Remember I told you about my mentor, Ron Gray?
Well, Ron and I spent hours online until we found a 65-unit multifamily property in a town called Amelia, Ohio.
I flew out there.
The property looked great — freshly paved roads, clean and tidy.
Nine buildings spread across three acres. I was genuinely impressed — especially by the numbers.
Everything looked so good, I honestly didn’t feel like spending thousands on an inspection.
I hesitated. Then I hesitated some more.
I asked Ron again, and he replied — somewhat casually:
“I wouldn’t buy any property without an inspection.”
So, after some internal debate, I hired an inspector.
It cost thousands of dollars, but the results were crystal clear:
This property is a no-go.
Two of the nine buildings were sinking.
Turns out the freshly paved asphalt wasn’t a coincidence…
The sellers were hoping I’d skip the inspection.
There’s no way I would’ve known the buildings were sinking without crawling underneath them.
The sellers knew about the issue — that’s exactly why they were selling and made everything look so pretty.
Never buy a property without an inspection. Period.
No matter the cost.
Since then, I’ve spent thousands on inspections for properties I never ended up buying — and I’ve never once regretted it.
Later, I looked at another property in a town called Maryville, Tennessee.
This one looked… okay. Not as exciting as the one in Amelia.
But the seller was super friendly, answering all my questions with patience.
Since I live in Maryland, getting there wasn’t easy — I had to fly in.
I visited twice, and even put the property under contract.
Still, something felt off, though I couldn’t quite explain it.
On my third visit, my GPS took me on a different route to the property.
This time, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before — the other side of the neighborhood.
While one side of the street looked decent, the other side was right next to an area I didn’t like at all.
That’s when I realized — that was the gut feeling I couldn’t quite identify before.
I canceled the contract and walked away from the deal.
Trust your gut.
Visit the property more than once.
Explore the entire neighborhood, from all directions.
And the most important lesson:
Me and Ron Gray, just a month ago.
I visit him every time I’m near Orlando.
I still consult with him before every deal.
If he says “Don’t move forward,” I don’t.
