– Read/skim through the book before launch day
– Post your honest review on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible
– Share the book on your social media sites

What you will get in return:

– Advanced PDF version of the book
– Audio version of the book
– A PDF copy of my first book “How to Quit Your Job with Rental Properties”
– See my launch plan and what I used to help my launch be a success

To be selected for the team, you need to be dedicated to the success of the book as well as have the ability to reach out to bloggers, podcasters, and influencer's about the book. Let me know below how you can help the book be a success.

This launch has been closed.

So, how are you doing with your passive income? Leave me a comment below. I'd love to hear how you are doing!

---

Making Money with Rental Properties FREE Investing Course

---