Greg, tell us your story about your real estate/ rental/ MH/MHP career.
30 dollar book called Deals on Wheels. I was 50 years old, had sold a 22 space park in Texas, built a McMansion in Florida (kinda emabarrasing now) and was cruising the Net…bored and picked up on Cre online.This is in august 2002. Read a post from AnneND about Ld’s and went to a Park down the street. Found a 1980’s s/w folks wanted 5K for, got it for 1700 and this is priceless…the Wise Woman gets up at 1:30 AM and finds me by the pool stressing about spending $1700 and she blew up at me and says Just Buy The Darn Thing…I’ll give you the 1700 now get to bed!!!
Well, I buy it and sell it on Note for 6 or 7K or whatever and post on CRE, “Well, I did my first deal, now what?” and AnneND posts back congrats,and good job,rinse,repeat. WOW! These kind words changed my life. Ernest Tew calls me while I am filling up my lawn mower with gas and asks if I have time to talk…I get a number, tell him I will call him back!!! I knew he was a mod on CRE, but I had never heard of him.
Two days later I call him back, I fax over my contract to him and two days later he calls me and in a most humble,quiet way tells me he is faxing over some possible improvements (13 in fact). One was to add a date to the contract, another add an address all checks should be sent to…catch my drift? It was a very, very BAD contract. He suggested DOW and Getiing Rich Helping Others and I did a few more LD’s.
In Sept I called Kenny Semler and bought my first repo for 6K sold all cash for 13K and hooked up withTJ a local 23 year old home mover…we each threw in 22K and the rest is history.
In August I made -700, In Sept I made 6K net, Oct I made 1300 and in Nov. I made 43K PBIT. In 2003 I made over 600K…Tj made 877K…we were off and running. Our dynamic was buy a repo for 12K and have a Buyers Order which we had 2 weeks or amonth to pay for and sell the unit and use the Buyer’s money to pay off the home…sold over 20 homes before we started bringing homes onto our lot and started selling retail.
Started doing L/h’s and flipped over 55 of these in the next 3 years. Were able to add 17 apiece paid for each to our individual portfolios in this time…I sold on Note, Tj put into rental portfolio or sold all cash.
Shawn this is why I have tried so hard to give back to this community…without Ernest, Lonnie, Anne, Lyal, Kenny Semler, et al who gave advice and time freely I would still be a bored retiree living beyond my means.
DOW is so much more than an investing booklet…it is a blueprint to financial freedom. I was given a step by step roadmap to all the money I wanted. I talk to folks daily and still will give advice dawn to dusk.
Something some folks on these boards don’t full understand is folks like the ones I named above are really eager to share these blueprints any time. These are real live people that really exist and will return phone calls. Everythin I own I owe to these Boards…I did not think any of this up, I followed directions, and I LOVE to call folks and ask for advice. Ernest has opened his home and great mind and was very important in me changing my thinking about giving back.
A story I like to retell is the first MOM. Ernest calls me and says ,“Greg, we need to have a Florida meeting for florida Investors.” Well,I wa s down with this…I had been to a few meetings from CRE website and I was jazzed…I wanted to call it Greg Meade Mobile Home Investors Meet. I wanted to charge 1K per person and have them every quarter. WOW, why work with icky repos and ickier people…go intothe Meeting Business! I go over to his place and I lay out my idea for the meeting and he VERY Quietly asks me," Greg what will you charge for this meeting?" Well, I tell him I think 1K sounds like a real good number with maybe 300 folks per meet…see where I am going with this math LOL? And then I did a truly life altering thing…I asked Ernest what he thought I should charge and he finished chewing his salad and Very quietly said," Well, greg I think maybe…free" OMG! My world sank, I literally felt ill, my name in lights gone, my checkbook deflated, fame gone, sheesh.
He must have saw someting in my face, because he started laughing and asked me to think about it and read some more of his written works. I drove home in a funk and promised myself I would NEVER give up all my secrets FOR FREE. Ernest is one of the best salesmen I know and a truly great man. He Never yells and in August of 03 I did the first MOM, out of my own pocket with all my repo lists, contacts,websites available to everyone for free with step by step directions including real live ads to make 20-30K per month in repo flips. At least a dozen folks from these first few meetings went on to become multi millionaires. Steve Case was at that first one and was well on his way to purchasing major Parks while still active military, he had known Ernest for many years, as were Jim and Ellen Brenn.
This is a very good time and place to tell everyone here that when i first started making big money, I wanted to put a lid on it and use this knowledge for my use ONLY. Ernest in a very kind and gentle way (his way actually) very patiently explained that I had a responsibility to help others achieve the same OR MORE success. WOW. I get it now, and I guess a person gets it or they don’t.
The folks that read these posts and post their experiences, strengths, dreams get it. Folks that write books with viable, working models get it. Folks that put on Bootcamps, seminars get it. I know the costs in dollars and time these events take and NO ONE I know does these events toget rich…there are so much easier ways. I never laughed so hard when I heard a young lady at on of these events say Lonnie made all his money from sale of DOW…this is truly one of the funniest things I have ever heard. OMG I bet sale of this book is less than 1/10 of 1% if that of his personal wealth. These books were written at great time to help others and share ideas. Try to think of the creative process it takes to sit down with a blank piece of paper (or empty monitor) AND WRITE A BOOK LIKE DOW. Dare you…double dare you LOL
You asked for it Shawn, this is how I got started…numbers might be off slightly, but after a while, deals kinda blur together, homes become unihomes, etc. Investing is no longer a destination for me…it’s allabout the journey.
I’ve opened up, any others care to share? Dare you LOL!
Greg
Greg
Great Post
It is amazing how we can stumble upon the journey to financial freedom and other successes in life. One big important thing I get from what you wrote is you did something you started the journey and you went into action. Action is the key element most people avoid. They get the knowledge and never do anything with it. 50 years old what a great time to take on a new direction. Great Post
Greg You have truly found that it is better to give than to recieve. I’m sure many of you out there have heard of wealthy famous people that are in a depression or have committed suicide! You wonder why with all that money they would ever find themselves in that situation.
If you can give to others you will find something that you never knew was there. A sense of peace, contentment, and a sense of worth to this world. When we have all left this world it is not what we do for ourselves that will be remembered, it is what we do for others. I think as I get older and hopefully wiser I actually get more enjoyment helping and doing things for others then doing things for myself.
Society tells us that the one that dies with the most money and toys wins!! But what do you win? Leaving a legacy of helping others along the pathway we call life is being a winner?
If you find this all hard to believe just think of those that have helped YOU along the way, or may be helping you now! What was their motivation. Why did they choose to help you! What did they get out of it? Are they winners in your mind?
So go get 'em Greg. And by the way let me know if I can help!
Dan