Newbies, there is another side to RE - Posted by Chris
Posted by Chris on August 26, 2005 at 12:54:50:
Don’t get me wrong RE is the best thing that ever happenned to me. I worked very hard to get to where I am and enjoy a nice life, but you have to be prepared, VERY prepared for what you are getting into, A lot of times I think RE is sugar coated whether it be on late night TV, or even on the reality TV shows they now have. No matter what you do Lease Options, rehabs, rentals you have to be a certain type of person to handle it. It doesn’t matter if you make 500K per year and work 10 hrs per week if you are miserable, overwhelmed, stressed, and depessed. So all the newbies who are desperate to get started spend as much time researching how to get started as you do searching your soul and getting to know who you really are, because a JOB doesn’t test you and reveal the things that RE will. So spend a fair amount of time really deciding whether or not this is for you, because of course you can, thousands make their living doing this that isn’t the question, it’s whether or not you really want to.
Now what brought me to this revelation. Well I have a house I lease optioned 2 years ago the tenant put 3K down, (the option to buy has since expired) had a business he had started and things were going well. Well he and his wife had since had 2 more children, one needing heart surgery, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, things with the business aren’t going well and they are two months in arrears. And for the last several months have been paying their rent 3 weeks late. We called let them know we had to give them there 30 day notice husband was upset says he is doing the best he can, we said we understand unfortunately our bank doesn’t, he says he doesn’t think he can move, he has no family around here and no where to go. I think we are going to have to take this one to court.
We rent a house in the city, it was a rehab in a pretty OK area. We have two female college students downstairs, and not but a month ago rented the upstairs to a man on county assistance. Let me explain a little about the area we rent in. It is a very depressed, small city in upstate NY. We rent in the city, always OK areas. We get a lot of calls for our apartments they are always newly remodeled and I would say 96% are on some sort of county assistance. There is a lot of welfare and public assistance and if you own rental property and want to keep it rented you better be willing to accept it. While that is the negative the positive is you can buy a 4 unit building for 60K, in decent condition and the units rent for $450-550, pretty good return. Anyway guy upstairs received shelter plus care assistance which means he is in a rehab program, but in order to receive the assistance you have to stay in compliance with their program they check up on you every month, you have to stay in the program, attend your meeting etc. Well we received a call this morning last night he got high and broke into the downsatirs apartment and assaulted the girl downstairs and stole things. According to neighbors and our property managers who were able to get in their it was pretty bad. He had her tied up and their is blood all over the walls, he may have raped her, we aren’t sure. We alreay talked to our attorney we aren’t liable or even worried about that, and if there is any damage to the property, that is what insurance is for.
Anyway today is a bad day and in order to carry on and get on with your day, pick your kids up from school, make dinner, mow the lawn, etc. and put it behind you, you need a cretain type of personality and support system. Am I saying this will happen to you of course not but you can gurantee it will be something that is just as trying.
Soory post was so long and depressing but sometimes I feel newbies may go into this not fulling knowing all the sides of RE. While it has been great for me and my family I know of a lot of people trying to get into the business that couldn’t handle this.