One of the smartest things I ever did was move into a neighborhood I couldn’t afford. On the surface this sounds stupid, so please let me explain why it wasn't. This wasn’t a neighborhood of new fancy tract homes that all of the other couples my age were moving into. This was a neighborhood full of what my friends called “old people and junky homes”. My wife and I both liked the neighborhood because you had to pass by a winery while cruising down a road lined with old walnut trees to get there. The area just had a great romantic feel and was very close to both of our offices at the time. There was also a private country club featuring a championship golf course.
Years earlier I had discovered this little area of about 100 homes while out on a Sunday drive. My wife and I later set our sights on living in that area at any cost. We would scrimp and save and just about when we thought we could afford a house out there, the prices would go up. We drove the neighborhood at least twice a month. We thought we knew every street and every house in the area cold. We went to every open house, and knew all the real estate agents.
Eventually we were the last of our friends in our old neighborhood. Everyone had moved away into some “cool” area. Some new tract of houses with a neighborhood pool, or that was closer to shopping would attract our friend’s attention. I knew it wasn’t right for me to move into one of those neighborhoods so I stood my ground and waited.
I didn’t lose focus on my target, the golf course neighborhood of “old people”.
One Sunday there was an open house sign on a little crossing street, the name of which meant parrot. I laughed out loud since we were listening to Jimmy Buffet. As we turned the corner I told my wife, “Look we can be Parrot heads on Parrot street.”
This street was completely overgrown with trees and shrubs, so it hid three more houses we never knew existed. One of them was an open house and the realtor was brand new. As we approached the front door there was a stench that was unexplainable, my wife turned and went back to the car shaking her head. The house was what 99% of the world would call a tear down. It was a good thing for me because no one else even looked at it.
After a month and a half of research and negotiating, we made a deal. The agent selling the house had never sold one so she didn’t know what to do. I called another agent with some experience to help get the deal done. Just before closing, while the home inspector was laughing, my wife and I were on the back patio with our agent. The agent said to me and my wife. “I think you are an idiot (looking square at me) to buy a house like this and Mrs. B, if you want to cancel it, we can get out now.” When my wife didn’t ask to get bailed out, the agent continued “ok, next offer. My husband is a builder and he will give you an extra $10,000 to walk away from this deal, he thinks you are a genius for finding this place.” Two weeks later we moved in.
Moving in turned out to be even scarier than buying the house. We filled a three yard dumpster with the stuff the previous owners left behind. We also cut down a half a dozen over grown shrubs and a couple of sick trees to let the light into the house. Later we had a bulldozer come in a clean the smaller walnut trees the squirrels had planted out of the back lawn.
When we were finished, we had the dream yard of the neighborhood. The back yard was lined with 50 foot and taller redwoods that were stunning. The west side of the lot was lined with over grown Texas Waxleaf Privets. After shaping these into a 12 foot tall hedge it looked great. The east side of the yard had a fence that was falling down. I wanted a pool over there eventually so I didn’t care.
Throughout this cleanup process, we met our neighbors one by one. Yes, some were old and they brought brownies and cookies. One was a collector of cool cars and had built a huge paving company from scratch. One of them invented one of the most iconic electrical effects boxes that shaped modern Rock-n-Roll music. Another much younger guy owned a very large beverage distribution company.
Eventually we started meeting other younger couples like ourselves. They were all out working their fingers to the bone to be in the neighborhood like we were, so we didn’t get to meet them at first. We knew they were there because we would see kids walking to school. Five of the younger couples started hanging out on a regular basis. One was a contractor, another guy a geologist, two were business owners and there was me and my wife. We were by far the lowest income in the area when we moved in.
The “older” people in the area would stop by when our group was being too loud or having too much fun or doing some big project and share their wisdom of life and business with us. This is what the friends in the tract homes were never going to get. There was a bonding of the group that was good for all of us. Like any group there were some personality struggles. Within two years the entire groups’ income had started to grow exponentially, creating different challenges.
the most part, the men became an informal mastermind group with the older neighbors acting as the guides. All of us built businesses and lives much faster than my friends across town in the new fancy tract homes. One weekend, we had a fence building party to fix the fence on five homes. The contractor wouldn’t let it be just any fence since it went across his back yard. He designed a really cool “craftsman style” fence and taught us all how to build it.
This was the kind of team building experience companies pay thousands of dollars for. In the tract neighborhoods, social interactions were usually talking over the fence. In my little neighborhood, we built a fence and lifelong friendships.
When I first saw the neighborhood, I knew I wanted to live there. I couldn’t really say why, there was just a feeling of peace I got driving out there every time. The how was even less clear. By keeping my eye on the target and not letting anyone else move my aim, I could continue to improve my focus and hit my target. In the end I got way more than a nice place to live, I got an entirely new direction in life.
Take aim, focus and don’t let anyone move your sights off your target.
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Thank you for your insights.