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 :)

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

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!