My minister at church gave a sermon about how we should do what we are good at and what has worked for us in the past. Duh. The light bulb went off and I realized that over the past 20 years, what few real estate investing deals I did always turned out good. So I decided to begin to look for possible rentals.
I threw a purchase agreement in the car and started driving. I came across a big, older 4-plex that had a “for sale by owner” sign, and I knocked on the door. He wanted $72K, and we settled at $65K. We signed the contract right away.
When I got possession of the 4-plex, I began to get nervous. These were four 1-bedroom units with shared utilities. I had never had rentals before but, after I signed that contract, I learned that this was not the ideal rental unit. I decided to try and sell and found a buyer within days.
I sold it for $85K and sold a lot that came with it for $7K. That’s a $27,000 profit. Well, needless to say, I have been investing in real estate since then and have had many similar experiences. Boy am I glad I got up and went to church that day!