Making money can be an expensive process...

Banana and I have been working toward buying some rental properties the past few weeks, and to be honest, it's been eating my time up something fierce. I am quickly coming to the realization that it takes a lot of money to make money. A lot to me I suppose is not as much to someone else, but buying two properties at once, throwing in a re-fi on her house, and quite likely a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) and you have a lot of money we're talking about.

The houses we are looking at are owned by a friend, a man I have ministered with previously. It seems they are trying to help us out, which is mucho appreciated. We spent the evening with the loan guy, running numbers, figuring out every possible angle. Buying a house is scary. Buying two at once is really nuts. Our goal is to pay off my school loans, and begin to build a finacial base so we can give significantly to Kingdom work. We know the money is just on loan to us from God, and we want to be good stewards and honor God through this process. We don't ever want it to be about the money, that souless pursuit has swallowed too many people.

So I expect in the next 48 hours we will need to fish or cut bait. We'll either sign the purchase agreements, or we will walk away, undoubtedly leaving behind an opportunity that rarely comes along. Risk. Managing risk. It's stressful.