The First Post - An Introduction of Sorts

First a warm hello to all the members of BP who are stopping by to check out my blog. I will begin with a warning. I type very fast and as such tend to write things longer than they need be at times. So bear with me. I will attempt to format things to be easily "skimmed" if need be. So without further ado:

Who am I?

My name is Eric Metz from Little Rock, Arkansas. I am a 29 year old who has been a "jack of all trades, but a professional at non." For The Zig Ziggler fans, I have very much been a "wandering generality", and not much of a "meaningful specific." After a year of college I decided to join the US Army as an Infantry soldier. After 4 years of service and a tour to Iraq, I decided to get out and become a civilian again. I ended up bar-tending and enjoyed the lifestyle. I would eventually move up to management. A company would recruit me to start opening restaurants for them regionally as a manager. After a year I would move to opening facilities as the general manager. I partnered with the owners on one restaurant utilizing a sum of money saved from my military career. It was a financially rewarding job, but I realized that I was working the best years of my life away. The downturn of the economy would give me an opportunity to step away from the business. I lost all the money I invested in a lawsuit which still bewilders me to this day. Lessons learned.

I did a few other little business ideas but I never really saw them through. One day a manager for AT&T would ask me if I was interested in working with him after talking across the bar. I go the job and a year later ended up managing a large department. I've always had the go getter attitude and striven to be my best at what I do. After about 2 year I felt like something was missing in my life. I saw an ad in the local newspaper for the local ambulance company looking to hire new employees through their in house school. After tossing the ideal around for a few weeks, I decided to take the plunge. I in effect cut my pay by almost 2/3 and got nationally certified as an EMT. I love my job now and it's a great feeling to know that I have made a difference in someones life. Within the last 6 months however I would start to get that itch to start my own business again. This would eventually lead me to BP and where I am now.

What are my goals for this blog?

Before I get into things I thought it was important to define what I want out of this blog. I have read a few other forum posts and blogs where others have tracked what they are doing. Some of them really were motivational to me. What I really liked was how it felt they were placing a certain degree of accountability on themselves through the blog. Also it seemed a nice way to keep things organized for some of them. I want to create a blog for those reasons as well as to just let people know who I am and maybe utilize it as a networking tool.

Why REI and Wholesaling?

I have always read books about building wealth and many of the self help titles. Real Estate has always been commonly referenced as a good way to build wealth. I remember seeing a "WE BUY HOUSES" sign in my area and thinking... how do they do that? What is the structure of that business. I called the number and it was an answering machine. I went home and started searching and was lead to BP. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a lot of different articles on REI. That little itch that I had to build a business started to turn into a burning desire. The more I learned about wholesaling, the more I felt I could do it. I could tell that it might be hard work, and I happened to have a little money to start the process. I started researching my local market and realized that there wasn't much competition when it came to the online marketing. This motivated me even more since I am familiar with marketing online and have had good success. I chose wholesaling as my initial strategy since it fit my financial position, and decided to start by focusing my marketing online.

Where Am I At In The Process?

Mostly Organized Chaos. This is about the 3rd month of my taking action. I have a local mentor, I have a website optimized for local SEO, an active Adwords campaign, phone number, a few systems to let me know when I have been contacted through web or phone. I have networked with some local Agents and other Investors. I have been in contact with about 25 +/- leads. Most come through my online funnels.

So how many deals have I closed you ask? Zero. I have a few reasons why I feel this to be the case that I will outline in other posts. I have had a few really motivated callers but just not been able to get them to agree to a wholesale price. I do actually have one in the works right now that is by far the most motivated that I have worked with yet. I should know for sure in the next few days if it will move forward. We are only a few k in price to an agreement. (We as in me and my mentor.)

In Closing:

I believe this should be enough information to give you an idea of where I am at on things. I am working on formatting an outline for my daily posts. If I don't start my daily posts today, I will definitely start it tomorrow. The above post was written in the back of an ambulance while waiting on a call. ;)

Cheers