My Kind'o Luck - Kiss alot of Frogs

Someone made a comment to me yesterday that got me to thinking about preparation. He said to me, “Man you were lucky to find that deal,” referring to a property that I was looking at that had all the right combination of cap rates, location, and “the right things wrong with it”. To me that’s like telling Tiger Woods that he was lucky to be five under par, or telling a hunter that went to the woods and bagged a trophy buck after he spent three months pre-season scouting the area, five hours a week at the practice range and read every book about hunting that there is, that he was LUCKY.

I wrote one of my columns in December of 2004 on “Courting Chance” inspired by my best friend, Dennis, about the same topic. By the way, go and read it then come back. (That mall that we bought back then we just sold for over one million dollars in profit.)

People are not lucky. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. If I go out on my kayak and run across some red snapper laying in the mangroves, you might consider me lucky to have brought my fishing gear with me. Or lucky that I went to THAT mangrove and just HAPPENED to have my rod rigged up for snapper, not grouper.

I was lucky to have been driving by my rental property the other day, otherwise I would not have run into that prospective tenant that was walking around the parking lot, scoping out space. I was lucky to have gone to the Affordable Housing Conference at The Barbara B. Mann on Thursday, otherwise I would not have run into six or seven people that I were interested in hearing about Cyperlin Center.

My kind o’ luck I have to make happen. Gail stops asking me why we take a different route to go to the same places. Or why I want to drive by my properties. She knows that I am trying my “Luck”. I may see that new property, that new customer, or come up with that new idea.

Ever hear someone say, “I have a gut feeling about this?” Of course you have. There is a reason people get gut feelings. Experience and preparation. Experience and prepared business people may think they are getting a gut feel for something. But what they are really experiencing is the coming together of the elements of preparation.

Real Estate is a wonderful field. I can never stop learning and never stop preparing. There are so many opportunities in today’s market that is literally can boggle the mind. It is more important than ever to be prepared to court chance; to be prepared to get lucky. My old friend used to say you have to kiss a lot of frogs. He meant you have to look at many, many deals in order to find the good ones.

It is very easy to buy wrong in today’s market. But if you are prepared (or hire a good agent that is prepared) there are opportunities to be lucky.

It’s about the money

Or, more importantly, how much it costs to borrow that money. The affordable housing issue can easily be termed an affordable money issue. Would they buy that property if the interest rate was under 5%? If you have a property that you want to sell, we would like to list it and offer 4.99% money to the buyer. Think that will get it sold? Well it will if money is at 7% (Which it is). I went to a focus group this week on the market in Punta Gorda. The group decided that the number one factor in attracting customers today is financing. So I worked on that concept and came up with a plan. Call me or email me if you are interested. (Gregg@ma-realty.com)

Well, it’s now 8:15 on Saturday morning. Time for me to go and get lucky in my kayak.

Gregg
www.investinwaterfront.com
www.cyperlincenter.com
Cell:239-851-5464
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