My Name is Stupid

You know, I've never been smart. I could always talk or write intelligently, but that was mostly thanks to well-written TV shows or movies, and Microsoft Word's thesaurus. No, my advantage was that I think big. I can always see the big picture no matter how far I am from it. It looks as if I'm farther than I thought after today.

I called Bank of America to get the ball rolling for the refinance of property Alpha, but they said that I wouldn't get anything back with a cash-out refinance. I owe 59k and the value of the house is 74k. The difference, he said would go to closing costs, escrows, fees, and other shit. So Alpha is out. I called Wells Fargo for the refinance of property Beta, and they said that the property has to appraise for 85k or more if I'm going to get 10k from it. I owe 58k on the property and the value of the house (loose estimate that I got online) was also around 74k. So, unless the value was raised by 10k by the new roof and painting over the entire house last year, I am screwed out of any extra help with buying my next property.

I'm going to set up a meeting with a financial advisor, most likely from Chase, and see what my options are. I mean, how is it possible to own two properties with 15k in equity each and I can't get ANY money out of them? I should have planned this out better. I should have met with a financial advisor BEFORE I spent the almost 5k to fix up my credit. I should have consulted a financial advisor before the beginning of this year so that I had a clearer understanding of the individual smaller pictures that don't understand.

I made it this far being dumb. I don't know much and refused to learn anything because I didn't deem it necessary. Need examples? I don't know what escrow is. I don't know what taxes are and how they work. I know I pay them to the government, but that's about it. Yet, with my minimal knowledge, I was able to purchase two properties, profit from them, and maintain them well. But that's as far as I've been able to go til now. It's time that I get some help to see how I can get through this process of getting money out of Alpha and Beta.

If I can't get money out of those properties, it will take me until the end of the year to buy my next property. That would suck a bum's ass. I know that I keep saying that it's all good just as long as I don't make a mistake that will sink me, but this feels like a big mistake. I waited until I got to the front of the line for the rollercoaster ride before I realized I forgot my ticket.

This mistake may cost me 6 months of extra work at these fucking security jobs just to make it up. Buying a property in October and getting it fully rented before the winter started was my goal. I would have had the income from three properties and two full-time jobs coming in, which would have allowed me to purchase my fourth property by June of 2012. After that, I would have used the rest of 2012-13 building up enough money to buy my first property with cash, no mortgage. That would have met me my goal of 8k a month by the end of 2013. All of that may have to change, thanks to my poor planning. I'm not looking forward to 6 more months of working, so I'm hoping that a mortgage financial planner can help me set things straight again. My faux intelligence can't get me to the next level, so maybe some real intelligence can help me.