What did you do before Real estate?

[Cole Haynes]

I just got inspired to start this topic from reading some success stories. I really enjoy hearing how investors came to be and what they did before getting into the biz. I am sure we can all relate to these stories and backgrounds from other entrepreneurs who choose this path. I will share my brief working life and hope others jump in. It could be very motivating to someone struggling to get that first deal...

I started my first "business" selling toys in the 5th grade. I didn't have any grasp on the value of money at the time. I just thought it was neat that I could take a paper clip and bend it around until it would "flip" up in the air when it was dropped on a table. I called them "flips" and they were a hit. I sold them for a quarter a piece and ended up with about $40 before the end of the year. My dad went 50-50 with me on a Super Nintendo. I loved that thing. I had little ideas for business here and there all through school but nothing really stuck.

In my freshman year of college I became very restless and knew I had to find a way to work for myself. I worked full-time in college and 3 of the 4 years previously in high school.

I started doing some research online and watching those late night commercials. I started learning about the time value of money, passive income, and leveraging. I became obsessed with it! I would print out every article, blog, and email I could. I literally read about this stuff for 40+ hours a week for months. At some point through all of this I left school to pursue what I thought was more important. Not long after I left school I felt I needed to get something going. So I jumped into a "deal", that took up over a year of my life! During that time I went through a ton of jobs just to get by while I worked on my "deal". I did all kinds of odd jobs:

Telemarketing
lawn service fertilizer guy
lawn service sales guy door to door
overnight baker
newspaper delivery
receptionist
Sold cruise packages
package delivery guy
warehouse guy...
A few others I can't think of

I finally sold this property after a lot of issues and made little if any money. I learned from these mistakes and made ALOT of adjustments...this took a while. Finally I was picking up cash flowing deals and selling deals for nice profits. Through this time I was doing some of those jobs. Less than a year ago I started absorbing everything I could about creative financing. I already had a foundation of knowledge for investing so it didn't take long to get things going.

Now I have a STABLE full-time job and have been doing pretty well with deals. I am on pace to do 20+ deals this year and have already created a nice passive cash flow from rental properties.

What about everyone else? I would love to hear about your humble beginnings...

[Rich Weese]

Cole- Yes, my wife believed in me. We had a very definite plan and strategy. We went without a lot of things for a few years AND lived EXCLUSIVELY on her salary(not much). We invested everything else. My pay, tax refunds etc.
She wasn't excited about the moving, especially with 6 kids! Much of our moving from city to city or state to state was while kids were small or gone out on their own.
She did realize the benefit of building and selling every 2 years. We selected a VERY nice neighborhood in St. George, Utah and moved into 4 different houses. It was an inconvenience, for sure,but the 100K to 200K tax free made EACH time was worth the hassle. The kids didn't change schools, friends or church. since it was same neighborhood. Rich