Catching up with a friend, we got into the conversation of real estate. Not a foreign subject to either of us since I am a licensed real estate broker, he is a contractor as well as both of us being multi-property owners. The conversation began when I asked him if he knew of a particular large scale property owner. I mentioned that I was trying to reach him in efforts to buy one of his buildings which he purchased 2 years ago and is now in financial trouble.

He proceeded to tell me a couple of stories regarding people that he knew that ended up losing large multi-family properties only because they were too stubborn to sell them at the right time and at a reasonable price. I chimed in with a couple of my own stories, and then we discussed how a mutual friend is currently in this same position. Though we both feel bad for our friend, there's little we could do to help him.

After a while, my friend asked me "Do you know how to catch a Monkey?"

I responded "How?"

He said put a banana in a bottle. When the monkey sticks his hand in the bottle to pull the banana out, his grip around the banana in a horizontal position, will not allow him to pull it out. Of course the monkey won't give up so easily, he will continue to try and pull the banana out until he is caught.

He added, "That's the problem with a lot of people and real estate these days. They don't know how to let go of the banana."

I thought this was such a great analogy, that I kept using it the rest of the evening. It seems that many of the property owners that each of us had dealings with did not know how to let go of the banana. Their properties fell into disrepair and eventually were lost to foreclosure. After each subsequent story, I would chime in "they didn't know how to let go of the banana."

Then I mentioned the large scale property owner again. I said that's why I need to get in touch with him. If he's a large scale property owner, he should know how to let go of the banana. He agreed that these types of owners usually know.

Do you know a property owner who's acting like a Monkey? Will someone please tell them to let go of the banana!