My Neighbor Taught Me Real Estate

I am a normal guy. Family - wife and a daughter. Job - full time and steady. Homeowner - still have a home mortgage. I imagine most people can relate to my situation or at least have seen it before. I was running a template that was taught to me by my upbringing and surroundings. All was good and in working order.

Then my neighbor's life started falling apart. We lived next to her for 5 years at this point and knew her kids and the names of her dogs. She just gave up. She was a freelance writer and threw that away and started drinking - a lot. Her kids went off to college and the military. She was alone. No job and a serious drinking problem. We would try to encourage her and help out how we could, but she set her path in stone and nothing was going to stop.

We watched our neighbor go from "normal" to "gave up and I don't care anymore" in just 2 years. She abandoned her home and moved away. Her home tried to go through a short sale and then eventually foreclosed and sat for 2 more years. At one point it was selling for $12,000. Our friends and family would say things like, "what a shame" or "you should buy that and knock it down."

This opened my eyes to opportunity. I didn't see a $12,000+ yard if we knocked it down. That sounded stupid. I saw a house that was abandoned that used to be a home. Sure it needed work, but it was a home not that long ago. I saw it. I knew the people that called it home. This could be a home again.

We didn't know anything about buy and hold or real estate in general except that you just buy the home that you live in. I missed an opportunity on that home because I didn't know what to do. Now we have a new neighbor who is fixing up the place and making it his home. The cycle continues.

My neighbor taught me real estate in a way. She made me see houses in a different light. We are now learning everything we can about buy and hold and plan to have rental property. We are even planning on renting out our current home and moving into a multi-family unit of some kind. That doesn't fit "normal" like my friends and family. I have had lunch with several investors in my local area to pick their brain on what to look for and how to do real estate investing. I love the BIgger Pockets Podcast. We are getting our education.

I would have never seen this opportunity if it wasn't for my neighbor. Wherever you are in life - Thank you Sue for showing me that I needed to change.