Hey, BP my name is Jamahl Cochran, and I am a new real estate investor working in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. But, I'm originally from New Jersey. Stay warm jersey spring and summer are just around the corner.

I've been to a couple of seminars and even paid about 40 bucks for a seminar on short sale investing program from a local group B.R.E.I.A down in fort lauderdale. The information was great but the networking was even better. Got a chance to speak to folks who've done millions in deals to newbies who haven't even sent out a letter.

So I haven't really had the chance to go through BP in great detail actually got this website from someone I met at a seminar. But, I've read a couple ebooks on REI and went through Robert Allen audio program.

So where I'm at is I am at a point that I know enough to know that I don't know anything about REI. But, I'm going forward to learn from doing through my first series of yellow letter marketing.

Have bunch of white envelopes and colored envelopes and will be handwriting letters focusing on buying properties of people in lis pendens and that are underwater on their houses. Also, I'm looking for leads in lis pendens for over a year. So they know they will have to do something. I'm wanting to help them out of a tough financial situation so they can move on with their lives and not have that burden effecting everything in their life. Whether it be a short sale or another direction but helping them be proactive and addressing and overcoming the situation.

I am basically doing this to put into practice what I've learned. I don't have a mentor but a few folks I've networked with will work with me on deals. So this post is for me to send out my first batch of 100 letters in my own zip code that fits the criteria. There is a website I'm using REIFAX.com to filter lis pendens and will verify with county record search and county appraisers website. I have the envelopes, stamps, yellow paper, red pens, and some samples of good copy so all thats left is filtering the leads and getting everything written.

I will have this done and mailed by 6 pm Sunday February 16th. Time to get started and learn from some mistakes

Are you planning on bringing your deals to the BREIA guys to flip them? I know they claim they avg $24k net on their short sale flips/deals...but I don't believe it. If not, how do you plan on reselling/flipping them? It's tough to flip short sales for a profit. Everybody is mailing to preforeclosures, and much of the reifax data is outdated...sold properties, foreclosures complete, etc.

Wayne thanks for your reply. I'm aware that reifax data is outdated. I will be verifying lead info with county records and appraiser sites. This is more of a trial run to see if reifax can be a viable tool. Do you have any suggestions for gathering and sorting through leads. Just using the county records website alone seemed like an impossible job. Reifax able to really organize and filter leads fairly well.

As for the deals I thought of reaching out to BREIA guys but I think they focused on the people in their mentor program although I didn't ask I may reach out to them. But I met up with an experienced investor/Realtor who does short sales and has buyers list and negotiator and lawyer he uses for his deals.

My main goal in this is to get started and do something with the knowledge although little and network I've started. I'm not really looking for success in deals per say but success in putting a strategy together implementing the strategy and learning and growing from the results. Hopefully my local connections and great professionals such as yourself on BP will be my guiding light during this journey of growth.

Next week will have letters written and sent to leads then next step are some ads then more letters

Jamahl

Welcome.

You will find many experience people here to answer any questions you will have about real estate investing.

good luck

Hey @Jamahl Cochran Thanks for jumping in and introducing yourself! If you haven't yet- be sure to setup some "Keyword Alerts" to get into conversation in your target area.

Also, if you haven't yet, be sure to check out the The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and The BiggerPockets Podcast. They are both great at learning the fundamentals.

See you around the site!

Hello Guys,

Since you are talking about my REIA and the mentor program I designed I thought I would weigh in! @Wayne Brooks

First of all, we have promoted our mentor program at averaging $20-$25k profits per deal. Our biggest profit in the last 6 months is $58k! We have nothing to hide, so if you doubt what profits we are making for our students come on in my office and I will show you HUD statments!

My partners and I have flipped over 1000 houses wholesale. That is what we do! And in this market place, we specialize in short sale properties. Why? Good luck beating out the Hedge Funds and seasoned investors when placing competing bids on listed REOs! There are also very few properties with equity that are listed, and most sell RETAIL. So that is why we concentrate on marketing directly to NON-Listed preforeclosures.....there is not much competition! In Broward County alone there are over 30,000 homes that are still possible Short Sales.

@Jamahl Cochran

You stated that we only focus on our mentor students. We are the largest Real Estate Investors Association in the state of Florida! So we have an equal concentration on our students as we do with anyone that wants to bring deals to partner, sell and or fund. We are a one stop shop! We have bought and sold almost any kind of property you can think of. We have a list of active buyers that is over 3000 buyers and we sell directly and have direct contacts to Waypoint, Blackstone, and two other major Hedge funds. We also will put up 100% of the funds for any deal.

If you are looking for a reliable source to buy, sell, fund, and or negotiate short sales you should give us a call. We have a 98% success rate in getting short sales approved and selling them for a profit!

And as for REIFAX, we use it everyday. The information is not all outdated. Like any software program, it is not 100%. We teach our students to verify information in public record, and even the public record is not 100% reliable. But I will tell you that I could show you how much more effective and powerful REIFAX is compared to Zillow and RealQuest!

Contact me anytime and we would be more than happy to meet with you and give you any guidance we can, whether you are interested in our program or not.

Originally posted by @Jamahl Cochran :

Hey, BP my name is Jamahl Cochran, and I am a new real estate investor working in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. But, I'm originally from New Jersey. Stay warm jersey spring and summer are just around the corner.

I've been to a couple of seminars and even paid about 40 bucks for a seminar on short sale investing program from a local group B.R.E.I.A down in fort lauderdale. The information was great but the networking was even better. Got a chance to speak to folks who've done millions in deals to newbies who haven't even sent out a letter.

So I haven't really had the chance to go through BP in great detail actually got this website from someone I met at a seminar. But, I've read a couple ebooks on REI and went through Robert Allen audio program.

So where I'm at is I am at a point that I know enough to know that I don't know anything about REI. But, I'm going forward to learn from doing through my first series of yellow letter marketing.

Have bunch of white envelopes and colored envelopes and will be handwriting letters focusing on buying properties of people in lis pendens and that are underwater on their houses. Also, I'm looking for leads in lis pendens for over a year. So they know they will have to do something. I'm wanting to help them out of a tough financial situation so they can move on with their lives and not have that burden effecting everything in their life. Whether it be a short sale or another direction but helping them be proactive and addressing and overcoming the situation.

I am basically doing this to put into practice what I've learned. I don't have a mentor but a few folks I've networked with will work with me on deals. So this post is for me to send out my first batch of 100 letters in my own zip code that fits the criteria. There is a website I'm using REIFAX.com to filter lis pendens and will verify with county record search and county appraisers website. I have the envelopes, stamps, yellow paper, red pens, and some samples of good copy so all thats left is filtering the leads and getting everything written.

I will have this done and mailed by 6 pm Sunday February 16th. Time to get started and learn from some mistakes

@Jamahl Cochran just curious, how did you make out? Did you find reifax.com beneficial?

Well Jamahl, welcome to BP.  As a fellow Floridian (we're all transplants to some degree lol), the best advice I could give you is to watch out for the Florida market.  Profits can be made, but you have to deal with some pretty bloated property values and taxes/insurance that can eat up your cash really quick.  I don't know how it'll affect your fix and flip plans, but it makes buy and hold strategies pretty difficult.

I know that it sucks to hear someone doomsaying right off the bat, but I have to point this out to you because everyone, from the brokers to the realtors to the gurus and whoever, will all lie to your face and tell you a deal is good when it's really suffering from Florida Syndrome (bloated costs and diminished returns).  Be sure you do your own math and run your own numbers to make sure a deal is right for you.

@Jamahl Cochran

BP is a treasure chest full of useful resources. You will find resources here from blogs to pod casts and forums. You can also send messages to members which is my favorite part of the website.

@Jamahl Cochran

 Welcome to Bigger Pockets! It will change your life

Guys the OP started this thread in 2/2014.

I was responding to see if he was still around. 

@Jamahl Cochran Are you still in the real estate business, how did things work out?...The Guys from Breia are real and legit.  Just reacently did a program with them and seen the evolution of some of their students.  I am currently trying to carve out time from my full-time job with out of state travel every month and start my campaign shortly.  That's it for now.