Millionaire in the Making – Tom Haney

My name is Tom Haney.  My wife, Jill and I are our two kids (James and Grace) live in Hagerstown, MD.  I began to work with Lisa Donner at the end of July, 2012.  When I first got into real estate investing, I thought this was just another get rich quick scheme.  I thought that there was no way it was as easy as they were telling me.  However, I decided with some significant apprehensions to sign up for a mentor and that is how I met Lisa.

I’m a Mechanical Engineer by education and so I have a very analytical mind. I’m what Ron LeGrand calls a “thinker brain.”  I have accepted that moniker and have even become somewhat proud of it!  My big question mark was, sure, it’s easy to get a house under contract, but my worry was always how will I get rid of it, and how will I avoid upsetting sellers that just want to sell their house.  Well, I asked Lisa that question right off the bat during our first meeting.  She immediately put me at ease.  She clearly and concisely described how that isn’t a worry.  There are a myriad of ways to sell a house and to build a buyer’s list.  It is really quite simple.  This may seem trivial to a savvy real estate investor and the impact of it may be lost to someone who is new to the investing business.

However, I was stunned at how simple it was.  I was immediately relieved of my number one concern!  There were no gimmicks, no tricks, and I could feel good about the service I was providing my potential buyers.

Even prior to my relationship with Lisa, I had worried that I might one day lose my house like so many other Americans the past few years.  We build and moved into our house in 2004, right before the market fell to pieces.  So, ever since I have been worried about the plunging value of my house and how I would ever sell it if I needed to.  As a result of my very first conversation with Lisa, I no longer feared losing my house!

Lisa showed me how I didn’t have to lose my house or even get behind on payments.  I know how to keep my house and I know how to do it without ever involving a real estate agent or a bank!  That was worth every penny I paid for the mentoring program and I was only through the first meeting!

Over the course of the next six months, I worked with Lisa, perfecting my ability to spot real estate deals.  Lisa was extremely easy to talk to and always willing to listen.  She gave me great insights.  As an engineer, one of the things I have always appreciated in nature, in my designs and in the design of others is simplicity.  The simpler a design was, the more elegant it was.  Lisa has this ability when it comes to real estate.  She has the ability to boil everything down to simple and easy to understand concepts.  Even when I thought I grasped a concept (although lacked execution), Lisa always found a way to put something more into it.

I must admit, I was still somewhat skeptical toward the end of the six month mentoring program even though I had grown to trust Lisa’s advice.  However, I had not sold any houses and made any money!  Well, patience paid off.  I finally got my first sale at about 5 ½ months and made a profit of $15,000!  I was ecstatic.  I now had proof that this really works.  And, I wasn’t killing myself trying to find houses to buy and sell.  My attitude was that even if I didn’t make another dime all year, I just got a $15,000 raise!  Who couldn’t use that!  Well, it hasn’t stopped at the $15,000.

I have sold two more houses since my time with Lisa, but every time I talk to a seller or buyer, I hear Lisa’s advice in my head.  I made $3,829 on the second property and I made $11,250 on the third.  That’s a total of just over $30,000 this year.  And, I’m not even half-way through the year.

Among many other things, my wife and kids and some extended family are going to Disney World in Florida in the summer.  That simply would not have been possible if I hadn’t made just those three sales.  I haven’t quit my full-time job yet, mostly because I’m lucky and really like my job.  However, I am tempted more than ever to quit my job and devote myself entirely to the real estate business.

But, the skeptic in me still creeps in, and I just haven’t pulled that trigger yet.  But, what is clear is that this is a very viable avenue to an early retirement and I would not have been able to do it without Lisa’s help.

I will never fully be able to express my thanks to Lisa and what she has done for me.  Yes, she was a paid mentor, but what she left me with is worth far more than what I paid for it!  (But, don’t raise the price on me, Lisa… I may be back!)