When starting a business, you will be faced with opposition and whether you are a Real Estate Investor or not there will be moments that define your success. From the gecko you will be learning the dos and don’ts, you will be pushing for deals, and you will be competing against others. Often you will lose, often you will hear the word, No, and often you’re going to want to give up. The purpose of this post is to share my outlook on these difficult situations and run through my most recent deal which fell through. Although my business is geared toward Real Estate Investors a lot of these concepts are applicable to athletes and other professional industries.
In your journey to success, you will fall down again and again. You will lose deals, and even when you have done everything right sometimes it just does not work out. The worst thing you can do is:
1) Make Excuses and Blame Others
a. “If only the realtor put my offer in faster”
Blaming others is one of the worst things you can do after a loss. No one owes you anything in life and if your team is not producing to the level you expect then as a leader you need to adjust and acclimate your team to be more efficient, communicate better, etc… Excuses only hide the truth. By covering up the facts of the matter you will never be able to learn and take out the positives.
Example: When Estimating Construction Cost: You may exceed your initial budget (Very Common). The incorrect reaction would be to say “That contractor was just more expensive than others”. The correct reaction would be to analyze why you went over, reproject your earnings, vet your contractor and ask other local contractors for their unit pricing breakouts, and make a note so you can avoid underestimating that same issue on a future project.
2) Give Up and Pout
a. “I’m done with this”
The Roman Empire was not built overnight… it takes careful planning and execution to get one deal done let alone start a multi-million-dollar company. You must stay on track and stay focused. Like a child: crawling will grow to baby steps, and baby steps will grow into walking, and walking into running… Everyone’s timeline is different but it’s important to look forward and avoid regression. The smaller victories in your business will compile and bring your major goals to fruition.
“The best way to celebrate a win is with another win” – David Meltzer Host of the Entrepreneurs Podcast
3) Wait your turn in line for the next opportunity
a. “Oh well, maybe next time”
Nothing is a coincidence and your lost opportunity is the fault of your own doing. Own it and do not wait around, go out, and find your opportunities. Opportunities will present themselves especially when you’re looking for them. Know what you want, build a team to help you get there, make meaningful connections, and be ready to take a detour, but never lose sight of the end destination.
TDRS Property Holdings - Recent Case Study:
In our most recent endeavor, I was in pursuit of 2 neighboring homes overlooking the Hudson River. The homes were not liveable and had great potential to grow. They were on the market for 2 days before I put an offer out and my best and final followed 6 days later and, in the end, I lost the bid. My first offer was driven solely by the fondness I had for the two homes. My best and final offer was more thought out and the 5-6 days leading up to the best and final looked sort of like this.
1) I reached out to my lenders for the bulk of funding for the property purchase and construction
2) I Introduced Investors to the project to reduce costs and subsidize overall Risk
3) I Developed my Construction Scope and Schedule and built a budget
4) Prepared legal documents for my Private Lenders
5) Reach out to the necessary parties to prepare for a win: Contractors, Lawyers, Insurance Agents
In the end, I didn’t get the homes and in m books, this was a loss, or was it… Throughout the week I learned a lot about myself and the team.
1) As a whole we were decisive and moved quickly putting together our offers and researched documents
2) My construction scope and budget were on point with my contractors
3) We didn’t chase the seller and enter a bidding war
4) My lawyer and lender were willing and able to react at a moment’s notice
5) We met a local realtor that was impressed with our skillset and is looking to do work in the near future
6) Analysis of this area is now complete and may make future deals move even faster
7) Our Partners a TDRS were not phased by the lost and were ready to get after the next property seconds after the bad news.
With that being said there are always things we can improve on including:
1) We need to better inform our investors in real-time on upcoming properties we pursue
2) We need to better advertise the properties we are looking at to bring more outside attention to TDRS Property Holdings
3) We need to submit and push our offer before there is other investor development. The goal is to close quickly and avoid a bidding war
4) Avoid the Mud, we need to get better at taking on multiple offers at a time. We realized that in this project our full focus was on this one property. We fell behind on inherent company paperwork, goals, and other properties.
In the end, it has come to our attention that our team is united and ready to put in the work required to take on major projects, our skill sets are on par with local investors, our construction background makes our evaluations stronger than most, and we quickly forget negativity and are forward-thinking. There are obvious challenges we need to overcome and we need to continuously strengthen our following and financing.
Teo DeLellis
Founder and Ceo of TDRS Property Holdings
