Identificación de aspectos ambientales

So there I was, eight long years after first conceiving my dream, and I was finally starting my own company, and working towards my goal.

I knew it wouldn’t be an overnight success, and I was willing to take it one step at a time, because I had the passion and the vision. I believed in it so strongly that I gave it everything I could give. As I sat there in my little office, overlooking the pool down towards the forest, I felt a sense of peace, because I knew there was nothing more I could do. I had done my best. Now it was up to the loan officer to get the buyers approved.

My biggest nightmare was the thought of having to go back and work for Centex Rooney again. That would spell the end for me. That would mean the death of my dream, and it would mean I would never be successful as an entrepreneur. At least, that’s the way I felt about it at the time.

A lot of the people working there had settled for a lifetime working for that company. They were happy to do their work, and put away some money for their retirement one day. They had no ambitions beyond that limited world-view, and that way of life. That’s not the way I wanted to end up.

I was on the verge of turning 27, and I didn’t know if my dream was going to fall to pieces all around me, or work out and lead me to success. I spent a week in a kind of limbo, not knowing which way it would turn out. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to Mike Wood and ask for my job back, with my tail between my legs. The difficulties of real estate entrepreneurship were all too real, looming like a seemingly insurmountable obstacle before me. In the real estate game you don’t make a single cent until the sale closes,

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and the deal goes through. All the funding for the initial investment remains tied up, along with the money you’ve spent on the electric and water bills, repair costs, mortgage payments and closing costs. Once the sale finally goes through, you get all that back, plus your profit, of course, but up until that moment, you can’t touch any of it. The equity is all there, but none of it is liquid. You can’t use any of it to pay your bills.

During the week that the deal was supposed to come through, time felt like it was dragging on. One day after the next came and went, and I was getting more nervous with every passing hour.

The real estate agent that was working for the buyers, was an

interesting character, and a super friendly person. His name was Lee Winfrey, and he was a huge black guy, getting on in years, and he only had one leg. He’d been in the industry for many years, having had to sell his own business when he got sick and had to have his leg amputated. He had this saying, whenever the going got tough:

“Hey, it’s just another day in real estate.”

On Wednesday the phone rang, and Lee was on the line. “I’ve got some good news,” he said, “we’re all set to close on Friday.”

“That’s one of the best phone calls I’ve ever taken in my life,” I told him, and it was true. I felt relieved and elated. I had just avoided a catastrophe, and my first solo project was an official success.

So on Friday I went in to sign the documents, and it turned out to be quite a long and boring session. Lee actually ended up falling asleep, and started snoring half way through the proceedings. There was nothing boring about it for me, though. I walked away with a check for $26,000, and for the time being, my financial worries were over.

175 After deducting the repair costs, closing costs, and mortgage payments that I had to make while holding on to the property, my $10,000 profit margin wasn’t exactly spectacular. I was happy with it, though, and I thought to myself that if I could earn at least as much flipping houses as I could from working full time at Centex Rooney, I could say that I was successful. I would be an entrepreneur, and could set my own working hours. I would be doing what I loved to do, and I could at least earn a fairly decent living doing it. More importantly, I could now pay my bills on time.

Flush with cash, I resumed work on the second property, but I could already see clearly that cash flow was going to be my biggest obstacle.

I was also concerned that I had placed all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, by working through the real estate company I had found. I had to rely on them to find buyers for my houses. I also had to rely on them to arrange for my buyers to get financed. I had very little control over the process. After fixing a house, it was all up to

someone else to push the sale through. They had competent staff, but they also had close to 30 or 40 other properties, with other investors, and whichever house was most likely to sell was the one that got preference.

I realized that it would be a smart move for me to work for them, and learn all the details about what they were doing. I needed to be able to find my own foreclosure properties, and take over more of the process by myself. Instead of making only $10,000 on a house, I could conceivably make $15 – 20,000 per property.

I was constantly at their offices, or calling them, scouting for new properties and asking tons of questions. I wanted to keep learning as much as I could about the entire process. The general manager of the company became friends with me, and one day I sat down with him, fully intending to use my negotiation and interview skills to get my foot in the door.

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I knew that it was achievable. My experience working for

construction firms helped, and when the company saw the repairs and alterations I had done on my first property, they said that it was some of the best work they had seen from any real estate dealer.

Real estate dealers are people who buy foreclosure properties and fix them up, as opposed to the developers who build new homes on properties.

What I most wanted to know was how to find more of the right kinds of properties, and the ones with great potential, and better profit margins. So that’s what I asked him. He laughingly replied that the only way to do that was to come and work for him as an acquisition agent.

“Great, when can I start?” I asked.

He told me that he’d hired somebody just a few weeks ago, but that there might be an opportunity in a month or so. I was willing to take the job as soon as possible, because I could see that this was going to be the next stepping-stone on my road to success.

I had already invested in two other properties with my father-in-law, and I was making plans to expand and maximize my business as quickly as possible.

I knew that it would be impossible to do all the repair work on all the properties by myself in a short space of time, so I started hiring sub- contractors to do much of the work. My experience in the

construction industry helped me to be able to do that efficiently, but still, it was an additional cost. The more you ‘sub-out,’ the more expensive each job becomes, and it tends to chip away at your profit margins, which aren’t phenomenal to begin with.

By taking this job, new doors would open for me, and I could learn a great deal.

177 I would be able to cherry-pick the best properties for my own investments, and simultaneously have access to the back side of the loan industry, I could learn how to sell properties, and get my real estate license. I would be able to learn all about the private ‘hard equity loans,’ and make valuable connections for my own business. There was a lot to know about end-user financing. The Federal Housing Administration, (or FHA), isn’t the only thing I needed to come to grips with. The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) act as support for lenders, so they can give more money to potential home buyers. These organizations are focused on promoting home loans, especially to low and moderate-income home buyers.

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