Business is Business -- Not Charity!

[Josh Gregory]

I started in real estate investing as tender-hearted as they come.  From the start, I hoped to use rental property investing as an outreach to help people who hadn't had the same opportunities I had been blessed with.  My very first purchase was a 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch that I bought with cash back in 2011 for only $45K.  It needed some TLC and cosmetic updates, but nothing structural.  

I had been working in downtown Nashville the previous few years and had made friends with some of the local homeless newspaper salesmen.  I offered 2 of them a place to live temporarily if they would just help me paint.  Both declined.  I offered another man a place to live for a month if he would help me cut down some trees.  He declined.

As it turned out, I did most of the work myself, or hired friends or people I know who could use the work.  And when the time came to advertise and screen tenants, I personally met dozens of potential renters at the property.  After losing track of how many would-be renters asked to waive the security deposit or the first month's rent, I began to understand that business must be treated as business.  And this was only my first property!

I'll expand on my future experience in future posts, but suffice it to say that I learned quickly that business must be treated as business first.

[Will Fraser]

You hit the nail on the head with "perception of helping someone", @Josh Gregory!  That is at the heart of many of the disappointments and failures in our system and one that requires some deep reflection and long-term vision.  Our society (especially the publicly needy and the squeaky wheels) often do not want what is truly good for them, but because it is not what they deem to be "good for them."  

Figuratively they clamor for a coke instead of almonds and a banana.  One leaves you rotting and hangry, the other satiated and a bit better off.  Is it love to give them a coke instead of the sustenance?  In fact, is the love shown in the process contingent on the way it is received at all?  

I don't know the answer, but I know it requires some great thinking.