Ep 264: Crafting Victory from the Unexpected Twists of the Real Estate Maze

Ever been locked out of your own success story? Our latest episode reveals the tough lessons learned from the unexpected setbacks at Bayard Park, where missing keys and skipped open houses tested our resolve. I get personal about the rollercoaster of real estate, discussing the trials that have sharpened my leadership skills and the power of a resilient mindset. It's not just about the hiccups; it's about how you bounce back, crafting backup plans on the fly and harnessing positivity to surmount the hurdles. Real estate is more than transactions—it's about tenacity, and I'm here to share how to keep your head in the game when the game tries to sideline you.

Then, we pivot to the heart of transformation—community. Join us as we explore the critical role community plays in revitalizing neighborhoods and the empowering journey from renting to owning. We throw the spotlight on the individuals who are making the dream of homeownership a tangible reality, discussing the tools and knowledge necessary to claim a piece of the American Dream. Don't miss our next installment of the Chasing Happiness Podcast, where we'll continue to provide inspiring stories and the nudge you might need to take your own leap into homeownership. Here's to staying uplifted and interconnected as we navigate the challenges on the path to our goals, together.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Hey guys, ryan Dement from Chasing and Financial Freedom podcast, hope you guys are having a great day today. On the show you guys have me. I wanted to follow up on several shows that I've been talking about and being transparent in what I'm doing in every aspect of life and business, but this is going to be more business related than anything. So the last several weeks we've been finishing up houses on our Bayard Park project. The weather in Indiana has been crappy, to say the least, and I would say Mother Nature is trying to slow us down, but it is what it is. We keep pushing forward. We have people interested. We don't have a signed contract yet, but I also have to get them approved Excuse me, pre-approved for a mortgage. So we're working on that and that's a struggle in itself. But this past weekend we had some showings to where our realtor was letting some other realtors take a look at the houses and somehow, some way, realtor someone a construction person, I don't know basically misplaced our keys that were in the lock box and they locked the bottom lock and we couldn't get to it. And no showings. And we were supposed to have an open house on Sunday. Our realtor showed up because he can still get into the second house. It's almost done. It's got some fine, you know, some fine tuning to be done.

Speaker 1: 1:55

But to talk about a setback and Debbie Downer is, to say the least, pretty crappy and, just to be straight up honest, my mindset was crapola. Because it's man. We've got people that are interested. They're coming out in the cold and they want to see these houses and we can't get in front of them. And now we have to try to figure out if we can get them back or not. Typically, if they're going to look at a house, they want to do it on their time, but are they going to be able to come back? I don't know. I have a high suspicion that they're not going to come back and it's going to be tough to get them back and it's going to be tough to get them to follow back up with us. And that is really a gut punch, because we have a great product in this niche. We're niche down First time home buyers affordable housing under 200,000, three bedrooms, two baths, almost 1400 square feet under roof and to say that what we put out is top notch it is.

Speaker 1: 3:10

The sad thing is we're on a block in Evansville, indiana that we're rehabbing. So there's nothing perfect about the block. It's been blighted for years. So we're trying to change hearts and minds and it just doesn't work that way. So once you get people there, you have to have them as a captive audience and be able to work with them and make things happen. And that surely didn't. And it's crappy, but it is what it is.

Speaker 1: 3:35

But I want to get back to the mindset piece is my mindset just went to crap. I just started just feeling bad and it's what can I do? Absolutely nothing. Can you fix it? Yes, we're fixing it today as we speak, where it's practically done. We're going to have an extra set of keys so our realtor will have those. So, just in case something happens he lives near it, he can go help a realtor that's showing it. Call it a day, move on.

Speaker 1: 4:06

But you would think in a industry like real estate that this wouldn't happen. This is not rocket science. It's a set of keys and the keys go in the lockbox and you unlock the door and then you lock it back up. That's probably where I'm a little more perturbed than anything. It's just the basic shit that bothers me, that really just eats at me and it's, I feel like we missed out on a, two opportunities, maybe three opportunities to be able to sell them. We could sell all three of the houses at once. That would be a home run Onto the next, and it's we didn't do it. We did not do it.

Speaker 1: 4:47

So for me, business-wise, things like this really throw me off my game because I can't control it. I backed that up. It's not that I can't control it, I can't fix it. I'm in Arizona, they're in Indiana, so it's not like I can just hop in my car and call it a day and move forward. So I have to find other ways that we can resolve the issues going forward so we don't have dumb mistakes like this happening. And two, how I react to them is the other part of this equation. It just shame on me for reacting that way.

Speaker 1: 5:28

But also, at the same time, as I didn't think we needed to have multiple sets of keys because they were always in the lockbox. You just have to put them back in. But now, thinking about it hindsight 2020, we should probably have three or four sets of keys just in case. So there's always a backup to the backup. Is that prudent? I don't know. That's something you guys can answer.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I just think, from a standpoint of mindset as a leader, I let this really throw me off my game yesterday and I had a lot of other things going on and it just threw my whole day out of whack and it carried over in today. Should it have? No, it did so. As a leader, guys, mindset is really key and crucial. How do we overcome obstacles in the knock downs that we face as leaders on a daily basis? Through mindset positivity getting back up when you get thrown back down.

Speaker 1: 6:33

But why does that not always happen? I didn't give up. I just had a too long of a pity party, I should say, and I was more angry at myself not seeing this coming than actually it happening. So I think I hold myself to a standard of I should have had a plan B and a plan C involved, and I did not. We only had plan A because I thought that was all we needed. But also, at the same time, I needed to be able to shake the mindset off, sit down, square myself away and move forward, and that clearly didn't. That lingered for almost 24 hours and that in itself is a bunch of BS on my part. Lacking mental toughness over something like this really makes me think that my mindset is all over the place and I've got to get refocused. And that's what I've been doing this morning is refocusing my efforts, doubling down on the things that are going to make a difference in our businesses.

Speaker 1: 7:42

But I also want to go back, probably later tonight, and kind of rehash this and figure out where it came off the rails for me. Was it the phone call that says oh, we've got somebody to see the house but we can't get in because the bottom lock can't be unlocked, because we don't have the keys? Or is it that I allowed it to linger around all day, knowing that I couldn't control it and try to change it or not try change it and I think the ladder is where I'm stuck is I couldn't change it. So, mindset-wise, if I'm faced with a problem, how can I solve the problem? And if I can't solve it, how do I handle it? Moving forward, does that mean I activate other people in my group that could actually help us? Which would be our general contractor, which he's doing it already or our realtor? Our realtor couldn't do anything about it. That was life. But if we had a second set or a third set of keys he could have.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Really, the crux of the story is we need to have two sets of keys, at least one with our realtor and one left in the lockbox, and two my mindset of not being able to resolve it has to change, even though the outcome would have still been the same whether I could or I couldn't resolve the problem yesterday. The weather was somewhat bad in Evansville yesterday so we really couldn't go out there and say, okay, we're going to go get keys or we're going to go re-key it. It just didn't work. It was lost, and I think that's in itself where I struggle with this whole aspect is we couldn't resolve the situation ASAP, get that realtor and that family back out there to see the house. And now we are on day two of them trying to potentially come back, or day one, but day two really because yesterday they came, today they're trying to come, but there's no guarantee they'll come back. So did we miss this opportunity? It's more than a 50-50, I think we did, so we'll have to deal with that.

Speaker 1: 10:04

The other thing going on from that, from the business aspect and a mindset aspect, is as we get closer to spring, are we going to be ready to have three more houses built and that is in a struggle in itself because I'm working out financing builds, how to market them, because I'd like to be able to market them off of the MLS and be able to have buyers come in and make an offer to where we can provide ground-up construction. But we also can provide ground-up construction financing for them if they choose to do it themselves. So there's some opportunities there. So we're working out the details on that front. And lastly I know it's short this week but I'd like to keep it short and sweet is on the nonprofit side. We're working on some ideas to where we could try to build a house in less than a month with some serious resources, with the backing of some named people in some industries. So we'll see where that goes. I don't know if it's going to have legs or not, but there's some opportunity out there that would really get our name on the board. It would help spread what we're doing from a nonprofit standpoint and also allow us to raise additional funds to where then we can start doing more work on our Bayard Park project through True Community and offload Truevest, the for-profit from that project, to where now we could pass even more savings on to these home buyers, which means more money in the bank for True Community. So by the end of the year, whatever money is rolled over, we're going to put that into some type of fund to where we can build a home and give it away to a deserving family.

Speaker 1: 12:05

So, guys, the crux in the takeaway for this is mindset, and my mindset was crap. It threw off my whole day, it threw off my whole thought process and it really screwed up the whole trajectory of where we were going with the project in my mind. So me as a leader, things that derail where we're going is not beneficial. To allow it into my sphere. I have to decompress and figure out how to make that work, but also, the same time, be cognizant that if it does happen again, I know to handle it, resolve it with the team and move forward instead of letting it linger for more than 24 hours.

Speaker 1: 12:57

And that is going to be the rub and the struggle in all. This is how to get past it. I know it's simple, stupid, guys, but also at the same time, it means a lot to me, because getting these first three houses sold and moving forward is big. It changes the trajectory of our business, but also the block, to where now we've got more families living on this block that are going to change the neighborhood for the positive, and that positivity will start radiating out to other blocks around the house excuse me, around the houses to where there'll be change on those blocks or they'll come look to us to help with that change.

Speaker 1: 13:43

That's what we're looking for a true community, a community of one coming together to make change in these neighborhoods that we're building, but also helping families learn that they don't have to be lifelong renters. They can actually be homeowners with the right tools and skills if they wish, but they have to make that decision. All right, guys. Hope you guys have a great week. I'll see you guys later in the week on Chasing Happiness Podcast. Stay safe, stay healthy. Have a good one.