Atypical Day
I’m often asked what my typical day looks like as a real estate investor. And I am often at a loss on how to answer that question because, well… let me tell you about a recent day.
I started out at 5:30 a.m. at Calhoun Spine and Wellness doing my workout. That morning was a partner exercise, and I got to work out with my good friend Kate Derrick. For 40 minutes, she and I traded off reps between four different exercises that included deadlifts.
When I was in high school, I hurt my lower back doing deadlifts. So, I’m always wary of them. That morning, I was feeling strong. But on the first set, I felt that familiar twinge in my lower back and I thought, “Not again.”
Katie picked up on it quickly and got one of our awesome trainers, Heather, involved. As it turns out, it was not a strength issue that has been causing me problems with this exercise. It was a form issue. Heather showed me how to rectify my form, and I continued with the workout.
After the cooldown and stretch, I jumped in my truck to go pick up a Home Depot order that we needed at a new project. But when I got there, I could tell by the feeling in my back that my lifting for the day was done. That’s when I called one of my guys and had him come pick up the order for me.
We have a team huddle at 9:10 a.m. every morning. The purpose of this call is to check in with the team, assign any daily tasks and see if anyone needs help with anything. At 9:18 a.m. I realized I’d put my phone down in another room and lost track of time feeding the baby.
When I realized my error, I thought, “It’s not cool for the leader of the team to not show up for practice.” This situation had given the group some worry that something may be wrong since I never miss the huddle. I took care of that issue with a phone call, but that was not how I wanted to start my team’s workday.
My next stop was at a flip house we had just finished and were trying to get on market. We had some tools left that needed to be moved out and some final punchout stuff to be completed like painting the mailbox post.
Normally, the guys would have done these things already, but the rain had been so sporadic that they couldn’t. As I pulled up, my weather app said we had two hours before the next rain shower. That meant I had just enough time to get the post painted and it dry beforehand.
There was one problem though. The paint was there, but I couldn’t find a single paint brush, which was very odd. Thankfully, the cleaner showed up. She happened to have a brush I could borrow. I got the post painted, and it dried before the rain started back up.
Next, I went to go meet with a seller down in Cartersville. He was a landlord who was thinking about selling his paid-for 3/2/2 rental in good condition in a great neighborhood. He needed to raise some cash for a property purchase for personal use.
As we talked, I told him my job was not necessarily to buy houses, but to solve real estate problems. After a few minutes, I realized his problem did not reside in the house we were standing in front of. The answer to his problem, however, did.
I talked him out of selling me his rental. (When have you ever heard of an investor talking someone out of a sale? Crazy right?) His real estate problem didn’t involve the house or being a landlord. He just needed some funds, which he could easily get by taking out a loan on his paid-for rental. He could then retain that house as part of his retirement portfolio all while maintaining a positive cashflow.
I felt good about that outcome, and I think the seller did, too.
So, I hurt my back, missed my huddle call and talked a seller out of selling their house. I wouldn’t say that was a typical day — it was more of an atypical day in the life of a real estate investor.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.