My Story (part 1)
Hello I’m Michael Alder,
Currently I wake up everyday at 5:45 am (by choice) drink my coffee of the day (because I’m human) followed by a
green smoothie, do a killer workout, hit the shower then start doing what I love which is investing in REAL ESTATE!
Why am I telling you my routine?
Because it became a part of my formula for success which I didn’t figure out till about 3 years ago. I’ll tell you where I started..
I always wanted to be a Real estate investor. 14 years ago markets were climbing, banks handed you money just for asking and infomercials were going crazy with “buy my program and get rich in real estate” I bought into all the hype and I wanted in!!!
I loved looking at properties that were for sale. I would evaluate what I thought they were worth, imagine buying them and renting them out for passive cash flow. I was (and still am) obsessed with looking at deals but there was one small problem I never educated myself about economic cycles, negotiating, tenant screening, hiring contractors and utilizing property managers. But hey “rich” people own real estate and the banks will loan me money so I went out, bought everything I could and it felt great.
I’m sure you can guess what happened next. I placed lousy tenants, I didn’t know how to manage properties or contractors and I lost everything to foreclosure. Looking back now it’s pretty silly that I lost everything to a few mismanaged properties.
I continued as a carpet installer (a trade I learned after high school) for the next 10+ years because it felt like a safe job and since my self esteem was crushed from my early failure I didn’t dare go outside my comfort zone.
Although I felt like a failure I never lost interest in real estate. During those years I read book after book about real estate, investing in general and economic cycles. Being a carpet installer paid the bills and provided for my family but I was unfulfilled and down right depressed!! I worked 15 hour days, ate and drank garbage, spent all my time with the miserable contractors that I worked with and I never saw my family. Year after year went by without any positive changes in my business life. I went to work when it was dark and came back home when it was dark. I grew up with an old school mentality that if you work around the clock you will “make it”. The years continued to pass and the “finish line” wasn’t anywhere in my sites. I received a wake up call when my oldest daughter was becoming a teenager, we lived in the same house and I felt like I hardly knew her. I needed to make a massive change in my life immediately!!
