Posted by Grayl on June 24, 2001 at 19:13:19:
What a wonderful story! I’m still new & studying, but helping solve people’s problems is what is attracting me to this L/O part of RE. Hope I can share some good stories in the not too distant future.
My favorite part of the business - Posted by Matt B
Posted by Matt B on June 24, 2001 at 18:44:18:
I posted not too long ago about a couple that I was putting into a property on a lease option. The situation was that they wanted to be able to buy a house large enough for themselves and their 2 adult sons. One of their sons is dying of cancer and does not have long to live. He is in very bad shape and is even having trouble getting around. He is in a wheelchair and on tons of painkillers.
It was very difficult on the mother since she had to constantly care for him and yet he lived in another part of town. She wanted to be able to have him live with the rest of family for as long as possible, but was unable to because of living in a small apartment. Of course, she and her husband had some credit problems preventing them from buying a large enough house for the family to be together.
Well, I was able to get them into a lease option recently in a house large enough for them all to be together. They had initially only had $500 to hold the house, since the husband had to pull some money out of a retirement account to come up with a $3,000 option deposit.
Recently there was a storm in the area that damaged part of the back yard fence. Since there is a pool in the back yard, the city immediately issued a warning that the fence had to repaired. Since I personally do not do any work to lease optioned houses, I called the couple up and told them that they needed to repair the fence immediately. When I talked to them, they told me that they had the rest of the option deposit.
Today I went over to the house to meet with them and sign up all the paperwork. They had been working all morning on the fence and cleaning up the pool. (It was a green, slimy pit due to neglect.) They had the extra $2,500 in cash. Since I had been in a hurry, I had forgot to make a copy of the house key for them. I told them I would be back in an hour with a key for them. I noticed that they had the whole family there, mowing the grass, working on the fence, cleaning the pool, etc. (I love hard working tenant/buyers!!) They were all sweaty and very tired looking.
After I got the key copy, I stopped off and picked up a cold case of beer and a 12 pack of Pepsi since they had some younger kids there. When I dropped the key off, I gave them the cold beer and Pepsi. I think that it may be possible that I have not heard ?Thank you? as many times as I have today! The mother was EXTREMELY appreciative of the opportunity that they had been given to not only buy a house, but be able to have their sick son with them finally. When I had first shown them the house, she looked very tired out from running back and forth, looking after her son and her own household.
The money that can be made in this business certainly is nice. However, as I recently told a friend, I really don?t care that much about money any more. It is simply too easy to make money in the real estate game. The REAL benefit to me is the ability to help people. Usually, I don?t get the massive, glowing feeling that I got from these people, but I am still dealing with people who are extremely grateful to be given the opportunity that I am giving them. Now, of course, as I mentioned before, I am not running a charity. These people went through the same screening process that I use on any other tenant/buyer.
On the other end, I have also helped a person sell their house and get rid of their problem. They no longer have to worry about trying to sell their house as it sits vacant. They don?t have to worry about trying to clean the pool out to make it presentable. They don?t have to worry about fixing the broken fence to avoid being cited by the city. I have solved a lot of their problems.
If I were to lose all my money tomorrow, I would still be able to take what I know and start fresh doing exactly the same thing and actually help a lot of other people in the process. (Which, by the way, has happened to me!) I really can?t think of anything else that I can do to accomplish this same thing.
Just a little food for thought.
Re: My favorite part of the business - Posted by Tom
Posted by Tom on June 25, 2001 at 02:21:04:
We are supposed to be putting together win win win deals. This sounds more like a win win WIN deal. Nice to here of deals going this well.
Re: My favorite part of the business - Posted by Anne N
Posted by Anne N on June 24, 2001 at 23:30:29:
Thanks for the post, Matt B. It’s nice to hear “the rest of the story” – especially since so many people think that to win at the game of making money in real estate, someone has to lose.