So here is the gameplan for 2009:

1) Posting the series I had planned on how I got my first rental property.

2) Posting my progress on what I am doing to get my second property.

3) Posting some cool stuff on Internet Marketing, including stuff I am learning from my membership in The Immediate Edge and 30 Day Challenge Plus.

4) Posting other things I find in my journey, including articles on Freelancing and Entrepreneurship, 4HWW, and Life Hacks.

Although I will probably not post every day, I will try to post more frequently.

Update: here is the link to the article from his site.

Update 2: Sorry the link no longer exists…

In other news, my rental property is now on the market.  I have been getting nibbles, but no big bites yet. I have to get a tenant into the house before December so I can refinance it. I have a balloon payment due then and the pressure is on.

My general strategy is to get multiple streams of income coming in to initally supplement my salary, but to eventually have it replace my salary. So, with my rental, my Internet Marketing activity, and soon, my freelance Web Design work (and content writing), I hope to generate enough revenue to go independent.

Stay tuned…

I am up here with my two daughters, my wife could not make it up because she had to prepare for the upcoming school year (she is a teachers aid). My brother, sister, and her two kids are here as well.

I make the trek here each year to recharge my batteries. Everyone should have a place like that in their life. It is so far removed from the world; my father can only access the Internet via dial-up! It is both a blessing an a curse.

This morning, my brother and I hiked one of the many mountains. It was overcast and the fog shrouded some of the higher peaks of neighboring mountains. I’ll post some pictures later on. It really is beautiful here.

I am not going to post any links for the time I am here. No productivity tips, no cool sites, nothing. I am going to be designing a couple of web pages for my parents (they are putting the house up for sale and I am going to help them market it), but that is the full extent of my work here. Instead, I am going to make reservations for tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House, sea kayak from Bartletes Landing, and maybe get a few more hikes with my brother and kids in while the weather is nice.

First, my wife had it in her head that the hall bathroom needed to be redecorated. So, she tore down all the wallpaper and left the rest to me. She wanted me to re-prep the walls for painting, and re-tile a section of the bathroom where the old vanity was standing to prepare for the new vanity.

So much for my weekends…

I mentioned in an earlier post how my daughter has begun driving. Well, we are now encountering the next milestone of growing up – the college visit. We started the trip last week, looking at the University of Georgia.  We then drove from Atlanta to Miami to visit the University of Miami. Finally, we went up to Orlando to visit Universal Studios for some fun (although we did take a side trip to Tampa to visit the university there as well).

Yes, I know; what kind of idiot spends the week of July 4th in the Florida heat…It actually was a fun trip. I try to make time for the kids, but scheduling is hard with my kids doing schoolwork and hanging out with friends and me with my job. Summer is a great time to re-connect.

Anyhow, one of the things I have been doing to move to an location independent lifestyle, is to teach myself web design. I found a phenomenal site called Skout that is just too good not to share… Those of you interested in Web Design should find this an indispensable resource; enjoy!

I have seen some really interesting resources, and I will continue to post them here. I have gone back on my list of resources and found that it is huge. I tend to just clip sites that seem interesting and put them all in an email that I then send to myself. I looked back on the emails and there were hundreds of links to review! Yes, some sites kept coming up with great info, but a lot of these were the sites I already had on my blog roll (although there are some new ones that I will add later).

The best advice I can think of is to do what I do and use sites that employ user recommendations to find subjects in which you are interested. Go to sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, or Stumbleupon, to search for topics like “Freelance” or “4HWW”, and you will find quality sites that have been vetted by others. This is the direction that online search engines taking – instead of blindly finding every site relating to a subject, good or bad.

While I have pretty much finished work on my rental property, I have not really made any effort to market it or get a tenant into it. I don’t know what is holding me back. Probably fear. I have heard horror stories of tenants from hell and I am afraid that when I do get someone in, the nightmares will begin. Still I faced my fears when I bought the house in the first place, and I still want to try being a landlord to see if it is right for me. I guess I just have to face this fear and ride out whatever adversity that comes my way.

As I mentioned in my last post, the Thirty Day Challenge is back, and I am going to participate in that as well. In July, it will be a year since I first started my effort to leave my current job and become a freelancer. I have learned a lot in that time, but it is a humbling experience, and it is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Life has a funny way of coming in and interfering with your plans. Still, I have not given up and I will continue to try different things until I find the solution that feel right for my goals.

As for my next post, you will get it when it is worthy of publishing… )

I am also toying with the idea of moving this blog over to the new host. The host allows for multiple sites, and even though I don’t have a major following, it will give me the chance to experiment a little more, and eventually try to sell ad space. I am actually considering splitting the blog up into two parts, one continuing on with the 4HWW theme, and the second with my experiences as a real estate investor. This is a ways off, but I am looking forward to it.

On another note…tomorrow, the house will have new garage doors, and the landscaping will be complete. All that is needed is a new oven and a good cleaning and it will be ready to rent. I will then be free to move on to other projects. I want to get back to my goal of forming a virtual company…

In my next post I am going to list some excellent resources that I always turn to for freelance advice and ideas.

I apologize to the three or four of you that hang on my every word waiting for my next wacky adventure…

Seriously, I have been swamped…

The major rehab on the house has been complete, now comes the little details that need to be finished so I can get the house ready to rent. Today, I went to a local appliance store to get a stove top for the kitchen (I still need a new wall mounted oven and range hood); I also hung the fire alarms and started cleaning EVERYTHING!

The big to-do is getting the garage doors to work. My contractor could not do it, but gave me the name of someone who might. They have yet to get back to me…

I also have to get my “process” formalized. I know what the Georgia Landlord – Tenant law is, and I have a good lease. I now need to get a voice mail service to handle the calls from prospective renters and a way to run credit checks and criminal checks on any applicants. The devil is always in the details.

Still, I am excited. So far (knock on wood) I have been able to handle any problems that I have encountered. It has been crazy leading a double life, programmer by day, real estate rehab project manager by night, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, that doesn’t mean that life as a landlord isn’t going to cause headaches, but financially, it will ease a lot of pressure having someone else pay the mortgage – assuming I find a tenant. Then comes the next house…

Keeping productive given my situation has been a challenge, and I have been surfing the net for productivity tips. I have found a really good article here. I hope you find it helpful.

You can find his list of tools here.

One of the tools he recommended is ZOHO, which I also use and recommend. I find it a lot more robust than Google’s office tools.