JCommons Journal and Deal log

I started off in mid-semester at college two away from finishing with my general education degree. I had just lost my grandmother and a while before that my cousin. I decided I had been going no where for to long as I knew there was no direction that college could provide me that I found an interest in.

Lets start a bit farther back. I had grown up in a single parent family of where my mother was an entrepreneur who at the peak of just making it crashed for one reason or another and never made it only to give up hope and stumble into depression losing all hope. Now I know most people say if you are a true entrepreneur you would never give up hope and keep going even when times are rough.

My mother is an amazing women. She raised four children since the age of sixteen, the first was taken from her breaking her heart the second she had with a wealthy man who couldn't keep his nose off the glass when she divorced him to my father who was also a dead beat and gave her the surprise of my brother in the end. She was a welder from her late teens until she had me and was consistently making bad choices with dead beat men the whole way.

She finally decided to go at it alone doing the best she could and yes life was hard because of it. She struggled with multiple sclerosis diagnosed in 1991 she didn't like it but accepted welfare so she could gained her Electrical engineering degree and she did so only to have the knowledge she gained forgotten when her disease progressed into part of her brain.

My mother then decided if she couldn't remember what she learned she could hire someone else to do that if she could only recall things for a while longer while she set everything up. She had as I said did construction in her late teens so decided to start a company doing just that. She took classes to estimate and she already knew how to read blueprints. She hired a small crew to pick up odd jobs until she gained enough capital to get a few things needed for bigger jobs and my grandfather loaned her the rest for her first truck and electric welder. She then got lucky a few other ways being a female owner allowing her to take contract before others because of that.

My mother was just about to under take a multimillion dollar job when my second eldest sister fell into the same issues as her father with drugs and robbed my mother from pawning to bartering the companies tools and took the funds from my mothers safe abusing her trust for a few quick fixes.

When my mother who honestly I believe held my sister as her favorite child confronted her in horror of what she had done only to have her turn on her and try to murder her. My sister was lucky the lack of evidence and my mother decided to settle with a restraining order and told her she was no longer welcome and never would ever be again part of our family she was banished. To this day that hasn't changed.
As a result of these unfortunate events my mother lost all hope in herself and her capabilities as a parent.

I know my mother with the progression of her disease will never be able to aspire to the levels of greatness she could have, but she instilled that entrepreneurial spirit in me during that time whether she realized it or not. Since that point I decided I would go to college as I heard my mother tell my sister she should have done and make something of myself to take care of my family I had and the one I wanted for myself someday.

I had no idea what I wanted to do and no direction or assistance as my mother forgot almost everything of her college years. I had to make my own path and alone. I had faith in myself where others did not. I knew at that time I could do nothing for my family but be a burden and another mouth to feed so I left. I lived with friends for a while until I lost everything and lived on the streets for a few months sometimes I was able to bathe at the local ymca I used to work at because I was known there. I was lucky in the end a friend from high school finally let me sleep in my vehicle in their back yard under a car port and start bathing there when the ymca stopped letting me while I struggle to find employment and a place to live.

I finally after losing a lot of pride accepted a job with a grave yard shift and lived at a male shelter to get myself back off my feet. I decided then this was my shot and I wasn't going to let anyone beat me down any more. I had seen the bottom it was time for me to reach the top of mountain and beyond. I went to college took out a loan until I realized how to use the pell grant to pay for most of my expenses through a community college to get my basics first while I decided what I wanted to do.

I made a lot of mistakes and picked some classes I didn't need and again lost my way. I decided to join the military that maybe they could give me direction. They didn't, but they did give me the discipline I needed to keep going so after leaving before my contract was sealed at boot camp gaining an general honorable discharge aka you can leave but gain no benefits for time served.

A special note I put off my boot camp date three times extending my time there to almost a year and a half because I couldn't do my run qualification as I am slightly disabled with minor cerebral palsy. I learned there something most don't in a life time, my physical limitations, because they and I pushed myself as hard as my body would allow at the time. I had never before that period of my life even attempted a slight job much less run a 7 minute run. As I said though I learn something though I wouldn't trade though and that was the again the discipline I gained and the drive and determination each individual gains from the honor of serving. I will never be as good as those men and women, but I gained a respect for them that will never fade that I didn't have prior. That was the main reason I left. I didn't give up. I chose to leave because I again would have just been a burden and I wouldn't risk my brothers and sisters lives for being weak.

However I may have been physically weak I was not mentally. I went back to college determined more than ever to find something I could do, my destiny if you would. I did find my wife and finally I found after losing my grandmother and cousin the realization that I was wasting time with false hope in a college education I didn't need. I learned again a lot I wouldn't trade for anything but found nothing there I could specialize in that would make me happy or provide me the future I wanted.

I took a note from my wife's book and picked up reading. I was never a big book thumper a result being a lack of thought provoking education I was passing up. I decided to go to my local library and start walking down the isles to see what I could learn or what might just grab at me.

This is where I saw Dean for the second time. The first being in a random video I stumbled upon on the internet a month or so back relating to our current economy and the housing market or something of the sort. He was referred to as a real estate genius. I felt a pull to grab his book "Profit from real estate RIGHT NOW!" I figured what do I have to lose I can just bring it back. I chose real estate right then after many other fields that bored me. I picked up Deans book and about five or six others. I never reached the others...

I devoured Deans book and after finishing it I decided I wanted it. I was greedy with the knowledge I was gaining and wanted to have the ability to reference back. At that point I decided to purchase Deans "Profit from real estate RIGHT NOW!" and BARM. I read both and continue to flip back for reference. I purchased the COA phone service and 500 business cards that I threw away two weeks later because I didn't like the way I made them later after doing just as Dean says. I got off my tuff and hit the streets. I decided right then after finishing BARM I was going to start building my power team.

I started by going online looking for a lawyer to explain the Texas real estate commission contracts to me. I figured I could have one made for me later as I was certain at some point a listing agent if I used the mls would require me to use theirs so I better learn how to limit my liability. One contracted me a day later after emailing a prepaid lawyer company as I figured that was the cheapest route. They told me they couldn't help me, but would put me in contact with one that could.

That lawyer emailed me his name was Scott. He told me after listing to what I had learned for a whole two minutes (so didn't listen to me) told me he didn't know who Dean was but he created what I was saying with another female investor and knew everything I was trying to do. They would meet with me and discuss our future endeavors together as potential partners. Needless to say I was confused and taken back by this, but I was willing to listen and learn if there was anything to learn.

I met Scott and his investor partner Kristin at the local olive garden in my best dress cloths I had. The came in dress-casual cloths. I felt very over dressed and thought I looked like a fool. They took no notice to this and we went right to business they started explaining everything in great depth taking almost two hours leaving my wife thinking I was abducted because it was so loud I never heard my cell phone ring and was struggling to hear over the lunch crowd (decided right then never do lunch at a place you've never eaten at during lunch rush). I learned a lot and most of all I learned they didn't want me to be a partner they wanted me to waste my gas to find them beat up properties and didn't even tell me how much I would be compensated just that they would assist me later on after I had done at least a thousand of these for them.

I decided not to move forward with contact with these individuals.

Two days later I decide it was time to speak with a mortgage broker so I went online and called one up.I didn't feel comfortable with the results I was having so I found one locally. I set down with him laid my cards on the table everything I learned from Dean and what I wanted to do. He questioned everything something I figured would take twenty minutes took an hour and a half. He was telling me about all kinds of fraud and making sure I wasn't trying to mix him up in any of it. I've never met someone so frightened about real estate investing and had me start to question if this was a wise choice.

Then I remembered Dean saying to only listen to people who have done what I want to do. Others who have never done it have no right to guide or motivate my choices towards or away from real estate investing. I found that logical and told him this is what I was doing it wasn't fraudulent and if he was willing to work with me I would like to have someone I could depend upon on my team. He told me he had been doing mortgage for 25 years and if I was not involved in any type of fraud and what I was doing was ethical and honest he had no problem working with me.

I felt good after this and the next day I decided to find a local lawyer as well. I met an older man I refer to as Mr. Chapmen. I didn't think I would go through the same things with him as he was a real estate attorney. I was wrong. He hadn't heard of half of what I was trying to do and had only worked with traditional real estate though was willing to guide me on methods to limit my liability if I would fill out a contract and bring it back to him.

I decided why not and went home and printed one out and realized I really didn't know what I was doing so hit the internet and found another attorney Bryan Dunklin who did a seminar on how to limit your liability on the TREC as a sole proprietorship before you purchased a LLC or SLLC. I watched the whole thing. I took notes and fill out my first purchase contract. I took it to Mr. Chapmen just to be sure and to my surprise some of the things I did shocked him for having no experience. He further assisted me with some minor details and advice that cost me some money that was well spent. I took his card and told him we would keep in touch if I had any other questions.

I went out at that point and decided it was time I took a leap of faith.