Skeletons In My Closet
What ‘skeletons’ do you have hidden away that may come out to haunt you? Sounds scary doesn’t it? And it could very well be….
I was recently negotiating on a fairly large character conversion/reno project for an associate of mine. He had considerable experience with rezoning and land utilization but not so much with actual conversation and restructure of the buildings. He was so ‘pumped up’ about the potential project that I wondered how much in depth research he had conducted, as there seemed to be some sizable obstacles to overcome before getting the project to the final stage.
I felt an icy hand on my shoulder and heard a deathly whisper in my ear ‘Do the due diligence now, run the costs and speak with your team, get the written quotes…’ What was going on? The voice was just my ‘friendly’ skeleton reminding me of the lessons learned 5 years ago.
See, I had been doing a sizable reno deal where the costs and time frame kept on extending. I had done the usual groundwork, quote gathering and cost analysis for the property, but it still was taking longer and costing more than planned. In the end the deal was completed and all went relatively well, but there had been a few months worth of stress and grey hairs from this seemingly simple deal. What happened next was I spent a period of about 6 months feeling rather reluctant to enter into another reno job.
My skeleton was keeping me out of the market. My repair job didn’t go exactly as planned, but still ended up being profitable, although not nearly as much as I had hoped. What I realized was that I needed a better system and a better team to rely on. I then went out and spoke with several of my colleagues that specialized in these sorts of projects. I then saw how I could ‘bomb proof’ my next deal, maximize my time, money and create more profit- all with fewer grey hairs.
The funny thing is how much my skeleton continues to teach me. read more…
