BY TOM YANG

PART III: A Taste Of The Real Estate Business

After I earned by bachelor of science degree in Mining Engineering, I received a number of job offers, as did all my fellow graduates. I took a job with Conoco Oil Company at its new copper project in Florence, Ariz.  Three years later, the project shut down due to economic difficulties.  From there, I moved to Rawlins, Wyo., with my old boss from Conoco and worked for Union 76 at its Red Desert Uranium project.

   Rawlins is about the worst place to live, with high winds blowing almost daily; however, Rawlins is the root of my real estate adventures.  When I arrived in Rawlins, I had the vision the town would boom.  In early 1970, there was an explosion of activities in the oil, gas and uranium mining industry and people started to move in, and you could easily see the local bar business pick up. I figured that it was the right place and right time for real estate ventures.  I bought four houses, including the one I would live in, at a price of about $10,000 to $20,000 each.  These were your standard homes with three bedrooms, two baths, and one- or two-car garage.  I cleaned, repainted, fixed the homes up and held them until I left the city three years later; I sold all four and made more money than what I earned from Union 76 in salary in the same time.

   While I lived in Rawlins, I traveled a lot and three years was all I could take.  I relocated to Denver and worked for Homestake Mining at Denver West, and bought a home in the Applewood neighborhood.  I worked at Homestake for about three years and realized that working in an office was not my cup of tea.  I really wanted to do more real estate, so I enrolled in real estate school and got my broker’s license in the early 1980s, though I never exercised my license.

   In 1981 I met Charlie, a public-relations officer for the Bank of Applewood and one of the original members of the Applewood Business Association.  Charlie said to me, “You should buy this office building on the corner of 27th and Youngfield that belongs to the Bank of Applewood.” So I made an appointment with Charlie to check out the building.  It happened to be a rainy day, and the building was totally empty; as it rained outside, it also rained inside the building!  The ceiling tiles in several rooms were soaked with water and had caved in. The carpet in those rooms was discolored and we were tracking muddy water all over the place.  It was in terrible shape.  I asked Charlie why he thought I should buy this building and he simply said “I can help you get a loan and I feel you will be able to turn this building around.  It is in a very nice location.”  When I got home that day, I digested all Charlie said to me and decided to plunge into the new venture, and Applewood Office Park became my first commercial real estate holding and the springboard to all my other commercial properties.

Tom Yang is the owner of Applewood Quality Builders and can be reached at 303-944-2540.