Success Story: GLC65

Originally Posted by GLC65

Steve,

There were many people I have helped become multi millionaires, but unfortunately, a good percentage failed at the end. They lived well beyond their means and with money, they realized they totally lost their sense of morals and principles and greed and evil took over them. Some committed adultry and destroyed their families others went the wrong way and thought they could outwit their partners and their title took over their dumb heads.



I will not purchase a car for them and if they need a ride, they need to know the value of fuel and they need to learn that nothing is for free. I preach to them that I will pay for their tuition, undergraduate, graduate, and/or professional but everything else they need to do it on their own. In the event if I pass, I will not give all my assets to my kids all at once. That is not loving them but corrupting them. I will explain some more if you guys want to hear but will stop now before I start boring you to death.

Best,

Gustan

Originally Posted by GLC65

I have met Dan Baker through Ferrari Chat. I make a point never ever to lend anymoney to anyone anymore since I have never ever gotten paid back a dime from at least three dozen people that I have lent money too. I was so inspired with such a young, 18 year old who was a full time student, yet marketing on eBay his business. He started with a few hundred and took that money to $1,100.00. I told him, never meeting him, that I will lend him $3K interest free and take all the time in the world to pay me back. To be honest with you, I figured that money was gone and will never see it again but was surprised when Dan wired the full amount back last week. I told him to take out $300.00 and treat himself out for his high school graduation dinner but he refused and funded the whole amount. He reminds me of myself in treating my previous bankers like that. That is how I developed a trusting relationship with my bankers to overcome my crappy credit with a personal bankruptcy on my record.

Dan Baker will be someone in life. I have three teenagers, 18, 16, 14, and would be extremely proud if my kids had half of the principles Dan has. Good luck to you Dan and whatever you do, do it to the best of your abilities and dont worry about making it big. Have a mission, put it your best, AND money will be your report card.

Best,

Gustan

Originally Posted by SaraK

Thanks for sharing Gus, it is good to keep the wealth in perspective and I'm happy to see that there are millionaires like you who know the dangers of spoiling kids. I am not rich yet but I already have plans to make my kids earn their own way so they know how to do it without me and are not spoiled brats.

One of the things I've been looking forward to when I'm wealthy is having a housecleaning service. My kids are 5 and 2, so I have to do all the cleaning now, but your post got me thinking... maybe I should just make more of an effort to teach them how to clean. They can learn some stuff, like dusting, washing with a wet cloth. They already help me with the laundry some. Then by the time I am wealthy they will be old enough to help out a lot!

I can also relate to Dan's story, I also look at big houses when I drive by and think "some day I will have a house like that." I also found that most kids my age couldn't relate to me, I was pretty lonely as a kid/teen. Now that I am 30 (and live in a big city) it is easier to find people I can relate to, but there are always a lot more who are on a different level.

Thanks for the great stories, keep them coming!

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Originally Posted by GLC65

MJ,

I will explain it in sequences so there is no misunderstandings and it will give people time to absorb how I did it step by step.

I still reported to work on October 13, 1998 with scars and stiches all over my face to be told that I was not allowed in the Chicago Police Training Academy. I went straight to Bucktown, a Chicago borough, and started looking for a job. I eventually ran into an older gentleman by the name of Glen and literally begged him to take me on. He told me to go knocking door to door and ask people if they want to sell. My compensation was 5% of the gross profits on the purchase and flip of the home. I did what my scope of work was and excelled. You have to understand, that this was the true inner city, also known as the Ghetto. I impressed Glen so much that he asked me if I want to partner up with him and another friend of his named Tony and purchase a eight unit apartment building for $160K. I did not have any money but they will arrange everything. It was a dream come true for me. I would get a third of the property without investing any money as long as I ran it. Those two guys were smart and did not want nothing to do with the property because of the liability and wanted everything under my name. I agreed. Beggars cant be choosers and I had nothing to lose. I had mounting debts, and still owed Illinois Masonic Hospital`s trauma unit close to $50K in medical bills for my accident. Clsoing was set for December 1999. Glen and Tony somehow arranged to get me 100% financing through a mortgage broker. The way they did it was they have inflated the price to $200K and had me obtain a $160K loan. The property did appraise for $200K and the broker structured the deal which I obtained a $160K mortgage. Glen and Tony eventually backed out of the deal because they were at the building two weeks prior to closing and witnessed a shooting. They told me it was 100% all mine and wished me luck. Again, I was grateful that I will have my first building ever in my life. Did not care whether it was the Ghetto. All I knew I was going to make it work. At closing, due to tax credits and prorations, I got the building plus over $10K back. I could not believe it. It was like a major Christmas present.

I started work and went over to the property. The building came with a caretaker, Jose, who knew all the tenants. The average rent was $200.00 per month and only half the people were paying. I knew it was going to be an uphill challenge so I did not spend a penny of the money I got back and decided to use it as reserves. I ended out evicting most tenants and put a For Rent sign out and started renting. I got $600.00 per month for my first tenant and was averaging more than $800.00 for section 8 tenants. I bought chicken that was on sale at the grocery store and started barbecuing for the tenants to help me recruit good people. Whenever I had a prospect calling me and they wanted to make an appointment, I asked where they were and went to get them. If they qualified, I closed them on the spot. I have my lucky pickup truck and Jose and I went over to their place and starting packing their stuff and moving it to my building. I was a working machine. I sometimes crashed over in a vacant unit since I was so exhausted. I hit up local churches, grocery stores, and visited the downtown section 8 office and made alot of friends. Glen also had a few single family residences which was totally leverage out to the hilt and I ended up picking those up and turning them around and making it profitable. Nothing was going to stop me. I never met any friends and my life was this second chance in life that God gave me.

All of a sudden totally out of the blue, Jose, who is also a realtor, said two suburban women, sisters, wanted to purchase my property. I told him $400K or forget it. They actually purchased it for $400K and I had all of this cash I could not believe it. Never in my life did I ever score like I did. I ended up purchasing three more buildings down the street and repeated the process. I will continue this story at a later time. It will take a long time for me to finish my story, so lets take a break and see if you guys have some questions before I continue.

Thanks Perry for having me work this morning to type my autobiography.

Gustan L Cho

Originally Posted by randallg99

its inspirational to me to see this story knowing that dark days are only meant to be climbed out of....

Originally Posted by G_Alexander

Dan,

I know Gus lives here in Barrington. Where are you located? I am also 18 and I live in Schaumburg. I have two web businesses right now and I am currently saving a little more to flip a house to have equity to put down on a multi-unit. We should definitely meet up if you live around here.

Check out my introduction tab if you want to know more about me. New 18 year old entrepreneur here!

Even if you don't live around here, we can still talk. Great to see another 18 year old with the same exact aspirations as me. Someday, I am sure, we too will be posting our success stories.

Gus,

Thank you very much for taking the time to become a member here and share wisdom with us. I appreciate it greatly.

My main motivation in life is a man, and family friend by the name of Robert. He owns a commercial real estate company here in Chicago and is extremely successful like yourself (you two would love eachother haha). He is also an extremely nice person and vey humble. You remind me of him.

I met a man of Korean descent at Streets Of Woodfield maybe two years ago and he was driving an Orange Lamborghini Mucielago. His friend had a white Ford GT. Was this you? I believe it was. haha. If so thank you for being so kind and letting us all oogle over your beautiful car.

Thanks again Gus, I am looking forward to talking with you a lot more. You live just around the corner . In fact, my girlfriend's mother is opening a salon in that major new shopping complex near the Sears Centre in South Barrington.

Talk to you soon!

-Alex

Originally Posted by GLC65

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and I just want for everyone to understand that I do not consider myself successful. Money is not everything and I am by no means out of the woods yet. I really never ever wanted to disclose myself nor want people to know who I was. After you get burned so many times, you kind of go into your own little world and shell. I do not have any friends. I do know thousands of people and people know who I am. My daily driver is my 1999 GMC pickup truck with over 120,000 miles. You guys might think it is stupid, but the car, which is only worth $2K, is at the body shop undergoing a full $25K restoration. I am planning on driving it til I can surpass a million miles. The main reason I opened up was not to help people become mutlimillionaires in real estate, BUT TO ADDRESS THE FACT THAT WHEN YOU ARE DOWN AND OUT, YOU CAN GET OUT OF THE RUT AND REBOUND AND BE SUCCESSFUL. That is the whole point about this thread and other threads out there. I always tell my kids, do whatever you want to do, but whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability and the money is your report card.

Let me tell you a little about getting in commercial real estate. It is not as easy as it sounds. You need to be prepared for the following:
1. Know how to deal with the degenerates in life. Hookers, gangbangers, drug dealers, thugs, pigs in general.
2. If you are starting with very little or no capital, you need to be hands on and be extremely tight with your overhead. You need to paint the units yourself, be on call 24/7, be ready to work especially during the weekends, deal with threats when you evict tenants, and be ready to see the worst humanity has to offer.
3. Never take the market for granted. I had an extremely hard time back in 2004/2005 when all of my long term paying tenants were making a mass exodus to purchase their first homes and condos. I lost the good tenants and kept on getting dead beats who got evicted from elsewhere wanting to lease. I really had to work super hard and lost many nights of sleep. Good thing my lucky truck was paid for. I wrecked my first Ferrari and did not get a replacement until 2007.
4. I am having an extremely difficult time right now in refinancing my stabilized apartment complexes. Banks are scared shitless but there is still money around. You have to just work ten times harder than last year. There is still fish in the pond, you just have to go fishing harder.

I will try to help everyone out and eventually like to go underground and have my privacy back. I will answer your questions and I hope I can be of some help. I hope you guys can respect that so no hard feelings? I will still be a member here but would like to lay low. Thank you all for the warm welcome and positive feedbacks. I am just an everyday guy and would respect if everyone would treat me the