As I watched Dave race up one of the many hills in St. John’s en route to Ryan Mansion where we were staying I wished I had our Flip camera handy. It felt like we were on our very own episode of Amazing Race: The Real Estate Investing version.
After months of research, property tours, and more research we had uncovered two real estate gems. One is a duplex and the other a single family home. Neither property was distressed but they were both very solid deals.
So… we decided to buy them both. Everything was going along just fine until we encountered a little glitch with our partner.
No problem – we’ll just find a couple of new partners. Except the people we were contacting had less than 48 hours to make their decision. When you’re asking people for $50,000 they generally want more than 48 hours to think about it… even when the deals are compelling – which they were!
We worked the phones for two solid days determined to find people to join us on these two deals. And… with only a few days to spare before we had to remove any conditions we found two new partners!
Now we had to start arranging financing.
With a family doctor on one deal and a very successful veterinarian on the other you’d think financing would be easy – but it wasn’t! In fact, we were flat out rejected by bank after bank!
We have said it before – and I will say it again:
Real estate investing is simple but it’s NOT easy.
I continue to shake my head in frustration at program after program that declares you’ll be a millionaire in minutes and that it’s “all done for you”. I do not understand how they can make such bold claims.
We still spend a lot of money educating ourselves, but we no longer run around signing up for every course on the market that promises us fast riches. We are now very careful and selective about the real estate programs and conferences that we attend. We only take courses or attend conferences that are moving us closer to our goals. And thankfully there are many fantastic real estate programs out there … you just have to look beyond late night television and pushy radio ads trying to convince you to attend a free seminar at a hotel meeting room near you.
But, let me get back to my story about our two deals … Dave was running up the hill in a race against the clock. You see, after we finally found two new partners to join with us on the deals, we then began our ‘vacation’ with the problem that these two people didn’t qualify for financing on either property! We had to extend one of the deals by 4 days and frantically set to work calling all our friends, family and colleagues once again … this time in search of financing!
