I was never an outstanding athlete. On the contrary, whoever knew me in my youth knew that I don't do sports and am not a sports fan. For many years I tried to avoid it, and then about 10 years ago at a Shabbat lunch at my parents' they challenged me and said I wouldn't be able to run even a kilometer. I took up the challenge and committed that by my 50th birthday I would run not one kilometer but 10 km. At 50 I ran a half marathon. I fell in love with running, and especially long runs, and since then I train in the gym and run outdoors regularly at least 2-3 times a week.
I met Yehuda in the running group, and when he understood that I work in real estate he started from time to time to ask questions and raise various ideas. At one of the training sessions, while running side by side, he told me that he intends to start getting deeper into the real estate field, to reduce the load he has at work and slowly enter the field, with the aim of building himself a portfolio of properties abroad. I sent him to think about which country he would like to invest in. At the next training he came back to me with an answer - the USA.
“Good,” I told him. “Where in the USA? You understand, Yehuda, Florida is not New York, and New York is not like Ohio. The USA is big.”
“I read a bit online and decided to buy a house in Florida,” he replied.
After two months of study, meetings with marketers, checks and preparing Excel tables, Yehuda was ready for his first investment. The purchase process was smooth. The renovation process of the house also went without problems. When the house was ready Yehuda could not find tenants for two months. During his almost daily conversations with the management company in an attempt to push it to rent out the property already, an offer came to buy the neighboring house.
“I believe in the place, in the neighborhood. I believe there is potential here for appreciation. I want to buy the neighboring house too,” he told me in a phone call.
Yehuda bought the neighbor's house as well, renovated and upgraded it, and put it on the rental market. Here too a number of months passed until a tenant was found, who even paid a lower price than the one asked by Yehuda. After another month the first house he bought was also rented (finally).
The tenants lived in the houses for about two years, after which new tenants moved in. Rental prices in the area rose and so did apartment prices. Yehuda almost forgot the first days/months in which he was frustrated that no tenant was found for the first house. I reminded him of this when the tenant of one of the two houses began negotiating with him to buy the property. And then Yehuda reminded me of the sentence I told him at the start of the road - real estate is a long-distance run.
Yehuda was patient, and internalized the saying that “real estate is a long-distance run”. Yehuda was not deterred by the bumps along the way, was not broken by the unexpected, and was also not under financial pressure, and understood that this was an investment. In the end Yehuda profited from the deal (a handsome profit), and went on to further deals.
How much patience do you have in your real estate deals and investments?
Stories are based on real situations, with identifying details changed. Not legal advice.
Translated from the Hebrew original. עברית