2/16/17 - Good Days and Bad Days

Today has not been a great day. I woke up in the night and found it tough to get to sleep. On top of that I had a headache all night. I ended up falling asleep right around the time I wanted to wake up (which is always great) so I slept in a bit. I got up and moving around 7:30 and did my morning routine and was out of the house and at Panera Bread around 8:30.

We are running into a problem that I foresaw. That is, it’s very difficult to find deals on MLS. Most people who list their property have their head in the clouds and if they don’t the deal will be gone in 24 hours with 6 cash offers, inflating the price. I know the solution is to market but I can feel the frustration from my team members as they realize the hardest part is finding a deal.

Every day we refine our method and today is going to be no different. At first we were driving to every property and evaluating it there. We realized after day one that was a bad idea and started picking properties to see the following day but running comps to eliminate some definitely not going to happen deals. Today I realized even that isn’t going to be enough. We are still doing a bunch of unnecessary driving so I’m having to refine.

Right now we have several searches being sent to us each day form the MLS. We have been trying to evaluate properties one by one but instead of just going down through them all randomly I’m going to make our first priority each day to evaluate any properties that are new to the market. This way we can make sure our current pile of potential properties doesn’t get larger and, more importantly, we can see where the investors are going, what they are paying, and if our numbers were correct. And we will have a better chance at getting a deal. We are learning that anything that’s been on the market for very long is either not a good deal at all or the prices at which we investors need to buy is not being accepted. There is still a good case to be made with following up with properties that are sitting on the market for long periods of time so we are going to continue monitoring properties that reach the 120 days or more mark.

So, in summation, priority number one each day is evaluating and making offers on all new properties that come on the market.

Priority two each day is going to be marketing. We haven’t started any marketing yet. We really need to spend time at the courthouse finding probate, divorcee, tax delinquent, and pre-foreclosure info and then contacting them either by phone or mail. I would prefer telephone because I’m good on the phone (self-proclaimed) but it’s not always easy find accurate phone numbers online.

I came up with a refined daily schedule to help me stay disciplined. I have listed it below:

8-10 Spend at the courthouse each morning

10-12 Spend Analyzing/Viewing Properties

12-1 Lunch Break/Relax

1-2 Making Offers

2-4 Mailers, Cold Calls, Driving for Dollars, Viewing Properties, Contractors, Meetings, Home Depot, Making Offers, Admin, Auctions

Sometime between 5-8pm every day have a meeting

I spend the majority of the afternoon looking at properties online myself. Kyle and I then attended our second straight day at the boxing class. It destroyed me! 

Today was an example of why you have to take the emotion out of things and stick to the process. Things aren't moving as fast as we would like plain and simple. And it's easy to get frustrated but the key is to keep on plugging away at the process in spite of how you feel "emotionally".