WHAT DO YOU NEED TO GET AHEAD AND GET THINGS DONE?

I have been asking a lot of questions lately. May be because I always come across things that make me ask questions and as a tribal proverb says, the stranger who will always stop to ask for direction will not miss the way. I have found asking to be a very sure way to get answers.

Two gentlemen walked into my office on appointment today and when they were leaving I felt totally satisfied that our meeting was mutually beneficial. They function within the two most respected medical fields – one a Physician and the second a Pharmacist.

Having settled what they came for initially, our discussion took branched off on some personal investment opportunities tangent. The Pharmacist started it all, he shared the sorry story of how his formal landlord slammed him with a notice to sell his 3bedroom apartment shortly after he tastefully renovated it before his wedding to give his wife and himself a treat. Tried as he may, he could not come up with the landlord’s offered price and so the apartment went another person’s way. In effect whatever he recently expended on renovating the property just went down the drain. According to him, he felt like a fool and that episode made him to make up his mind about setting a target of owing is own house in a year’s time.

When he said that, I could not pass off the opportunity of asking him how he planned to achieve the set target and his plan showed that he probably could have been a landlord long before all these brouhaha.

Here is my summary of his story – “my dad was ready to give me one of his uncompleted project, so I can complete it and have it as my own. The property has a good title and he had only done the block work for the ground floor. But I was not interested for two reasons. One was that, I couldn’t think of where I will get the money to finish it up except from my bankers and they had some terms I could not agree to or meet up with. The second is that, I really would not like to leave in that area again because I grew up within that vicinity. Then my dad made mention of a lady who has been asking for his permission to use the place for her school business. We had a meeting with the lady and eventually agreed to lease the place to her for eight (8) years in exchange for her doing the decking and other necessary things required for her to be able to use the place. Our concern primarily was to ensure that the place was not turned to a refuse dump as it was well on it way to becoming within the neighbourhood.

That arrangement commenced a few months ago and we have eight (8) years to go on it. Now my plan is to get a developer who can complete the other floors (first and second) under a development lease arrangement and give me one of the apartments for my use.”

This is a very painful story as far as I am concern and it shows the cost we sometimes have to pay for lack of appropriate information. The honest truth is that, my friend could have being well on is way to becoming his own landlord by now but with the school in that compound for the next eight (8) years, it will be difficult for any developer to find the project attractive primarily because it will be difficult to get good value for money (rent) on such apartments when completed. The reason being the environmental factors the school dimension has brought to the fore. For example, noise pollution.

The case study throws up a number of things. One is the mentality of our people when it comes to first home ownership. We still plan for our first house as if it will be the last we shall ever build before we cross to the other world. I have said it times without number that, your first house should just be a necessity item and that is how the project should be approached. You can not claim to be solving the basic need of a roof over your head with a palliative measure – rent. Being a tenant should not be your destination, it’s a stop over and the earlier you reach your destination in life the better. Start with what your pocket (dream or faith) can deliver per time. That involves giving critical thought to the location, size and degree of finishing you can afford.

The project should have been a developer’s delight the way it was before the school issue. This is going by the location and going rent rate in that neighbourhood.

I must also say that the developers and developer’s agents operating around that axis may either have their hands full or they are not doing a good job of scouting for opportunities. Otherwise, they should have also been prospecting that site, such that the landlord would have had an opportunity to have to decide between two contending options. That would have given him the chance to see the vital interest of his house ownership issue resolved with the development lease for apartments as against the nuisance the school project portends.

If only my friend had met with someone to advise him properly when he still had the chance to put his uncompleted project to better use. There exist no reason why he should not be a landlord living in his own apartment by now.

If you desire to constantly move up in life, you need to create a proven system that would always get you the necessary information and contacts to achieve your dream. You can consider the following to achieve that; attend seminars, join interesting social, religious or financial clubs, head hunt selected people for quality friendship/mentorship, etc. In all of these, NETWORK as if your success depends on it because it does.

I figure you know what to do to get ahead now and get things going for you.

QUOTE(S)“Do what you do so well and so uniquely that people can’t resist wanting more and referring others to you.” — Walt Disney

“It isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the grain of sand in your shoe” – Unknown

“A good rest is half the work” – Yugoslav Proverb