What if I fall?
The other day I was building a pole barn with a buddy of mine. In case you don’t know, a pole barn is a roof
on stilts. It may or may not have a loft, but it defiantly won’t have sides. You use them to park an RV or store tractors and other farm equipment.
The one we were working on was pretty big. It measured 36 by 40 feet. It was about 22 feet to the ground from the highest point. It wasn’t the highest place I’ve ever been, but when your butt is sitting on a two-by-four with nothing but air between you and the floor, 22 feet feels like a long way down.
As we were working, I noticed my buddy acting kind of timid on the scaffolding. This was strange to me since he used to jump out of airplanes for a living as an Army Ranger. All the guys that were working with us started riding him about it, but he explained two things to us.
First, don’t mess with a Ranger. They know like 7,000 different ways to kill you using only their pinky finger.
Second, when you are about to jump out of an airplane at altitude, you’re so high that it doesn’t feel high. My buddy said you brain just doesn’t comprehend it. At 22 feet in the air, however, you freak out because at that height, you know you can fall and get hurt. And if you fall and get hurt, you can’t work to provide for your family.
As I replayed this in my head I realized how this pertained to real estate. When you’re starting out, the first deal feels like you’re 22 feet off the ground. You’re thinking, “What if I fall? What if I fail? What if I go over budget? What if it doesn’t sell? What if I lose money? What if, what if, what if? ” That kind of thinking can scare the day lights out of you.
But know this: as you do more and more deals, you begin to gain altitude. The danger of falling is still there. The “what if’s” are still there, and they’re still scary, but you become more comfortable and confident around them.
The big “what if” that scared me from the pole barn project was, “What if I fall and can’t provide for my family? ”
Fall’s can happen not only physically, but also financially.
Here’s an example: we completed the sale of a flip the other day. We sold to a nice couple who were super excited to be in their very first home. I took my cashier check from the closing down to the bank and deposited it. The next day I looked at the account, and the money wasn’t in there. I called the bank because I didn’t think they would put a hold on that deposit.
Long story short, they hadn’t. The money was gone. We’d already spent it on working deals and other expenses. So we were sitting there with very little money in the bank and three rehabs going. The word “anxiety” somehow doesn’t do the feeling justice.
My buddy was worried about a physical fall, and we had literally just experienced a financial fall. Either one can cause you to not provide for your family.
This is why you MUST have money coming in from somewhere other than your job. Without passive income from rental properties and notes, we wouldn’t make it.
The lesson here is that you need cash flowing to you without having to work for it regularly. To do that, you need rentals. To get rentals, you need to get face to face with sellers. And if you need someone to push you out of an airplane to get you there, I know a guy.
Joe and Ashley English invest in real estate in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com