Grateful For The Struggle?
(Week 2, Post 2 of the Active Rain Challenge)
When I moved to San Diego in 2003 my career started completely over, I knew nobody and worse; nobody knew me. But I had 1 year of savings set aside to carry me for this situation, I had my Working By Referral System and my skillset, so I went to work on building my business back up one relationship at a time.
It actually took me two years to get my first C.O.E. and I had to go back to basics and do thousands of hours of networking to build my business. I was able to use my property management business, Nelson Properties, to supplement my delayed and relocated real estate career, so we didn't go hungry.
Thank goodness I'd been investing in buy & hold properties; we had mailbox money.
In spite of the challenges, setbacks and delays, I was grateful for what it
made of me to roll up my sleeves and figure it out; I had no outside safety net, my businesses were all I had. My bride was in medical school and my family didn't support our decision to relocate, so was very much on my own with this decision to start anew in America's Finest City.
When the market crashed in 2006, I needed to completely start my business strategy over...AGAIN! I literally went back to investor/distressed property school, luckily it was a pop-up non-accredited university: Nouveau Riche University in Glendale, Arizona. They had actual investors and lawyers and financial people, that would take 1 week off, 6X's per year to teach classes at NRU. So you were learning from soldiers, not Generals - which is what you wanted!
I could have decided it was too expensive and financially risky to fly to Phoenix 5-6 times per year for the next two years and sit in a week's worth of classes, while our market was burning down and the country was sinking. But, what I learned those next two years literally took me from pre-foreclosure ignorance to being one of the top short sale experts in San Diego by 2010 and I was being hired/referred by other agents to negotiate their deals for their clients so they too could close some deals!
In spite of being financially terrified, I adapted and overcame in the worst financial and real estate market of our lifetime and the second worst in history. I'd never wish for anything like this; I really wish events like this didn't happen. However, I'm grateful for the struggle that tested me, forced me to rise up and showed me what I was capable of despite being scared I was going to lose my career and my house back then. I'm also grateful others rose up too, and gave me a sense of community that remained positive through the doom and gloom!
Continued in Part 2 next week.
Photo 1 by Martin Lopez: https://www.pexels.com
Additional Photos TJN
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