Real Deal REInvestor Network

My story begins at my first job right out of school in the early 70’s.  I had made the decision to pursue a job in Information Technology (at the time, it was simply called computer programming).  I started with a small insurance company in Wisconsin that was looking for ways to automate their processes.  Believe it or not, insurance applications were submitted on paper, sent to the “data entry” department which was made up of key punch operators entering data into punch cards that were read into a computer for processing. 

I was blessed with the opportunity to work directly with IBM to replace the key punch process with online terminals.  This became an exciting relationship as IBM was looking for a “beta” partner for their new terminals and they offered resources that I worked with side by side to create the first online insurance processing center.

We became the show case for IBM and before I knew it, we were providing testimonials and demonstrations of what could be done with this new technology.  Insurance companies from around the world were visiting our offices including a company from Sweden that left me a little wooden horse as a token of their appreciation that still stands on my desk to this day.

That was the first two years of my career which gave me great pride since my aunts and uncles always claimed my dad’s children wouldn’t amount to much.  My dad worked three jobs to put food on the table and we weren’t afforded a lot of opportunities … but what we all learned was a work ethic to do what you need to succeed. 

These first two years set the stage for the rest of my career as I was recruited by other insurance companies for process reengineering or entity startup and integration projects.  However, somewhere along this journey, my career took me out of the rewarding roll of project development and reengineering and moved into an Executive roll of data stewardship, bureaucracy, regulatory compliance, privacy and security.  It just wasn’t fun anymore and after 30 years, when I fell victim to a merger and acquisition that left me standing on the outside for the first time in my career, I embraced the opportunity to reinvent myself and pursued real estate investment.

This was GREAT!  I was reenergized and filled with passion to learn anything and everything there was to learn in real estate and in 2006 I began to amass our real estate empire, buying into every strategy that was promoted.  I was buying foreclosures and REOs from the bank and keeping them for rentals in markets I believed would cash flow.  I was investing in land development, preconstruction, apartment conversions, commercial development and a development project in Costa Rico.  I was so focused on “building” this empire that I never stopped to look at the risks and warning signs that were starting to appear about the real estate market and when it crashed, I drove our real estate empire right off the cliff ….. Without a safety net.

Whoa … we lost EVERYTHING!  But that’s OK!  I know I was successful once, and I know I could do it again.  BUT, I made a fundamental mistake.  Rather than approaching new ventures in a position of confidence, I was pursuing them in a mode of desperation.  I started chasing shinny objects and unicorns that made promises of recovering what I had lost in a short amount of time.  These unicorns were presented as Bulk REO tapes and commodity transactions for Gold and Oil.  The reality is … “There is no quick fix” and it was going to take hard work and determination to recover what had been lost and achieve the goals I had lost sight of.

At the end of 2010, I made the fundamental decision to go back to the basics of real estate investing and laser focus on a single strategy … one with reduced risk and could leverage OPM to begin our recovery.  My research for this strategy led me to a course that initially appeared to provide the coaching I was searching for to regain my confidence at an affordable price to reenter the real estate market.  However, the first weekend seminar quickly revealed that in order to “qualify” for the coaching program, I would have to buy the next two levels of training that would total approximately $20,000.

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  That’s it … I QUIT!  I could no longer take my family down this black hole of real estate gurus and I was going to have to reenter Corporate America and find a J.O.B.  WELL, I now thank God for putting me at that fork in the road.  All things happen for a reason and as I started to look for JOB opportunities, I stumbled across the Facebook link and/or email that talked about an intern/mentorship opportunity with a national real estate company and the rest is history!

I also need to thank my WIFE who has been an absolute rock through this whole experience.  Not once has she blamed me for destroying our goals for early retirement and philanthropy … nor has she ever berated me to get a JOB.  Instead, she has reminded me of how unhappy I had become in Corporate America and she did not want to see me stop “Three Feet From Gold”.  She encouraged me to learn from the experts, shadow what they are doing and regain my confidence to become successful again through the only real method to success of blood, sweat and tears.  There is no such thing as GET RICH QUICK in the real world.

I am renewed by the same energy I once felt for the opportunity I had early in my career to work side by side with IBM to develop a business opportunity that benefited each other.  Once again, I am blessed with an opportunity to work side by side with the experts at the HIS Real Estate Network to build business opportunities in Real Estate that I KNOW will benefit all parties.  I will be forever indebted to and thankful for this opportunity offered by Danny, Rick and the Directors, Sam, Dana, Jo and Alex.  God Bless You All!