Selling real estate was an eye opener. My background was in construction & investing so I was interested in how well built the house was & if there was the potential for price appreciation. In my neck of the woods most real estate agents know very little about any of that. About all any of them knew was how to fill out the sale forms, use a lockbox & schmooze a client. Truth is, the most successful agents here are the ones that do the most networking & marketing. I'm more of a numbers guy & thought it should be enough to help people steer clear from making the house buying mistakes I made. I didn't have much interest in joining a church, the Elks Lodge, Kiwanis, or whatever just so I could sell real estate to the members of the organization.
The rental business was a completely different animal. I could fill pages with "tenants & toilets" stories. I think that business can best be summed up by the day a tenant told me they couldn't pay rent because they used the money to keep their cable from being turned off......or maybe the 5 o'clock call I got on labor day with the news that water was coming out of the ceiling. Nothing like having to install a water heater in an attic by yourself after drinking beer on the river all day only to find out the Lowe's sold you a defective water heater.
I haven't had any real problem collecting mortgage payments. There have been a few late payments over the years but the properties are worth way more than the loans are.
I thought the cash box may have went with it.
