Today I was given yet another reminder of how blessed I am. Life is not fair and should not be taken for granted. One of my interest is Real Estate. I currently purchase rental properties as part of my retirement diversity. The economics make sense and I love a good deal. I get excited when I can stack a coupon at Best Buy and save $10 on something I really have zero use for. I find it easy to spend $100 when I can get a good deal regardless if I need the product/service or not.
I also find it really hard to spend more than $100 a times. I should tell you about the time I bought my car. I shopped for 9 months till I found what I wanted and I got one of those stupid deals because I searched it out. I just ended up in a good situation and was in the right place and the right time looking for the right deal. The other dealer told me "if you do not go buy it I will." So even knowing how great of a deal it was, I still test drove the car 3 times, sat at the desk with the salesman, and lost 3 nights of sleep over a car. I paid cash for the car and have no car payment. But I found a great deal and even then I had a rough three days. After about a week I was fine, but for that first week I had some buyers remorse, just because I had spent my hard earned money. I can even remember a couple cars back asking if I could bring it back and get my old car the next day.
I say all this to highlight that I love a good deal, and even then I can struggle when that money leaves my hand. Dave Ramsey says that when you use cash it is more emotional than a credit card. It is so true, I find that spending cash is more emotional and I spend less and keep more. I think this is part of the reason our economy is where it is at today. Speaking of money, you need to watch the Netflix series on Money as it relates to Student Loans. If you didn't think they government was screwing you before watch that. Spoiler Alert Presidential Administrations have been trying for decades to resolve this and they have only made it worse. It's amazing to see how we got to where we are at, and the Obama Administration by far compounded our problem. If they did forgive student loans the impact to the economy is significant. I wish I could ask why Biden has not followed through on that. Debtor is a servant to the lender and the US Dept of Education is the lender. Just think about it.
Watch the Netflix series, it comes from a more liberal point of view, but the facts are the facts, and I highly recommend it. They even talk about how free education actually improves the GDP. Crazy to think right, but the reality is the student loan debt in America is crazy, it is driven by For Profit Universities who graduate a very low percentage of students who use fancy marketing tactics to take advantage of individuals. Personally I had $30K in Student Loans and Paid them off quick 10 years quick and paid back $60K. So yeah if you can pay cash along the way do it.
I always get so sidetracked in the post. I could never be a writer because I do not stick to the topic. Anyway, Real Estate can be fun and exciting. Right now the market is beyond on fire. Broke Dumb and Stupid are buying Real Estate as I say and something has to give. We can get into that economic conversation later. But one we need to have. While I love a good deal I am too honest to be really successful in Real Estate. There are a lot of Snake Oil Salesman out there. They do dirty deals and simply take advantage of people. It breaks my heart when people get taken advantage of. In my opinion this should be considered fraudulent and should be criminal. But as long as you are not a Real Estate Agent there is not much that can be done. Simply stated people go out there and find people in desperate situations who are trying to navigate a complex scenario and use their largest asset, their house, to solve the problem. And when people get desperate they do stupid things.
Today I went to look at a property. The listing photos looked nice, and the location was great, and the price was reasonable. Listing price was $145K they just bought it in February of this year for 20K less. Once we got there to start looking at the property the owner was actually there, this rarely happens, and I learned why today. First as I look at the property I see that I need to spend around 20K in the property to make it nice, worth living in at my standards. I have high standards and others would have jumped at this. The house is really worth more what they paid for it that what it is listed for. That being said we are in an inflated market and he could get $155+ if he wanted it. But the business person in me wanted to make a deal. Then I started to talk to the owner. He and his son, who was my age, bought the house just three month ago and they moved in. He relocated from another state and they were going to live in this house as the father aged and just be happy.
It sounded so nice, and then the owner told us that his son, who happen to also have my name, had a stroke two weeks ago and last week they removed him from life support. Now he is in a position where he has to sell the house, he stood there and cried and so did I. Such a sad story. While I think that there is great potential in the property I just could not bring myself to try and make a deal. This guy is in a bad spot, and needs every dollar he can get. While I am a business person I am also a Human. I almost want to buy it just so I can make sure he gets what he needs from it. It just breaks my heart. I thought I would buy it just so he could rent it from me and stay there, but he can not live independently which is why he and the son bought it to begin with.
So as I try to lay here and go to sleep I can not help but count my blessings in life. I am blessed I know it. I am equally a hard worker and know the value of investing in yourself and others. I can only hope that this guy gets a great deal out of his transaction. It was a clear reminder that there is always someone, somewhere who has it worse off than you do. Life it not as hard as we think.
I started this post just to say, enjoy life because you never know what is coming your way. Remember that we are all human and what goes around comes around. Never forget that the other party in a situation is just that another party comprised of other Humans.
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