[markinnaples]

Since we're in the, "anything" realm, there were 3 that I messed up big-time passing:

1. A house on a double lot on the Imperial River in Bonita Springs, FL. They wanted $300K, and I was waiting for my investment spec house to sell and I was gonna pull the trigger, but it sold before mine sold by days. I should have put in the offer contingent on mine selling. Someone bought it, subdivided it and sold each side for $700K, ugh.

2. A lot on the south end of Ft Myers Beach, right on San Carlos Blvd, across from the beach. There were two houses across the street directly on the beach that were new, and the lot I was looking at was spaced directly between them so you had a clear view of the Gulf of Mexico. I had a deal with the owner as I was going to buy directly from her as her contract was up with her realtor at the end of December, but on December 27 she got a full price offer. I was, again, waiting on my spec house to sell and had to get a little financing, so I told her to just accept the offer. She was actually on the verge of tears when we were talking because we had struck up a friendship as she was from PA, not too far from where I went to college, but I felt guilty trying to use that new friendship to buy the lot. That lot was ~$375, and I was planning on putting about a $200K house on it, and today that would probably worth about $1.5-ish.

3. When I finally sold my spec house, I was looking through the newspaper and a FSBO came up in the Park Shore neighborhood of Naples, FL, for an older home for $395. I went and looked at it and it was an elderly gentleman whose wife had passed and he was moving. The house was older, but neat as a pin. For some reason, I just didn't pull the trigger. Still not sure what was holding me back, but that house is worth $2.5 to $3.5MM.

Sigh.