I stood there, waiting for my final discharge, feeling crushed under the weight of failure. My retirement plans were decimated. I'd be working my regular day job for many more years, just to replace the half million dollars or more that evaporated when the real estate bubble burst.
Don't get me wrong. We weren't writing bad mortgages and we weren't involved in predatory lending. We were doing solid, honest, GOOD work. We specialized in neglected, trashed, vacant properties. We bought them, fixed them, and sold them. We took unloved, unwanted, empty pieces of trash and turned them back into clean, safe, modern homes that anyone would be proud to own.
We even won two awards for our renovation work in historical districts - in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown, Maryland.
In other words, we thought we were doing everything right. And we would have been fine, except for that damned real estate bubble.
By summer of 2008, I knew something was wrong. Our properties weren't selling. The Days On Market grew and grew - 90, 120, 180 days. And the streets were literally blanketed with For Sale signs. Nothing was selling, anywhere.
The barn was on fire, and everyone was running for the exits. Everyone trying to sell and nobody wanting to buy. We tried everything we knew, and even sold a couple of properties at a loss just to get out from under them.
We were robbing from Peter to pay Paul. Financed to the hilt, with the river rising, and just managing to keep one nostril above the flood - until one of the banks who held our loans was sold. The new bank wasn't interested in working with us to restructure the debt. They just wanted completely out of any real estate loans and didn't care if they had to take a loss in the meantime.
Like a house made of dominoes - the first fell, then the second, and the third. The end was inevitable and inescapable. When it all went to Hell in a handbasket, we had three single family houses and a 3-unit multifamily building on the market. We lost them all.
I had robbed my 401k and the equity in my home to ride out the storm. And, I took a loan against a 4-unit apartment building that I owned. When it all came crashing down, I kept my home but nothing else. I lost the money I had taken from my 401k and my apartment building. I'm still paying the second mortgage I took out on my home.
And then, I went back to my old life. Working 40 hours a week for someone else, watching the days crawl by. And never, ever giving real estate a second thought. It was a closed chapter of my life, buried under the sand of time.
But I never, really got over it. Deep down inside, I still love real estate. There's nothing quite like taking a busted down, ramshackle pile of crap and bringing it back to life.
Life's a circle. What goes around comes around. After several long years, the real estate market is starting to heat back up. And just like seeds sprouting in the summer sun, I've already seen the inevitable new crop of self-appointed real estate gurus starting to hawk their "secrets".
If someone wants to sell you his "secrets", the best thing to do is plant your foot firmly in the area of his family jewels, grab your wallet with both hands, and run like hell.
That's the main reason I decided to crawl out from under my rock and start this blog. I don't have a course to sell you. I'm going to try to help anyone I can, for free.
Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, I did write a course called, "How to Find All the Money You'll Ever Need". It was a course on real estate financing for the investor, and it was pretty well received. In the end, my techniques were one of the main reasons we crashed and burned.
So - I'm not going to tell you I'm some exalted guru with magical secrets. There are a thousand ways to make mistakes, and I've made some doozies. But here's the deal. If you learn from MY mistakes, you won't have to make those mistakes yourself. Trust me, learning from me is going to be a lot less painful than stumbling around in the dark, making your own mistakes.
Experience is that wonderful ability to recognize
a mistake when you're making it again.
Learn from my experience.
Here's how this is going to work. Every few days, I'll write about something that I think is important or strikes my fancy. Trust me, I have plenty of material.
If you have a special interest or question, use the box below to email it to me. I'll try to answer all the questions I get from you guys - at least those that deal with real estate.
If you'd like to receive an email notice of new blog posts, leave your email address in the box to the right. If you know of anyone else who'd be interested, please tell them about this free resource.
And here are the rules:
1. I'm not going to give or sell your contact information to anyone for any reason.
2. I'm not selling anything. In the future, I might write a book or something. We'll have to see how this all works out. If I do write something in the future, I'll probably tell you about it and give you a discount or something for putting up with my nonsense.
3. I don't care if you disagree with me. If you think I'm wrong, call me on it. You might just be right.
4. Be nice. I'm the only one allowed to be a jerk here. If you try it, I'll kick you to the curb so fast it'll make your head spin.
Anyway - if you've found this blog, good reading. I hope it helps you out a little bit.
Either that, or you'll give up on your fevered dreams of untold fortunes from investing in real estate.
And that ain't too bad, either.
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