Lessons Learned During My Rookie Year

(I posted these comments in 1999 on another real estate site. Many of the points pertain to issues and folks from the other site, and therefore, may not make any sense. Please ignore those points.)

I found this site about a year ago when I decided to get serious about getting active with REI. It has been and continues to be my favorite resource. I thought my comments might benefit others just starting out and perhaps the more experienced might chuckle.

This list is by no means comprehensive and is not intended to serve as advice. I'm learning as I go and this is merely a reflection of my experiences. Please do not try this at home or with anyone else's home for that matter!

1. Listening to tapes daily in my car does not make me money
2. Most retail buyers cannot visualize new paint and carpet
3. Landscaping/curb appeal does make a huge difference
4. 150k houses in which someone has been shot to death don't move quickly regardless of price
5. Online auctions don't work
6. What works for me may not work for someone else, and vice versa
7. Any type of marketing I do works, as long as I do it and follow up
8. Posts on this site by any of the following must always be read regardless of content (Alcorn, Piper, Garcia, Eric C, Couch, Cook, Gatten, Bronchick, Branstetter, Rob-FL, Alexander, and all the others I'm forgetting)
9. Screw condos, especially those with gated access
10. Combo lockboxes are great for worker access, not so great for prospects, if I actually want to lease or sell the place
11. I was warned about many of my lessons in the courses I have, but didn't hear them until the second time through
12. I have enough knowledge to talk a seller's assets off and consequently lose the deal, yet I know nothing
13. The search feature on this site is like God – you can't sense it in any tangible way, you just have to have faith it exists
14. I can't always correct my own spelling, much less everyone else's
15. Listen to those who rant about cash flow, equity don't mean squat (especially in Texas)
16. I can't make my spouse as excited about REI as I am
17. Lonnie's books must be really good (on my Christmas list)
18. Did I mention screw condos?
19. Gatten and Alcorn should individually write “The Chronicles of a Real Estate Investor” – it would be a NY Times Bestseller, and/or they could invent a video game with little Pacmen chasing woodchucks around
20. Property Management Companies are useless
21. I'm going to have to learn the paper business if I want to be good at REI
22. Many, many people talk, most don't walk it
23. I don't want to do PBJ's and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese again (sorry, Rob, and I agree to keep my J.O.B. until I'm ready, too)
24. I've got to get more organized so I don't have to scramble with each deal
25.  Don't spend money on a house I don't own
26. Peculiar, but a seller will always take a L/O over a subject to, if I'm stupid enough to present one against the other
27. Realtors don't like to be screened by an answering service
28. I'll probably never fully implement everything I already know, yet I know nothing
29. There's no right way to do REI, just my way which continually evolves
30. I have to buy at an absolute maximum of 80% of value regardless of my exit strategy if I want to allow room for my errors
31. If I buy “right”, I can screw up left and right and still make a chunk of money
32. Access to Lines of Credit starting out made me weak
33. I know what walking on an 11″ differential in the slab means now
34. There are only two possible outcomes, success or quitting

Anyway, that's my list for now. What will year 2 bring?