Reboot Real Estate Investor Biz 2013

 Hello Bigger Pockets community.

My name is Strat V. and I have rebooted my real estate investor biz. I will be sharing what exactly I am doing and feedback is welcome, especially from seasoned real estate investors. First I will give some back ground about my experience for better or worse. I am not looking for negative criticism, I do that to myself regularly. After my background experience, I will chronicle what I am doing, and please, I am not necessarily looking for advice, more importantly, I am hoping to chronicle my past as well as present trial and tribulations within this industry.

I first became interested in real estate investing over 10 years ago and went to a local REIA to find out more info from local investors and I still go to meetings now more than ever. I would attend meetings, listen to the speakers hawking their products and write down everything I could. Over the years, I have bought countless education products on many aspects of real estate investing. As we know, what worked last year, doesn't work today. The market is always changing and I believe that in order to stay alive in any business, you must adapt to the market or it will be very frustrating. I have a long history or trial and error, half measures resulting in little to no success. However, I have one valuable thing that you can not buy, relationships with local investors. Networking with competent investors that have experience and that have weathered the storms of the changing market place. I have seen "investors" come and go, but in my opinion, those that I have met nearly a decade ago and are still going strong are the real investors, my mentors that I have stayed connected with. 

I would go strong and learn as much as I could, spending money on courses, seminars and training always running out of money and getting frustrated. I am sure it will continue to happen however, this time is different. Why? Because I am done spending money on training and coaching. I still believe it is good to invest in training and coaching but with a limited budget, forums and communities like Bigger Pockets online and local reia's are great ways of mitigating the costs of training and coaching while concentrating more on marketing.

I have a confession to make. Ready? In all the years of my futile attempts in real estate investing, I never really concentrated on marketing. I would make excuses or run out of money from buying courses, training and seminars. I still try to keep current with the market trends but the amount of gurus past and present are overwhelming. I have decided to take what I have learned and continue to learn by networking with successful real estate investors.

I am college educated. I am in debt with student loans. My plan is to continue working a job(s) to fund my marketing. I have borrowed money from my pension (borrowed) to fund my real estate investor biz, to start it up. I have nothing to lose. The pension loan is being deducted out of my pay check as long as I continue to work there. I have other jobs, I live pay check to paycheck. It is a painful life lesson, sometimes overwhelming but none the less, I will succeed or die trying.

For better or worse, I have online databases I use to find motivated sellers and cash buyers. I am concentrating on what is called reverse wholesaling but I would be interested in rehabbing if the numbers are right. Despite my training, seminar and courses, I do NOT know everything, as a matter of fact, I am a forgetful type, another challenge for me to overcome. I have systems to remember, memes and to do lists. I have invested in technology to help me along my way. I remain teachable, open minded and determined. 

I started an LLC back in February 2013 but will use that for buy and hold. I have met with a local attorney after doing my "due diligence" , consulting with other local real estate investors that will tell you, I can not tell you what kind of legal entity to form. So, I look at what they are doing, the investors I have known for nearly a decade, I will emulate my mentors. I started an S corp for wholesale and rehab. My llc will be for buy and hold. I have an attorney. I have a website but need to set up squeeze pages for sellers, buyers and bird dogs. I am debating on using bandit signs. I will most likely spend more marketing money towards online and direct mailings using the two online databases I invested in.

This past week was my first mailing. I did not use yellow letters. Everybody is using them. I am not sure if that is what I want to do, I want to stand out. I have my own mailing system using my online databases but I will tell you that I hand write all my envelopes and use first class stamps. I sent out 92 letters, 58 on Tues, the rest today. I have received two calls, one left a message, I have to follow up. I will be using a script that builds rapport. The first few questions of the script are about building rapport. However, I can not get my printer to work for script so I might write it out by hand. Then I will call this individual back and get his info. Afterwards, send out info to colleague to run comps. I am still looking for real estate sites that give accurate comps but I fear the MLs is the only way.

I registered a domain name after careful thinking about how to brand it. I believe that branding is important. All the business seminars and courses suggest it also, but I believe it is common sense, if such a thing exists. Before I even had the site up, I mailed out my letters, not using yellow letters. I put my site name up and used a local google talk number that can be forwarded to any number and it has voice mail and text for free. I got a call but did not have my site up yet, no message. I quickly put up the site, 3 pages, not really a squeeze page yet. Got another call, a message interested in finding out my offer. I need to do that asap. Call them back, get info, do comps, call back, give offer...

Lets see what happens.