I Bought a Home From a Volcano

Two weeks ago I was in Utah at a mastermind for real estate investors.

I absolutely LOVE masterminds. It’s such an effective way to figure out how to get past personal and professional hurdles, catapult your business lightyears ahead, and make giant strides to achieve your lifestyle goals.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to sell you into a mastermind. I want to share with you a lesson that can help you in your business.

If you’ve never been part of a mastermind, the way it works is everyone gets a “hot seat” where they share what they are struggling with and everyone else shares their experience with similar problems to help them overcome their issue.

One of the participants shared that he got a call about a property that he wanted to buy one Saturday morning. The problem was he was on his mountain bike in the backcountry and didn’t want to stop to take the call. He knew he would be done with the ride in less than two hours and would call the prospect back as soon as he finished.

That’s when I chimed in with the story of the time I bought a house while hiking on a volcano.

My wife Kathy and I were on vacation in Hawaii with our four kids and we were on a sightseeing tour of Haleakalā when my phone rang. I could have let it go to voicemail and taken care of it later, but I forgot to set up my call forwarding that morning and knew that when it comes to buying houses, when they’re ready to sell, you need to be ready to buy.

And it didn’t bother my family too much. That five-minute call landed us a whale of a deal!

The point is you always need to be ready. And if you’re going to be unavailable, create systems in place of your absence. It can be as simple as setting up a simple call forward to a family member who can use a script you give them.

The other lesson to take from this story is visit Hawaii. It’s my favorite place to visit for so many reasons!

Committed to your success,
Ernie “Aloha Selling” Vargas | The Probate Fox