Motivation For Success

I do not typically talk too much about my successes, but what I do love to share is my failures because within failures are so many lessons to be learned. I want to share one MAJOR failure that I had on an investment and ended up with so much to be thankful for from what I learned.

In 2018 I purchased a single-family house to fix and flip on a lake in Texas. Three weeks following the completion of the construction and putting the property back on the market to sell, the structural dam on the lake collapsed nearly draining all the chain of lakes that connect. That was just the beginning of many issues for these lakes which inevitably put a halt to all the housing market that is directly tied to these lakes. Throughout this process I held the property for two years going on and off the market, I had spent well into 6 figures of my own capital to keep it afloat, I had an unknowingly amount of my own time into it, and then I was finally able to sell the property in 2020.

Overall, I learned more than I could ever imagine. I made a promise to myself in this project that I would do whatever it took to get the property sold and make sure I did not let the bank take it back as a foreclosure, and that is exactly what I did. The most important lesson over all that I learned was the mindset of setting a goal and sticking to it. Since then, I have taken that same mindset to my real estate investing business to structure it exactly with the steps moving forward. Within the past year, I have been able to double the profits that I lost from that lake project, tripled the amount of marketing and deals in my land investing, have begun growing my team and expanding my long-term investments.

The message I ultimately want to get across to anyone that feels like they may be stuck or in a slump is that no matter what you are doing, whether it be in business or life, just remember to keep your head up. Set goals and steps to work your a** off toward those goals, and most importantly, just keep moving forward! Trust the process in what you are doing today to shape your future and then do NOT ever stop learning and improving to be better than you were yesterday.

@taylorwinn that is crazy! I didn't realize that kind of thing could happen to an entire chain of lakes. That must've been financially devastating for so many people. I'm impressed you were able to stick with it. Did they end up fixing the lakes and bringing the water levels back up? It would be interesting to hear the longer story of how you managed to get through such an insane experience that was largely out of your control.

@taylorwinn

Thanks for posting that, I appreciate it !

@mattpayne

It took a substantial hit to a ton of people and businesses in the area. There are several businesses that are tied to the lakes that had to either adapt or close shop and go elsewhere. The worst part about the situation was the Water Authority Company that owns the water rights for those lakes did not (AT ALL) want to rebuild the dams. They pushed very strongly, against the community, to drain all the lakes and leave them at creek or river level so that there would not be any more dams collapsing. I am pretty sure they did not want to be stuck paying the billions of dollars to rebuild.

The last I heard is the communities on each lake have put together their own taxing district. Each district will take control of the capital involved on each lake including the rebuilds for the dam. I believe the state will be funding part of the work and the rest will be taxed to each and every property owner on the lakes over the next 30-50 years to pay off the loans for the rebuild. The dams have been approved to be rebuilt, but from what I hear is that they will most likely be draining each lake one at a time for a period of 3 years to rebuild each dam.

With all that being said, I have not really kept up with everything in that area since I sold that property. I was very fortunate I was able to sell that property and keep my business afloat, even with the massive loss I took from the deal.