While working on a request to identify and bring forth an investment opportunity for a client of mine, I jumped at the chance to service this person and his company once again. Why not I asked myself. I liked working with him as he was honest; he knew his business; he was timely with his communications; and he treated me respectfully as his broker and ‘partner’ in meeting his objective which quickly became my own.

The goal was to find him yet another senior living investment opportunity having a defined buy criteria. He knows what he wants. This is a good thing I thought. So, being the exceptional investment real estate broker that I am, I began to do my homework for him and the team. I researched and studied all the key factors to aid in our success. It began with my brushing up on U.S. demographics and where the distributions of certain aged seniors were by state and MSAs. In no time at all, one set of data lead to another and another and another. My research was quickly becoming a statistical addiction that flowed giving both the appearance and possible reality of having no end.

Finding the numbers was easy. Knowing what it meant in terms of opportunity was not so clear. The team was called together to share this profound research and analysis. They would appreciate the advanced team work was on my mind. The data was compiled, sorted and color coded in Excel. Masterful, like a piece of fine art. The team would be thrilled and so would our client. It would reflect a sincere level of care or so I thought.

And then comes the ‘but’ to this story and in this case it really means the ‘hunt’. Time had quickly passed. The team was not into the numbers or the fancy color coding system of the analysis. They wanted to hunt. Yes. Hunt for the asset – the true investment opportunity for our client. And, why is this differentiation important you may ask? The client had already done the analysis by providing its investment- buy criteria. My research would have resulted only in my validating it causing redundancy and delays in meeting the true objective.

So the morale of this story goes in that a good team may help save you from yourself.