Be a Problem Solver And Your Problems Will Be Solved
Learn to solve other people’s problem and yours will be solved in the process. This past year I met a woman who, along with her 2 siblings, had inherited a property from their parents. The property had an old dilapidated cottage on it which, for safety reasons, they has torn down. All three siblings has since moved away and soon were unable to afford to pay the property taxes. I soon contracted to purchase this property from them. During my due diligence process, I drove up to the property to inspect it and while I was up there, I met the neighbor of the adjoining property. He explained to me that he was having a border dispute with his neighbor on the other side and was a leery to talk to me, not knowing my intentions. After leaving that day, I continued my due diligence only to find out that, due to new zoning laws and the unusual shape of the parcel, when the current owners knocked down the cottage the property became an unbuildable lot. Only having a couple hundred dollars into it at that point, my first thought was to just walk around from the deal. Then I remembered the next door neighbor and his feeling of being closed in. I contacted him and explained the situation. I offered to assign my contract to him for a fee. Since I had negotiated a very good deal, he jumped at the chance.
He was able to increased his property holdings from 1 acre to 5.5 acres at a very reasonable cost. This gave him the space he desired and no longer worried about the oyher neighbor. The sellers were no longer burdened with taxes that they couldn’t afford on a property that was unbuildable. And I received a nice fee bringing the two parties together. By solving their problems, I was able to solve my own problem of owning a property that would have been very dificult to sell. This was truly a Win, Win, Win situation.