DealFiles #1 - Real Stories of Real People's Real Deals

“We were finally able to save a little money, but even more important, not living on the edge every month boosted our confidence,” Denise explains. “There’s a world of difference between getting calls from your creditors every month, asking you where their payment is, and having a savings account, even if it’s a small one.”

Tom agrees. “We started feeling like we could breathe, and that gave us the courage to start looking around for opportunities.”

Looking for opportunities led Tom to the internet, where he found a wealth of information about investing in Real Estate, a passion that had burned in the back of his mind, at that time, for almost twenty years.

"I never forgot the dreams, the plans, all of that,” Tom relates. “Denise and I had even talked about it a few times over the years, but nothing ever came of it- until I started surfing the net. I remember a few weeks in 1999 when I was staying up way past midnight every night, reading online articles about investing. I love reading other people’s success stories, articles by people who have done it, that sort of thing.”

Then, late one night in early 2000, Tom was browsing his favorite investing website, when he came across an article on a particular type of investment he had never heard of before. That article, and others on the same topic, kept him up until the small hours of the morning.

“The more I read, the more excited I got,” Tom explains. “Even when I crawled into bed at about 4am, I still couldn’t sleep. At work the next day, I couldn’t focus. I just wanted to get home and tell Denise what I had found.”

Denise continues the story. “When Tom came home that night, I could tell he was excited. He could barely calm down enough to explain his big idea to me.”

The “big idea” turned out to be quite a shock to Denise.

“Babe,” Tom said, “I have found our future. Starting right away, we’re going to be buying and selling used mobile homes.”

“I’m not sure which hit the floor first, my jaw or my heart,” Denise says. “I can laugh about it now, but you could have knocked me over with a feather that night. I thought ‘of all the harebrained ideas, where is he coming up with this?’ I had the same image in my head that most people probably get when they hear the words ‘mobile home’. The last thing I was interested in putting our hard-earned savings into was a rusty old trailer.

“I’m sure Tom saw the look of disappointment on my face, but that didn’t stop him from explaining how it all was going to work, and the more he talked, the more I listened.”

By the end of the night, with Tom’s enthusiasm and imagination rubbing off on Denise, the couple had made a decision. They would become mobile home entrepreneurs. Armed with information gleaned from a book Tom purchased online called “Deals On Wheels” by Lonnie Scruggs, they began scouring local mobile home parks, looking for their first deal. It wasn’t long before they found it.

Before buying that first mobile home, the couple did something that has been a foundation in their relationship since the very beginning.

“We prayed, and asked God to give us wisdom,” Denise explains.

Tom continues, “Our entire marriage, raising our family, all of it has been based on the foundation of our faith in God through His Son Jesus Christ. It’s completely normal for us, before we take a step financially, to ask God to keep us from making a mistake. Other people may not agree with us, or understand it, but that’s OK.”

“We ask God to bless what we’re about to do,” Denise adds. “The great thing is, He has always answered, and Tom and I both know when God is telling us to move forward with something, or not. We trust Him to guide us every step of the way. Even when we went through the hard years, financially, we knew God was right there, allowing what was happening to us, but protecting us from the worst of it. He let those things occur in our lives because He knows the kind of people He is growing us into.”

“We believe everything that happens in our lives happens for a purpose, and nothing can touch us unless God allows it,” Tom explains. “So, we prayed and asked God if investing in mobile homes was the right thing for us to do.”

Read On >

Don't forget... it only takes one!

       Recommend this page to a friend or associate.