Post #2-Time to Pull My BP Blog Out of the "LAME" Category!

Quite honestly, I truly forgot that I even had started a blog whenever that was, way back when and from time to time I'd remember that I'd started my blog with a big splash and then a big thud to follow which is kind of embarrassing in a way, but heck I've been busy!

2014 was what I'd best describe as a "challenging" or even "very challenging" year for me and thank God I had a good 2013, or instead of writing this blog post, I'd be asking you if you want to super size that combo today! 

Now, I could go in to what made 2014 a tough year for me, but it can be easily summed up by simply saying that I ran into multiple issues with multiple contractors, my handful of direct hire employees, all sorts of stuff and I could have a big axe to grind with these people, but I think what could make 2014 payoff for me BIG TIME in the long run, even maybe be the year that IF someday far down the road of life I feel like a real success, I'd look back and say 2014 was the pivotal year, where even if I basically made spit for income, I LEARNED more than in the last decade or more. 

I think that could happen IF instead of whining and moaning about how I got screwed over left, right, up, down, etc by all of these awful people, I think I could make 2014 possibly the pivotal, most important year of my life ONLY IF I INSTEAD TAKE A LONG, HARD AND BRUTALLY HONEST LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND SEE WHAT I NEED TO FIX ABOUT MYSELF, BEFORE I UTTER ONE WORD OF COMPLAINT ABOUT ANYONE ELSE!!!

Well, I've been doing that and that is probably a major part of why I haven't been posting too much or commenting too much on BP, I took a long, hard and brutally honest look in the mirror and saw that I was basically like a nice house full of nice stuff, with the doors and windows all wide open and no one around to keep an eye on a thing, I WAS ASKING TO BE SCREWED OVER!!! Of course, no one is perfect in anything and certainly not in everything, but I needed to tighten up how I ran things, both business wise and personally.

Looking back over the years of my life and working life (I'm 41 years old) I've dealt with all sorts of people, good and bad and I've come to the conclusion that you'll always have a percentage of people who will try their hardest to rip off, screw over, etc EVERYONE they deal with, but thankfully I believe this is not a large percentage of people and there's also a group that's just downright honest too, but that's also a small group. 

Its the BIG group "in the middle" who, given the right (or wrong) circumstances, could be great OR could take advantage of anyone just as badly as the crooks who try damn hard to rip everyone off! So, when I was showing everyone a mess, or at least a not very well organized operation, I was asking for trouble! 

I have many, many more things that I'm working on to improve myself for 2015 that I won't bore everyone with, but a couple that stand out are how over the last 11 or 12 years of being in this biz, I've certainly learned from and incorporated some of my experience into how I run things, but I've never been the least bit organized, or really systematic about applying these lessons of experience that are so darn valuable. So, I'm now FORCING myself to sit down daily and just add to this growing Word doc that's now chock full of all sorts of "lessons learned" and "things to do differently next time"!

Now, for those who don't know me too well, which is really most of you, I've been focusing on middle to higher and even high end renovations/flips (I HATE the "F-Word" though!) here in the Milwaukee area and do really enjoy it, which is the other reason I survived 2014. I cannot possibly imagine working full time or really beyond full time for a year for peanuts of I didn't love the work.

I'll have three homes coming on the market soon, one in the net few days and two more within 4 to 6 weeks, all of which SHOULD have been listed in 2014! They are all very well done, which incorporates what I'd say is by far the #1 lesson I've learned over the years doing this, unless you want to sell your project at a fire sale price (pretty dumb move!) you need to cover every last detail! 

Now, that may also be a Milwaukee area market thing, or maybe more so in the MKE area, as I know BP member J Scott, who has certainly knocked out an amazing number of flips in several markets all over the country, said that Milwaukee has some damn skeptical and tough buyers for flips as compared to his other markets and he's someone who's opinion I've come to trust, so this may be a tougher market to sell a flip in, but to me that says I just need to really sweat every last detail. 

Once those are gone, I'll be transitioning into the project I'm most excited about over any other one I've done in 11 or 12 years and will be the highest end project I've done yet as well. Since selling my last personal home, I've been pretty nomadic for the last few years and of course had to move into this one, which is far from trashed, its a 1930's, 4,000 sq foot "castle" on 2.5 acres in one of our most exclusive suburbs here. 

I've gone long enough already though and need to get these three on the market first, but details soon to follow on my own little castle!