Theodore Roosevelt…douche extraordinaire. TOTALLY KIDDING! Great man, but his speech given in France in 1940 needs a part two….
Why couldn’t some frenchman have spoke up and asked “Bonjour there Teddy….why does it take courage to go in to the arena?” Had someone have asked, He may have been prodded to answer with “because there are fucking lions up in there!” Gladiators entered the arena, full of courage and probably fear because they were about to fight LIONS! “The credit belongs to the man…whose face is MARRED by…BLOOD…” WHAT THE ACTUAL F*&K???
Brene Brown in her book Daring Greatly goes into depth on the courage it takes to step out into the unknown and into the “arena”. I stupidly took this advice at face value and jumped right in. I am courageous, I am brave, I am an idiot. Getting into real estate investing, I was paralyzed by fear and the unknown. I was in a stage referred to as “paralysis by analysis”. I was analyzing myself out of every deal I saw. Thinking that the carpet was going to be too expensive to replace, the cabinets were too small and no one would want to rent them. The garage wasn’t big enough. Hell, I even said the smell of the nearby restaurant was too strong. Side note, the smelly house cleared 50k for the guy that bought it and fixed it up. So thats cool.
I was tired of the sidelines. I wanted to improve my life, I wanted to stop telling my wife “no” at stores. So, I bought a necklace that says “In the Arena” as a daily reminder to stop being a baby and just “jump in”. So I did. A local wholesaler had a single family home that he thought would only take about 5k to get it rent ready. Thought it would appraise for about 170k so I’d be able to recycle all the money I put into it, fantastic! Let’s do it! Let’s step into the arena. I reached out to a lender who gave me a loan for the purchase AND the rehab work ROAR!!! ROAR!!!! The lions started roaring immediately. The fascia I hadn’t seen before needs replaced. The bathroom needs. complete remodel due to water damage and bad wiring. Twenty two thousand dollars later. We were rent ready. 5k to 22k… what the hell. But thats ok, I had about 30k in margin, so I was still going to clear. My dad was going to be so proud of me!
“We will get an appraiser scheduled and get it appraised so we can get the refinance finished up” the lender said on the phone. “No problem! Set it up, let’s go!” After three weeks of waiting for a report on this house that we bought assuming it would appraise for around $170,000, we get the report back. 132,000. I’ll say again. ONE HUNDRED and THIRTY TWO THOUSAND. I shut my laptop so fast that my wife jumped in her chair. My cell phone buzzed on the end table next to my couch. The lender was calling me.
“We will get it fixed, I’ll call the appraiser.” Appraiser sends out a list of “fixes” that he needs done to bring the value up. $8,000 later the fixes are done! I have used all my margin, but I’m still good, I’ll just break even and be able to repay for loan. Send the photos to the appraiser and wait for his new valuation. “I’m confident in my valuation and no changes will be made” his email read. Being arrested was a low moment, this felt even lower. Again, my phone buzzed, the lender is calling. “Are you sitting down?” she asked. “What does this mean?” I questioned with bated breath. to spare you the fury in my tone and vulgarity in my words, I’ll just tell you. It meant I was $42,000 short and would have to write a check for closing.
My life mantra had become “get into the arena” but I was realizing how incorrect that was. My new mantra had become “without bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” What a terrible way to go through life I realized as I was looking at my end of the year budget. Why do I do this to myself? Asking my newly retired father for $42,000 was so hard especially knowing he paid $7,000 for my bail just a decade earlier. Changing my life had to open. It had to come from me. Joining the lender is a story for another day. Getting off my ass and making a decision is today’s post.
There are lions up in that Bitch! If you learned nothing today through this rambling, please remember there are LIONS IN THERE. But it’s worth it. No one truly lives until they have fought their lions and come out on the other side alive. Fear as Dan Martell says means “Fake Evidence Appearing Real”, fear is a liar. The devil is in fear, the devil doesn’t want us to succeed because being broke keeps us in our vices, it keeps us at the bottom crawling back to bad habits. God wants us out of fear. He wants us to prosper. GO FIGHT THE LIONS!
GO! Seriously, Stop Reading, Go Fight! Tell me your lion story, I curious and want to know I am not alone!
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