Yes, I'm still here...

It's been a bit but time flies when you're having fun, or running numbers on properties.  I was able to find a handful of properties over the past month and a half and finally got to the bid process.  This has not been an east endeavor as everyone makes it look.  In this case, believe what they say, not how they make it look.

So, in the first several houses I picked AWESOME houses to go after, but due to still getting my feet under me, timing, and lets face it, more experienced and prepared buyers than me, I wasn't even to the bid process before I discovered the houses were under contract or the bid submission time was over.  Not deterred or down because of this, I just kept looking and found more houses popping up.  It became clear after my 2nd or 3rd week that all the "new" houses I would find were recently put on the market or had their price recently lowered to fall in my threshold.  Talk about a hot market.  Houses were disappearing over a weekend.  List on Friday, accept a contract on Monday.  But I'm in a very hot market.  And it's not slowing down.

Prices are also harder to meet and my threshold for what I can afford here is kind of low.  It doesn't make it impossible, or stop me.  It just makes it more difficult and I have to just keep trying.

At this point I'm sure some people would recommend that I invest elsewhere.  Sure, that's an option but there are a couple of deciding factors as to why I don't.  First, I don't know how.  Yes it's easy to learn but I've already done a lot of research to invest locally in a difficult market.  I'd rather not waste that time.  Plus, I'm not burnt out, or have been frustrated for months, or any of the other impatient things.  I just got started and I chose a direction so I'm going to follow through with it.  Swapping back and forth between strategies isn't a good thing.  If you're miserable sure, but I've been at this a little over a month now so I haven't even hit the hard part yet.  Can't give up now.

Second is control.  If I'm in the same vicinity (granted I'm 40 minutes from my first bid property), at least I have a better understanding of what is here, viewing the property, ensuring the work being done is getting done.  If it was not in the area where I live, it'd be a nightmare.   I'm sure many of  you have strategies and processes in place, but as a new investor, it's far easier, and less risky to invest where I can see and touch the property every weekend if I need to.

Third, I'm just learning.  Learning it all from the ground up is hard enough when you can go and see the mistakes, walk the problems, and see the people you're working with regularly.  Add a layer of complexity on top of it like only phone call contact most of the time would be another level of difficulty.  I'm trying to keep it simple for me so I have better odds of not losing money.  The amount of money I make isn't an issue.  I'm just hoping to do better than break even or worse.

So, that's what I've been doing.  I did find another investor (here on BP) who's been kind enough to help guide me a little, share his knowledge and help me understand when I'm thinking something totally wrong.  I'm sure I'm lucky and since he's local and just got his real estate agent license, it's a win-win.  I offer any help to his investments that I can be as well as any deals I find on my own I list through him, he gives me guidance on those properties, gets me showings, and helps me understand the good and bad of a property.  I highly recommend finding someone in your area.  Goto a real estate meetup or gathering.  Talk to everyone you can and find one that seems to really care about the business and that other succeed as well as them.  Then offer them lunch if they take you on a tour their latest acquisition.  Be excited about their successes because they aren't any different than you so if they can do it, so can you.

So, another Blog post down.  I hope it's helped you somehow and I will continue to post them, weather or not someone else reads them.  At least I'll have a journal to come back to in a few years and go "wow, how did I ever make it??? I was so green!"