Real Estate by Sherwin Heyboer

Author:Sherwin Heyboer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781616389512
Publisher: Charisma House
Published: 2012-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

MY PERSONAL STORY

The Story of “Just a Regular Guy”—Subtle Advice from Personal Stories

MOST OF MY success in real estate has been because of my persistence and determination. During my childhood, I was involved in athletics and all kinds of competition. This taught me not to accept defeat until I realized what I set out to achieve.

I want to thank my wife for going along with my business ideals, giving me a more enjoyable and stimulating life. While I was working and earning a living for my family, she remained home training our six children—no simple task.

My mother was an inspiration to me regarding a lot of my purchases of rentals. When my brother got married, she advised him to buy a duplex and let the other side make the mortgage payment. My brother was in college and did not have enough to pay rent nor pay a mortgage, and she saw this as the best solution.

My dad’s business savvy taught me to invest sensibly. I can still hear my father warn me not to get overextended. I think this idea came about because of the depression. He witnessed the collapse of many fine businessmen who were overextended and lost everything. Getting overly aggressive can lead us into that trap.

My father-in-law, also a businessman, taught me a few things that I didn’t really catch on to until I was a little more mature. He taught me to respect my vendors and business associates. When I would buy fruits and vegetables 84 at the wholesale market and sell them on the retail market, I would try to get my product as cheap as possible and complain sometimes about the prices they were charging. He told me, “Sherwin, they have to make a living, too.” That taught me to have more respect for vendors, contractors, and tenants. My father-in-law also taught me to mind my own business; do what you think is right. When I would worry about the prices that some vendors on the farmers’ retail market would charge, he would remind me that I need to buy right and then figure out what I needed to charge to make a profit. I remember the time when I couldn’t buy certain fruits and vegetables on the wholesale market and so my father-in-law told me to load up on peaches. He told me to buy sixteen half-bushels, twice as many as I had ever tried to sell. I thought he was insane. He said that I would sell them, I just had to make a big display. Because I needed something to sell, I bought sixteen half-bushels and I did sell them. I never made so much profit on the market prior to that date.

In 1966 I bought my first duplex. This was two months after we were married. With my savings from working on the lowland farms and my wife’s savings from working at the farmers’ retail market, with her father, we put a $6,000 down payment on a new duplex we bought for $18,000.

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