How Carleton Sheets got going in real estae investing

The partnerships became bigger and bigger. My specialty was “rehabbing” the properties—painting, plastering, and landscaping; whatever it took. Within five years I created what I thought was an incredible fortune in real estate. At my peak, my partners and I owned almost 500 rental units.
My reputation as a real estate investor continued to grow and, after a couple of years, a local real estate education company asked me if I would be interested in teaching a course on the principles of investing in real estate. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching, my classes were well-attended and my initial “students” were very responsive.
But about five years after I became a serious real estate investor, I found my career spiraling downward. I lost nearly all the profits I had built up. What happened? Was my new career founded on air instead of solid ground?
The combination of overbuilding, the energy crisis (remember the long, snaking lines at every gas pump?), and my own inclination to buy any real estate that came along with the right terms—regardless of location or actual investment potential—was deadly.

Carleton Sheets - early working life

When I graduated from college, I accepted a job almost immediately and also got married. After a few years, I changed companies and became a Director of Marketing—with a nice boost in title and salary.
A little less than two years after I joined the company, they fired me. At this time, I had a wife and two children to support. Have you ever been fired? Many of us have—at one time or another. Whether deserved or not, getting fired is a terrible blow to the ego, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
I had been “the bright young executive” … and suddenly I was the out-of-work incompetent. Daily, hourly, my panic grew. My self-esteem dropped to zero. Discouragement turned to despair.
And yet, never for a moment did it occur to me that I couldn’t find something to earn a decent living to support my family. One truth I faced was that I didn’t want my future to be working for a major corporation.
For about two months I looked into opportunities that would allow me to go into business for myself. Then an old friend who had become a real estate broker urged me to get into real estate. Real estate? What did I know about real estate?

What inspires Carleton Sheets about real estate

In the early 1950s, William Zeckendorf made real estate history when he dismantled and sold the Empire State Building. He didn’t actually take the building apart and sell it piece by piece—he did it from a legal standpoint. He portioned off everything that had value: the building, personal property, leasehold interests, even the air rights—then sold them all separately, on paper, to investor groups.
Zeckendorf made millions from that one transaction and perhaps, unknowingly, started a whole new trend for creatively buying and selling real estate.
Donald Trump, Ted Turner, Trammel Crow, and a host of other “big hitters” use creative investing principles to acquire real estate, businesses, and public corporations. This elite group of entrepreneurs operates in a rarefied atmosphere that most of us would find difficult to understand.
“How does this relate to me?” you might ask.
Even though you and I may not have Harvard MBAs, and we’re not out to acquire large hotels, develop shopping centers, or take over a movie studio, we do have immediate goals for our financial future. The same creativity and techniques the “movers and shakers” of the world use to achieve their goals can be used at our level, too.
As “everyday” real estate investors, we are developing cash flows—not in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year, but easily in the low to middle six figures. And net worth? Not in the billions of dollars but, many times, in the million-dollar-plus range. And by accomplishing this, we are putting ourselves ahead of 99 percent of the rest of this country.
I want to introduce you to the exciting field of real estate investing where you’ll make more money than you ever dreamed possible. I want to be your mentor and your catalyst for success.
Over thirty years ago, when I was first starting out, I was an amateur investor, too.
Today, because of all the deals I’ve done, all the books I’ve read, all the seminars and courses I’ve taken and, yes, because of the mistakes I’ve made along the way—I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert in the field of creative real estate investing. And I can positively help you avoid making many of the same mistakes I made along the way.

Carleton Sheets: early life and values

My place of birth was in Illinois, but my family later moved to Ohio. My parents were conservative in both politics and in their personal outlook on life; they were both educated and cultured and cared about education and manners. They had met when both were violinists with the Springfield, Illinois, Symphony Orchestra.

My earliest recollections of my father are a little hazy. He worked for Procter & Gamble, and was away from home several nights a week. So my mother was the more influential parent during my early years. And memories of those times are happy ones.

What wonderful lessons I learned growing up and I treasure them to this day! I’m convinced that childhood experiences have a profound effect on our adult lives.

• I absolutely believe in being nice to people.
• I absolutely believe in being polite.
• I absolutely believe in being appreciative for what we get—from life and from other people.
• I absolutely believe in treating others with dignity and respect.
• I absolutely believe in being one’s self; not trying to be or acting like you are more than you are.

And I absolutely believe in the importance of budgeting money and keeping expenditures in line with one’s earnings. I tell my students, “Don’t tell me how much you make; tell me how much you save.” This, in fact, is the core of a successful career in real estate investing.