What It Took to Make The Leap For That $3,075,000 Property

I have to admit I was scared.

I took a deep breath as I signed the check request for $75,000.  If we didn’t get the $3,075,000 we needed to purchase this 77-unit building plus the $500,000 to renovate it, we would lose the $75,000 earnest money.  

We had never bought an apartment building before.  Up to this date, the largest thing we’d ever managed was a duplex.  I looked at my husband.  He seemed a little pale.  I’m sure I did too.  I took his hand in mine.  “Let’s do this,”  I said.

A week later we put in an offer for another building – 51 units, selling for $1,800,000.

Three months later, we sat toasting at an elegant restaurant in Albuquerque on the day we closed escrow and became the owners. That week we bought two buildings in Albuquerque – 128 units total.  We raised over $2.2 million dollars from private investors and got bank loans totaling $3,900,000.  Even though we’d never done anything like this before, we were able to acquire two properties at the same time.

How were we able to do that?

Here we are signing the papers to purchase that property.

I think one of the biggest factors was confidence.

I’m not particularly special.  I didn’t have the money sitting in my bank account or a trust fund somewhere.  I didn’t have an extensive database of contacts or any special contacts that made the process easier.  I didn’t have much relevant experience.  I didn’t have anything that made me particularly unique or stand out (at least not in anyway that was helpful), but I had confidence in myself and my resourcefulness.  I needed that confidence.

It took confidence to pack up our daughter and drive 12 hours to Albuquerque to check out a market that first time. It took confidence to approach brokers, property managers, and lenders to say – give us your time and get into business with us.  It took confidence to put in Letters of Intent to Buy, saying we’d pay millions of dollars when we had no ability to do that by ourselves.  It took confidence to ask people to partner with us.  It took confidence to ask for $50,000 minimum investments and say “Trust us.  We will take good care of your money and return it with friends.”  It took a lot of confidence and hope, and we did it.  I knew we couldn’t do it alone, but I had confidence in our ability to be resourceful and get it done.

I have confidence that if you trust in yourself, you can do it too.  And if you don’t have that confidence yet, you can develop it.

A while back, I interviewed my dear friend and bestselling author, coach, award-winning TedX speaker, and Confidence Expert, Kim Somers Egelsee.  In this short, but powerful video she shares some great exercises to start gaining more confidence right away.  Check it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments.