A couple of months ago when I was in Buffalo about ready to leave, I saw the most amazing display of customer evangelism. It was one of the more interesting things I have seen in quite a while. I don’t think I’ve seen anything so positive about a product in quite some time.

I pulled into a small gas station that was far away from any commercial civilization and began to fuel up my vehicle. Moments after I arrived at the pump, a shiny brand new Beetle pulls up at the pump behind me. Out of the car steps this gal who was probably around a hundred years old. She was defiantly a ‘go-getter-grandma’ if I’ve ever seen one. She wore a bright red dress with bright red lipstick, and next to the shiny bright red Volkswagen, it looked like she color coordinated the whole thing to match perfectly.

Across from her there was this guy who just finished filling up his tank and was on his way inside to pay. He stopped when he saw her car and struck up a conversation about the woman’s car.

He talked about how he used to have a bug back in the day with the old model, and they just went off from there. They talked about all these little facts that only VW beetle owners fanatics would know about. They talked about the differences, the history, and the general life of a VW owner. Did you know that the old model of beetles ran the windshield washer fluid powered from the air in the spare tire? Better hope you don’t get a flat after driving through a swarm of bugs!

The amount of information and love these two had for the product and brand was absolutely incredible. She simply adored the car, and it really showed. I wouldn’t picture these two talking to each other in a million years without being related, but they were brought together by a silly car.

That gave me quite a bit to think about over the next two and a half days of driving. Volkswagen created an environment, possibly unintentionally, that gave their customers a chance to do more than simply drive around.

Any company that can do more than just a customer appreciation for their product, but something to actually get excited means the company must be doing something right! This was certainly an example of the type of product evangelism that Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin often applaud, and I certainly do as well.

In a recent post, how to purchase a rental property, a frequent contributor, Danielle, reminded me of her father’s experience. The real estate agent pushed him to forgo the home inspection so that he wouldn’t miss the hot deal. He took her advice, bought the house, and found himself over his head with maintenance and structural problems. Some things can be fixed; many things can’t.

Know when an ugly property holds potential.

As you purchase properties, start with easy projects. Buy a property that needs a fresh coat of paint, new flooring, and a bit of scrubbing. I can’t stress this point enough: it’s easy to get yourself into more than you can handle, but you have to start simple. Ever see those property flipping shows? The people who always go over budget and over their estimated time are the people who haven’t been in the game for a while; they’re the people who can only envision the quick buck. Focus more on what you’re capable of doing.

As you purchase more properties, you can become more comfortable with bigger projects’fixing a porch, redoing drywall and roofs, updating the electrical. Sweat equity is the way you make money in this business; hiring subcontractors to do projects for you is a huge expense. The liability and workers’ comp insurance alone are out of most restoration budgets.

But is the expense worth it to hire these guys? I guess that’s something you have to calculate for yourself. We’ve hired subcontractors to dig sewer lines, put gas lines in, and install windows. Of course, we’ve also done all of those same projects ourselves once we gained the experience.

Know when an ugly property means you run.

If your first property has too many projects, you’ll get discouraged. You won’t want to be in the business any longer. Projects as simple as cleaning the bathroom sink take five times as long as they do in your own home… that’s why these properties are so cheap. I spent over eight hours scrubbing a claw bathtub once. If every project in the first house is of that magnitude, your “quick project” will be nothing but speedy. Months will roll by… and roll by… and roll by. You’ll start to wonder when you’ll ever be done. And worse, everyone will always be bitter and quick to yell.

I’d never advise someone to skip the home inspection unless that person has enough skill to be a home inspector himself. If you read plumbing handbooks and electrical code books for fun, then you might be on your way to going without the home inspector. We’ve hired a home inspector who did a very thorough job. But like I mentioned in my last post on real estate investing, you’ve got to crawl through the attic and wiggle through the crawlspace yourself, too. (Or have your partner do it! My next point…) My husband found a bit of mold growing in the depths of our crawlspace. Did the home inspector do a poor job? No’our discovery was above and beyond the requirements of his report. Should you perform your own thorough inspection? Absolutely.

Have a partner

As a girl sponsoring poetry contests, you can guess that I’m not one to slip into a one-foot deep crawlspace. Luckily, I have a partner who will. I’ve got someone to carry my 5 gallon bucket of plaster and open jammed windows. But more than anything, I have someone who equally invests himself in the work that interests me. The support system of having someone working with you in your nasty looking property often makes the difference between wanting to work and not wanting to work. A blasting radio while you paint isn’t enough.

The perfect partner has a different skill set than you. But more importantly, the partner has to be as equally committed. Buy those easy-to-do properties first. Your team will grow together before getting stressed out (or divorced!).

Are you a poet? Do you know it? Would you like to win a prize? You can do it, it’s not lies! Check out our Poetry Contest, going on now!

We are having our first ever poetry contest here at Aridni, but with a little bit of a twist. We want to see poems that relate to entrepreneurs, business, and finance. We want to find out how many Bukowski-Buffets, how many Walt Disney-Whitmans and how many Ralph Walton Emersons are there out there and reading our little site.

We want to see how funny/creative/poetic you can be about money. Any form of poetry is accepted, so if you call it a poem, so do we! We’re looking for creative expressions on money, business, stocks, and just about everything! If we would talk about it on Aridni, then it is fair game.

The contest will go until the end of March, so if you need time to craft a masterpiece, you have a little. However, there is no limit to the number of entries that you can submit. So let your little poetic heart go wild!

PRIZES!
We’re giving away a couple of Amazon gift certificates to the winners.

The winner of the best poem will be given a twenty dollar certificate.
One random entry or trackback will be awarded a ten dollar certificate. Every poem–If you have a website / blog and would like talk about the contest, you’re eligible for the randomly selected price. Make sure to send a trackback to this article.

Rules

• 1. Poems must relate to Aridni topics
• 2. One entry per comment… submit as many times as you wish.
• 3. Contest ends Saturday March 31, 2007.
• 4. Tell others about the contest!

Well, perhaps number 4 isn’t exactly a rule, but depending on the response we’ll be able to host future contests, prizes, and events. We will announce the winners on April 4.

Get out your feathered ink pen and a stack of paper and start crafting some rhymes about making those dimes. Oh wow, I’m off to a good start!

Post your submission in the comments section below. Remember to use a valid e-mail address so we can pass over your prize.