Sometimes its easy to overlook opportunity even when it stares you in the face. The story of Ali Hafed, a well-off farmer in the Indus Valley, provides a poignant example of a man who narrowly missed the buried treasure. His story is entitled, “Acres of Diamonds.”
Ali Hafed was encouraged by an old Hindu priest to sell his farm and travel the world in search of diamonds that would make him truly wealthy. Consumed by a lust for wealth and buried treasure he sold his farm and left home in pursuit of the elusive diamond. Wandering from place to place and finding nothing, his money at last was spent. The buried treasure having eluded him, and he cast himself into the sea in despair.
Acres of Diamonds
One day the old priest stopped by Ali Hafed’s old farmstead to visit the new owner and noticed a shiny, rough-hewn stone displayed on the mantelpiece. Recognizing it as a diamond in the rough, he enquired hopefully if Ali Hafed had returned successful from his quest. No, said the new owner, that is just a fascinating rock specimen that I picked up out in the field. At that instant he realized the terrible truth of what had happened to Ali Hafed.
Pastor Russell Conwell used the story of buried treasure to make the point that we should “dig in our own back yard,” “Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own cellar, or underneath his own wheat fields or in his own garden, instead of wretchedness, starvation, and death by suicide in a strange land, he would have had ‘acres of diamonds.’ For every acre of that old farm, yes, every shovelful, afterward revealed gems which since have decorated the crowns of monarchs.” Like so many, Ali Hafed did not value what he had when he had it.
America has its own version of this sad tale. Almost everyone has heard of the gold strike at Sutter’s Mill, but few have heard of the bitter story that led to the discovery. Colonel Sutter originally obtained the land from a discontented man who sold his California ranch in order to travel south in a quest for gold. Sutter had no idea what he had until one evening his young daughter was sifting some sand through her fingers before the family hearth. In the light cast by the fire, Sutter noticed an unusual sparkling in the flowing sand, which proved to be the reflection from particles of pure gold.
Can you imagine the remorse you would feel if you had done that? The man who turned the deed for the property over to Sutter had all the buried treasure he was looking for under the very ground he was walking on every day of his existence. All he needed was a fresh perspective. Sutter’s Mill eventually paid its owner $38 million of gold all for the price of a piece of dirt.
Lead Into Gold
Is there a moral to these stories? There most definitely is. By looking at things from a slightly different perspective you may be able to make lemonade from the lemons that life has dealt you. By adopting a new perspective it may be possible for you to turn real estate lead into real estate gold.
Consider the fact that there are a lot of houses on the market today that may be purchased for pennies on the dollar either at short sale or as bank owned real estate (REO – Real Estate Owned). Banks are willing to make huge concessions just to get the properties off their books, because REO properties contribute to their insolvency. That’s a couple of ways you can turn real estate lead into real estate gold and discover the buried treasure that you seek.
The alchemist of the Middle Ages sought to turn lead into gold. Slogging through endless experiments hoping for that magic moment in which reality would be suspended for the realization of his quest. Surprisingly, the great physicist, Isaac Newton, was also a secret alchemist, as revealed by his reams of unpublished notes.
Let the seemingly mundane and worthless in your environment provide the raw material for a buried treasure of far greater value. Sometimes a plot of old, under-valued real estate may be leveraged into something worth far more. But you won’t know until you take the initiative to find out. Follow me on the links listed below.
Oliver Woods is a real estate advisor who can help you to get the best price possible in the current adverse market if you have been struggling to sell your property — sellers may apply at his website. He also specializes in locating the best deals for residential and commercial investors who are searching for bargains in distressed properties.