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Maybe this is just what the doctor ordered to get me back in the swing of writing and sharing what goes on in my life. I have been using my SendOutCards business as leverage to jumpstart my real estate business and like most of the prospecting activities I do I often wonder is what I’m doing really making an impact or should I be doing something else? I received my answer today and I’d like to share it with you.
I had a client who loved rehabbing and saving homes but couldn’t save his own home from the grip of the banks. I found one of his old projects in an old news article and thought I would cheer him up with sending him the card below.
Here is my answer:
Joe... DUDE!!! I got your card in the mail. What an awesome gesture, THANK YOU!
One thing I always say about houses is, they're an investment in ourselves. I wouldn't be the strong independent person I am today if I hadn't owned my own homes over the years. Our friends on Wall Street can run them all the way to zero, and make another $10 trillion along the way, but that's never gonna change.
Funny thing about that little Spanish house you captured on the card. I bought it just as I was moving to Florida full time in 1999, right after selling my home in River Forest. I couldn't stand to leave Chicago behind completely, and that little house in Villa Park was cheap enough to make keeping a second residence up there possible. It had already sold to some house-flipping Realtor for $115,000, so I offered him $20,000 to sell his contract to me. He said, "you haven't even seen the house inside yet!" I told him it didn't matter, that was the house I wanted, and I could fix anything it needed. So my girlfriend at the time thought I was crazy. We went through the house after he accepted my offer, and it was beat to death. The front porch roof and deck were collapsing, and the succo had complely fallen off the outside of the south wall. Inside, many of the plaster ceilings had fallen, and there was lathe showing on nearly every wall. The floors looked like a gravel driveway, and many of the plaster cove moldings had been destroyed by past roof leaks. My girlfriend had only known me since I'd retired from saving the old houses in Oak Park, so she didn't know what I could do. I had just had hernia surgury, so I wasn't moving 100%, but I went over to that house the day of closing and started working it like I was in my prime. I repaired all the plaster walls and ceilings while some stucco guys were reparing the outside of the house. I even custom made plaster knives to fit the old cove moldings, and ran them myself in new plaster (Durabond actually). Then I painted the entire interior in Benjamin Moore Regal Wall Satin Historic colors, and called the floor sanders. 3 weeks after closing on the house, Gretchen came out from the city on the train, and her legs litterally collapsed underneath her when she walked through the door. I will never forget the look on her face when she saw that sparkling interior with freshly sanded and stained floors. The porch and outside still looked terrible, but that came later. I'll never forget how satisfied I was with myself that I could still breath life into an old building as forlorn as that one was. Thank you for sending me that card, and reminding me what an exciting project that was. Another bonus was meeting one of my best friends there, who still lives right next door.
Thank you again,
It doesn’t matter who or what you have to say to people at times, just get out there and let people know you are there to serve their needs. It’s a good life.
