Cash Flow With Joe

I almost missed it

I almost missed it

 

It was about 10:30 on Saturday night. We had just put the kids down, and Ashley and I were preparing for bed. At this point, my beautiful bride was considered full term in her pregnancy at 38 weeks. She lay down in the bed only to pop right back up with a startled look on her face as she said, “Whoa! I just had a big gush of something.”

 

That big gush was Ashley’s water breaking,

 

This development was new. Ashley’s water had to be broken during our previous kids’ births. So, when it happened on its on— and then kept happening — the reality of what was about to happen kicked in. We were about to have a baby.

 

This was great — and then not so great — news. You see we’ve been doing a pretty big remodel on our house for the past two months which wasn’t yet complete. I was close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

 

As of Sunday morning, Ashley was having contractions, but not steady ones. I enlisted my dad’s help to finish doing some painting, trim work and put the shower valves on so that if the baby did come, I could get my guys to finish up the last bit of the remodel while we were at the hospital.

 

I also had two seller appointments scheduled for late Sunday afternoon. I let both sellers know my wife’s water had broken and that I might not be able to attend the appointments.

 

As the time rolled around for the seller appointments, Ashley still wasn’t having steady contractions. Being the real estate investor that she is, she urged me to go to both appointments. I agreed but let her know that I was going to check in between them.

 

I met with the first sellers, and we had a good meeting. I needed to do some investigating before I could make an offer, but I let the seller know I’d be in touch.

 

I called Ashley and headed to the next appointment. This one was a doublewide on two acres in Gordon County. The seller had been approached by an investment company out of Atlanta that offered them a price sight unseen.

 

After the company sent someone out to inspect, they had dramatically reduced their offer. They also wanted the right to show the house anytime to prospective new buyers. They wanted a really long contract period on the deal and reserved the right to walk away from it up until the day before closing.

 

This was probably a wholesaler, masquerading as a cash buyer, and they had contracted on a property that was out of their area. They had likely offered too much, and couldn’t wholesale the deal.

 

 

This situation was hard on the seller because they were waiting on the proceeds from that deal to buy their next home.

 

To make a long story short, we agreed to give the buyer the funds they needed for the down payment money on their next house and take the property subject-to its existing mortgage, which matures in four years. We agreed to move ahead with this just as soon as the attorney could get it closed if the seller could get out of the other contract.

 

They did, and we got the house.

 

As Ashley and I lay down on Sunday night, Ashley texted one of her friends at 10:30 p.m. to let them know the contractions had stopped.

 

At 1:09 a.m. I was awakened by Ashley calling me from the tub. She had been laboring since 11:30 p.m., and the OBGYN said it was now go time. I called Mom and Dad and got our baby go bag into the car, and I some caffeine into me.

 

We were out the door by 2 a.m. The ride to the hospital was a long one, but I got Ashley to the ER, and the nurse told me to go park before going to labor and delivery. After I did, I had to check with security to get in. The guard asked for the patient’s name and called up to verify. Once she did, she looked at me and said I needed go now because the baby was almost here.

 

When I opened the door, I could already see his head. I immediately started cheering Ashley on. And in less than five minutes, we said hello to our new son Eliyab.

 

Ya’ll, that was a close one. I almost missed it.

 

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.

 

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