Ep 269: Strengthening Your Entrepreneurial Spirit Amidst Real Estate Turmoil

Embark on an emotional odyssey with us as we traverse the unpredictable landscape of real estate entrepreneurship, where the joy of handing over keys to ecstatic first-time homeowners is as intense as the uncertainty that lurks around the corner. Experience the elation and the anxiety through my eyes; from the thrill of a full listing price offer in a sea of fluctuating sales to the daunting nights wrestling with the Baird Park project, where the envisioned worth remains unseen by potential buyers. The journey is visceral, candid, and a true testament to the fortitude required in the world of property development.

As we navigate these tales of triumph and tribulation, I'll unveil the personal arsenal I've honed to combat the psychological battles that come with the entrepreneur's territory—dawn breaks with journaling, passages from the Bible, and affirmations that steel my resolve. And it's not all introspection; strategic maneuvers are at play, adapting to the ever-changing market by harnessing VA benefits, exploring FHA loans, and wrapping our arms around down payment assistance programs. This episode isn't simply about sharing stories; it's about arming you with the mindset and strategies to stand firm through the storms of entrepreneurship.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

This last week has been a roller coaster ride. So, guys, I want to talk about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship life, but better yet, just keeping it real with you guys. So this week I want to talk about the highs and the lows. So, first off, I was able to get a first time home buyer family into their home. We closed yesterday today is, excuse me, february 27th and they were able to close February 26th, so congratulations, yay, that was a very good high. Some of the lows were getting people coming through our housing development that we're doing on Baird Park and people are just not seeing the value. So that has been a struggle. The other aspect of the low side is it weighs and when we're not selling houses the way I think we should be selling them, it weighs on me and it really it gets me anxious and full anxiety. And so welcome to entrepreneurship, business ownership, whatever. And part of that anxiousness is money making sure you always have enough money for your business, for yourself, to make sure that you can pay the bills. And I've had some sleepless nights of not being able to shut my mind off and say, yeah, I am not worried about this, which it's a flat out lie because I am worried about it. Then, the other side of this over the weekend we had three showings of our houses and Saturday into Sunday we got some feedback. The buyers didn't like this, they didn't like that, blah, blah, blah. And I didn't think anything of it come around Monday. Yesterday, we got an offer late in the day and it was a full listing price offer. It's being grossed up because he is a veteran, so he's using the VA and he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to pay any closing costs, which is fine. But to say I was surprised that this happened yes, because the back and forth that happened with this realtor was pretty short of oh, we're thinking about putting an offer in. We might put an offer in, but not sure how that's all going to play out. And it was around dinner time here in Arizona I got a phone call from our realtor and they said, hey, we've got an offer on the table. And she said do you want the good news or you want the good news? I'm like damn, if we have both good newses can't be wrong. And she tells me and I'm like that's a good offer and it's healthy. They want to close the deal. And it's healthy. They want to close April 2nd. They don't want to close on April Fool's. So that's fine with me. But To say that I was surprised, it's a good thing.

Speaker 1: 3:43

The bad thing is we still have a few things to do on this first house that needs to be tidied up, and it's all money related, because we've got to do the backyard, we got to put the fence up, we have a stump that needs to be grinded down, and then we need to finish up the front yard, the stairs, and we're going to put a walk path in and some mulch. That shouldn't be too hard. It's just the stuff in the back, because there's some I don't know if you want to call them seedlings smaller trees that need to be pulled out, but I'm being told we might have a bobcat that can do most of this work, so we'll see what that looks like. So that is definitely a positive. The second house is done and there's some minor things that have to be done too, and I think we're going to have them give us a quote to get that backyard done on the second house. So we just get it over with. But we've been working on this one buyer and this is part of the ups and downs, because this is a down. I've been working with this potential buyer since January, late December, early January and it's just been a slow, arduous process to get all this paperwork to me to figure out what he qualifies for. But we're now almost two months into this business and we're just finding out.

Speaker 1: 4:59

He said he was a veteran, which I got his DD 214. He was a veteran, but he didn't serve long enough on active duty so he doesn't have enough points to get any type of status so he can have a veteran excuse me, a veteran loan. So I had to tell him that, because he finally gave me his caseworker at the Veterans Administration and I went through it with her and I said all I need to know does he qualify, yes or no, and if no, how many points does he have and what is he missing? So she walked through all that and explained it to me. So then I was able to then go back to him and explain that you have not been on active duty, we're not on active duty for long enough. And he said we did it back in 2014. I said, yes, she told me about that because she'd been his caseworker for all that time. And she said back then he didn't qualify either and he was already out of the service. So being able to have that conversation with him and letting him know that he didn't qualify for the actual veterans benefits was tough.

Speaker 1: 6:06

But now we are actually closer to the finish line because now we're going to put him into a VA excuse me, an FHA and he's already attended Hope of Evansville, which is our non-profit that does down payment assistance. So he's got that done. And then he found out that he's been working through another housing program there, local to Evansville, that he has an escrow account that I don't know how much is in there I know it's more than $100 and I know it potentially could be close to $1,000 to where that money is his as soon as he graduates his program and he has to do one more housing I think they call it a housing counseling course. I'm not sure the exact terminology, so don't get angry at me, but he can get that money free and clear. They literally write him a cash years check and say this is yours and you get to use it for whatever you want. That's huge. So I'm looking forward to getting him into the second house, but we still have the second house on the market. We're marketing it. We're going to do an open house this weekend to where they can walk through the first house, even though it's pending, and they get to see what that first house looks like and then they compare the two, because we did the second house a little different and we're going to do a barbecue, have some hot dogs and have some drinks, get people out there, get them excited and get them really pumped up about the development, because we've got 13 more properties that we need to go through. So that is a good thing.

Speaker 1: 7:39

So I've talked to you guys about the highs, the lows, the ups, the downs, but now I want to tie it into personal, how it affects me and, I'm sure, for you guys out there that are small business owners, entrepreneurs you guys know what I'm talking about. When you're up at night making sure that you've got enough money to pay the bills, I'm with you on that that's a pain in the butt because when you go several months without selling a house or closing a loan, it becomes very tough. And people think that being an entrepreneur is you have all this time and money, and it's actually the opposite. You actually are very limited on time, because it's your most valuable asset, so you want to make sure that you're using it effectively through the day, whether it's through blocking your calendar, making sure that you're doing revenue generating actions, steps, whatever you want to call that. And the last is you're getting enough rest.

Speaker 1: 8:44

And I know that I'm not getting enough rest because I'm stressed out and being stressed out isn't good, but also, at the same time, I have to get this stuff done, I have to get these things taken care of and in the end, it is going to be on my back. So how do I balance all this out? I really have to start each and every day with quiet time. I journal, I read out of a Bible, I read out of the Bible and just get focused, because it helps me with anxiety, because I know what I have to accomplish on a daily basis, and it all revolves around making sure we have money and the business is flowing.

Speaker 1: 9:33

Now you're probably saying, well, it sounds like your business is not doing well. That's not it. I could have more than enough money in the bank and I don't want to go through it. It's not. It's just one of those things that I worry about, and I think, once we have three or four houses going and they're sold and we're in that groove because we've taken a little bit of time of getting houses sold because the market sucked for a while. We were going against the grain on the market because rates were so high. Once we have that going and we're planning the flag three and four times consistently, I think I'll feel a little more comfortable. But it's still going to be a bother.

Speaker 1: 10:19

And for you guys out there leave a comment in the notes I'd love to hear how you guys overcome anxiety when you're worried about the future. You're worried about money because it's not easy and I know the only way to take it or not take it, excuse me to handle it is to take it head on. But if I don't start my day out with focus and being very strategic in what I do to help myself with my mindset, my day is destroyed. And I have to make sure that I'm getting this right, otherwise it sets me up for failure, and that's tough. Failure sucks but it does lead to success. But failure in this sense is demotivating. It really pounds on you and the best way to describe it is I know and I'm not trying to run away from the failure, but I'm trying to minimize the failure that is not going to teach me to grow and be a better leader, to be a better person, to be a better entrepreneur husband, brother, whatever uncle, friend.

Speaker 1: 11:42

I'm running away from the thing that is stopping me from being more successful, and that is anxiety, and I know a lot of us. We suffer and struggle with it, but in the end, part of that anxiety helps me stay focused. The other part of it keeps me down and I have to find a way to channel that anxiety even more to make me more hyper focused on certain things, to get them pushed out, Because as soon as I can get those things done and push them out and check them, they're done. There's relief, but sometimes it's the act of getting started that is the most daunting thing to do, and that's where I want to end here, guys, is this is it's the act of getting started.

Speaker 1: 12:38

We always think about how we can make things perfect, to make everything work for us, and it just it doesn't work that way. Sometimes you have to just go and actually do it, because in the end it's never going to be perfect. If it were, then everyone would be doing what I'm doing or doing what you're doing. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur and a small business owner, but how many actually go and do it? Not many. There's not a lot of us out there, and I say that because a lot of us got out of the business because that thing that happened in 2021 and 2022, the vid, and it brought people to their knees and they just didn't want to take on any more pain. I get it. It almost did the same thing to us. It brought us to our knees, but we were able to bounce back and move forward.

Speaker 1: 13:46

But now I'm at that point to where I keep on hitting these walls and its nervousness and its anxiety. I know I'm knocking on something bigger and I have to continue to push forward. It's just tough at times and the only way to get through the toughness or the hurdles is setting my mindset right in the morning, journaling, reading chapters in the Bible. I like to read positive affirmations. There's just something about setting my mindset right in the morning to get me focused, to get me grounded. That gets me there. Now, if that could potentially not work for you, I get it. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, but the problem is real If we don't take our anxiety on right out of the shoot in the morning? How can you focus on any type of revenue generating tasks to set yourself up for success? All right, guys, that's it for this week. I hope you guys have a great one. Stay safe, stay healthy. I'll see you guys on the other side.