Archive
As I was going through the TSA checkpoint at Hartsfield International Airport, I got an opportunity to practice some principles I learned from Dale Carnegie in his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” As we waited in the crazy long line at the security check, I noticed some of the TSA agents didn’t look thrilled to be at work. I decided to interfere with...
Vilferado Pareto was an Italian economist in the late 1800s. While working at the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, he noticed that income was unevenly distributed throughout Italy. After researching the issue, he determined that approximately 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the people. This led Pareto to investigate other countries where he...
I’ve been blessed to have a great friend — but an even better mentor — by the name of Bill Cook. He’s the man who taught me most of what I know when it comes to property management, creative deal structuring and running a real estate investing business. And to this day, he challenges me to be better. You may be asking how Ashley and I earned the privilege of having Bill and his...
I was having lunch with a good friend and investor named Emmett, recently. We talked about the current market and strategies we’re implementing, and we discussed what we see our other investor friends doing. One of those friends hasn’t done many deals lately because she got her start when the market was at the bottom. Now that the market is moving so much, she is afraid it will...
I had two recent experiences that were the epitome of poor customer service. One was at a recent closing where the real estate professionals were bantering back and forth so loudly that the attorney and the buyer (the actual customer who is paying everyone’s salary at the table) couldn’t hear each other. The second was at a big box store where I had a less-than-enjoyable time picking up...