Pete Alexander – If the Real Estate Deal Sounds Too Good to Be True, It Is

Dec 1, 2020

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A recovering, hard-driving leader with over 35 years of sales, marketing, educational and entrepreneurial experience, Professor Pete Alexander successfully battled the negative effects of stress head-on and developed the LIGHTEN™ stress management model that will motivate you and your team to take action in only a few minutes per day.

After learning the stress management techniques, participants can better become leaders teams want to follow rather than hide from.

Professor Pete has an Amazon best-selling book titled LIGHTEN Your Day and hosts a popular 7-minute podcast on LinkedIn titled Winning at Business and Life.

“Not all stress is bad. There’s good stress, and there is negative stress.”

Pete Alexander

Worst investment ever

Pete was interested in investing in real estate and happened to have a friend living in California who knew a real estate agent who could help him find a property to invest in. Pete’s friend made arrangements for the agent to come from Arizona and talk to Pete and other friends interested in real estate investing.

Cheap government houses

The agent told them that the federal government was offering houses for 1% down because these houses were mortgaged to military personnel who got moved, and now they were open and vacant, and they had to get rid of them.

The agent gave them brochures on the different houses and information about how much cash they stood to make. There was also the added benefit of, besides being a real estate agent, the gentleman was also a property manager, and his company would be able to get renters for the investors.

Additionally, Pete and his friends would not have to put a lot of money down, and the renters would pay the mortgage for them. The deal was a no brainer. They were sold on the idea.

Real estate investment deal too good to say no to

Pete and his wife went ahead and took a second mortgage out on their house and invested $100,000 into this opportunity. Lo and behold, they ended up with three houses in Phoenix and two houses in Las Vegas because there was a mixup in what the agent said they thought Pete wanted and what they bid on for him. So now he had five houses. Interestingly, Pete and his wife only physically saw one of those five houses, and that one house was the only one that they didn’t lose money on. The other four were an absolute disaster.

The property manager who couldn’t do his job

Three of the four houses were almost impossible to rent because the property manager’s office was so far away that people who wanted to look at the houses couldn’t manage to drive to him and then go to the house. So logistically, it didn’t work. The property manager would also not respond to renters who were having issues with the homes. So people would get fed up and leave the houses in a mess.

Cash flow nightmare

So here was Pete with five full-price mortgages that had turned into a cash flow nightmare. It took him years to recover from that disaster.

Lessons learned

If it sounds too good to be true, it is

For any kind of investing, if it seems too good to be true, it is.

Hire the right property manager

If you’re planning to have investment properties where people lease your houses, make sure you hire a property manager that has excellent reviews, is proactive, and operates close to your property.

Research the markets you’re investing in

Before you invest in any market, find out what it is all about. What are the trends? What is the situation in terms of landlord versus renters?

Consider all the costs incurred

When you calculate how much you’re going to get in rent versus the mortgage cost and taxes, factor in a higher cost for maintenance because there will always be unexpected things happening.

Andrew’s takeaways

Real estate investment needs work

People say that real estate brings passive income, but real estate’s not really passive; there’s a lot of work involved.

Your property manager matters

Get the right property manager and keep them close by. Property managers do a lot of work, so you better find the right one.

Consider liquidity and legality

The advantage of investing in the stock market, unlike other investments, is that there’s ample liquidity. If you want to get out of something, you can do it. Also, the legal structure is generally in your favor.

Actionable advice

Do your homework, if you have money to invest, consider real estate, consider stocks, whatever it is, but remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it absolutely is.

No. 1 goal for the next 12 months

Pete’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to launch a 30-day stress-buster challenge starting next month. He plans to offer it every couple of months.