Hesitation killed the deal

[Andrew Faukner]

My daddy always used to tell me, "Son, stop or go, you have to decide, it's the hesitation that will kill you." When I was younger, I used to think he was talking about things like crossing a busy street. Stop, go, but if you hesitate, and just stand there you're going to get hit. As I have gained in age and wisdom I've discovered that his saying can be applied in many ways other than just crossing the street. For example, a little 2 bedroom, one bath cabin came up for sale in a desirable area of the Sierra Nevada of California last Thursday. I am very familiar with the area, and I knew that $125,000 was a great price. Friday I started running the numbers for a flip. I hadn't done a flip before, but I've rehabbed enough single family residences before renting them, that I had a good idea what it would take to get it ready for a flip. Using the Bigger Pocket tools, I decided I needed about $30,000 for rehab, and upgrades. After looking at all of the comparisons it looked like it should be priced at about $180,000. That would be a $20,000 to $25,000 profit! Shoot, I would have been happy with $5,000 to $10,000 profit for a first flip! Time to talk to my biggest advisers, my wife, and my son, and all of a sudden, there it was, HESITATION! Well, my son returning home from a road trip to Canada, and getting ready to start a new job. My wife was fully engaged in planning a trip to Tanzania. I hesitated, but I knew we would be getting together Monday for a 4th of July get-away. On Monday, my son had to do some training for the new job, so we couldn't get together, HESITATION! Certainly another day couldn't hurt, HESITATION! Finally, Tuesday afternoon I had my son, and wife together, and I gave them the full pitch for the property. My son said, "It sounds good, make a cash offer." Wouldn't you know it, the property was already sold, hesitation killed the deal. I feel awful, I feel like hesitation just cost me $25,000. I had the numbers, they looked good! I should have acted! Sorry Dad, I should have listened to you. I should have made a decision. I should have pressed my advisers more. Instead I stood out in the middle of the street and got run over. Darn that HESITATION!