For the Love of Investing

by Kathryn Godby Oram

“Don’t fall in love with the Real Estate!” Experienced real estate investors will tell you that. You fall in love, then you over pay, over improve and so on. Growing up in a Real estate family I heard that line over and over. That voice was my mothers’, ever the pragmatist, ever the sensible businesswoman. My father, on the other hand, was a self described visionary. He walked into an old house or building and waxed poetic about mortar and lathe. He had a romance with the form and the function.

My folks were married from 9 to 5 and after. They were in business together. That marriage worked because they both had very different ideas on business and on life but together they made a great pair. That vision of my fathers’; that love for the grain of wood and the curve or an arched doorway, gave him an eye for what lay beneath. My mother made sure the investment would work then gladly fell in beside him, breathing new life into old spaces, her artistic eye tempering his wild renovation fantasies.

The most successful people I know love what they do. You have to have passion to engender passion in others. My parents had a symbiotic relationship, vision paired with practicality. They always loved each project and the buyers or the renters loved them too. They bought and renovated and sold. They bought and renovated and rented. They had few and short vacancies because their units had charm and beauty. They put themselves into every project.

What I’m getting at is this; Real Estate is about more that the dollar. Sure, the dollar is paramount but I’ve seen what happens when a house or an investment project has been created from a passionate desire to build something wonderful. Those are the places and spaces that give you a feeling that you want to be there. I supposed what you’d call the “It factor”. That is the crux of this sentimental Real Estate monologue; you put passion in, you get money out. Emotional marketing is playing to those emotions that make people buy jewelry they don’t need and flowers from a street vendor. Impulse is important in today’s market. If you can make someone fall in love with your property you are a Real Estate God. In turn, if you feel a tingle in your gut when you see a house you want or an old apartment building, go with it. Run your numbers, check comps, let common sense and a great Real Estate Broker guide you in your purchase; But remember, that crush you have will keep you going when problems arise. When old pipes burst and when tenants complain or when your kids flood the bathroom you’ll still believe you made the right choice. In life and in business the right combination of whimsy and work makes a marriage stand the test of time and a mortgage.

That feeling in the pit of your stomach can sometimes be described as love. It can happen. As an agent I often discourage falling in love too soon. I caution my charges and explain that rushing in can make us fools at the negotiating table. On the other hand, I want my clients to love their homes, investments. I want them to see potential. With the market so flat and values still declining, we need a little love back in this business.