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He Knows the Way that I Take (part 6)

1973 challenged a couple of kids were to get into real estate. One of those kids was me! The guy that gave us the challenge was my big brother, who had just gotten his real estate license, unbeknownst to us.

I was afraid of buying a house all by myself, so I called my friend Dan and asked if he would be interested in the investment business. He was, and we pooled our $2400 buck, $1200 each, and bought a duplex. 


The place was old and pretty ran down. Total rent was a whopping $360 a month. Dan and I kept the duplex for, coincidentally, a couple of years and then sold it to invest in other things. I don't know what Dan got into, but I put my minor prophet into a $13,000 place that became Dawn and my first family home when we got married in 1975. In 1977 we sold that place and bought a more extensive three bedrooms one bathroom place in Oxford. 


In 1981 we sold and moved to our forever home. It was a very nice three bedroom one and a half baths with a two-car garage and a nice sized yard. 


Things were looking great except for one thing. In May of 1980, God had sent a missionary to speak at our church. That man gave the congregation a challenge, "Who feels that God could use them on the mission field in some way?" 


That morning I walked down an aisle and entered a journey that would take my family to Brazil. That journey traversed years of preparation and our final arrival in South América but it seemingly put a hold on my real estate portfolio growth. A  few posts back, I mentioned another life-changing conversation that a fellow missionary had with me that also was a life changer. 


His talk about real estate investing was fascinating. He talked to me for quite a while, but the time flew by. Nevertheless, upon leaving the restaurant that night, I would begin, with a renewed interest, to find some way to invest. 


Terry, my missionary friend, put me in touch with his son, who was good at putting together deals. Whatever that meant. I only had a few conversations with Jonathan, but I remember his first one. He sent me a list of seven houses. They all looked fantastic, and I was interested in finding out what I would be able to do. As I asked him which one he thought I should buy, he said, "All of them!" 


Wait, what? 


To be continued. 

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