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Tag Archives: Win-Win

Is Greed Good?

Happy Dog

I’m not greedy. I’m a dog. Just give me love and kindness, and I’ll give you unquestioning loyalty.

This post explains why I give away my most valuable, non-renewable resource—time—even though I’m a typical human being and, therefore, greedy.

Gordon Gekko—played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie Wall Street—said, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” This saying either became or derived from a mantra of the Reagan Era.

I won’t go that far. Unfettered, “Greed causes the inevitable irrational exuberance that creates asset bubbles. Then still more greed blinds investors to the warning signs of collapse. In 2005, they ignored the inverted yield curve that signaled a recession, according to Kimberly Amadeo. Earlier this year, she noted that blind greed lead to the financial collapse of 2008.

Corruption is also the natural result of people trying to bypass legal restraints to get ahead at any costs. Greed leads to entitlement and an elitist mentality unless it is balanced. But balanced with what? And how? Continue reading →

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ABLE

Buy the book on Amazon.

Lots to think about in this book.

I’ve been slowly reading Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. I’m reading it slowly, so the points he makes sink in.

The current chapter talks a lot about Apple. It turns out that when they “introduced” the iPod, a portable MP3 player had already been on the marked for almost two years. Instead of talking about what they made (technical specs), their advertising talked about why they made it and why you would want to use it. Remember the dancing silhouettes? I sure do.

That got me thinking. Although we’ve talked about our Why, we don’t focus on it. There are lots of other people doing what we do. Why would you want to do business with us rather than them?

Does it all come down to money? Of course not! We’ve even done deals where the seller told us flat out that we weren’t the highest offer. There were other reasons Why they did business with us.

It turns out the reasons people want to do business with us are the same reasons we have for being in business: Continue reading →

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How Do We Make Sad Houses Happy?

Hermit with a heart

Heart makes this business rewarding. Money only makes it possible. We really do want to help.

Our mascot Hermann says, “We buy sad houses and make them happy again.” But I want to point out that we do much, much more than that to make sad houses happy again. We offer a wide range of services that helps us ensure we find the right solution to whatever is making each house we look at sad. Solving the wrong problem isn’t really helpful at all.

So the first thing we have to do is figure out why this particular house is sad. Some of the sadifiers we encounter include:

  • Financial problems
  • Deferred maintenance
  • Estates
  • Job transfers

Financial Problems

Financial problems can include job loss, tax problems, medical costs, or anything else that keeps a family from making timely mortgage payments. The closer a house gets to foreclosure, the fewer options we have to solve the problem. If there is enough time and the family is willing (and able) to do the work to repair the house enough to sell, we can refer the owners to our network of contractors and help them find a helpful Realtor®, like Carol. Continue reading →

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Rental Portfolio Progress

One of our goals is to provide quality rental housing at an reasonable price. To meet that goal, we look for potential rentals with an ARV somewhere around three times the median income for the neighborhood.

—with Lee Bruns

We think it’s important to have a diversified real estate investment strategy, so we have rental properties in addition to the houses we buy for rehabbing and resale. Carol and Russell have their own portfolio of rental properties, and Lee and I also have some. This is in addition to the rental properties we are building up for Hermit Haus Redevelopment.

We spend a lot of time working together and providing feedback on our rental properties. As I’ve mentioned before, many of them have had air conditioning issues this summer, and there have been other issues causing team members or specialists we hire to run around the state keeping the properties up. Russell enjoys using his handyman skills and does a lot of the repairs himself.

On happy bit of news came this week when we found new tenants to move into Villa Park 1, a big family to fill the house, which is great.  It’s a nice house, and we’re glad to have folks in there. Now we just need a renter for the rear unit, where Anita and I lived. Continue reading →

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But What About Your Dog?

A very big dog sniffs the camera.

This is Alfred, our newest rescue. He’s just under a thousand pounds of love and gratitude. He’s not nearly as skinny now as he was a week ago. I don’t know I what I would do in a situation like Dave’s.

We talk all the time about a win-win scenario. It’s part of our core business philosophy, and it’s just plain good business. One of the key factors in securing a deal, any kind of deal, is understanding the other person’s needs. In short, empathy.

This story comes from our friend Brent Mott. I think it originates with one of his mentors in the real estate business. I’ve taken a couple of liberties in retelling it.

The story goes like this: Continue reading →

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