Flip Thy House

In Which the Author Talks About Everything In the World, Including Real Estate

We had to push closing on House #2 back from May 15th to May 30th, but things seem to still be firmly on track. The delay was due to the stunning efficiency of state government, as the buyers apparently have to deal with two different state offices in regards to getting paid for their land that’s being toll-roaded, an office that deals with the purchase of the property itself and a separate entity that deals with compensating people for relocation costs.  One would think that both functions would live in the same place but apparently not, and one was ready to close by the 15th but the other wasn’t, thus the delay.

Basically down to twiddling my thumbs in regard to House #2, as the buyers are apparently finally happy with the condition of it, so except for mowing the yard right before we close, there’s not much for me to do over there.

We’re in the process of getting bids for leveling the foundation at the house we currently live in, which needs to happen before I get serious about tackling work here in the kitchen and bathrooms, which is going to entail tons of tiling. I’m waiting on House #2 to close before trying to refinance House #1, as I need to wipe out some credit card debt run up by the renovation on House #2 (nearly all of it on promotional 6 month, no interest deals, etc.)

I’m curious to see what’s going to be available as far as a refi for House #1 and a possible home equity line of credit/refi on our current house. It’s hard to turn around without running into doom and gloom stories about any and everything lending-related when it comes to real estate, but everything I hear from people actually involved in such (at least locally here in Texas) is that it’s far from doom and gloomy. My wife and I have really good credit and our debt/income ratio is going to be pretty ridiculous once House #2 is settled out, so I can’t imagine we’ll have much trouble. House #1 is an investment property but I’m just looking to refi to a reasonable rate and not get cash out, so I’m thinking that won’t be too painful or arduous.

Still not sure what route to go with our primary residence, as I’m leaning more towards a home equity line of credit, assuming we can get approved for a decent amount. The only reason I’m considering it is to give me a bit of a cushion on the next real estate purchase so we don’t have to rely so heavily on our savings to fund the bulk of it, so it’s not a make or break deal as far as a home equity line of credit/cash-out refi. No real hurry, though, as I’m going to be out in Vegas again for much of July covering the World Series of Poker, so I’m not even going to consider another deal until I get back.

Speaking of poker, I’ve actually been playing a ton lately, more than I have since 2004-2005. I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with poker over the years, especially as I played for higher stakes and began to take the game seriously as an opportunity to make money. Despite the gambling nature and common perception many have of poker, it’s 100% possible to consistently make a profit at poker in the long run. No, really. It’s a game of skill, much like chess, and it’s entirely possible to make a consistent, substantial salary from playing poker.

The difficulty is that, like any job, it takes a lot of work to be skilled at it, and you have to put in many hours playing. While the idea of your job consisting of sitting in your underwear in front of a computer clicking buttons may seem initially appealing (when compared to commuting to a day job every day that you hate), in the end it loses some appeal when you find yourself sitting in front of a computer in your underwear every day, clicking buttons. The money you make is directly proportional to the time you put in, so in many ways you’re really just swapping one job for another in the end.

All that said, I’ve been playing seriously again the last 3 weeks or so, just to get a gauge of what sort of profit I can grind out at pretty low stakes. I’ve been playing .50/$1 NL, which means that you buy in for $100 when you sit down and initially start out betting at least a dollar, with typical final pots in the range of $7-$20. This is a lot lower than I played in the past (the highest I ever played regularly was $50/$100 LHE, which meant that each bet was in increments of $100, and final pots in excess of $1,000 reasonably common), but my poker game is more than a bit rusty and I’m really just trying to get a gauge of what sort of profit I can make with very minimal risk, more as supplemental income than anything else.

So far so good, as I’m clocking in at about $25/hour, which is a bit better than I expected. I’m getting a new boss at the day job, which is one of the catalysts towards getting serious about all of potential extra income streams such as poker, as our old boss was one of the few saving graces about the day job. The odds are very high that we’ll get saddled with a new boss that’s as far from a saving grace as possible, as my company has a disturbing tendency of late to hire the absolute worst person possible for any open position, so I’m getting more serious about having an exit strategy in place.

All my freelance work and Web design work has consistently equaled my day job salary for quite awhile now, but right now it’s gravy money that goes towards real estate, savings, etc. So while I could quit the day job and still have decent income from Day 1 being self-employed, I like gravy, and the gravy would disappear. Thus the returning to the poker grind, to prove to myself I can consistently churn out an extra $2,000-$3,000/month, making everyone happy.

But, who knows. I’ve been threatening to quit the day job for years and I’m still there, so all this may turn out to be even more empty threats.