Hello, everyone! My name is Greg and I have been talking about real estate investing for the past 7 years. I spent tons of time reading articles and posts, setting goals for myself, and doing...well, I didn't really DO anything. Until recently, at least.
I am starting this journal to try to keep myself motivated. I hope to post everything that I do so those who are interested can follow along. Feel free to provide feedback or criticism...all comments are appreciated!
Greg,
Do you think you are alone? If everyone that bought a course or read a book got started, there would be more investors than homeowners, LOL!!
I actually speak on this very topic, and am currently writing a book on it.
There is nothing to be ashamed of, you just lack direction. It is kinda like heading out on a trip without a map or plan. You will loose motivation quickly.
Unforutnatly, all books and tapes do is give you a bunch of info witout a spacific plan of action. You need to know what to do in a spacific order, kinda like bakin a cake!
Set a goal on what you want to accomplish, and see if what you are doin is workin toward that goal, or are you just doin busy work.
If you are interested, I will pull the first thing I give my coaching clients and post it on BP tomorrow. It is a great start to any journey! Keep you chin up, and good luck! :mrgreen:
Great way to hold yourself accountable
keep everyone posted
Happy Investing
I have my first real, legitimate lead.
I sent a batch of probate mailings out on Tuesday. I received a call today from an executor with a home in a nearby retirement community. I was upfront about my intentions, saying that I would not be able to compete with traditional buyers that buy from the MLS. He said he understood my price would be low, but asked me to come see it and make an offer anyway. His brother let me into the house tonight, and I plan on giving him a call tomorrow with an offer.
I wanted to take the extra day to fine tune my numbers, since I'm having a hard time comping it out. The retirement community has a lot of houses for sale, so there is a lot of competition for any rehabbers. My realtor ran a market analysis on the property, and recently sold comps are all over the place. Some as low as the $60's and some as high as the $130's. Pretty much all of the houses in the development are 2/1, with a handful of 2/2's. All are right around 1000 sqft with similar lot sizes. My best estimate is around $80,000 ARV, but I'm very hesitant to move forward.
At this point, I think my strategy will be to explain that houses in retirement communities can be difficult to sell, and we'd have to find an cash investor willing to take the risk and front us the money. I'll use this to justify an escape clause in the contract and try to tie up the property for 30 days. I don't plan on rehabbing the property myself, but I doubt he would have a problem with my assigning the contract as long as it's at the price we agreed upon. I will probably offer in the low $40's and hope to settle around $45,000.
Any thoughts?
To give a quick synopsis on the above deal...
I received a call from one of my probate mailings from an executor who inherited a house from his mother. He seemed at least partially motivated since I mentioned we would have to buy at 65% minus repairs, and threw out a ballpark of $40,000 assuming an $80,000 sale price. He asked me to come take a look at it anyway. It was tough to comp out since it was in an adult community and values were all over the place. I ended up calling up a local investor hoping to get some help, and he set me up with a buyer who was interested.
The buyer arranged a teleconference inspection, where basically I walked through the house taking pictures and he told me specific things to look for. I then sent him the pictures so he could come up with an offer. The numbers he came up with were a $20,000 offer price, $15,000 in rehab, and a $65,000 sale price. The sale price was probably a bit low, but I understand he was probably just being conservative and leaving some room for negotiations.
In the end, the buyers rejected our offer and said they felt they could get much more. I guess they weren't as motivated as I had thought. Regardless, I feel I learned a lot in the process, and at least I can say I have made my first offer on a property. Next time, I will be sure to put more time into identifying their motivation.
In the end, the buyers rejected our offer and said they felt they could get much more. ...
Did you really intend to say buyers there? From context, I expected to see it read sellers.
Keep persisting Greg!! Do not stop!!!!
Sooner or later, that true motivated seller will come into the picture and make all of your hard efforts worth it.
Luis
Its my first read of your posts. Your experience is a big help for all of us trying to find our way into real estate investing. I am a buy and hold investor so I have little experience in birdogging. I would like to see more input for Greg from those on this site who have been successful wholesalers. Thanks again for your courage in posting this.
Greg, I appreciate this post more than you know.
I'm were you were before you wrote this.
Me;
1) purchased a training course & read it front to back.
2) Constructed my business cards, first email for my 1st email campaign and 2 different style post cards
3) have a company name via the web, although I haven't created the site yet
4) still learning and reading...
5) I'm looking into setting up an LLC
After all that, I'm wondering, If we're not holding any properties for ourselves as wholesalers, is there really a need? and in addition, should I get an opportunity to to work else were, I know it's a good Idea to have the llc...
can you explain how the LLC would be helpful?
don't get me wrong I understand what and LLC is and how it is a benefit..
Just trying to gain some incite from someone other than myself.
Thanks...
Sorry for the over kill
Hi Darieal,
The reason I got my LLC was really for peace of mind. My wife and I are very cautious, so we want to make sure we have our bases covered in terms of liability. I've shifted my strategy a bit and am planning on wholesaling instead of birddogging. If it's a good deal, it seems like that is the the option that minimizes my risk and maximizes my profits.
My biggest fear, however, is finding a deal, locking it up under contract, and not being able to find a buyer. I have an escape clause in the contract, but it's a contract I downloaded online so I'm not sure how reliable it is. One of the first things I am going to do once I complete a deal is have my contracts reviewed by a lawyer.
I figure as long as I can get a property at the right price, selling it should not be an issue. This is just another one of those things I'm scared about that can get in the way of being successful with real estate.
Greg,
Thanks you for your response. I've been reviewing some articles on BP and found some interesting information such as; "Avoiding Dealer Classification" which is one thing that I'm glad I found. If you haven't read it, you and anyone else might want to take a look.
Well, it's been a while since my last post. I had decided I didn't want to send out mailings close to the holidays, since I'm dealing with recent probate listings. Afterwards, I had a vacation planned starting on 1/13, so I used that as an excuse to procrastinate further. I also had some trouble with my printer and ended up buying a new one, which wouldn't take the yellow letter paper I had on hand, so I had paper of a heavier weight, etc.
At this point I'm back on track. I mailed out 72 new probate mailings on Friday, and can now say I've received my first angry call. It came this morning around 11:00. When I answered, the caller asked how I had received his information. I could tell right away it wasn't going to be a good call. He asked if I normally sent out mailings without my surname attached, which I replied yes, at which point he started going off about how he was a federal investigator and would be looking into the matter. I let him know it wasn't necessary and would be a waste of his time, and offered to take him off the list. He did give me his name, so he won't be receiving future mailings from me. At the end of the call, it had me doubting whether I was really cut out for this, but I've decided I just need to develop a thicker skin. If this were easy, everyone would do it.
I will admit that he had a valid point. My letters are signed with just my first name. The main reason is that I am a public school teacher, and I mail to the town where my students live. Considering how emotional people can be during the probate process, I'd rather not have my full name included in the mailing. I was thinking of modifying my letter and signing it as "Greg Barry," which is my middle name.
I also set up a webpage today. I used the free page offered by Danny at www.flippingjunkie.com (Thanks, Danny!). I figured that web hosting is so cheap that it was stupid not to set one up. Afterall, I need to commit to this business if I hope to be successful. My hosting is through ipage.com, and was about $80 for two years of service.
One thing that I've been trying to do is record my phone calls when I receive them. That way, I can go back and listen them and figure out how I SHOULD have handled a response. Hopefully it will make me better prepared for next time. I can say this...from my recordings I don't sound very trustworty or confident. I trip over my words, throw in a lot of "Ummms", and generally sound like I have no idea what I'm doing. I guess that will be something that comes with time.
My goals for this week:
Gather more probate data
Print a batch of repeat mailings from previous data
Post "We Buy Houses" ads to Craigslist
Quick update since I don't have much to report. I didn't receive any calls from my last batch of mailings aside from the one I detailed in the last post. Hopefully I'll have more luck this week.
For this week, I'm sending a second mailing to people I originally sent a letter to at the end of last year. I only have about 40 data entries in all, so it's a pretty small batch. I didn't get a chance to gather new probate data last week since I wasn't feeling well, but that's a definite for this week.
I did complete my other two goals for the week, which were to print the repeat mailings and post ads to Craigslist. In addition, I also got a book from the library on investing in NJ tax liens. It's kind of boring, but has some good information. I don't think I'm up for tax lien investing at the current time, however.
Goals for this week:
Gather more probate data
Build up my buyers list
Finish the tax liens book
Can anyone tell me how to research the laws for Bird-dogging in my state?
Second, and would it be better to establish a company to support the services that your providing to another?
Thanks!
P.S. - If my question(s) need clarification, please advise.
-Darieal
Hi Darieal,
I don't think there are many laws you need to be aware for bird-dogging, since you're primarily just researching the property and selling the information. As I understand it, you're not involved in the actual transaction. However, I am still new to this and a may be mistaken.
As for establishing a company, I did it for peace of mind, though I've heard that it is not necessary. If you have very limited resources, that money may be better spent towards marketing.
All,
I've adapted my investing strategy a bit, and am no longer focusing on bird-dogging. Instead, I will be looking to wholesale my properties, in order to get a bigger cut of the profits. That being said, I started a new thread in the wholesaling forum where you can follow my progress.
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93-wholesaling/topics/71351-a-beginners-wholesaling-journey
I will no longer be updating this thread. Thank you for all of your comments, they were a big help to me in getting started.
Greg
I'm somewhat in the same boat as the original poster. I'm a birddogger for a short sale investor with pretty much no experience in the business. I hope to learn a lot on here and hope Greg does well.
Checked in to check Greg's progress and see he finally saw the light and chucked birddogging, because it just doesn't make any sense when the line to wholesaling is just a few inches away. A experienced birddog does 90% of the work of a wholesaler and gets 10% of the pay.
Greg, good luck and keep on trucking, you will be happy you did when it comes time to keep you doctor happy and in a new BMW, remenber the best doctors major in finance and then go to medical school.
Congrats on your new journey. I am starting fresh myself in wholesaling and there is a lot of information. The first step to success is trying and as long as you keep putting yourself out there, you cannot lose. Hope you find success. Wish me the same luck.