When Did You Almost Quit Real Estate

Question

No one quits real estate when things are going great.  Its the challenges we all face along the way that knock people out.  But for those of us who are still standing, I salute you!

For me there were many times I have wanted to quit and give up.  The biggest one was in the beginning when I bought my original deals and months latter realized all the numbers were misrepresented to me.  Those mistakes literally set me back 3 years, cost me every dollar I had at that time, along with 100% killing my confidence.

What was your reason you wanted to quit, BUT here you are still standing?

Scott E. · Answer

I've never wanted to quit. I think some of us are just "born for this" or "wired different" or whatever you want to call it.

There have been countless extremely annoying/stressful situations that have happened to me over the years. Contractors bailing. Lawsuits (yes, plural). Warranty issues. Blowing budgets by the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. Non paying tenants. Drug enforcement units deployed to short term rental. The list goes on and on.

But all of this just comes with the territory. Working through those trials and tribulations make you stronger and make you a better investor/developer moving forward. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Bill B. · Answer

Without BP I woulda quit real estate long ago. It’s just so boring, and once you’re set up, pretty “lonely”. Before BP I didn’t know anyone else that owned a rental property. I simply bought a dozen properties in 8-10 years, mostly by buying new primaries and ending out the old one. Then I retired.

Then BP came along and there were people to talk to about real estate. I’ve only done a few deals since then, mostly upgrading and relocating as the existing properties took zero effort with a PM and provided more than enough income. But, BP makes real estate interesting if not exciting. Hearing about how someone else found, funded, or runs a deal is almost as exciting as doing another one myself.

I don’t know what BP’s penetration is in to the mom and pop landlord market, but it’s probably small. They should try a mailer to landlords like a buyer would. Except they would be offering something free. A community of answers and resources the landlord could test from their home. They might double their membership and with mostly people already investing.

THANKS BP.

Luka Milicevic · Answer

@Peter Vekselman

Nothing has ever made me want to quit and be done, but I have had properties and tenants that I've wanted to quit!

In 2017 I had a new construction that went really sideways and in 2018 I had a rental that was not doing so well. I never felt like quiting on the business as a whole at the time but those properties really drained me.

I kept going because I knew that in the long term everything always works out!

That's my advice to anyone wanting to succeed is to just not stop....

Eliott Elias · Answer

When I realized how many single-family properties it actually takes to create active income. It is truly a long game.

Willie Creear III · Answer

The moment I almost quit was when my 3rd son was born. I had just quit my job 8 months prior to that to go full-time. I had a tenant that basically forced out my other tenants in my first rental due to bad hygiene, disruptions, and drug use. Which left 3 units vacant while also the fact this is peak Covid and he wasn’t paying rent and refused to leave, especially after the other tenants quit their lease due to it.

Meanwhile I put everything I had liquid into a converting my garage into a 2 Bed 1 Bath 1 Kitchen unit. With my units being vacant that was a loss of expected income per month that was going to fund the progression & completion of the project. With so many delays, no subcontractor delegation allowance, time away from my family. Midway through the project I wanted to quit until I realized I could be my own GC and manage the rest of the project to eliminate costs. I told myself I would wait to quit once I finished the project and just sell and get out of RE. This was my moment. In that same moment I went back on all the greatest things I have done to push my self past my limitations to get what I had already accomplished for myself. I also realized this wasn’t for me. It’s for my family. To be the bridge builder in your family for generational wealth and time allowance to focus on your family.

Eventually I was able to manage the proper procedures step by step to get my delinquent tenant out my property. I started to list the units and over 3-4 weeks I got to 100% occupancy. I finished my conversion project just as I got to be fully occupied . Long story short I was able to complete my first value-add, force appreciation, and cash-flow the property, start the road to recovery from my P&L loss and build my residential portfolio. Sometimes we forget the journey is what shapes and builds us to be stronger as we get further along. If we really pay attention, we can see more opportunities for ourselves in the moment.

Keep momentum! Small Steps = Great Distances

Eric Gerakos · Answer

I have never wanted to quit and I have never trusted someone elses numbers. Probably because I only buy upscale properties in upscale neighborhoods so in 23 years of investing I have never had to deal with high maintenance, evictions, cadavers, plungers, police, squatters, nimrods, drug dealers, baby daddies, sob stories etc.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Peter Vekselman In 1999 I got involved in a partnership with my wife and 2 friends and we bought 2 small commercial apartment buildings using a small down payment that we provided and owner financing. My friends wife was our partner and her husband was the handyman/property manager. Fast forward about 3 years and despite both buildings having been fully rented the whole time and only minor repairs we hadn’t received any type of cash flow. One day while at one of the properties my wife saw both checkbooks for each building in the husband’s truck and took them and we left. He was a meticulous record keeper and quickly we saw he was embezzling all our profit to paint their bills, truck payments, etc. We ended up having to go to court but forced the sale of both properties to them and walked away with a nice profit.

The following year we bought an undervalued SFH trying to stay in the game, furnished it and rented it. The tenants destroyed it in the year they were there and we decided real estate investing wasn’t for us, sold it and moved on to other things.

I kick myself now because so much real estate in the next 15-17 years sold in my area for $40-100,000 that I’d be well over a deca-millionaire if I’d have continued on with it.

Got back in 4 years ago an am not looking back.

When Did You Almost Quit Real Estate

Most Popular Reply