Why to Always Work on Your Business & NOT in It (True Story)

[Matthew Rembish]

Exactly one week ago (1/8/2020) I found a self-storage facility listed in Florida that fit the exact criteria I was looking for; room for expansion, operational improvement potential...you name it! I'm normally a house flipper but I've been looking to jump into the commercial game for quite some time now and self-storage was my target asset class since before I even started looking into flipping houses. Getting back to the story, I reached out to the agent right away for the financials and as soon as they were sent over, I ran a quick analysis and sent over my first offer and what do you know, it was accepted! I officially had a 73 unit building for $554,800 and I couldn't be happier. During our discussion, I was made aware that the numbers weren't completely accurate and that I would receive the final financials within a day or so. Later that week, they were in my inbox and I came to notice the expenses were quite a bit higher than originally discussed. I rescinded my original offer and re-ran my numbers. After a day of analyzing the numbers, while also getting pricing on automated gates, kiosks, etc, I came back knowing the highest I could go was $520,000 so I started with $510,000. A few hours later they responded with $525,000 to which I countered with my $520,000 final offer.

Now let me stop everything right here. I sent my final $520,000 offer in at 1:50 pm today (1/15/2020) and then left my office to go install cabinet handles at my flip in the next town over. At 2:15 pm, this was the email that I received from my agent:

Your timing was perfect! I was able to reach the sellers right away...and after some discussion... they ACCEPTED!!
I will amend the documents and send to your for electronic signature :)
Please let me know if you need anything in addition at this time.
Congratulations Matt!! I know you will make this a successful business & investment!! Very Well Done!

But guess what? I didn't see that email because I was working on my flip. I did check my email at 4:30 pm, however, to find out another buyer slipped right through the cracks and sent in an offer over mine. Did that really just happen?

Yup. I lost out on a superb half-a-million-dollar commercial investment because I was doing renovation work I probably could have hired out for $100 or less. This hurt big time, and it still does (being that it happened about 6 hrs ago). I felt I needed to vent and to show the BP community a very valuable lesson I learned today. Always be focused on working ON your business, not IN it.

[Marian Smith]

@Matthew Rembish You can do both with smartphones and notebooks etc. Just turn your email alert on high when expecting a response...I mean, you were in the middle of an offer!

The real lesson is to always assume another investor is going to see what you do. I have had properties that had been languishing on the mls and when I put an offer in someone had beat me to it...months on market then somehow same timing as another investor (I guess). When it rains, it pours. Always expect someone on your heels.

You can work in your business, just get set up to optimize both. What do people do all day who “work on” their business? Unless you already have a plateful, have a big pot of money to invest or are going to knock on doors I think it seems you can do both with reasonable success using available tools.