F@#%ing Jerk of all trades!

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  • Published on Friday, 09 September 2011 07:53
  • Written by Super User
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HA! I used to feel like that.  During our many years in real estate investing, we always handled everything for the company in-house.  We never outsourced any part of the day-to-day tasks that come along with real estate investing.  We did everything!  I remember the Lennox Lewis/Mike Tyson fight in in June of 2002.  We were having people over to watch the fight when I got a call from a tenant.  She was having a issue with the sink leaking. So being a responsable landlord I wanted this to be fixed ASAP, to minamize the damage.  So I throw on the Carharts and headed over to the property.  I remember saying to myself WTF am I doing here?  Why do I have my work clothes on 2 hrs. away from a Tyson fight?

Fast forward 3 years and I still had not learned my lesson.  We bought our first house outside of Philadelphia, PA in Jacksonville, Fl.  Instead of interviewing contractors and getting a ton of bids together, I took my right hand man Jacinto, drove to Jacksonville, and did the work myself.  I figured no one could do it faster and cheaper than us!  I was so wrong!  I remember being on the back roof, re-shingling a section, and a good friend of mine stopped by.  He looked up at me and said, "Bro how are you going to buy 100 homes and work on them all?"  I had no answer for him.  That was my goal and that was the last time I had a hammer in my hand!

We still did not learn our lesson though. Once we started accumulating properties, we decided to manage all properties in-house.  My brother-in-law Jeff handled most of the management and I would help from time to time.  This was the most brutal part of the business. Somehow I thought, going into it, that it would not be that bad.  I figured I had run crews of men to build all sorts of things, how hard could this really be?  HARD!!!!  Look, buying houses to flip or rent is a full time job in itself but being a property manager is one of the hardest and least glamorous part of the real estate business. My advice is to set up property management in place with the first house you purchase. Take the hit up front and add 7%-10% to you numbers when looking at a deal.

To have any success in this business you have to give up control.  Stop doing the $10/hr work and focus on the big picture.  Don't Be A Jerk Of All Trades!!