Over the years I have sold some real dogs (bad hotels) in my career. The biggest barker I ever sold was a hotel in Mendon Vermont. It was closed because the previous owner had let a water leak go untreated and it had Legionnaires, Black Mold, and friable asbestos. Bottom line, you could die in there. I had to go see it for the bank and the little security guard started putting on a mask and handed me one. He said, “you want to go in, right?” I said, “absolutely not.”  I took my pictures of the outside and skedaddled. Ha

One time we sold a hotel for a bank in New Orleans. The title of the hotel included “French Quarter.” The truth it was about two block west of the French Quarter in an area where the police were outgunned. Once again, I told the bank. I will be happy to sell your hotel, but I will not be doing showings. The bank said, okee-dokee. We sold both dogs and oddly enough, both buyers were happy with their purchase.  

In my business there are other brokers who will only work on the pretty deals. To me, the hotel we are selling is very secondary to who the client is. I want the client, not the hotel. Between the two examples above, we have sold 100+ hotels for those two lenders and it was probably because we were willing to help them get rid of the ugly deals. That earned their business. I have told new clients many times, “give me the broken deals no one else wants and let me prove myself to you.”

This same philosophy works in many areas of life. If you can handle the bad, you will see good more often. KT