I have to apologise for getting a little sporadic in when my posts go up each day and or for missing a day from time to time. It is my goal to have something for you each day Monday through Friday but hey as you all know – “Stuff happens”. Today’s topic is something we’ve touched on before but it definitely worth revisiting!

 

 

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   I’m going to relay a story about a husband and wife Real Estate Agent Team that I’ve done a lot of business with over the years and gotten to know well. Their story is in no way A-Typical of what I see in this industry but this is the one story I have first hand information on.

 

   As usual the names have been changed to protect the ignorant. Let’s just call this couple Shawn and Dee. These folks are currently in their late 60’s and their story starts 15-20 years ago. By many standards they had a pretty good life. The kids we’re raised and they were able to enjoy some freedom. They weren’t happy with what they were doing at the time for employment and decided to make a change.

 

   They began searching for employment and adventure. They found both and accepted positions in the property management field. Not to interesting, except that the condos they would manage were in Hawaii and they signed on as an on-site management team.

 

  This doesn’t sound to bad to me? Not exactly something I would do for the long term but hey it could have possibilities for a short term assignment. Anyway, they explained that they enjoyed this time in Hawaii but like anything they found the downsides, every job has them. This arrangement lasted for a couple of years and then they were ready to come back to the mainland. With the property management experience they had gained and the fact they didn’t have a home or home mortgage to come back to they decided to purchase a mobile home in a park that was offering them a managers position.

 

   They hadn’t lived in a mobile home or a mobile home park in the past but they were up to the challenge! They had enough cash to purchase their new home and their salary was sufficient to give them enough to live on comfortably. It was during their years managing this park they found their way into the real estate sales game. As they saw the homes in the park turn over and watched real estate agents make a commission each time, they knew they wanted a piece of the action.

 

   As a team they thought they would be able to do well at this new endeavor. They did do well and quickly began making money. The commission amounts were small as they are based off the sales price of the homes they sold. They operated mostly in the mobile home parks at first but slowly worked their way out into the stick built homes as well. With the higher home prices came the higher commissions and as we’ll see the higher living expenses as well.

 

   They made good money in this new occupation and soon gave up the management position at their park. Actually they gave up the park all together. You know that successful real estate agents don’t live in mobile homes, right? They saw the commissions they had been making as their path to the REAL good life. They made a solid six figure income their first year working in the traditional stick built home market. This lead them to the assumption that they had found the easy money.

 

   After that first year our team of Realtors had determined to sell the mobile home and buy a showy house of their own. In addition to this they would each have to have new cars to tote their perspective home buyers around in. I believe it was a top of the line, decked out, Jaguar for Shawn and a 7 series BMW for Dee. All of this finery was financed of course. Keep in mind that this is all still only a short time into a new career path.

 

   Year two was seeing them on track for another good year financially. They did work a lot of long hours! I say this in their defense as this is a time consuming business. These long hours lead to a need for lots of meals out and additional new toys to prove to themselves that they were working for something. They also began a tradition of a month in Hawaii each December.

 

   As the years went by so did the couples homes – “Movin on up”… They would continue to trade up to larger and more expensive homes. This usually would happen after they spent considerable amounts of money customising each place they bought. The pinnacle of their success or so they would have had everyone believe, found them in a custom built home on a small piece of land. This home came complete with fountain in the foyer and over sized swimming pool out back, a real entertainers paradise.

 

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This looks like a good place to stop for today… I’ll wrap up the story tomorrow and you’ll see how things don’t always work out as we hoped they would!

 

Prepper