Talk To People!

[Zach Davis]

A while back I was listening an episode of the BP podcast and was struck by a story that @Brandon Turner told about simply talking to a couple in his church resulting in him buying his main apartment complex. This was somewhat of a new concept to me because I have always been the type to keep what I am doing to myself, mostly just because I assume most people really don't care...

Well, I decided to follow Brandon's model and somehow ended up in a conversation with one of my tenants (with my head stuffed under a sink) about wanting to buy poorly managed buildings in the area and begin to turn the neighborhood around (its a C cluster in a B area). This tenant is a stay at home mom and is a bit of a social butterfly... Somehow she ended up talking to the two separate owners of the properties on either side of mine, both of which showed interest in selling but hadn't actually thought about it. This tenant took it on herself to talk with them on my behalf, and ended up calling me with their numbers out of the blue.

After a couple of conversations and a little negotiation, one of the properties wasn't quite the deal I wanted so I passed on to another investor that I've worked with before and he will be closing on it at the end of the month. The other, I close on this week, 20K under market, and owner contract with very little down because he's retiring and wants mail box money. Two properties purchased and more money made because I decided to change one little thing and talk to people about my interests. It may not be as dramatic as an entire complex but none of it would have happened if it wasn't for one 3 minute conversation that would have never been if I hadn't heard that episode of the Bigger Pockets Podcast. Thanks for everything you do, BP crew!