Pre Event Report

Illusions on a Double Dimple Photo source: Amazon

Ben, the two of us need look no more

We both found what we’ve been looking for

—Don Black

Weather or Not

I made it to Frisco after taking almost four hours for what should’ve been a 2.5 hour drive, according to The Googles. Waco was probably the most interesting part of the drive. I had to go through a thunderstorm that was like driving through a tropical storm. There were times I couldn’t see the car in front of me, even though the traffic on I-35. It slowed to almost 35 miles an hour.

By the time I made it to the north side of Waco, I had driven out of the rain. The roads were not dry, and the sky looked like it could start to pour again at any second. But it had still been free of the rain long enough for the automatic windshield wipers to stop for a couple of minutes. Then my phone went off in panic mode. “Warning! Warning! Warning! Severe thunderstorm warning for the next 18 minutes. Really helpful, Siri.”

So anyway I managed to get to the event and get checked in to help with the event. My job tonight was to attach badge holders to the end of lanyards, and I did a few hundred of those. Then we broke for the evening and I went to the other hotel because I hadn’t been able to get booked at the Hilton tonight.

I got checked in at the other hotel, which shall remain nameless for reasons you shall see. I went up to the room and found it to be very very nice, if not worth the price that I’m having to pay for it. But that’s what happens when you go to a conference and have to get a hotel in a downtown area.

Rats have their place in nature and science. We don’t have to worry too much about them at the Hermits’ Rest Ranch because we have three dogs and numerous wild raptors who all love rats. Photo source: The Scientist

Ratatouille

By that time, I was hungry for dinner. I went downstairs to the restaurant, and it’s pretty nice and reasonably priced—for a hotel. The waitress was really personable and made me laugh. She took my order and went away. While I was waiting for my food to come out a fairly large gray rat scampered across the restaurant in front of me. I was tired, so I rubed my eyes thinking, “Did I really just see a rat run across the restaurant?”

About the time I convinced myself that I didn’t see what I saw, the rat ran back across the other direction. So when the waitress came by with my drink and to take my order, I told her, “By the way you might want to tell your manager I just saw a rat run across there.” When she realized I was serious, she burst out laughing, “Oh no. Now I have to set traps for it.”

She then left to get my drink refill, and I heard the guys in the bar laughing all the way across the hotel. Mind you, it wasn’t really empty in the restaurant, just slow. Like you expect from a hotel restaurant on a Monday night.

She came back and told me that she told the guys in the bar, and they were having a good time about it. She also told me she poured my second drink so it would be comped. Then she left to check on my order and the rat made the third appearance. I told the waitress about this when she came back, and she told the manager who reiterated that she had to set traps for it now.

Everything was settling down when the waitress went to get my food. She came back and she was laughing so hard she could hardly walk. She said the rat had made it to the kitchen and the three big burly guys in there were all up on the counter yelling that “there’s a bunch of them on the floor and there’s only one.” She says, “Frederico says, ‘He’s been here a long time. He is gray. He’s got lots of gray hair.’ I couldn’t convince him that they’re all gray.”

She and I talked for a long time about how she ended up here and things we have in common. Her husband is a national record producer, and they live in Junction. She came up here to open the hotel and his ended up staying for almost 7 years. I told her that I spent 10 years on a three month contract once. This was a very enjoyable and to what had been a stressful then boring day.

Find your hope and laughter where you can.

Because I was unable to write much this week, Suna adapted this post for republication on the Hermit Haus site on 2018-02-09.

 

We Learned Stuff

Even though the slide I’m looking at is nearly blank, I did take good notes throughout the weekend. Photo by: Sue Ann

Sue Ann has her own comments on this seminar on the Hermit Haus Redevelopment website today.

As a long-time instructional designer in the corporate world, I appreciate good training. But the truth is, you can even learn something for poorly-designed training. This weekend seminar on marketing strategies wasn’t the best designed training I’ve ever seen, but it did have lots of good information. A passionate trainer helped.

My big take-aways include:

• Marketing takes time to be effective. Keep throwing good money after…it.
• While most mail campaigns can start to familiarize recipients with the sending business after four or five contacts, marketing to a probate list can take more than nine or ten contacts.
• People will respond more favorably to mail marketing from a female name than a male one. Really?
• The presenter has had good results from outbound calling. Again, really?
• “But what about the dog?”

 

Home Again

The Hermit Haus team: Carol, Russell, Suna, and me Suna is ready to go home.

Here I am with Than Merrill of Flip That House, CT Homes, and Fortunebuilders Grand Coast Capital took a few investors to see the San Diego Chargers play. Suna is in the front. Paul Esajian stands behind her, and I’m peeking over his shoulder. I blurred all the face except for us and employees of GCC.

Traveling at night, the headlights were bright

And we’d been up many an hour

And all through my brain

Came the refrain of home and its warming fire

— Karla Bonoff

We’re finally home. It was a long weekend in San Diego, but we survived and we learned. A lot. I’ll be posting about what we learned on the Hermit Haus blog over the next couple of months.

More importantly, we came together as a team and had a good time. Thankfully Russell and Carol rented a car, so we were not stuck eating the dreadful hotel cooking. We were able to get away for a few quiet meals, including on nice sushi meal somewhere in SD proper.

Fortunebuilders put on a mixer for those of us who joined the “Inner Circle,” which gives us better access to the big three: Than Merrill, JD Esajian, and Paul Esajian. From what I can tell, Than is the CEO of Fortunebuilders and its subsidiary companies. JD runs the renovation business, and Paul runs the financials, including Grand Coast Capital, a national hard-money lender.

Because Suna and I invested in Grand Coast, we got invited to see the San Diego Chargers play a home game and network with other investors. They put us on a bus and led us up to the Fortunebuilders skybox, where they put on a board of finger foods and booze. We had to leave before the game was over, but that’s okay. I wasn’t really interested in the Chargers. Apparently, nobody else was, either.

But the important thing is that I survived flying there and back again. I’ve never been a fan of airports and airlines, but now TSA seems to be actively everyone to drive to their destinations. If only Suna had the time. I love seeing the country at ground level. What I can see now may all be overly familiar, but that is comforting. At least I don’t have to worry about “special screening” at home or in my car.

 

San Diego

Suna and I waiting to fly out of ABIA yesterday Suna having dinner in the hotel restaurant

Does this look like a $30 meal

I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long

I never heard the melody until I needed the song

—Tom Waits

Suna, Carol, Russell and I are in San Diego for a Fortunebuilders “bootcamp.” It turns out they have a special meaning for that word that goes far beyond my previous usage. A Fortunebuilders Bootcamp is a large educational event that offers a range of classes to hundreds, if not thousands, of investors and potential investors. Russell is attending the “Internet Intensive” while Suna, Carol, and I are in the “Rental Intensive.”

The Internet Intensive focuses on using the Internet, including a proprietary system called Realeflow, to market to a range of buyers and sellers. Russell is a good choice for that since he is in charge of our back office systems and website.

I’m looking forward to the Rental Intensive and hope I learn a bunch of stuff about managing my rental portfolio.

I can’t say I’m impressed by the hotel hosting the event. The restaurant is overpriced as only a “artistic” or “trendy” place can be. Unfortunately, the quality of the food was not up to the pricing, once again demonstrating the difference between confidence and arrogance. I also wonder if the leadership isn’t looking at the hotel as a distressed commercial property that they can add value to.

 

Bootcamp

Suna and I enjoyed our dinners together, regardless of how “trendy” the restaurant was.

The view from our hotel room was much better than last time. So was the room. Here’s our graduating class with former Dellite and now Fortunebuilder Linda P. with Suna. I am hiding in the back, as usual for a hermit.

Here’s your ticket; pack your bag

Time for jumpin’ overboard

The transportation is here

Close enough but not too far,

Maybe you know where you are

—David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth

Suna and I spent the weekend with Carol and Russell at a Fortunebuilders “Two-Day Intensive.” Folks from Houston to Waco who joined last week were there, so it was a networking opportunity besides being a great learning opportunity.

I learned that when Fortunebuilders speaks of “systems,” they’re not necessarily talking about automation. They mean anything that you can reduce to a series of repeatable, coachable steps. The system we focused on this weekend was evaluating houses to buy.

First they taught us a formula to help ensure we make money on every flip. Then they taught us how to fill out an evaluation form that helps determine how much repairs will cost and plug those numbers into the “secret formula” that apparently “everybody uses.” Then they loaded us on buses to walk though a couple of houses and put what we learned into use.

I’m very happy with the quality of instructional design in the Fortunebuilders educational materials. They actually pay attention to good design and adult learning theory, unlike much of the other stuff on the market.

 

A New Hope

Brody was incredulous when I told him he would have to stay at Braesgate with Elizabeth for a few days. The view from our hotel room wasn’t very impressive. The view from the event hotel parking lot was much better.

In the service of “keeping Austin weird,” they have erected these guitar statues all over downtown. Carol and Russell agree that we should work closely together in a new business. Brody was glad we got home safely.

Be true to your school now

And let your colors fly

—Brian Wilson and Mike Love

Suna and I spent the weekend in Austin attending a Fortunebuilders “training” session. Although they presented more information about flipping, which they prefer to call “redeveloping,” that we could possibly assimilate, the three days were primarily devoted to marketing further training and the back-end systems they have developed to support their own redevelopment business, CT Homes.

Carol and Russell also attended, and we sat together for much of the weekend. Russell couldn’t get off work for the Friday session, but he was there for both Saturday and Sunday.

We had lunch together almost every day, but Suna and I were on our own for dinner, when we didn’t run into someone else attending the event. Since I hate to drive in traffic, we stayed at a hotel in walking distance of the event. The weather was perfect and walking to the event (and meals) gave us some much needed exercise. It didn’t take long to develop “conference butt” as we were stuck in uncomfortable chairs for hours on end.

In the end, the four of us decided to formalize our relationship by forming a new redevelopment company, Hermit Haus Redevelopment. The name was Carol’s idea based on the fact that I am so much a hermit. We also decided to sign up for the full package of Fortunebuilder training, including joining their “Inner Circle,” which is supposed to grant us better access to the big dogs. We’ll see….

The main thing I’m looking forward to is learning how to systematize everything. I’ve worked myself into a full-time job as a real estate investor. Hopefully, the systems will enable me to offload some of what has been eating all my time. But honestly, I’ve always been better at developing systems than following them.