Don’t waste time for money!!

Truth is, I’m semi-retired. This is only because I have chosen to be a real estate investor. It’s what I’ve always wanted to learn and do, so I’ve been doing it for a bit since I left the rat race a couple years ago.

The title was more for me to get over an incident I recently experienced. I am not taking a shot at anyone working a 9 to 5. If you work a 9 to 5, great!!

So first off, I cringe when people talk about “professionalism”. To me, that word has so many negative and debilitating connotations. The fact is, life is LIVED ONCE. THAT'S IT! I know people that are so called “professional”. They are terribly fake and the most boring people I know. They literally wear you down. Their very “aura” is standoffish. They rarely smile and they take everything serious. I find myself getting physically sick around them. Life is not fun, creative or productive around them. So when a person calls me unprofessional, it irks me off! It shouldn’t. But somehow, it really gets under my skin because I don’t want to be professional. It’s sort of like the word “religious” but that’s for another discussion.

So here’s what happened….

I have a truck that is wrapped with my real estate advertisement. On occasion, I’ll get a call from curious people wanting to know what I do or if I could buy their house (which is a good thing). So I get a call from some lady. She leaves a message saying, “I see you buy houses…what is the process?”. I return the call and say, “Hi my name is Ken, I’m returning a call from this number regarding me buying your house, is this a good time to talk?” She says, “Yes, I wanted to know if you buy houses in DC”. Of course, I answer yes. So she follows with, “so how much experience do you have?” 

So here is where, things get weird….I answer with a corny but light joke. 

I say, “I’ve been doing this for a while. I’m 51 years old so sometimes my memory gets me, but I’d say around 5 years.” smile.

The line goes dead.

I’m thinking we got disconnected, so I try to call back. I'm thinking, maybe her cell phone lost its charge; maybe she’s in a dead zone; could be anything, right? I call back about four times. Nothing... 

At this point, I’m thinking its best to call some other time from my work phone at my work desk. This way I can look up the property information (comps, pictures, mortgage data, etc.) as we’re speaking. So I get home and call her from my work phone. She answers the phone…(that's peculiar but whatever, right?)

Again more weird stuff…..

I say, “Hello ma’am, this is Ken. We got cut off from our last call and I wanted to ensure we completed our discussion from my work phone.” She says, “You see that I didn’t answer the call, so now you’re calling me from a different phone, you lost your chance with….” 

I hang up the phone….click!!!  When she said (in that tone – you know what I’m talking about), I lost my chance, there is nothing else to discuss. 

Here's why I hung up the phone.....

I am not in the business of being fake. I am not in the business of selling anyone anything. I’m in the business of providing solutions. I don’t have to cater to smug people to make my business run. I don’t have to put on a fake smile while listening to stuck up, dry people. I can simply move on. I’m sure she’s had the phone hung up on her in the past. On to the next….  

In this business, you will have to deal with those in the rat race and the mind set that goes along with it. But, be careful not to find yourself stressed as an investor when you encounter difficult people. Otherwise, you may as well get a job.