First off all, I have to admit blogging is not very high on mt priority list , so I have to work on this.
I spent a lot of time this summer working on websites, some internet marketing education and pushing properties. My priority has been getting upfront work completed AND getting a deal or two done because cash is kind of a priority in my life these days.
So, I have gotten most of the upfront stuff taken care of, so that is really good.
And FINALLY, I have sold 429 Hallett Pl. Cash buyer who is someone I kind of know and is getting into the investing game. Closing is today. Thank God!
The numbers on this deal are great for the flip they want to do, so my fee could have been higher, but I needed to sell this thing. After 3 extensions (one from me, 2 from the seller) payday is finally here. Barring any last minute deal implosions, I will be depositing a much needed check this afternoon.
Now I just need to find a buyer for an occupied duplex I have. It is one I got back in July but let go because we could not get access to check it out. Went back to the seller (who is super motivated) with an offer of $13,100...for an OCCUPIED duplex...and it was accepted immediately. So, I am trying to move it for $19,997, but I am finding that it might be too low. Umm, what?
Anyway, we are currently going through the same access issue, this time from the PM, so who knows, I may end up dropping it again. I do not want to because these sellers have a number of properties available and I would like to take a crack at those as well.
We shall see.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Boldness is rewarded
Well, I wish I could say I have found a buyer for the Hallett property, but I have not. I had a serious buyer lined up, but she was going to use hard money and the lender has cut back on his LTV (to 60%), so the deal became too expensive for her. Oh well. The website and ads I have posted have helped me pick up about a dozen more potential buyers, so it has not been a total waste of time. I have gotten with some other investors I know and have them spreading the word to their lists, so hopefully something shakes out. I still get leads from my ads, so there is some potential there as well.
Now, for the boldness stuff. In the grand scheme of things, this is probably not all that bold, but it has been a step for me. I am sometimes too laid back and go with an attitude of if they say no, I move on and too often I seem to present things in a way that make it easy to say "no". I have recently begun taking a slightly different approach. Now I have been going at this business with the attitude "what's the worst they can do, say no?" and this has paid dividends quickly. Too frequently I have offered prices that I think the buyer will accept, not necessarily the price that works best for me. Now, I have still gotten good prices, but not nearly as good as I may have been able to. Recent actions have gotten me different results.
On Friday I got 3 properties under contract, 2 are cash flowing already and one is ready to go.
Duplex (rented) - Duquesne, PA 15110
Single-family (rented) - Braddock, PA 15104
Single-family (vacant) - McKees Rocks, PA 15136
All of them are under 50% of ARV and I did not go higher than $18,200 for any of them. I had another offer accepted at $16k for a duplex in need of work, but the seller is looking for far more hand money than I am willing to give. However, we only got to this point because I kept at it on trying to work something out. I am not creating anything revolutionary for investors, I am just seeing how I can get better results by making small changes in my mindset.
I currently have 4 properties that I am trying to sell and they have all gotten some amount of interest. I just need to get these sold and my stress level will go waaaaaay down. I have not had the results I would like so far, but I am on the right track, I can feel it.
I have the opportunity to partner up with a mentor of mine that should do wonders for my lead generation. It will be a bit pricey compared to what I have been spending on marketing, but if it pans out the way we think it will (300-500 leads in 30 days), then it will e money well-spent.
I will keep you updated (while I keep my fingers crossed).
Now, for the boldness stuff. In the grand scheme of things, this is probably not all that bold, but it has been a step for me. I am sometimes too laid back and go with an attitude of if they say no, I move on and too often I seem to present things in a way that make it easy to say "no". I have recently begun taking a slightly different approach. Now I have been going at this business with the attitude "what's the worst they can do, say no?" and this has paid dividends quickly. Too frequently I have offered prices that I think the buyer will accept, not necessarily the price that works best for me. Now, I have still gotten good prices, but not nearly as good as I may have been able to. Recent actions have gotten me different results.
On Friday I got 3 properties under contract, 2 are cash flowing already and one is ready to go.
Duplex (rented) - Duquesne, PA 15110
Single-family (rented) - Braddock, PA 15104
Single-family (vacant) - McKees Rocks, PA 15136
All of them are under 50% of ARV and I did not go higher than $18,200 for any of them. I had another offer accepted at $16k for a duplex in need of work, but the seller is looking for far more hand money than I am willing to give. However, we only got to this point because I kept at it on trying to work something out. I am not creating anything revolutionary for investors, I am just seeing how I can get better results by making small changes in my mindset.
I currently have 4 properties that I am trying to sell and they have all gotten some amount of interest. I just need to get these sold and my stress level will go waaaaaay down. I have not had the results I would like so far, but I am on the right track, I can feel it.
I have the opportunity to partner up with a mentor of mine that should do wonders for my lead generation. It will be a bit pricey compared to what I have been spending on marketing, but if it pans out the way we think it will (300-500 leads in 30 days), then it will e money well-spent.
I will keep you updated (while I keep my fingers crossed).
Monday, July 6, 2009
Come On!
I work my numbers, I talk to my agent (who is an investor) and I talk to other investors and they all say that this house is a no-brainer deal, yet nothing.
I have the property sent to 3,000 other "investors" and I get (still only) 125 hits from that group. Ugh.
Maybe this will help...I am a member of the Virtual Deal Factory community (by Mark Evans DM and Damian Lanfranchi)and Mark is a real estate mentor of mine. Each day on VDF there is a new video on the home page and today Mark promoted my deal BIG TIME! To see it, got to the Home Page and in the drop down box select Webisode #86.
If a guy who has made millions in real estate says it is a no-brainer deal, then I am not imagining things...IT'S A GOOD DEAL. Someone else (with money) needs to realize this. So far I have gotten one inquiry from this so far today, I am keeping my fingers crossed for more, but it only takes one, right?
I have gotten a couple other inquiries from other marketing, but still no takers (including the buyer who stood me up on Friday).
Keep plugging away.
I have the property sent to 3,000 other "investors" and I get (still only) 125 hits from that group. Ugh.
Maybe this will help...I am a member of the Virtual Deal Factory community (by Mark Evans DM and Damian Lanfranchi)and Mark is a real estate mentor of mine. Each day on VDF there is a new video on the home page and today Mark promoted my deal BIG TIME! To see it, got to the Home Page and in the drop down box select Webisode #86.
If a guy who has made millions in real estate says it is a no-brainer deal, then I am not imagining things...IT'S A GOOD DEAL. Someone else (with money) needs to realize this. So far I have gotten one inquiry from this so far today, I am keeping my fingers crossed for more, but it only takes one, right?
I have gotten a couple other inquiries from other marketing, but still no takers (including the buyer who stood me up on Friday).
Keep plugging away.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Umm, yeah...
This has me scratching my head. I am part of a real estate investing group that consists of somewhere around 3,000 "investors". I use this term loosely because there does not seem to be much activity going on with these people. I (and a couple other investor buddies) have suspected as much, but now it seems to be pretty clear.
As a benefit of being a part of this group, when we have a deal to market, they will send out an email to everyone. So, the property that I mentioned in an earlier post (great investor location, good price, low amount of rehab, etc.) has hardly even been sniffed by this group. Because I had my doubts about how many of these people are active investors, I created a BudURL for my property page and had it put in the email this way I could track the hits just from this group.
Maybe I am expecting too much, but from a list of 3,000 investors there have been about 125 hits...4%. This seems rather low considering this group paid anywhere from $5,000 to $7,500 to attend the classes and become a member of this group.
At the end of the day, while I am not looking to hold anything right now, closing on this myself is not the worst outcome. I should be able to cash out about $10k and clear $150-$200/month, I would just rather have a fast payday...give me nickels now and I will work on collecting dimes later.
Have a Great 4th of July!
As a benefit of being a part of this group, when we have a deal to market, they will send out an email to everyone. So, the property that I mentioned in an earlier post (great investor location, good price, low amount of rehab, etc.) has hardly even been sniffed by this group. Because I had my doubts about how many of these people are active investors, I created a BudURL for my property page and had it put in the email this way I could track the hits just from this group.
Maybe I am expecting too much, but from a list of 3,000 investors there have been about 125 hits...4%. This seems rather low considering this group paid anywhere from $5,000 to $7,500 to attend the classes and become a member of this group.
At the end of the day, while I am not looking to hold anything right now, closing on this myself is not the worst outcome. I should be able to cash out about $10k and clear $150-$200/month, I would just rather have a fast payday...give me nickels now and I will work on collecting dimes later.
Have a Great 4th of July!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Update
So, the 4th of July is upon us, meaning summer is just blowing by yet agian.
Anyway, I have been pretty busy of late.
I had an offer accepted on an estate property back on June 11, well on Saturday I finally got the signed contract back, so now I can market it. it is in a great rental area and I expect this one will get lots of interest.
More info HERE
I have gotten about 10 emails asking for more info and one investor who wants to take a look...need to move fast on this one. The owner will bolt if she sniffs wholesaling of the deal, so assigning is out, a double or simultaneous close is how this will be done. Prefer a simultaneous close to save about $2,500 for what a transactional lender will charge me.
* I was contacted by an investor in Florida who is selling 12 properties in Erie PA (his hometown), which is about 90 min. from me. Waiting to get details from him, but there might be something to salvage out of the list. Some rented, some vacant, some singe-family, some multi-units.
* Contacted an investor looking to unload a Sec 8 rental in a so-so area. Long-term tenant in place, rent is $600/mo, a cash buyer would net about $450/mo after taxes and insurance...have not gotten any takers on something like this yet.
* Got a message thru RealEstateInvestor.com from an investor who has 10 properties in the Pittsburgh area that she wants to sell ASAP. Like the Erie properties, some rented, some vacant, some singe-family, some multi-units. Posted some leader ads to gauge interest, nothing so far.
I have also continued to work on my website to make my property pages better. Feedback I have gotten thus far has been positive...just want to make it easy for the investor buyer to say "I want it!".
That is all for now.
Anyway, I have been pretty busy of late.
I had an offer accepted on an estate property back on June 11, well on Saturday I finally got the signed contract back, so now I can market it. it is in a great rental area and I expect this one will get lots of interest.
More info HERE
I have gotten about 10 emails asking for more info and one investor who wants to take a look...need to move fast on this one. The owner will bolt if she sniffs wholesaling of the deal, so assigning is out, a double or simultaneous close is how this will be done. Prefer a simultaneous close to save about $2,500 for what a transactional lender will charge me.
* I was contacted by an investor in Florida who is selling 12 properties in Erie PA (his hometown), which is about 90 min. from me. Waiting to get details from him, but there might be something to salvage out of the list. Some rented, some vacant, some singe-family, some multi-units.
* Contacted an investor looking to unload a Sec 8 rental in a so-so area. Long-term tenant in place, rent is $600/mo, a cash buyer would net about $450/mo after taxes and insurance...have not gotten any takers on something like this yet.
* Got a message thru RealEstateInvestor.com from an investor who has 10 properties in the Pittsburgh area that she wants to sell ASAP. Like the Erie properties, some rented, some vacant, some singe-family, some multi-units. Posted some leader ads to gauge interest, nothing so far.
I have also continued to work on my website to make my property pages better. Feedback I have gotten thus far has been positive...just want to make it easy for the investor buyer to say "I want it!".
That is all for now.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
What do you know, it's the middle of June already
Well, I have certainly failed to be anything close to consistent with my posting. Not posting kinda defeats the purpose of having a blog. At least something is better than nothing, so if I cannot do it everyday, I will work on doing more than what I have been (that should not be too hard, huh?)
Ok, so the property that I got under contract for $7,500 was of absolutely no interest to anyone. I got a couple of tire kickers, but that's about it, except for the guy out of state who anted either a BPO or an appraisal done. Oh, and he wasn't going to pay for it. Uh, no.
On Friday I got a much better property under contract, or at least i think I did. We came to a verbal agreement on the purchase price, I signed the papers and my agent sent them on to the seller's agent to get signatures. I have not gotten anything back as yet, so that's why "I think" I got it under contract on Friday. The tough thing about this one is it's an estate so some extra eyeballs will be reviewing it AND one of the parties to the estate got scammed in one of the big mortgage fraud scams around here, so doing a straight assignment is a no-go for this deal. I can do a double close, but I did not exactly account for this in my calcs, so I may need to take a little less to get it moved.
It's a pretty sweet deal. It is basically move-in ready as a rental and is in a great area. It just needs some cosmetic work and maybe some electrical work. The house is old, but the fuse box has been upgraded to a breaker panel, except they ran the line off the fuse box instead of removing it altogether. Not sure how that will go in the permit inspection. If that is ok with the inspector, then rehab will be something around $4k-$6k.
The ARV is in the $85-$90k range, I got it for $33k and it should need under $10k to get it going. if I can move it for $40k, I will be happy.
After talking with some other investors, though, I will be moving my focus from SFH to multi-family, especially duplexes. The SFHs are not moving very quickly in general, so I need to change my approcah a little bit.
So, that is what is new on the REI front. On the internet marketing front I have been doing some work as well.
With moving to a virtual investing model, using the internet has become key. A natural extension of this is to incorporate affiliate marketing into what I am doing. So, last week I kicked of my first full-fledged campaign. I will look to promote real estate products, but that is a more specific niche, so my first campaign is for a product that will have broader appeal...buying a car.
If you are looking at buying a new car, a used car, or determining whether to lease or buy, check out this product and learn some great money-saving tips...www.CarBuying-Advice.info.
As part of my campaign, I have created 5 Squidoo lenses, please take a moment to check them out and give them a rating.
1 www.squidoo.com/NewCarBuying-Advice
2 www.squidoo.com/UsedCarBuying-Advice
3 www.squidoo.com/BuyingACar-Tips
4 www.squidoo.com/BuyingAUsedCar-Tips
5 www.squidoo.com/TipsForBuying-ACar
I have a goal of getting a campaign like this set up every-other-week, so by Labor Day I will have 7 campaigns out there beginning to generate some income to supplement what my wholesaling brings in. Wish me luck in this!
Ok, so the property that I got under contract for $7,500 was of absolutely no interest to anyone. I got a couple of tire kickers, but that's about it, except for the guy out of state who anted either a BPO or an appraisal done. Oh, and he wasn't going to pay for it. Uh, no.
On Friday I got a much better property under contract, or at least i think I did. We came to a verbal agreement on the purchase price, I signed the papers and my agent sent them on to the seller's agent to get signatures. I have not gotten anything back as yet, so that's why "I think" I got it under contract on Friday. The tough thing about this one is it's an estate so some extra eyeballs will be reviewing it AND one of the parties to the estate got scammed in one of the big mortgage fraud scams around here, so doing a straight assignment is a no-go for this deal. I can do a double close, but I did not exactly account for this in my calcs, so I may need to take a little less to get it moved.
It's a pretty sweet deal. It is basically move-in ready as a rental and is in a great area. It just needs some cosmetic work and maybe some electrical work. The house is old, but the fuse box has been upgraded to a breaker panel, except they ran the line off the fuse box instead of removing it altogether. Not sure how that will go in the permit inspection. If that is ok with the inspector, then rehab will be something around $4k-$6k.
The ARV is in the $85-$90k range, I got it for $33k and it should need under $10k to get it going. if I can move it for $40k, I will be happy.
After talking with some other investors, though, I will be moving my focus from SFH to multi-family, especially duplexes. The SFHs are not moving very quickly in general, so I need to change my approcah a little bit.
So, that is what is new on the REI front. On the internet marketing front I have been doing some work as well.
With moving to a virtual investing model, using the internet has become key. A natural extension of this is to incorporate affiliate marketing into what I am doing. So, last week I kicked of my first full-fledged campaign. I will look to promote real estate products, but that is a more specific niche, so my first campaign is for a product that will have broader appeal...buying a car.
If you are looking at buying a new car, a used car, or determining whether to lease or buy, check out this product and learn some great money-saving tips...www.CarBuying-Advice.info.
As part of my campaign, I have created 5 Squidoo lenses, please take a moment to check them out and give them a rating.
1 www.squidoo.com/NewCarBuying-Advice
2 www.squidoo.com/UsedCarBuying-Advice
3 www.squidoo.com/BuyingACar-Tips
4 www.squidoo.com/BuyingAUsedCar-Tips
5 www.squidoo.com/TipsForBuying-ACar
I have a goal of getting a campaign like this set up every-other-week, so by Labor Day I will have 7 campaigns out there beginning to generate some income to supplement what my wholesaling brings in. Wish me luck in this!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
In the bag
Well, that lead that I got just before leaving for the cruise has finally been put under contract.
When I got the lead, the seller (who lives out of state) stated there was maybe $7k in work needed to make the place perfect...uh, no. More like closer to $20k. He was asking $20k, but stated he was willing to listen to any and all offers. Sweet, that's music to an investor's ears.
Anyway, so we stopped by on Sunday (when we could finally get in) and wow, not at all like it was described. On the way over I was thinking an offer of $18k would be my plan, then I saw the place and that number very quickly changed to $5k.
Prior to making an offer, I set him up for a low offer by asking him when he last saw the property and letting him know that there was far more work to be done than he thinks.
I offered $5,110 and he said he was hoping for a min. of $10k, but conceded there may be more work than he thought and asked if I would split the difference. Done, $7,500. I should be able to sell this for $14-$15k, which will be a sweet payday!
I have a couple of investors who have expressed an interest, plus I have about 3,000 others on a couple of lists that I can send this out to, so I should be able to move this quickly. I have a tentative close date of 5/18, but will gladly close earlier if at all possible.
Here is what $7,500 can get you in Western PA...$15k if you want to own it :)
When I got the lead, the seller (who lives out of state) stated there was maybe $7k in work needed to make the place perfect...uh, no. More like closer to $20k. He was asking $20k, but stated he was willing to listen to any and all offers. Sweet, that's music to an investor's ears.
Anyway, so we stopped by on Sunday (when we could finally get in) and wow, not at all like it was described. On the way over I was thinking an offer of $18k would be my plan, then I saw the place and that number very quickly changed to $5k.
Prior to making an offer, I set him up for a low offer by asking him when he last saw the property and letting him know that there was far more work to be done than he thinks.
I offered $5,110 and he said he was hoping for a min. of $10k, but conceded there may be more work than he thought and asked if I would split the difference. Done, $7,500. I should be able to sell this for $14-$15k, which will be a sweet payday!
I have a couple of investors who have expressed an interest, plus I have about 3,000 others on a couple of lists that I can send this out to, so I should be able to move this quickly. I have a tentative close date of 5/18, but will gladly close earlier if at all possible.
Here is what $7,500 can get you in Western PA...$15k if you want to own it :)
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Awesome!!
Wow! So many good things are starting to come together.
Ok, first thing...if you ever go on a cruise, go on a Celebrity cruise. We were on the newest ship, the Solstice. What an experience. The one downside to being on this ship, according to experienced cruisers we were with, is now we are spoiled. This ship is so much nicer and the food and service so much better than other lines that we will be disappointed with a cruise on any other line. And seeing the other ships in ports we went to, I would have to agree that our stateroom would not be as nice for the same level of room. Most of the staterooms on Solstice have verandas, while nearly all of the other ships we saw had very few. Need to have that outside access.
The purpose of the cruise was not merely for a vacation, it was primarily a chance to mastermind with other real estate investors. There were about 20 other investors within our group from across the US, so the ideas and future opportunities presented were well worth the cost of the trip...plus the weather was waaaay nicer than in Pittsburgh.
Mark Evans and Ed Zimbardi's group (my group) and Jim Toner's group (from Pittsburgh, funny) basically combined to mastermind about the business, the current market, other opportunities, etc, so it was good to see what goes on in other parts of the country and get some ideas about how to approach opportunities in the future.
I made a bunch of new contacts and a partner to do deals in Atlanta. They call it Hotlanta in the summer, but that could be used to describe the real estate market down there as well. With all of the foreclosures that have hit that area, the number of below market deals is mind-boggling. Pittsburgh is a really good market nearly all the time, but the deals in Atlanta are so good right now that I hooked up with a JV partner and a couple of agents and will look to do deals down there as much as possible. If you have an interest in Atlanta, feel free to let me know.
Finally, the property I got a lead on just before leaving for the trip is still available and should be a really good deal to pick up. Unfortunately there is no access to the house until Sunday, so I am slowed down on it anyway. Oh well.
Better late than never :)
Ok, first thing...if you ever go on a cruise, go on a Celebrity cruise. We were on the newest ship, the Solstice. What an experience. The one downside to being on this ship, according to experienced cruisers we were with, is now we are spoiled. This ship is so much nicer and the food and service so much better than other lines that we will be disappointed with a cruise on any other line. And seeing the other ships in ports we went to, I would have to agree that our stateroom would not be as nice for the same level of room. Most of the staterooms on Solstice have verandas, while nearly all of the other ships we saw had very few. Need to have that outside access.
The purpose of the cruise was not merely for a vacation, it was primarily a chance to mastermind with other real estate investors. There were about 20 other investors within our group from across the US, so the ideas and future opportunities presented were well worth the cost of the trip...plus the weather was waaaay nicer than in Pittsburgh.
Mark Evans and Ed Zimbardi's group (my group) and Jim Toner's group (from Pittsburgh, funny) basically combined to mastermind about the business, the current market, other opportunities, etc, so it was good to see what goes on in other parts of the country and get some ideas about how to approach opportunities in the future.
I made a bunch of new contacts and a partner to do deals in Atlanta. They call it Hotlanta in the summer, but that could be used to describe the real estate market down there as well. With all of the foreclosures that have hit that area, the number of below market deals is mind-boggling. Pittsburgh is a really good market nearly all the time, but the deals in Atlanta are so good right now that I hooked up with a JV partner and a couple of agents and will look to do deals down there as much as possible. If you have an interest in Atlanta, feel free to let me know.
Finally, the property I got a lead on just before leaving for the trip is still available and should be a really good deal to pick up. Unfortunately there is no access to the house until Sunday, so I am slowed down on it anyway. Oh well.
Better late than never :)
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Feeling good, but the timing!
So, in the last week I have made a couple of new agent contacts, which is bringing me many more potential deals than I was getting from my original agent. Awesome.
BUT, even better is I have gotten outside my comfort level as far as the areas where I am looking. For whatever reason, it has taken me quite a while to consider looking in areas that I am now excited about investigating further. Part of it is, to be honest, that I am from the burbs, so some of these areas are not where I would ever go because of some things that would make the news. These areas are not anything approaching war zones, but from my perspective they apparently were close enough to keep me away.
Now that I have gotten in there a little bit more (and have investors who like to buy there, which certainly helps), I am feeling really good about the prospects of making some serious money in the near future. In a way, the cruise that we are going on this weekend is coming at (I can't believe I am actually saying this)... a little bit of a bad time.
Don't get me wrong, I need to get out of this crappy weather ASAP and the time I will have to hang out with other investors and my mentors for a week will be incredibly beneficial. But there are some things that I am on the verge of that I need to put on the back burner for a week. Oh well. If they are not there when we return, there will be others, but an earlier payday beats the crap out of a later payday. I guess we will just use our tax refund as a sort of payday if we need to.
Hasta la vista!
Here is where I will be for the next week
www.celebrity solstice.com
BUT, even better is I have gotten outside my comfort level as far as the areas where I am looking. For whatever reason, it has taken me quite a while to consider looking in areas that I am now excited about investigating further. Part of it is, to be honest, that I am from the burbs, so some of these areas are not where I would ever go because of some things that would make the news. These areas are not anything approaching war zones, but from my perspective they apparently were close enough to keep me away.
Now that I have gotten in there a little bit more (and have investors who like to buy there, which certainly helps), I am feeling really good about the prospects of making some serious money in the near future. In a way, the cruise that we are going on this weekend is coming at (I can't believe I am actually saying this)... a little bit of a bad time.
Don't get me wrong, I need to get out of this crappy weather ASAP and the time I will have to hang out with other investors and my mentors for a week will be incredibly beneficial. But there are some things that I am on the verge of that I need to put on the back burner for a week. Oh well. If they are not there when we return, there will be others, but an earlier payday beats the crap out of a later payday. I guess we will just use our tax refund as a sort of payday if we need to.
Hasta la vista!
Here is where I will be for the next week
www.celebrity solstice.com
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
I need to be better
I need to be better about posting here. I have a tendency to let things get in my way and then I do not post for a while. One of the big things right now is I coach a HS rowing team and we practice in the evenings, so I end my day by 4:30 and usually do not get back home until 7:30/8:00 and by that time the last thing I think of doing is going here to post...but that will be changed (though I make no guarantees that it will be everyday, just better than it has been, so no hate mail, please)
So, the last few days have been fairly productive, not counting the weekend. On Friday I met with a couple of investors I know and a mortgage broker and real estate agent. We discussed forming a group of sorts to do some other things to create passive income within our businesses, kind of an outlet for getting our buyers and sellers matched up more quickly. I know I have RTO buyers looking in areas I do not go and these guys have properties in these areas (or can find something since they know the areas a lot better than I do).
I spent time talking with the agent and now I have him looking for properties for me that would be of interest to other investors since I am focusing on wholesaling right now. He is also sending along RTO properties, but those are not as high on my priority list. He has been in the business for over 20 years and is super proactive, something my other agent was, let's say not-so-much.
Oh, and it appears an agent I have worked with for nearly 2 years has flamed out on me. I have not heard from her in about 2 weeks. My guess is that as her business has grown, she is not so interested in looking at the low end of the market quite so much anymore. Oh well.
Yesterday I met with another agent who also works with investors and I have him looking for properties in another part of Pittsburgh (East End out to county line). He invests some himself, so he knows what to look for in an investment property.
I have been talking to an out-of-town investor regarding a property that he bought to rehab then decided to sell instead because he is too far away. He was in town over the weekend to take pictures, but I was not able to meet up with him, so I asked for him to send along any pictures he has so I can see if it is worth pursuing. Not in the best area (maybe a 2 out of 10), so I may pass on it since I do not have anyone looking to buy in that neighborhood.
On the IM front, I have been using One Week marketing to create some Squidoo pages for an affiliate product campaign, no money yet but I still have some work to do to get everything optimized to drive traffic. I also got my Butterfly Marketing 2.0 materials...maybe I will get some time to read through it here...
but somehow I seriously doubt it :)
We leave Easter Sunday and the cruise is 7 days. Sun, sea, sand, warm breezes...everything that is not in Pittsburgh right now (I thought it was Spring already).
Anyway, lots to squeeze into the rest of my week before our little getaway. I am going with other members of a Mentoring/Mastermind group I belong to, so there will be some good stuff learned anyway that I can put to use as soon as I return. Looking forward to it!
So, the last few days have been fairly productive, not counting the weekend. On Friday I met with a couple of investors I know and a mortgage broker and real estate agent. We discussed forming a group of sorts to do some other things to create passive income within our businesses, kind of an outlet for getting our buyers and sellers matched up more quickly. I know I have RTO buyers looking in areas I do not go and these guys have properties in these areas (or can find something since they know the areas a lot better than I do).
I spent time talking with the agent and now I have him looking for properties for me that would be of interest to other investors since I am focusing on wholesaling right now. He is also sending along RTO properties, but those are not as high on my priority list. He has been in the business for over 20 years and is super proactive, something my other agent was, let's say not-so-much.
Oh, and it appears an agent I have worked with for nearly 2 years has flamed out on me. I have not heard from her in about 2 weeks. My guess is that as her business has grown, she is not so interested in looking at the low end of the market quite so much anymore. Oh well.
Yesterday I met with another agent who also works with investors and I have him looking for properties in another part of Pittsburgh (East End out to county line). He invests some himself, so he knows what to look for in an investment property.
I have been talking to an out-of-town investor regarding a property that he bought to rehab then decided to sell instead because he is too far away. He was in town over the weekend to take pictures, but I was not able to meet up with him, so I asked for him to send along any pictures he has so I can see if it is worth pursuing. Not in the best area (maybe a 2 out of 10), so I may pass on it since I do not have anyone looking to buy in that neighborhood.
On the IM front, I have been using One Week marketing to create some Squidoo pages for an affiliate product campaign, no money yet but I still have some work to do to get everything optimized to drive traffic. I also got my Butterfly Marketing 2.0 materials...maybe I will get some time to read through it here...
but somehow I seriously doubt it :)
We leave Easter Sunday and the cruise is 7 days. Sun, sea, sand, warm breezes...everything that is not in Pittsburgh right now (I thought it was Spring already).
Anyway, lots to squeeze into the rest of my week before our little getaway. I am going with other members of a Mentoring/Mastermind group I belong to, so there will be some good stuff learned anyway that I can put to use as soon as I return. Looking forward to it!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Whew!
My days are slowing down, which is good. It turns out the big stressor was getting my websites up. For the first go-round of websites, I wanted to do them myself so I could learn about the process. As I move forward, whenever I upgrade what I have, I will definitely outsource that work.
Anyway, on Saturday I got my main site up and running, so now I have 3 self-made sites and 3 purchased sites. There will certainly be tweaks to my main site as I go along, but it is good enough to have out there (as far as I can tell, links and autoresponder work properly). Now most of the effort on it will be to drive traffic, but there will be some content updates from time to time as well, but the heavy lifting is finished. Whew!
Feel free to check out the sites and let me know if you see anything that needs to be fixed
www.TAERealEstateInv.com (main site)
www.WholesaleDealsInPittsburgh.com
www.PittsburghREI.com
My other sites
www.SellYourProperty-Fast.com
www.EliminateYourRent.com
www.Vitrual-Bird-Dog-Deals.com
Anyway, now that I have gotten the websites up, I can now get really down and dirty with my real estate activities and work more on some internet marketing projects. I am taking my business from an old school model of working pretty much in an offline manner (posted ads, MLS listings from my agent, networking) to more of a virtual model, so some of my real estate activity has slacked a bit in the last couple of months...time to get it back up again.
I have gotten some good stuff put in place, now I can put them to use to make more money. Of course, they share this week with me getting my tax stuff together for my CPA since we will be on a cruise on tax day :) , my deadline is a little bit earlier than usual.
Do today, enjoy tomorrow.
Anyway, on Saturday I got my main site up and running, so now I have 3 self-made sites and 3 purchased sites. There will certainly be tweaks to my main site as I go along, but it is good enough to have out there (as far as I can tell, links and autoresponder work properly). Now most of the effort on it will be to drive traffic, but there will be some content updates from time to time as well, but the heavy lifting is finished. Whew!
Feel free to check out the sites and let me know if you see anything that needs to be fixed
www.TAERealEstateInv.com (main site)
www.WholesaleDealsInPittsburgh.com
www.PittsburghREI.com
My other sites
www.SellYourProperty-Fast.com
www.EliminateYourRent.com
www.Vitrual-Bird-Dog-Deals.com
Anyway, now that I have gotten the websites up, I can now get really down and dirty with my real estate activities and work more on some internet marketing projects. I am taking my business from an old school model of working pretty much in an offline manner (posted ads, MLS listings from my agent, networking) to more of a virtual model, so some of my real estate activity has slacked a bit in the last couple of months...time to get it back up again.
I have gotten some good stuff put in place, now I can put them to use to make more money. Of course, they share this week with me getting my tax stuff together for my CPA since we will be on a cruise on tax day :) , my deadline is a little bit earlier than usual.
Do today, enjoy tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Spread too thin?
So today I put in time to get started on an affiliate marketing campaign. Actually, I am getting prepared to do the first campaign. I came across a day-by-day plan that spells out all of the steps to do each day to get get a campaign from thought to in action. Being completely new to this sort of thing, it took a little bit longer to get my bearings that I expected.
Which brings me to my title question. Starting from the very bottom, needing to learn a bunch of stuff has me feeling a little bit overwhelmed as far as being able to do both of these things at the same time. To make it a little bit tougher, I have to cut my day at about 4pm so I can get to practice and I do not get back home until 7:30. So, my day feels about 1/2 as long as it needs to be.
I am taking on a bunch of new activities in my effort to be a "virtual" investor, so that is certainly the source of this feeling. Once I get the hang of some of these things and it is a matter of "doing" and not "thinking then doing", my days will feel a lot longer.
Right now I have a feeling like I am doing things, but they are busy work, not productive because I do not have anything in place that is making me money right now.
One day at a time, right?
Tomorrow is another day!
Which brings me to my title question. Starting from the very bottom, needing to learn a bunch of stuff has me feeling a little bit overwhelmed as far as being able to do both of these things at the same time. To make it a little bit tougher, I have to cut my day at about 4pm so I can get to practice and I do not get back home until 7:30. So, my day feels about 1/2 as long as it needs to be.
I am taking on a bunch of new activities in my effort to be a "virtual" investor, so that is certainly the source of this feeling. Once I get the hang of some of these things and it is a matter of "doing" and not "thinking then doing", my days will feel a lot longer.
Right now I have a feeling like I am doing things, but they are busy work, not productive because I do not have anything in place that is making me money right now.
One day at a time, right?
Tomorrow is another day!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Getting it going
I had bigger plans for today than I actually was able to achieve. It was supposed to be a split real estate/internet marketing day, but it ended up being mostly centered around my real estate business. Here is what I had on my To-Do list:
1. Gym (check)
2. Print out my Investor surveys to compile areas I have buyers (check)
3. Get updated list of areas to my real estate agent (make that for tomorrow)
4. Send ad copy to Mark to for review (nope, turns out he is out of town, send tomorrow)
5. Post ads for Investors, Sellers, Buyers and Bird Dogs (Super check, total of 8 posted, focus on investors for my list)
6. Send a message out to my list (check)
7. Get started working on an affiliate campaign (1/2 check...still going over the step-by-step materials I have)
8. Attend Mark's Reverse Real Estate System call (sort of a check, apparently there was no call or I missed it due to my computer issue, see below)
The affiliate campaign was originally planned to be my afternoon activity, but no.
I am a HS rowing coach and I had a few items that came up today related to that, so that killed a part of my day, but mostly I was slow getting going this AM to the gym, which had a domino effect on the rest of my day.
Oh, I also had terrific computer issue again today. My computer was moving about as fast as a glacier, so I had to re-boot...it took, no joke, 25 minutes to get everything closed (lots of "Not Responding"), shut down, re-started and running again. Don't get me started on how Outlook was "working". I was ready to throw this thing right out my window.
My priority tomorrow is to get my affiliate campaign started (I need some supplemental cash flow for now, but the goal is to get it built up to be a true income source). It is not all bad that I did not get to it today because the real estate stuff is very important, BUT, affiliate marketing is something that I need to get going on. My goal is to have some serious flow going by June 1.
Til next time!
1. Gym (check)
2. Print out my Investor surveys to compile areas I have buyers (check)
3. Get updated list of areas to my real estate agent (make that for tomorrow)
4. Send ad copy to Mark to for review (nope, turns out he is out of town, send tomorrow)
5. Post ads for Investors, Sellers, Buyers and Bird Dogs (Super check, total of 8 posted, focus on investors for my list)
6. Send a message out to my list (check)
7. Get started working on an affiliate campaign (1/2 check...still going over the step-by-step materials I have)
8. Attend Mark's Reverse Real Estate System call (sort of a check, apparently there was no call or I missed it due to my computer issue, see below)
The affiliate campaign was originally planned to be my afternoon activity, but no.
I am a HS rowing coach and I had a few items that came up today related to that, so that killed a part of my day, but mostly I was slow getting going this AM to the gym, which had a domino effect on the rest of my day.
Oh, I also had terrific computer issue again today. My computer was moving about as fast as a glacier, so I had to re-boot...it took, no joke, 25 minutes to get everything closed (lots of "Not Responding"), shut down, re-started and running again. Don't get me started on how Outlook was "working". I was ready to throw this thing right out my window.
My priority tomorrow is to get my affiliate campaign started (I need some supplemental cash flow for now, but the goal is to get it built up to be a true income source). It is not all bad that I did not get to it today because the real estate stuff is very important, BUT, affiliate marketing is something that I need to get going on. My goal is to have some serious flow going by June 1.
Til next time!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Wow!
Well, that took longer than expected. I pretty much had the sites ready to go, then I blew something up. Fortunately it only cost me about a day. But before I could get them "live", I had to go out of town. My wife and I went on a weekend real estate mastermind retreat of sorts in Atlanta. Lots of great info shared and ideas gotten, plus made some terrific new contacts.
The best part was the snow that canceled our flight Sunday night. Not only were we not getting out on Sunday, but we were not getting out on Monday either because the earliest flight we could get was late-morning on Tuesday! What!?!? Fortunately we met a couple from just north of Pittsburgh and they had driven down so they offered us a ride back Monday...a long ride, but it sure beat 2 more nights of a hotel plus another day of the rental car (at full price, not the Priceline deal I got).
Well, it turns out there is neither snow-removal equipment nor winter driving skill in existence in SC. What should have taken 3 hours to get to Charlotte took 6 hours thanks to 5 traffic jams due to accidents (not to mention the 100+ cars we saw abandoned on the side of the road...not even kidding).
After it was all said and done, we left Buford, GA at 6:30AM and got to our house at 10:30PM...good times.
Well, after all that, I got my site up Tuesday and fiddled with them some the rest of the week. Check them out...
www.WholesaleDealsInPittsburgh.com
and
www.PittsburghREI.com.
Soon to be live, www.TAERealEstateInvestments.com
and
www.alan-engel.com.
Oh, and I am now on Facebook.
The best part was the snow that canceled our flight Sunday night. Not only were we not getting out on Sunday, but we were not getting out on Monday either because the earliest flight we could get was late-morning on Tuesday! What!?!? Fortunately we met a couple from just north of Pittsburgh and they had driven down so they offered us a ride back Monday...a long ride, but it sure beat 2 more nights of a hotel plus another day of the rental car (at full price, not the Priceline deal I got).
Well, it turns out there is neither snow-removal equipment nor winter driving skill in existence in SC. What should have taken 3 hours to get to Charlotte took 6 hours thanks to 5 traffic jams due to accidents (not to mention the 100+ cars we saw abandoned on the side of the road...not even kidding).
After it was all said and done, we left Buford, GA at 6:30AM and got to our house at 10:30PM...good times.
Well, after all that, I got my site up Tuesday and fiddled with them some the rest of the week. Check them out...
www.WholesaleDealsInPittsburgh.com
and
www.PittsburghREI.com.
Soon to be live, www.TAERealEstateInvestments.com
and
www.alan-engel.com.
Oh, and I am now on Facebook.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
What a week!
Embracing Web 2.0 is a lot more involved than it looks at first. So, not only am I building my first 2 websites (I will DEFINITELY outsource this in the future), but I am also now on Twitter and using Facebook AND Squidoo...this is tiring.
But, I have made a great amount of progress on my websites, I just need to finish. It's the old 80-20 rule in effect...80% of the work takes 20% of the time, the last 20% of work is a killer. Getting there, Friday will be busy.
Once I get my initial website push finished I NEED to get back to finding some properties to wholesale...my marketing has taken a back seat this week, so that needs to change in a hurry because I doubt someone will randomly knock on my door and beg me to take their property for a song. I don't think expecting that to happen will get me anywhere.
But, I have made a great amount of progress on my websites, I just need to finish. It's the old 80-20 rule in effect...80% of the work takes 20% of the time, the last 20% of work is a killer. Getting there, Friday will be busy.
Once I get my initial website push finished I NEED to get back to finding some properties to wholesale...my marketing has taken a back seat this week, so that needs to change in a hurry because I doubt someone will randomly knock on my door and beg me to take their property for a song. I don't think expecting that to happen will get me anywhere.
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