REI Wealth Issue #59 Featuring Blue Ocean Capital | Page 35

How I Made It
After wallowing in the misery of the situation for a while , Don woke up one day and decided that he needed to do something . He had to pull himself out of the hole and take positive action to make things happen .
Getting back into real estate was really the only play to rebound and get ahead financially .
So , in 2012 he put an ad on Craigslist . He posted that he had experience flipping houses and wanted to meet up for coffee with anyone else who was interested .
He found some new connections . They started doing a couple deals together . They completed them , put the cash bank in the bank , and then doubled up on some more . Then again and kept scaling .
This time he got serious about the business side of things and vowed to do some things better , including :
• Refusing to speculate
• Being very prudent about operating a real business
• Engaging the market based on real numbers
• Having more capital in the bank , and cash on hand for upcoming opportunities
• Having the right community and right advisors around him
The COVID Crisis
When the COVID pandemic crisis came around , it Don was far more prepared , and less impacted .
He had certainly been doing a lot more reading and learning . He had a
better community of mentors and peers around him .
Even with the lockdowns , he kept operating with a virtual team to keep on rehabbing and flipping houses .
He also :
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
• Focused on hiring a great team , and getting out of their way , so they could do their best work
• Negotiated better pricing with great contractors
• Leveraged project managers to supervise contractors and head off issues
Positioning For The Next Crisis
Everything is always changing . Change is perhaps the only thing you can count on being the same .
The economy , financial markets and real estate are always rotating through cycles . Sometimes it is more noticeable
than others , but it is always happening .
Crises will always come around too . Whether they are financial ones , recessions , hurricanes , wildfires , wars , or viruses .
With a lot of experience and data , the predictability of things becomes far more obvious — even if there are occasional wildcards .
Even if you are not 100 % sure on the precise timing , it just makes sense to be well prepared . Not just to make it through alive , but to continue to thrive , and even keep on growing .
What Not To Do
There are certainly some things that Don Costa says he knows not to do :
• Don ’ t be seduced by the market
• Don ’ t surround yourself with the wrong people and advice
What Don Is Doing Now
Learn more about what Don Costa is doing now , and who he is working with to create massive success through the next phase of this cycle . Visit Don ' s websites at BeInThisRoom . com and FlipTalk . com .
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