The Time I Bought a Mountain Because I Wanted to Win

Lanny and I began investing in real estate nearly 30 years ago.  We purchased doublewides, singlewides, land, starter homes and larger homes over the years.  I typically handled the negotiations, and he was excellent at renovations and turning some ugly houses into beautiful homes for a new family.  And we enjoyed it and doing projects together. 

I was always careful to keep my emotions out of the negotiations, after all it was business – except for the time I didn’t. 

Lanny discovered this piece of property that was a foreclosure.  It was an entire mountain of land with a big garage, a double-wide mobile home and an old single-wide that needed to be destroyed.  I believe it was over 20 acres, so it had great potential with the beautiful mountain views.  I began a conversation with the lender that now owned the property and worked out a price.  Everything was agreed to and we began the paperwork.  That is until this guy showed up and decided he wanted to buy it and offered more for the property. We had completed our due diligence, and I had invested a lot of time in it.  So, I countered his offer.  There was still a little room in the money to upset his bid.  It was still a good investment.   And then he came back again.  I countered again.  It was getting a little questionable.  Then the guy had the nerve to call and suggest I drop out of the bid because he would without a doubt have the property.  Well, that’s when my spreadsheets and calculations and all logic went out the window and I upset his bid yet again!  Yes, I won the bid and bought the property.  I went from making a sound real estate investment to winning a spitting contest with a stranger.  The original question was – is this property worth buying at a certain price to – This jerk is not going to outbid me. 

There are many more stories that eventually came with this property that I may share someday that includes an alleged chop shop and a chase to the sheriff’s office.  But the point of all this is that I made a mistake by replacing the responsibility of making a good decision with winning.  They aren’t always the same. 

I also learned that often the worst time to decide is when you’re overcome with excitement or overcome with fear. Excitement makes everything look like an opportunity. Fear makes everything look like an emergency. Neither is necessarily the best place from which to decide.

I’ve learned that when I feel a strong urge to decide something immediately, sometimes the most useful thing I can do is wait until the emotion settles and look at the decision again.

Looking back, I can see exactly when I stopped trying to make a good investment and started trying to win. I wonder how often we do that without realizing the question we’re trying to answer has changed.

Have you ever looked back at a decision and realized somewhere along the way you started solving a completely different problem?

This process, of course, does NOT apply to shoe shopping.

— Jamie Harrington
Curious explorer of living well in the second half of life