Let's begin easing you out of the pits. I mean, comfort zone! I'm
going to slowly and methodically give you as many little sparks and
insights to the relatively simple ways that ordinary people use real
estate to achieve extraordinary results.
Stories are the best
spark plugs. They let you casually observe from a safe, secure and
understandable view point. I will write to answer most of the questions
that I feel I myself would ask if I was reading what you are about to
read.
I want you to know something from the very start of this
report and that something is this: I care about you and I sincerely
mean that. I really do want you to move to a new comfort zone, one that
is pleasurable and free from fear. A place where you realize you have
the power to achieve greater things than you currently can imagine.
It's
possible for you to start being a more powerfully directed
purpose-driven individual who is well organized and on track to higher
achievement. You will change and grow, slowly and steadily with every
page you read. With every thought and insight you gain, your desire and
courage will grow as well.
Napoleon Hill wrote one of the
greatest books of all time. It's called "Think and Grow Rich." The
essence of that book, the secret it reveals time and again is this: you
must develop a burning desire.
Don't put this book down thinking
the previous statement is cliché and that you already knew that! I am
simply leading you to my next point, the next point being is - your
desire needs a starting point. So to start developing desire, my secret
is you must have a purpose. Why do you want to pursue real estate? I
know what you're thinking: to make money, to have security, to feel
useful and appear successful. Good points. I agree you can have all of
that and more if that is what you desire.
Now here is something
that comes before any of those things you desire. What is the purpose
of all those things? Purpose, purpose, purpose...you need to first
define purpose before you get the things. My purpose, or so I thought
early in my career, was to move up to a nicer house and have my first
house become my first rental property. When I moved up to the next one,
I quickly learned as soon as I rented it out, I was in some way
responsible for creating happiness and security in the life of another
person that was of no relation to me.
It soon was evident to me
how the choices I made in choosing that first property either would help
me or hurt me in my quest to succeed in the real estate investment
business.
All of it is cumulative, everything you do and how you
do it adds up. It compounds itself and it either makes your life easier
or more difficult. I am going to give you experiences that you can
learn from that will make your life easier; I am going to show you how.
That is my purpose.
The book that gave me the unknowing courage
to take my first steps in real estate was a book called "How I Turned
$1000 into $3 Million in real estate in my spare time" by William
Nickerson. He was a master storyteller and by osmosis, after reading
his book, I found myself gravitating towards the real estate classified
section of my Sunday paper.
Eventually I leapt and my life had
changed. It was an FHA foreclosure, a two-bedroom, one-bath home with a
built-in, screened-in pool, with a Jacuzzi and a built-in sprinkler
system. I bought it for $46,000 and used the HUD 203K rehab program to
fix it up. I spent $16,000 to update and make repairs. They then gave
me one loan for a total of $62,000. It took me three months to complete
it and I was in; I had done it!
My life changed, I learned, I
took the leap. From then on I had confidence. I had already had my
first home but now I had two. Well, I was in the Coast Guard and
wouldn't you know, three months later we moved. Uncle Sam took me out
of St. Petersburg, Florida and dropped me in Kodiak, Alaska, for my next
tour of duty.
Well guess what? I was armed with ambition,
courage, confidence and just enough knowledge to be considered
dangerous, so I bought a duplex as soon as I came ashore on Kodiak
Island. Now I had three dwellings and my relationships and
responsibilities were growing with my new tenants counting on me to
provide a clean, functional and pleasing environment for them to exist
in.
It looked like this: My mother rented my first house and an
elderly couple rented the second one and my duplex came with an existing
tenant who was a hospital administrator, so I was lucky. I was able to
ease myself into the role of landlord without getting burned early in
my career. I now had two houses and a duplex in the span of about one
year. My brothers and some other family members took notice and were
pretty well dumbfounded.
They couldn't figure out how I had, all of a sudden, become a real estate wizard.
It felt good to make that change in so short a time.
I
got that from reading a book! And that my friend is how you are going
to do the majority of everything you do in real estate, by reading and
taking steps towards duplicating the success of others in a repeatable
pattern. The key is to understand that you can do it if you read the
right books and apply the very basic formulas that are handed to you.
There lies in: Magic Bullets in Real Estate
This is a common
man or woman's real estate manual. William Nickerson never gave me
anything so easy as "Magic Bullets!" So I learned trial by fire and it
has been very gratifying. I've since went on to collect 17 properties,
23 tenants, 2 real estate licenses in Florida and Alaska, an assistant
appraiser's certificate and over a hundred books on real estate. I just
kept learning and growing and gaining momentum for the last 13 years. I
am still in the Coast Guard, too, and I work at Alaska One Realty in my
spare time. In two more years, I will be retired at the ripe old age
of 42. Sounds like a sort of fairytale, doesn't it? Don't let me fool
you. It's hard work and I'm still not a millionaire, but I want you to
have the truth, so I will be honest with you every step of the way.
I
know why I am not a millionaire and here is why. I would periodically
sell property that was going up in value and paying for itself through
the rent checks. But being in the Coast Guard would dislocate me every
four years, so I found myself selling out in order to avoid being what
is called "an absentee landlord."
This is an important lesson for
you. It has prevented me from becoming a millionaire up to this point.
The lesson is: find an area on this planet that you could and will live
in, and stay close to it. Don't move more than 10 miles from your farm
area. The farm area is where all your properties are located. Long
distance "land lording" is tough! It can be done but you lose the
ability to control the situation compared to if you were there. I've
served my country and saved people's lives, so for me it has not been in
vain. I have no regrets but if you don't have to leave your area of
expertise, don't!
The networks you build and the contacts you
build, in the process of "doing" real estate, are so valuable that when
they are no longer at your disposal, it puts you at a serious
disadvantage.
Not to mention when you move you have to acclimate
yourself to an entirely different market, build new trust-based
relationships and start all over again. It's like a treadmill you'll be
running and running, however it gets you nowhere.
I've used it to
my advantage. I have been forced to accelerate my abilities to rapidly
duplicate my success whenever I am moved, but it is still an uphill
battle. My point: Don't move too far from your farm or your network of
bankers, appraisers, carpenters, tradesman, real estate, friends,
tenants and so on. Once you have the skill you can duplicate your
success anywhere you go but if you don't have to go...enough said on
that!
I like to say, "Don't sell the goose to get the eggs." What
that means is if you need money to buy more property, use equity lines
from other property to do it. You will get the same amount of money or
more by using an equity line as if you sold it. However, you get to
keep the asset and the money! I go into this in "Magic Bullets," so I
won't drone on here. Just know you don't have to sell your property to
get the cash out of them.
So here we are. You know a little bit about me and you may have picked up a nugget or two. Let's find a few more.
There
once was a man who wanted to buy some investment property, so what he
did was look at growth patterns. You should do this too, by going to
your city's planning and zoning department. You can see growth patterns
and you definitely want to buy property that stands in the way of
growth.
This is how he used what he learned. He saw that city
planners had decided that a new artery (highway) would benefit their
city by creating linkage to another city about 100 miles away, so being a
smart investor he only went as far as a ten mile limit to be able to be
close to his investment.
Now on average, new growth will radiate
out from existing prosperous cities in the direction it is planned at a
rate of about one mile per year. So our smart investor had a 10 - 12
year plan to cash out in about 10 - 12 years.
What he did was buy,
I believe, 10 acres of commercially zoned property very cheaply because
there was no demand at the time. He bought it, fenced it in, put up
some lights and a gate, and held onto that little bugger. Now that new
highway was coming his way and the good folks, through their taxes, were
paying to have it built.
It didn't take long for the heavy
equipment to start cutting a swath towards his fenced-in storage
facility and when they got close enough to him, he started renting out a
secure area for everything, from road cones to generators to backhoes.
You name it - it was stored there. This more than paid his land off.
Now
the men and their equipment eventually moved on further down the trail
but they left a finished highway behind them. And guess what? Low and
behold, people started driving on it, and then started buying property
to build houses on to get away from the city. Since the new highway was
a straight shot into town, ten miles out was breeze.
Well, of
course, here comes the herd and everyone is just populating the whole
darned area. And within ten years, residential housing surrounds Mr.
Investor, and can you guess what he's got? Yep, a prime piece of
commercial property, 10 acres large.
So in accordance with his
10-12 year plan, he sells his storage facility to make room for the new
office/business park complex for over $2,000,000. That, my friend, is
vision, and the sooner you get a clear picture of what it is that you
want to specialize in, the sooner you can retire to the islands.
How
hard was that? Don't tell me you can't do it, you can! I'm here to
help you. I'm going to give you secrets no one else dares. Do you ever
wonder why people won't tell you the secrets? Of course you already
know this but I'll tell you anyway. It is because they are operating on
a scarcity mentality, as though there won't be any left for them. Or
if learn something and act on it, you will get ahead and have a great
life. Well, misery loves company and silent oppression is the rule.
Here's
a little story that poor quality real estate agents won't appreciate
either but I'm going to tell it to you anyway. The reason I can tell it
is because there are some great real estate agents out there who
absolutely don't fear what I am about to tell you and would let you know
it if they were in my position.
Here's the deal: Some agents
want to be like the Wizard of Oz. They want to create the appearance of
marketing and transacting real estate as being technical and very
legal, a deep dark mystery. Well, it's not! The truth be told, you can
write a contract on a napkin and it would stand up in court. I will
emphasize here that you write on that napkin along with the terms of
your agreement, "The terms set forth on this here napkin are subject to
my attorney's approval."
An attorney will cover you completely for
around $750.00. Prices may vary, however that is an average home
transaction. There is a lot I am leaving out here but my point is this:
If you own property, you can sell it anyway you want. "Magic Bullets"
will teach you. Let's move on.
Exposure is the key to finding
buyers and sellers in real estate. If a property is priced fairly and
everyone who is looking for that type of property knows that it is in
the availability pool, it will be found and the transaction will proceed
as advertised. Price it right, advertise it properly and let the
lawyer take care of the details. No commission, just a flat fee.
Period.
Now that I have that off my chest, I will tell you a story
about Dan, a 21-year old friend of mine, and his wife and their new
baby. He's a hardworking guy who does his work without complaint and
all the other "workers" pick on him for working so hard. Can you
believe it? The other guys are so insecure and lazy that they make fun
of a guy who is doing the work of three men, mainly of the three who are
ridiculing him. Well, believe me, this doesn't go unnoticed by me and I
take him under my wing. Dan wants to buy a house, so I begin the
process of saving him years of trial by fire and save him $25,000 at no
charge. That is because he deserved my help.
Anyway, here is the
story: I began with him by asking him what type of home he thought he
would be comfortable with and a price range. He indicated a 3-bedroom
for around $100,000.
Knowing what he wanted and knowing the area, I
was able to take him shopping for the house he was looking for. Now I
always go after the "For Sale by Owner" homes first because I know they
won't be adding any commission figure into their price, because they
won't be paying one. So at 6% of $100,000 he will get $6,000 more
"house" for his precious dollar.
I also told him besides the "For
Sale by Owner" homes, we would be looking at oddball discount companies
that help distressed sellers further part with their money and property.
The mentality of a seller who uses cheesy companies to help them sell
their property is pennywise and pound-foolish. If you're going to use
professionals, then get a professional.
So off we go. After a day
or so, we have found our house. Sure enough, El Cheeso Inc. has a sign
on it. The screen doors are flapping in the breeze, the weeds are
dancing on the lawn, but this house is indeed a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1-car
garage with a fenced yard and it's selling for $110,000. Well, due to
the fact that there is a divorce in progress, and a new girlfriend who
doesn't like the place, and El Cheeso Inc. giving no representation, I
negotiate for Dan and he gets it for $99,000. What's so great about
this deal is this exact same floor plan in another house was for sale
down the street, on the same street, for $25,000 more.
The moral
of the story is good things come to those who deserve it, and that is
another key to real estate. You must work hard so others will take
notice of you and help you succeed.
Here's a beauty for you. This
is about being in real estate circles and keeping your eyes and ears
open and often times your "yapper" closed. This is the story of Brian
and Julie. Here we have two hardworking souls. They have been married
for 20 years and they have weathered the storms of matrimony. Julie
works at a real estate office as an office manager. No real estate
license, but she works at an office that sells a lot of waterfront
property. So we are talking about location and being in the right place
at the right time, and here comes a seller in the door of the office
stating she is going to sell her older waterfront home. She is willing
to take $180,000.
Julie tells Brian, they look at it and sure
enough, this pearl is right on the water. She's a gem waiting to be
polished up, so Brian and Julie sell their condominium and move in.
Well, they aren't making any more waterfront property, so Brian goes to
work polishing this jewel up.
Now, they have bought this house
under market value in an appreciating market. So about one and a half
years later, this property is worth over $350,000 and still climbing.
Well, Brian is no dummy, so he gets to know his neighborhood. He
strolls, takes walks and notices, you guessed it, a vacant, neglected
jewel on an inside double lot. He tracks down the elderly lady, who is
living with her sister, through the county records office and buys the
house, including the extra lot, for a total of $120,000. Now Brian can
walk to his new "jewel" and he starts polishing it. The neighbors start
noticing and are amazed at his deal. He has offers of $180,000,
$200,000 and $60,000 for just the lot. You name it. Now that the
exposure is there, everyone wants a piece of it.
Well, this is
what Brian did. He rented his first house out, moved into the second
one and used plans that I gave to him to build a third house on the
vacant lot, using the equity he accumulated from the first house that
went up so much. And here's how this thing shakes out: $180,000 for
his first house and it's value goes up to $365,000; he picked up the
next jewel for $120,000 and he paid cash using the equity from the first
house. Now he takes out a new mortgage on his second house for
$120,000 and builds a third. The value at last count was $815,000 and
he owed a grand total $300,000. That's a half million-dollar profit in 5
years!
Now what does this story tell us? #1 - it says, "work
hard"; #2 - keep your eyes open; #3 - use equity lines; #4 - don't
sell; #5 - learn how to be a landlord; #6 - be in locations that
appreciate; #7 - buy things that are limited in availability; #8 - know
how to research owners and repair property; #9 - get your partner's help
(spouse); #10 - use knowledgeable friends to help you see potential (I
gave him the plans and advised him not to sell anything!).
Can you
get any more lessons out of this story? I'm sure you can. Just read
it again and think on it. Jot down your ideas and put them to work.
Real estate is not that hard, folks! You can do it. With a few magic
bullets, some spark plugs and a good mentor to show you how, you can do
it too!
Let's you and me talk for just a minute here, OK! Have
you ever been really good at something and been able to step back and
see the whole thing for what it is was? You just know exactly how to do
it and you can see the end result clearly in your mind before you
start. It's predictable to you. It's almost second nature, so you are
comfortable doing it. It's almost become boring to you; your comfort
zone is such that you can do it in your sleep.
I've gotten that
way with certain types of real estate and I see people everyday that are
so afraid of taking the first step that they are literally paralyzed.
They make excuses and put it off, and rationalize and live a quiet life
of desperation. They don't trust themselves and as a result of the
unknown they can't trust anyone else either. This is a vicious cycle
because the longer they wait the more it reinforces their beliefs.
I
just want to grab them by the collar, take them to the bank and make
them tell the banker, "Pre-qualify me!" Then walk them out the door and
show them how to do something that will change their life forever, and
that is to buy the first property, and then a second. Then their fear
is gone and they grow to be of service to everyone who is ready for
their assistance.
Let me tell you this: After you finish reading
the rest of this report and you read the "Magic Bullets" book, your
fears will be subdued and you will do something and your life will
change. If you cannot succeed with what I am intent on showing you,
then something is not right. I believe your desire would be your major
obstacle, so if that's the case, read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon
Hill and come back to me then.
Let's get back to real estate
education, shall we? Do you know who the largest commercial real estate
owner in the U.S. is? It's McDonalds Corporation. Yep, and on top of
that, they also have the most valuable locations for their type of
business. The research they do on demographics and traffic counts is
unparalleled!
If you were ever going to open a fast food
restaurant, just put it near a McDonalds. You would survive just on the
volume of people who flock or pass by the location that McDonalds has
already decided meets all the critical data to support their restaurant
business. Your restaurant, if you had good food and service, would
flourish. Just sell something a little different than McDonalds.
That's leveraging someone else's expertise in evaluating a location for a
certain type of real estate.
Now that is a principle and
principles are like natural laws. A natural law always works in every
situation in its own way. It's like gravity - it always works! Here on
earth, anyway.
So in real estate it doesn't matter what type it
is, whether it's commercial, residential, industrial or recreational.
Look for signs that serious market studies have been undertaken by major
operators and buy things that can flourish in the presence of those
concerns.
For instance, let's use Home Depot as an example. If
Home Depot decides to build on a site, every residential lot within a
mile of that new center will be bought up as soon as the Home Depot
commits to build! Why?
Because smart investors know that Home Depot has done the market study and the area will be a prosperous one.
On
top of that, it will provide jobs, it will pay taxes, it will provide
materials to actually build the neighborhoods with, and people will shop
there once their houses are built. The same goes for Wal-Mart, Lowe's
and other smart business concerns.
You may or may not have noticed
this but take a look the next time you are driving around. Here is
what you should see. As you drive into cities from the suburbs, you'll
notice donut shops, gas stations with convenience coffee centers, bagel
shops, and etcetera, on the side of the road that people travel to on
their way into the city to go to work. These are morning activity
business centers.
Now on your way home, out of the city, you will see restaurants that
cater to the evening meal crowd: KFC, Taco Bell, Subway and Pizza Hut.
That's because people don't go there for breakfast. They get it on
their way home, outbound from the city at night. If you put your
restaurant on the wrong side of the road, you could be making a huge
strategical error. Think!
Location, location, location as they
say, are the 3 most important things in real estate. That is a very
true statement. With residential property, that boils down to safety,
security and convenience. So buy homes in good neighborhoods,
cul-de-sacs preferably. No noise or through traffic, no escape routes
for thieves, and a private setting, where kids play in the street
without getting run down.
Security = close to hospitals, police and fire protection for obvious reasons.
Convenience
= stores, gas stations, restaurants, small businesses, parks and
recreation and access to major highways to circulate or evacuate if
necessary.
You might get a great deal on a piece of properly but
if it takes you a half hour to get a loaf of bread. What kind of resale
will that great deal offer? Another great deal may back up to or face a
busy street. That's often a poor choice as well...noise, pollution,
the loss of privacy and curb appeal are all factors here.
The two best types of property to buy are:
1. Property that no one else knows is for sale! Why? Because you have no
competition.
2. Property no one wants! You just have to figure out why people don't want it.
If you can turn that lemon into lemonade through some problem solving, that
jewel may just shine because you used the right magic polish.
In real estate, you get paid when you solve problems. That is a fact!
Here
is a golden nugget for you. If you do this, it will catapult your real
estate investment career. I guarantee you will gain more insight to
real estate by doing this one thing than just about anything else you
could possibly do. The golden nugget is this: Take a real estate
appraisal course. It will fly by, a few weekends and it's over, but the
perspective and the information you gain from the class is priceless.
It gives you vision, ideas and understanding. You will have an edge
over every other investor who has not done it.
I had an
instructor, who by some stroke of luck, I was privileged to be taught
by. His name is Steven V. and he is truly a genius. This guy could
make millions if he applied himself to real estate investment but he
chooses to teach and give back to others in that way. He is very
comfortable in life and money is a by-product for Steven. When I
finished the class, I had appraisers wanting to hire me to go to work.
Now I don't want to work as an appraiser. I just want to think like one
and that is why I took that four-weekend course. That class taught me
more than both of my real estate licensing courses combined. The reason
for that is real estate classes deal with state laws, contracts,
regulations and ethics. Appraisal focuses on evaluating real estate and
that is what you want to learn as an investor.
A real estate
license can actually hold you back from being a savvy investor and
here's why: #1 - You have to announce to every seller that you are an
agent. It's an ethics rule and a disclosure law. Well, now the seller
is on guard for all kinds of reasons and you waste precious time
overcoming negative reactions. #2 - When you go to sell your real
estate, the same things apply but add to that scenario the fact that if
you make large profits on property that you sell, people can come after
you, saying you took advantage of them because of your expertise. And
they win!
So you don't need to go to college for 4 years and you
don't need a real estate license. What you do need is a guy like me to
convince you to go to appraisal school and read books like the one you
have now.
Then go out and do it, using a lawyer to protect you
every step of the way. Again, here is a good point to make. Simply
weave into every agreement or offer you make the following statement:
This entire agreement is subject to my attorney's approval. I can't
stress that enough. That's one line of text. That covers it all. It
gives you time to investigate deals. It protects your interests and
keeps you from getting burned in this business.
Here are a couple more beauties that I use to protect myself and you should too.
These are used with initial purchase offers:
1. Willing to pay X amount of dollars or appraised value, whichever is less.
(That says, "I'm only going to pay so much but if the appraisal is lower than
what I offered, than I am going to get it for the lower price. I don't get
burned!)
2. Subject to my partner's approval. (My partner was always my wife, and if she
didn't like it, the deal was null and void, cancelled, over, kaput, finito.)
Now nothing says my partner wasn't my dog, so if there's no fire hydrant, well the deal could be off.
Those
are examples of escape clauses that could be abused to the point of
being called "weasel clauses." Don't be a weasel! They give you a
short period of time to have the option to buy something first with the
right to cancel the deal, contingent upon something or someone else's
decision.
I use them to protect myself and to get a little time to
do my research on the property. Don't use them to unfairly tie a
seller's hands. Be fair and try to move quickly when you do employ them.
What you are doing is creating a short time, zero-cost option to buy
real estate. Here is a little trick and I don't use it very often but
it can be used in a fair manner so I will give you the nugget. When you
write an offer to purchase property, on the top line of the contract is
a line that indicates who the buyer is. On that line in certain cases,
I will write my name plus the words or assigns, like this:
Buyers: Dan Auito or assigns
What that word "assigns" does is
this: it allows me to sell by assigning my right to buy the property to
someone else. Dirty dealers will take advantage of people with that
word if they can get away with it.
Here's where I would use it.
In real estate, a lot of bargain hunters look for distressed property.
You know, the fixer-uppers, the abandoned, condemned, fire-damaged
stuff. I go a step further and look for distressed sellers such as
death, divorce, relocation, but a lot of times I don't specialize in
that type of property.
That's OK because if it's a steal and I get
it for 40 - 50% off, I will assign it to someone who does deal in that
type of property and make a profit by assigning it.
I'll always
ask the distressed seller if that is a problem and if it is, I will buy
it outright, then flip it but it costs more to do that. So I'll explain
this to the seller and get their permission to use it. I don't slip it
in on them. You will have a miserable existence if you practice real
estate by deceit. Natural law will crush you; play fair! Purpose,
passion and desire cannot be achieved or acquired by deceit. That's a
quotable quote. I hope you remember it.
Let's get on with another
story. This illustrates another fine example for you. This story is
about a family who had business interests outside of real estate
investing and as a result of the successes of their other businesses
they had fairly large sums of money to play real estate like a monopoly
game. Power can be dangerous in the wrong hands!
So here we go.
This flush with cash family sees an opportunity to take advantage of an
overlooked or left alone market. That market is the old-fashioned
trailer park, or shall we say Mobile Home Park.
Anyway, the way
most mobile home parks came into existence was this: Usually a man of
integrity and strong work ethic coupled with a love for his fellow man
would buy a piece of land suitable to the placement of mobile homes. As
people moved in, he and his wife would welcome them and the neighbors
would greet them and the community would become established.
The
private owner would dig his own sewer lines and cut his own roads and
landscape the park. Maybe put in the clubhouse complete with a swimming
pool, shuffleboard, pool table and meeting hall. As time marched on,
the residents bonded with each other and a family-friendly community
took root. Well this man of integrity had a problem. Since all of his
tenants are his friends, he is pressured not to raise the lot rents with
inflation.
So the rents over the years are kept very low in the
park and now this man and his wife are getting old. Perfect timing for
our investors to come knocking and offer our private aging park owner a 2
million dollar price for his 10 acres of mobile home lots. This is a
once in a lifetime offer and many park owners cashed out.
What
people didn't see was these investors were systematically and
methodically doing this all over the place and once they cashed out as
many mom and pops as they could, they lowered the boom.
Now they
the investors had control of many parks in the same areas and they
started raising the lot rents. You see, they didn't have any emotional
ties to the residents and they didn't live there, so it was a
straightforward business deal: either pay the new higher rent or move.
The
residents said, "To hell with you new owner, we are moving." "Well,
fine, go ahead," they said. Now the residents started calling around to
find another park with low rents but guess who owned those? Yep, our
investors did, and those lot rents were going up too. So the mom and
pops who didn't sell were full and it would cost on average of about
$7,000 to relocate to another park even if they could find a vacancy.
The
old folks who had it so good for so long were faced with a new reality
and that was that they had no choice but to pay up or move, and moving,
in many cases, wasn't an option. These investors exploited a complete
segment of the market and made millions and millions in profit and
continue to do so today.
It wasn't long after this happened that
you started seeing signs saying, "This is a resident owned community."
People eventually got smart and started buying that little lot that
their trailer was sitting on and they began paying association dues for
the clubhouse and security and grounds, maintenance and road repair.
The good ole days are nothing but a fond memory.
Life goes on but
America did not change for the better as a result of these types of
people. Their only purpose was to make money; I believe they will die
alone and in misery as a result of their way of life.
So I ask you
again, can you be passionate and put your heart into investing in real
estate by investing the way our corporate investors did? I think not.
Money is no good when you get it by deceitful ways. I encourage you to
work at balancing your objectives. Lease optioning, flippers...you are
walking a fine line.
Here's a flip side to communal living. This
story is a happier scenario, so let's have a little joy here. I once
lived in Key West and I lived off base. Well, I thought I lived next
door to Noah, and it sounded as though he was building another ark. All
summer long, hammers and saws seemed to be making some type of racket,
so naturally being the neighbor I was, I got to know the man next door.
He never went to work and I asked him one day, "Don't you have a job
and he kind of grinned and put his hammer down and this is Mark's story.
Mark
and his brother were from the Northeast and they had a 30-room boarding
house for college kids there, at something like $300.00 a month. That
was about $9,000 a month and they made the parents responsible for the
rent payments. Mark would spend his time with his family in the Keys
for the nine months that school was in session. His brother was a local
up North and he took care of the toilets, faucets, doors and windows.
Yes, they had their very own animal house going on there, but Mark
factored in the abuse and would spend 2 - 3 months a year, putting the
animal house back together while the animals went home for summer break.
Mark
only worked three months a year and the house (ark) that he built next
to us was a masterpiece; it was beautiful. He was a master craftsman
and he loved his work and spent a lot of his time with his family in a
wonderful climate. Makes you kind of jealous, doesn't it? Well, don't
let it because you can do it, too, but you must get started. Mark was
45 when I met him. I believe he was 25 when he got started, so my
advice to you is to get started now!