Posted by Peter_MD on September 12, 2002 at 10:33:49:
Ed:
I always enjoy your postings and I think you gave a very important lesson to beginners in what you suggested.
In reading the post I kept saying to myself, where’s the motivation? It’s not there and nobody can made someone who isn’t motivated become motivated.
Reminds me of stealing a house a few years ago (in slow motion), in the old neighborhood I used to live in. I was told by one of my old neighbor that she was told by the mail person that an old neighbor of ours down several houses from where we lived had passed and that his wife, with medical problems of her own, had to move to an assisted living facility.
I called and talked to the daughter who I did not remember and I’m sure she did not remember me. The daughter was absolutely unmotivated and had worries that she needed to tend to.
I dropped by the house later that week on my way to a social event with a signed offer, deposit check for $100 and one of my business cards. Note, usually don’t make a visit to a property unless I get the invite (motivation) over the phone. Never heard anything for about a month or so…then…I get this call from an attorney. All he said in the voice mail message was that he is an attorney and for me to call him at the following number. Now, my mind’s going over and over events in the past few weeks and to make things worse, it was late in the evening when I got the message so I had to ponder the vast emotions I had until the next morning. Called and spoke with the office assistant and had to wait several hours to call this attorney back again.
The final outcome was that this attorney was the old couple’s attorney and he was handling the estate which was going through probate. I don’t know specifics, but I think the gentleman had another child out of wedlock that was causing some legal difficulties and I suppose the wife had some disorder that kept her from being legally capable of handling affairs relating to her and the house.
The attorney told me that their daughter gave him my information and that she (only child) was interested. I did the deal within 90 days for the exact price that I offered…all the time the market value was going up.
When minor fix-ups and sprucing up was done, I made what I consider unbelieveable money…all told over $83,000. I just fell into this one and was fortunate to be able to do what I said I would do.
Your suggestion of always reassessing the situation and results with points of reference as a learning tool is excellent…always good to learn from one’s mistakes and misfortunes and even better when you can learn from someone else’s good or not so good fortunes.
Keep up the informative postings.
and the best to you…