How my excitement brought on a Partnership! Getting Started!

Squeak squeak,  the sprinkling rain was enough to be annoying but not enough to allow my wipers to silently sweep it away from the windshield of my 2003 Dodge Ram. This usually annoying sound made no difference to me; because today was special; it was closing day. Yes, my very first property was now a reality. I had been talking about and studying the real estate game for over 2 years. But now with my signature, that was it. I had pushed my chips to the center of the table, I was all in. 

This journey had started because I had long since had the desire to be in Real Estate and I decided that I was going to make it happen, no matter what. So, as the head of a 9 person household, yes my wife and I have full custody of 7 children, (previous marraiges) I had to figure out a way to cut costs, or add income. 

I have always loved Dave Ramsey's mantra of living like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. But, my children literally eat up my budget It's nothing for us to spend $150-$175 on groceries on Friday and have nothing left to eat in the house on Monday. So, cutting the budget tight could help a little, but it looked like adding extra income was the only real way I could make this happen, because I could only "save" a couple hundred a week, and I didn't want to try and do this for an entire year just to get started. And, the first time something went wrong, I'd have to dip into that savings But, there was another way, Work harder, work weekends, work another side business.

I have always split firewood during the winter and sold it. In the past few winters we have used the money to pay for Christmas, or even for my wife's current automobile. Now that my boys are old enough to help out, they were 10 & 13 this past winter. They were a huge help, and they each earned over a few hundred dollars along the way. This winter I decided to spend the minimal amount on Christmas, and to save every bit of extra firewood money that I could get, work almost every weekend, and save save save. The more I did, the more that the money grew in my separate "investment" account. The more that my excitement grew. I was reading every real estate book i could get my hands on. I found this podcast called BiggerPockets and I was listening to dozens of episodes. I was scouting small individual houses and house trailers. I was literally planning on how I would grow my business into a scale-able model over the next ten years. I was discussing it with one of my closest friends, and unbeknownst to me, he had just inherited a significant amount of money. He asked, "would you be interested in a partner?" I hadn't thought of it, but we reached an agreement. He agreed to purchase 25% of my not yet formed business. He purchased my excitement, my confidence, and most especially, my willingness to get educated. He invested 20k dollars.
I was really excited, It was definitely a reality. I had 10k dollars of my own money. and I already "owed" my company 70k dollars over the next 5 years" which was our agreement. I would have 5 years to "pay off" the other 75% of my initial investment dollars. I planned on doing this by continuing to save, reinvest any of my profits, and work, work, work, every extra bit that I could to get the cash to continue to "pay in" this large sum. In all of my excitement, I was explaining this to my mother not long after. She listened intently, asked a few questions, and seemed quite interested in our business plan of using the BRRR strategy to grow passive income. I guess I wasn't really paying much attention. Because, 30 minutes later I was off to a business meeting and I got a call from my mother. She asked "Do, you think I could invest like your other partner is?" I have a little money, and I would like to build a little more passive income. This had never occurred to me, I of course, could not tell my mother no, not to mention It would be greatly beneficial to our business, to have even more start up capital. 
I never gave up control of my business. I still own 50%, plus one non-payable voting share. I kept full control of the decision-making process (although I hardly make a move without having everyone on board, If the numbers work, and the cash-flow is there, we pounce). This goes back to my all-time favorite quote by Thomas Jefferson, "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.