6/19/2006 Building remodel and property updates

I have finalized lining up the contractors for remodeling a retail store in a commercial building I have. This building is where my office's are located. The contractors will be removing the concrete floor and repouring it. They will also remove the 8 foot tall outdated windows and completely replace them. I've just finished getting all the electrical work contracted out as well. I will try to get some before and after pictures up. The work should begin next week. I have an appointment with the city to finalize the building permit tomorrow.

I haven't heard back from my duluth realtor yet, I was going to call her today, but spent most the day talking with contractors. I'm hoping to give her a call tomorrow for an update on the value of the lester park piece.

My apartment property managers have rented out another apartment in our fourplex. They had to rent it out for a little less than I was hoping, but they made up for it by renting out the garage as well. They are renting out the garages for $40 per month, which helps me create an extra $200 per month. Until recently we were including the garages with the rent, but this is yet another way to create an additional income stream.

Well that's it for now. I'm hoping to add alot more content to the cleverwealth.com site this week. The site keeps getting more traffic, which gets me excited and wanting to add more content. Please drop me an email if you would like to provide some content as well. This site is deisgned to be a resource for all of us. I am hoping to set up a chat system soon so we can chat online in a chatroom at organized times and hopefully help eachother out.

06/11/2006 New Properties

Hello everyone,

This week I acquired 2 new properties through government land auctions. One is a nice little piece next to another property I won across the street from Kelly Lake. I am planning on researching developing these properties and throwing up 2 family homes to sell. I have debated doing this before on a 20 acre parcel I own however I never had the time to fully investigate it. I have never done a development yet so it will be interesting to research this proposition. The other piece I purchased is right next door to a private golf course and a river and is a block away from Lake Superior. I think it is a great piece and was highly undervalued. I'm talking to my Duluth Real Estate agent to see what she thinks the property is worth. At that time, I will decide if I will sell the land or consider doing a similar development and building a family home on it for resale. Similar homes around the area go for $300,000 and I think there is room for a good profit.

I have also decided this week to sell off a few lots in Northern Minnesota. I have contacted my Hibbing Real Estate agent and he will be getting back to me next week about the value of the properties and what we should list them for. I am hoping for a quick turnaround to free up some cash for the possible development projects I'm looking at.

I am wrapping up the construction proposals for a commercial property I own and which my technology business rents. I have 4 tenants in this building, I am planning to remodel the main floor and turn it into a retail storefront for our technology business. This will mean we will expand the technology business significantly and create some equity in the commercial building.

In other news, I recently lowered the price on a new fourplex I own. I'm hoping to sell it in the next month in order to again free up some cash for these new properties. I will be contacting contractors this week to get an idea of what some 3 bedroom family homes will cost to build and what the timeframe would be. I am having to learn how to be a general contractor and oversee building operations. In these projects there are a lot of people to organize and make sure stuff gets done in a timely manner. I'm looking for some good project management books especially related to Real Estate. If you know of any, drop me an email or post them on the forums.

I would like to take a quick minute to talk about the forums a little. I setup this site and everything it contains so we can all help eachother out. I'm hoping the forums will be an investors brainstorming and solution solving area. I plan to post a lot of information on it and if we all become a team community, we can really help each other out together. I am looking for some moderators for the different topics so if there is an area you see that you would like to moderate, drop me an email or a pm in the forums.

Until next week, Happy Investing!

6/04/06 First Blog

Hi everyone,

My name is Brad Ruoho. I'm a Real Estate investor and Business owner. This blog will go through my weekly events and hopefully help you in your endeavors by learning from my experiences. I have invested in Real Estate since my first commercial building purchase when I was 18. I bought it for $75,000 and sold it 8 months later for $95,000. Once that happened, I decided Real Estate could be a lot of fun and I could make money at it to. Since then, I have acquired various commercial, residential and land properties. This blog will walk you through some of the events that happen in my life as I invest in Real Estate and grow my businesses. I have a few businesses, the first is of course my Real Estate Investment business. The second is a technology business, I currently employ 5 people in this business. The third is a software company focussed on developing Real Estate Software for Investors. The software company currently employ's 2 people. Each week I plan on posting a blog about what happened that week with my investments. As time progresses, I'm sure this blog will grow and change. If you have any questions or comments please drop me an email. You can email my gmail.com email address. My email address is my full name at gmail.com.

Well that is a quick introduction about myself, I will explain more during my next post.