- Joined
- Nov 30, 2012
- Messages
- 46
A whole forum on failures and mistakes would be absolutely invaluable. I don't have the power to make that happen, but I can do this.
We've all heard the old maxim, "Success is a very poor teacher," yet there is a penchant for us to want to read only success stories. But I think there's a lot more gold in those failures, mistakes, and missteps that have left us smacking our foreheads.
But we need to share them. It reminds us of them so we won't do them again. It's cathartic to share personal stories that have us doing a Face Palm. And most importantly, it helps those who come after us to avoid the avoidable, to benefit from our experiences.
I say: keep a failure to yourself and you doom someone else to the same fate.
I'll go first.
Mistake: I once had a double lot with a tiny house on it in a small Alberta town. The tiny house was making just enough to cover its expenses. I wanted to sell the lot, and asked a real estate expert what to do. Said real estate expert said to knock down the house, and investors would consider it shovel ready, and it would increase its sale-ability.
That did not happen. Now the lot is empty, slowly bleeding cash, and we can't sell it, even at fire sale prices. We are lining up our ducks to build, but right now it's rather painful.
Lessons learned:
Sometimes it's best to take the sure thing. If we had instead listed the lot, and said we will include demolition of the house in the price, it wouldn't have likely hurt our chances of selling, but we would have at least been breaking even while we waited for it to sell, or to create enough cash to build.
Onward.
Keith
We've all heard the old maxim, "Success is a very poor teacher," yet there is a penchant for us to want to read only success stories. But I think there's a lot more gold in those failures, mistakes, and missteps that have left us smacking our foreheads.
But we need to share them. It reminds us of them so we won't do them again. It's cathartic to share personal stories that have us doing a Face Palm. And most importantly, it helps those who come after us to avoid the avoidable, to benefit from our experiences.
I say: keep a failure to yourself and you doom someone else to the same fate.
I'll go first.
Mistake: I once had a double lot with a tiny house on it in a small Alberta town. The tiny house was making just enough to cover its expenses. I wanted to sell the lot, and asked a real estate expert what to do. Said real estate expert said to knock down the house, and investors would consider it shovel ready, and it would increase its sale-ability.
That did not happen. Now the lot is empty, slowly bleeding cash, and we can't sell it, even at fire sale prices. We are lining up our ducks to build, but right now it's rather painful.
Lessons learned:
Sometimes it's best to take the sure thing. If we had instead listed the lot, and said we will include demolition of the house in the price, it wouldn't have likely hurt our chances of selling, but we would have at least been breaking even while we waited for it to sell, or to create enough cash to build.
Onward.
Keith