Final Pictures of the Downtown Albany Apartments

It's taken some time, but we are finally done with the apartment project. Woohoo! It's hard to fully capture the size of this project, so here's a sampling of the before, the work, and the final photos.

BEFORE

We had a little bit of mold that required us to remove the plaster.

We also had places where the layer over the plaster was falling off.

All of the kitchens needed to be deep cleaned. We also replaced 8 appliances, including this yellow oven.

It took a massive amount of work remove all of the scum on the tubs.

The yellow trim was bad enough, but then the molding starting falling off. We removed the molding, added quarter around, and painted everything white.

I like this picture because it shows how dirty everything was when we bought it. The large marks on the wall were not uncommon either.

Here's the hallway, which was extremely dingy.

If you look closely, you'll notice the counter hangs over the cabinets a lot. We took all of these out and completely redid the whole thing with IKEA cabinets.

We also redid this kitchen. I love how the refrigerator blocked the entrance. Now it's on the other side of the kitchen.

The plaster was slowly, but surely falling off. The leak was repaired, but water damage was never fixed.

We also had a broken window, and other windows that leaked.

REPAIRS

I had the window pane replaced. If you look to the right of the person, you'll see we still had a lot of wall damage to repair.

In some cases it made sense to take all of the plaster off and replace it with drywall.

We did the same for the ceiling. Notice the dingy feeling.

A couple kitchens had carpet in them. We took the carpet out and installed allure flooring instead.

One of the units smelled like horrible cat urine. We sprayed everything down with Lysol and then painted over it with a germ killing primer. Yep, we even painted the floor.

Here are half the IKEA packages. We spent a whole week putting the kitchens together.

Some subfloors had a lot of damage and so we went and filled in all the little holes so the flooring sat flat.

So, it turns out that one side of the building had windows that were in between the standard blind sizes. You can have Home Depot cut them for you for 3 TIMES the cost (instead of spending $100 on blinds for this side, it would be over $300!), or you can buy this $20 tool and cut them yourself.

We replaced almost all of the carpet.

Carpet we didn't replace was professionally cleaned.

We also painted everything... including super hard to reach places.

At the last minute, Jessi thought it would be nice to paint the trim in the hallway. She was right - it looks great.

AFTER

Here's what the new kitchen looked like. No cords, no counter overhang.

All the bathrooms are scrubbed and clean.

Check out the hallway now. Bright and wonderful!

The rooms also look nice. We also installed ceiling fans in each unit. I'll save you from looking at 50 pictures of rooms that all look the same.

Here's the other kitchen.

 The downstairs hallway.

And finally, a couple side-by-side comparisons.

That's the project. It was very long, but well worth it. We took a broken building and made it much better. Here are the guys that did 99% of the work. Thanks Mark and Rich!

2015 Goals: Transformation

It's amazing how the difference between success and failure can be a matter of degree. You don't have to be going 180 degrees in the opposite direction to fail. Sometimes you can only be off by a couple of degrees, mostly headed in the right direction, but it's enough that it makes a difference over time. Let's look at two examples:

1) In Jiu Jitsu the common saying is that "it's a game of inches". When you grab a person's collar to choke them, grabbing an inch too low will require you to apply a massive amount of pressure, and you still may not get a tap. This is why you'll see some guys escape an attack in the UFC. The difference between success and failure is one inch.

2) When weight lifting, you build muscle when it tears. You literally cause tiny rips in your muscle that then need to heal by growing new muscle. To cause muscles to tear, you need to lift to the point you fail to complete another rep (called "go to failure"). It's that very least rep when you tear your muscle. All the other reps leading up to it are simply trying to fatigue your muscles. If you stop before you fail, you won't build muscle. You can spend all day at the gym, but if you don't go to failure, you'll just be wasting your time. The difference between success and failure is one rep.

Those are physical examples, but it should be no surprise that our minds work the same way. Why is it that creating New Year's Resolutions are a joke that everyone fails to follow through on, yet everyone recommends setting goals because they lead to true success? They're both headed in the right direction: both start from a desire to improve. Both start at the same time (for me at least). And they both tend to be of similar difficulty (lose weight, get a better job, take a trip, quit smoking, etc). Yet, the outcomes are profoundly different. What's the extra degree that sets a goal apart from a resolution?

For me, it's about specificity. Taking the extra step to get really specific about what you want to accomplish. For example, last year I didn't say, "I want to lose weight". I came up with a very specific number that I could measure. Getting this specific helped me gage if my goal was reasonable while still being meaningful to me ("if I lose one pound, is that enough? I technically lost weight.").

There's actually a framework you can use to create goals that will lead to success. It's an ACRONYM that seems to be growing. It was SMART, now it's SMARTER. Next year it'll probably be SMARTEREST or something (book idea!). Kidding aside, I would add the letters AP if I could for Action Plan. Here's how the framework works:

S - Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish. This year I started with "Feel healthier" which is not very specific. What does feeling healthier mean? Is it losing weight? Getting better sleep (what does that mean?!)? Getting a tan? Being able to run long distances? When you say "Feel healthier", what are you imagining? Keep asking that question. Feel healthier -> lose weight -> smaller waist -> fit into old jeans. Ah, now we're getting specific. As you work through the rest of the framework, you might even get more specific.

M - Measurable: Can you count it? To me this means there's a number involved because I can count numbers. Do X 5 times a week. Earn $100 from Y. Reduce waist by 2 inches. Those are countable. I'll admit that sometimes I cheat and don't explicitly put numbers in my goal, but I do include them in my action plan.

A - Attainable: Can you actually do it? "I think so" is an acceptable answer for now. Your action plan will help you determine if it's possible.

R - Relevant: Does it matter if you accomplished this goal? I'm overly organized, so I have a theme that binds all my goals together. I also set long-term goals that my annual goals align to. You don't have to be that over the top. Just answer this: What would it mean to you if you accomplished this goal?

T - Time based: Set a time limit. Some of my goals, like "Read the Bible" was a 3-year goal, which I then broke into annual chunks. My push-up goal was a 2 year goal. I also have 10-15 year goals... well I call it a "vision", but the idea is similar. The point is to put a definite time frame for measuring your success.

E - Exciting!: Not only is the goal relevant, but do you get PUMPED about that goal? It can be exciting because it's a BIG goal ("quit my job!"), or because it's fun ("fly an airplane"). For me, I know it's exciting if I'm willing to talk about it at a social event.

R - Recorded: Write it down. Post it somewhere. Tell someone about it. Make it official. This is that degree that can make all the difference.

AP - Action Plan: Here's another critical step. What are you going to do (daily/weekly/hourly) to accomplish your goal? Are you going to fast 1 day a week to lose your weight? Maybe require yourself to eat a vegetable each meal? For each of my goals I come up with an Action Plan, that is also SMARTER.

When I set my annual goals, I spend a couple hours focusing on it. You don't need to over think it. One genuinely SMARTER goal for you to focus on is all it takes to change your life.

My 2015 goals

To really hit the point home, here are my goals for the year.

My theme is Transformation. In case you missed it, we're having a baby, and everyone keeps telling me my life is going to change dramatically. So, this year is about transforming my life for this new reality. I almost called it "transition", because I really see 2015 as creating huge change for 2016, but that didn't sound as cool/exciting.

I also added something new: a Bible verse to guide me. Psalm 31:3-5 says, "For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God." In the midst of all the change going on this year, I want to remind myself that God is my rock and fortress and that I should commit my spirit to Him.

Faith Focus
1) Memorize 52 Bible verses
Last year I finished the Bible. I like to think of it as "I went through the Bible". Now it's time for "The Bible to go through me." Last year I listened to a talk from one of the elders at my church where he talked about the benefits of memorizing scripture and I became inspired. He knew God's word at a deep level and it was because he spent time memorizing scripture. Have you ever noticed when you memorize something you tend to think about it a lot? How your conversations tend to be around that topic or somehow tied to it? I have. With this goal my hope is to have my thoughts and conversations be closely centered around God's Word. I'm excited about this goal!

Right now I have Romans 12:1 memorized. I definitely plan to memorize Psalm 31:3-5 from above. At first I thought it would be difficult to come up with 52 verses, but I quickly discovered more than enough once I thought about it. For example, last year I wrote a confession of faith (here's what I believe) that included my verse references. My plan is to memorize those so I can fully articulate my faith.

Health Focus
2) Run a half-marathon
So... I want to feel healthier. That means losing weight and being able to run around like crazy with my church's high school students. For me, that means I need to start running again because that's been the easiest way for me to lose weight. However, I'll only start running if I'm working towards something specific, like a race. So, my goal is to run a half-marathon which implies I got in shape and  feel healthier. I have not picked a race yet, so I'm open to suggestions. Otherwise, I'll pick something off of halfmarathons.net.

3) Do 100 push-ups & 200 crunches
This is a continuation from last year. I did 70 push-ups, and now I want to finally get to 100. If I stick with the same pace of +1 push-up per week, I should hit it by September.

I also did crunches last year and decided to officially add it this year. It's kind of fun to tell Jessi to punch me in the stomach as hard as she wants. Combining this with running should result in feeling much healthier.

Business Focus
4) Earn $1,000 from Pro DIY Landlord
I firmly believe in having multiple streams of income: my job, Jessi's jobs, & real estate are our current pillars. However, with a baby on the way, one of those pillars is most likely going to go away, or at least dramatically decrease. We've experimented with different businesses in the past, but none have really stuck. But this time is different (of course). Pro DIY Landlord is a website dedicated to teaching landlords how to manage their properties professionally: to maximize long term cash flow and minimize headaches. I'm excited about it because:

1) It's online and tech related, which I love.
2) It's about real estate which I'm successful with and can speak intelligently about.
3) It also passes the Rob Wiltbank "-ables" test

• Feasible: I know I can write blog posts and Wordpress makes managing a site very simple.
• Reachable: Real Estate investors have internet access and spend a lot of time online doing research and help each other out.
• Valuable: The days of "everything on the web should be free" are over and people are comfortable spending money on worthwhile content. Real estate has also proven to be a market where people are willing to pay for continued education.
• Scalable: The internet is unbelievably scalable.
• Durable: I have a couple secret sauces. First, my editor (Jessi) is female which changes the perspective of the articles. Second, I have an interest in psychological behavior that isn't applied, or explained, very often in the property management space. I also think people will find this perspective valuable.
• Saleable: If I wanted to sell the business, there are a few other websites that might be interested in buying it because my content will compliment theirs.
• Traction: I've been giving more and more advice on managing properties. So, locally I have traction. For online I can only point to other websites at this time.

I'll share more later when the website is up and fully operational, which will be after the apartment project finishes.


Social Focus
5) Improve eye contact
Some surprising feedback I got from friends is that I tend to have shifty eyes. Gazing away while someone is talking helps concentration, but darting your eyes around the room is a social tic that communicates that your not interested in the conversation. That's not what I want to communicate!

My goal isn't as measurable as I would like, but my action plan is. I'm going to do 3 things.
1) Practice making eye contact when watching TV or a movie.
2) When talking to someone, make it a point to hold my gaze for 1 second longer than normal.
3) Give everyone reading this permission to remind me to make eye contact.

Family Focus

6) Watch only one show / movie per day
Jessi and I have gotten into the habit of watching too much on Netflix and Hulu. We regularly spend 1-2 hours watching something while our dishes remain dirty and our clothes are piled unfolded. We do like watching our shows for relaxation, but we need to limit it. So... only 1 show or movie per day will hopefully be the right balance.

Ironically, we're actually talking about getting an TV. So the focus will be on quality over quantity.

Education Focus
7) Read 4 books
I have 4 books sitting on my desk right now that I want to read - 2 parenting books and 2 business books. I have many more sitting on my Amazon Wish List. I've let this part of my continuing education slip and I want to get back into reading. Four books sounds attainable, especially if we're limiting down how much TV we watch.


Those are my goals for the year. It should be a great year of growth and transformation. I'd like to encourage you to also make SMARTER goals this year.

2014 Goal Review: Consistency

In some ways, it's hard to believe that a year already passed. Then I look back and realize how much actually happened. We visited Disney World, put on the Corvallis Pulse, planted a large garden, bought an apartment building, and started preparing for a new family member.

Throughout all of that, I kept a piece of paper in my wallet of my goals for the year (the image above). The theme was "Consistency". The idea is that all of my goals required consistent action throughout the entire year to accomplish them. Here's how I did:

1) Finish the Bible

Yes! I can officially say that I read the entire Bible. It's a good feeling. It definitely does not mean that now I'm done and don't need to read it ever again, but it feels good. :)

2) Weigh 155 pounds

No! I got really close part way through the year to 160 and it felt great. Then I stopped being as vigilant and pretty much put the weight right back on. It's frustrating to say the least. This is still an important goal and I'm going to be trying something different next year.

3) Do 70 push-ups in a row

Yes!

It's not exactly non-stop, but I count it. Remember, I could only do 20 push-ups 1 year ago. I did it by doing push-ups each day and adding one each week.

4) No expenses above $2,000

No! Jessi doesn't want me to count the apartment building because it's technically a separate legal entity, but I do. The idea was to not buy anything large and pump all that money towards student loans. That worked for most of the year and we only have one loan left... but it was hard to say no to this particular deal. I don't feel too bad that I didn't accomplish this.

5) HP Salary Increase

Yes! I set up 4 sub-goals to help me accomplish the big goal. I knew if I did those 4 sub-goals it would most likely result in a raise. What I didn't anticipate was getting promoted to a new job that included a salary increase. So I didn't need to do everything I planned and just focus on my new job.

6) Increase side business income

Yes! With the promotion, I didn't get to spend as much time on this as I would have liked. But we did buy the apartment building which will definitely add to our income next year. For this year, the "extra income" is coming in the form of significant tax deductions, which is really nice.

7) Host a meal 6+ times at our house

Yes! By setting this as a goal, we intentionally invited people over... and people actually said yes! Next year will be easy to surpass this goal with a kid on the way. If you couldn't make it, it's OK because we'd still love to have you over. We specialize in homemade pasta, pizza, and ice cream. We're adding french onion soup & creme brûlée to the line up this year.

Overall

It looks like I did well with the "Do something" goals and poorly with the "Don't Do Something" goals. I'm not really sure how to fix that... but I do find it interesting. This is definitely something I'll need to keep in mind while forming my goals for 2015.

Thanks for all of the encouragement in 2014! I really appreciated it.

And Now For a Fur-less (Furlo?) Baby

We're having a baby!

We've been waiting 3 years to write this post.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us.

To friends who cried with us during our 7 miscarriages. (it was a long 3 years :/)

To the doctors who poked and prodded both of us and put up with our un-ending questions.

To co-workers who dealt with our crazy mood swings for no apparent reason.

Finally, to God for being faithful to us.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And please continue praying for Jessi. It turns out she has another blood clot. She's taking blood thinner shots each day and they seem to be working. This means it's a high-risk pregnancy, so please continue to pray for us.

For those of you who figured it out (I'm pretty sure our friend Eric did when Jessi only ordered water that night) - awesome. :)

Vinnie knows something is up, but none of us really have any idea what we're in for. :)

The Power of Energy

I'm flying back from a business trip right now.  My intent was to read during the two hour trip, and instead I spent most it passed out in my seat. Thankfully I woke up long enough snap that photo of the clouds hovering over Oregon [and write this post].

And then I got to thinking about energy and productivity. So here come some thoughts while cruising in an airplane... Tired...

I don't know about you, but I have clear energy patterns, which I leverage to be productive.

1) I'm a morning person. I'm WAY too chipper at 6am. I'm positive and can take on anything. Therefore, I try to structure my day to get the important things done in the morning. I even go as far as waiting until the afternoon to workout and shower to not waste that morning energy, and give me an afternoon boost. The apartment project doesn't allow for that, but that'll end... Eventually...

2) I can handle minimal sleep for 2 nights in a row. And by minimal I mean less than 7. I have never pulled an all-nighter, and don't want to. I got close last night with only 2 hours of sleep thanks to a late working session combined with an early flight. The previous night was also minimal (5 hrs). I already know that I'll be fine today and can continue to push myself once I land. However, I also know that I absolutely MUST go to bed semi-early tonight, or tomorrow will be bad. Low Energy introduces lots of mistakes on my part.

3) I need to change my setting regularly. For some reason, after 2 weeks of working in the same place, I start to goof-off and get less done. A LOT less.  I find that if I change my setting, even just slightly, my productivity jumps back up. For example, I move from working at my desk to on the couch. I change my chair from a ball to a regular chair. I use a monitor, I don't. I work from home, and then in the office. I only have to do it for a day, and I reset. Again, it's a noticeable amount. That's weird, right?

I learned these patterns by testing and paying attention. In college, I experimented with waking up crazy early to study instead of staying up crazy late. I learned that I read twice as fast in the morning. So waking up 1 hour early was the equivalent of staying up 2 hours later. This was easy math and I started going to bed at 9pm and waking up between 4am and 5am when I had a lot of homework.

4) Being too busy is a function of over committing.  I still need to get better at saying no. I also need to get better at delegating tasks. The apartment project has been a huge learning experience. For example, even though I was away on business, the guys kept working & Jessi gave me regular text updates. How cool is that?! I need to do more of that. The book I'm not reading right now is called "Landlording on Autopilot". So my intentions are good. I just need to somehow be less busy so I can focus on being less busy... Going back to delegating: The trick, is to have the task be valuable enough that you can afford to split the reward with someone. You also need to be in a place of authority to make that decision. Being an employee doesn't allow for it. Running a slim-margin business doesn't either.

Well... It's time to store my device for landing. Thanks for reading! Do you have any weird things you've noticed that affects your productivity?

When To Delegate

(Image: Some of the bathrooms didn't have an electrical outlet. Weird, right? I hired a friend who's an electrician and we spent a weekend adding electricity to the bathrooms.)

When buying the apartment building, we knew we were going to hire people to help. The big question though was what I would delegate and what I would do myself. Around that same time Inc had an interesting article called "When to Delegate? Try the 70 Percent Rule" (via LifeHacker). Here's the main point:

"Smart CEOs, on the other hand, use the "70 percent rule." Put simply, if the person the CEO would like to perform the task is able to do it at least 70 percent as well as he can, he should delegate it. Is it frustrating that the task won't be done with the same degree of perfection or perceived perfection that the CEO himself could achieve? Sure! But let go of perfection. Is it easier said than done? Yes, certainly. But there is no place for perfection when it comes to delegation. The upside for the CEO is that he doesn't need to spend any time on the task--zero. The "return on time" doesn't spend on that task is infinite, in addition to gaining that same time to invest in a higher impact project."

This helped point me the right direction. It also helped that I'm not a master craftsmen, so the barrier is pretty low. :)

After a few days of observation, I got a good idea of their skill level and was able to pick the tasks I would do verses the ones they would do. For example, I built a new wall because I had the vision and expertise. I let them patch large sections of drywall because 70% would still look good enough.

It also got me thinking about other aspects of my business, like accounting and record keeping. I'm good at it, but it does take time. Is this something I could delegate? Would 70% be good enough? Honestly, no. It would need to be pretty close to 100%. Then I started thinking about systems. Is there a way to build a system that makes it easy enough to run that 70% is more a question of how long it takes instead of the accuracy? That sounds quite do-able. McDonalds figured it out, I could too.

So that's my next step. To focus on building systems that will enable me to easily delegate a task without having to worry about too many errors being made.

Discovery Flight Birthday Present (With Video)

In case you didn't know it, Jessi is awesome. For my birthday she found an opportunity for me to fly an airplane. It's called a Discovery Flight where you get a preview of what it would be like to take flying lessons. You spend an hour learning the basics and actually flying (with help). It's pretty awesome. Check out this fantastic video Jessi put together which also features a sound track from the best movie of all time.




This is then plane I flew.

 Here's what the cockpit looks like.

 There I am looking awesome.

 Our view. It was beautiful out.

The view from the side.

The view below.

And the wonderful lady who put it all together. Thanks Jessi!

PS. Taking lessons would be awesome, but it's $10,000 to $15,000 to do so. It think we have a while before living that dream. Until/If then, going up and actually having control of the plane was a great experience.

The Value of Feedback and Inspections

(Image:There were an unbelievable amount of holes just like this all throughout the building. We scraped all of them back and patched them. There's an art to making them blend in.)

Clearly I'm not a parent or a teacher because any parent/teacher reading this will think this is the most obvious learning ever.

So... It turns out, if you give a task to someone who has never done that task before, you need to do at least two things.

ONE: Show them how to do it.

Just describing it isn't good enough. You actually need to model it for them. You literally physically show them how it's done. Then watch them try the activity and correct them until everyone is satisfied with the quality.

TWO: Inspect their work after it's done and provide feedback

When they say it's done, don't just just take their word for it. Go and inspect their work. Take a critical look and let them know where it needs further work. Take it a step further and explain to them what you're looking for when inspecting their work... hopefully it's the same as what you said before they started. Bonus points if you can have them show how it's up to your standard.

I tried skipping these steps, and it doesn't work. I tried just doing step two, and all it does is result in frustration for everyone. I've found that if I spend extra time on step one, the job actually goes faster and step two is very, very easy.

The scary part is when you've spent a significant amount of time on step one and they're still not up to your standard. That's when decision time comes in: Spend more time training (either from you or someone else)? Lower your standard? Have someone else do it? These are not easy questions.

How To Get Everyone on the Same Page of a Project

(Image: My project task list. Green means it needs to be done. An "X" means it's done. ip = In Progress.)

One of the things you do as a manager is give direction. When doing a rehab, you're giving tasks: remove this fixture, patch that wall, and replace the item over there.

The issue I ran into was getting everyone on the same page. At first, I created my own project plan which included tasks, materials, who was going to do it, and time to complete each. I'm actually pretty good at this and tend to land pretty close to my estimates. Then I kept that project plan for myself and simply let my guys know the bigger vision and only immediate next tasks.

Since I often have meetings for my job, I liked to give enough tasks to get them at least through my next meeting. So I would give 3 or 4 tasks. However, when I checked in, I found that only the first and last tasks were done, and the middle ones were forgotten. As you can imagine, this was slightly frustrating.

How do I get them on the same page as me? How do I get them to not forget a step? Ideally, how I do get them to be more self-empowered?

My current solution is working better. First, I only give two immediate tasks at a time. Second (which technically came first), I shared my project plan. So not only did I give them the overall vision of the project, but I also shared all of the details. We spent 45 minutes going through each task and making sure they understood each one. So, if they finish their immediate tasks, which I now just read off the list with them, they know what to do next and and how to do it.

It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.

Another side benefit is that they're actually freed up to give input into the project since they have a clearer understanding of what they're doing. For example, one day I asked them to install a new cabinet. They stopped and asked if I really wanted to install it before they painted the room. Notice, they remembered that painting was on the list (albeit an obvious one, but still), and felt comfortable asking about it.

I was able to send them off on another task from the list while I did some research. It turns out you do want to paint drywall with at least a primer before installing something to it. So we're following their suggestion and painting that wall first. If I hadn't given them the entire project, they would have gone forward without question, like earlier.

Lessons learned: Be organized and fully scope out a project before starting, then share your entire plan with the team. Take the time to slow down and make sure everyone is on the same page before you get too far into the weeds of actually completing the project. It'll help them know where they're going and provide an opportunity for feedback to make the project even better.