Goodbye. Gone like bula.

But along the way, we encountered challenges. (3)
I felt she was not committed. She felt I was not being understanding.
I felt I gave all the patience I had. She felt she deserved more.

Along the way, it was getting harder to communicate with her.
She was starting to come up with so many excuses.
I was getting tired. She was increasingly difficult to deal with.

In 2007, I wanted to break-up. (4)
She was enraged! She said it was unfair.
She appealed. Said she’ll do better.
She would raise her voice at me one minute, and then beg for my understanding the next minute.
I gave in, gave it another chance. (5)
The truth was, I wanted her to stay.
Maybe we just needed the wake-up call.

Things improved after that initial storm.
She stayed committed … for a few months. (6)
And then it happened again. She backed-up on her commitments.
At one point, she pulled the rug right from under me — blatantly walking away from her commitment. (7)
She claimed she was good with her commitment.
But the fact is, for almost the entire 5 years, she was never ever on time with our agreed dates. (8)

For the last 5 months, I knew it was over. (9)
She totally disregarded our dates.
She totally disregarded her commitments.
I couldn’t contact her. She didn’t contact me.
This has got to end.

Today, I visited her in Cavite.
When I reached the house, I was surprised to see a shirtless man in shorts.
I greeted him: “Magandang Umaga. Ako si Edwin. Hinahanap ko po si Jen-Jen.”
He recognized my name. He hurried inside, called for Jen-Jen.

The moment our eyes met, I could feel the tension between us, despite the courtesies.
She led me to the sala while she fixed herself. She was absolutely surprised with my visit.
She tried to settle down, as the shirtless man watched the drama unfolding.
After my long silence, interrupted by her random un-solicited excuses, I raised my hand to keep her quiet and then broke the news:

“Jen-Jen, it has been 5 years of lack of commitment. It has been 5 months of zero commitment.
This has happened before and you know how it goes.
You have not paid your rent. I’ve given you enough leeway.
I am rescinding our rent-to-own contract.
I shall furnish you the eviction notice.
It’s time for you to move out of my house.” (10)

~~~~~~~~
Footnotes:
(1) Jen-Jen (not her real name) was the first tenant-buyer I dealt with in my rent-to-own real estate business. She is a mother of 3 daughters, married to a seaman OFW (the shirtless man in the story).
(2) We signed a Lease-Purchase Agreement in August 2006.
(3) Within a few months, she fell behind with her cash payments.
(4) By January 2007, her total unpaid dues reached P23,500 overdue for as much as 4 months. I issued notices of overdue payments, and eventually an eviction notice.
(5) With the help of the homeowner’s association President, my tenant-buyer and I reached an amicable settlement. She continued on to stay in my house.
(6) Part of the settlement was for her to issue post-dated cheques. Indeed she issued cheques. But just a few months later, her account lacked funds for the current cheque.
(7) She immediately withdrew all her money from her checking account. The current cheque bounced. The rest of the cheques were invalid because her checking account was closed. She reverted to cash payments.
(8) She was almost never on-time with her payments. There was always at least one month behind with her payments.
(9) In August 2011, she failed to make a payment (My account was promptly closed by the bank on the month that she did not make a payment). That was it. She never made another payment since then. She never contacted me to make a payment.

And, by the way, my defaulting tenant also has arrears with the homeowner’s association — zero payments since June 2007.

(10) Today, I issued an eviction notice to my defaulting tenant.
I gave her two weeks to vacate the premises.
The current homeowner’s association president has been kind enough to mediate, ensure the peace and assist in vacating the premises.

~~~~~~~

Key message

This is what happens when a tenant-buyer is not committed to the agreements.
In this world, there are reasons and there are results. Reasons don’t count. Only results matter.

Post-script 

Among all my tenant-buyers, I learned the most from Jen-Jen — the most difficult to deal with.
Because of my experiences with Jen-Jen, I was able to update my contracts to prevent any unfair practices, I learned to negotiate, I learned to be patient and persistent. I even learned to let go at certain points and just allow.

Thank you Lord for all the lessons I learned from Jen-Jen.  

Now I’m honoring my worth, honoring the value that I give to the universe through my real-estate business. There are many other tenant-buyers who are very much committed to purchasing their home.

I will be more selective this time of my tenant-buyers: Character is foremost (based on gut), Commitment comes as a close second.

He was a student journalist who had risen from a “great depression” in his life. He had made good and accumulated his wealth through books (“Is there a job waiting for you?” among others), speaking engagements (an inspirational speaker), events management and marketing. Lloyd is so prolific, I hear that Lloyd is able to write a book within two weeks.

Read my previous article about Lloyd: AGMT!

What inspired me most is that he was a Millionaire by age 25 (link to “K” interview). That just means that he had created so much value for society that he was given back millions for the value he created. That is the kind of value I want to create as well.

Millionaires Among Us, Millionaire within

Among us

One afternoon, I metup with my friends Gene and Michelle about blogging. In the conversation, I told them about Lloyd Luna. I was raving about Lloyd and how he was a millionaire by age 25. With wide passionate eyes and animated gestures, I told them how Lloyd had created his millions.

Well into my raving story, there was a pause in our conversation.

Michelle turned to Gene and asked “Ikaw Gene, kailan ka naging milyonaryo?”

Gene replied: “Mga 26 na. Ikaw?”

Michelle: “27 na ata. Talo tayo kay Lloyd.”

Hahaha! Here I was raving about a young millionaire, exposing my fascination to my friends Gene and Michelle. Only to find out that they were millionaires themselves! :D

Gene had accumulated his millions as an Electrical Engineer OFW travelling the world in a ship thrice the size of Megamall. He is very  thrifty (takes the public bus to his home in Bulacan) and you couldn’t tell by his looks that he’s a millionaire.

Michelle had accumulated her wealth through real estate. She started by selling a property in Cubao. Now she sells multiple units and even buildings!

Millionaires true.

Within us

I told the same story to my friend Caloy. He asked “Ikaw rin naman, ‘di ba?” Caloy continued to share that if you counted everything, many people are in fact millionaires. Caloy pointed out that he has millions but the money isn’t stacked in some bank, sleeping. He has his millions in a laundry business and in other enterprises.

Good point, Caloy!

Which made me think. I actually DO have millions under my name. The million I have isn’t in cold cash, though  — it would be silly to be keeping cold cash in a bank and not making those millions earn more.

Come to think of it, my millions are being leased out to my real estate tenants. I too am a millionaire. And it’s not just in paper. I AM a millionaire in the value I can create for society, with the knowledge and skills that I can share to society.

How about you?

You do have the “millions” within you, wouldn’t you agree?
The millions in creativity, in spirit, in ideas, in knowledge, in skills, in passion.
It’s just a matter of time, commitment and action to take the millions within you and pour them back to society to create more value for Filipinos.
Then, you’ll have the millions within you and the millions around you as you create even more value for society!

Wahooo! We are millionaires, deep inside! ;-)

Tip:

They say you are the average of the people you interact with most closely. You want to be a millionaire? Be with millionaires. And that starts with you, it starts by having a Millionaire Mind.
Read: T Harv Eker’s “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”.

T Harv Eker's "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind"

ka edong
milyonaryo deep inside