All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I use Achieve Planner.  Should help.

http://www.effexis.com/achieve/goal-setting-softwa...

Around $100, from what I remember.  Good tutorials to let you hit the ground running.

Originally posted by @Katie Rogers:

look at this problem from the couple's perspective.  

 What about her perspective?  She is now an owner of a home with squatters, regardless of the past circumstances.  The new owner still has to pay the mortgage, regardless of the past circumstances.

Perhaps someone does, but it's NOT the new owner.  There should be no conversation between the new owner and the squatters.  All dialogue should be done through certified mail from this point forward. 

Whatever got the squatters into this situation is irrelevant to the new owner.

Perhaps another persepctive...

Imagine you come home and there is someone in your home.  You can't get them out quickly.  And yet, you have to pay your note, or you will lose the home.  You have to pay insurance, or you risk tremendous financial loss because of these people. 

They tell you they lived here in the past and just want to hang out for free, as they've been wronged in some manner, which has nothing to do with you or your family.

What do you do?

I know what I do.  It's not having a conversation.

Maybe I'm heartless.

Maybe that's the perception I give.

If that's the perception people hold, it doesn't bother me much.

I don't buy a home to allow squatters to occupy it for free, regardless of their past circumstances.  My opinion is the original poster needs to start eviction immediately.  Accept no payment under any circumstances.  All dialogue is to go through attorneys.  The only time she should ever see them in person is the day the sheriff comes during the set-out.  Period.

Keep rockin',

Originally posted by @Mara Witt:

I don't have a property in mind, 

Look at it from the banks perspective.  What do you bring to the table?

No property.
No equity.

No deal.

Just a desire.  What is it that you're truly expecting them to do?

Go fill out an application for a refinance if you want.  They'll start paying more attention to you.  I don't think you'll get anything out of your refinance, but they'll pay more attention.

Since you asked everybody's opinion, I will throw mine in the ring.

• Keep educating yourself.
• Wholesale to make extra cash if you wish.
• Keep paying down your credit cards.  Get the balance to zero.
• Keep paying on your home.  Make a move with your primary home after five years of equity build-up (I wouldn't even consider it before then).
• If you really MUST get a deal, find a deal and go into it with a partner.  All the caveats here apply.

Whatever you do, don't stop.  Just keep moving forward towards your investment objectives.

And, contacting three lenders is not a lot of action.  Contact 20.  But, contact them with something actionable.

Keep rockin'.

So, I'm going to offer my expertise here today and become your mentor, for free, on the BiggerPockets forum.

I assume you have big goals and dreams. You are looking for a mentor to guide you by the hand and lead you in the right direction. I'm here to start you on the process. I will make it easy. And, I will do it for free.  No risk to you.

Don't call me.  I will give you condition permission to call me, under only one circumstance:

IF YOU TAKE THIS ADVICE, I want a phone call in a year (seriously) from the time you read this. For, if you take the mentoring advice about to be given, you will be successful in a year. You will have at least one deal under your belt. You will have taken action. You will have gotten results.

This is aimed at two types of people here on BP.

The first type of individual that I’m directing this toward is the complete newbie; that is, the person that has just arrived within the last few days or weeks and is floundering around, having no idea what the next steps are.For you, I recommend following the advice I’m going to give below AFTER you read the Ultimate Beginners Guide at https://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing and make a plan.I am interested in your plan, so feel free to map it out and tag me in the plan.Other people on BP can only hold you accountable to your plan if we know what you’re trying to do.

The second type of individual is really the reason I’m writing this post.This is the individual that has been on BiggerPockets between 6 months and 15 years that has not yet done a deal.I am writing this to you.I want to mentor you.I’m giving you free advice.I’m giving you advice that, if you paid me tens of thousands of dollars, would be the first set of advice I would give you.I would not continue our training until you followed this advice.No refunds.

…

Before I give you the advice, I want you to think about something.

Think about your life; wherever it is and whatever situation you’re in.Whatever it looks like is irrelevant.

Now, think very hard if you continue your current action level (which, thus far, has led to no deals) what will be the results in 5 years?Will you have a deal?Really think about it.

Now, take it out 10 years.You’re continuing the current level of action; the action level that, thus far has led to no deals.Do you have a deal?Did a deal fall in your lap?Answer honestly.This is for you.This is your life.

Now, go out 20 years.20 years is a looooooooonnnnnng time.Based on your current action level, what have you been able to accomplish?Did you get even one deal, or did you continue to play on the sidelines; allowing fear of the unknown and fear of loss to stop you?Is this where you want to be?

…

Are you ready?This advice is super, super simple.

1) Simply stop watching TV.There are so many reasons for this that I could spend a whole blog post writing out why.Simply stop.Regain the two to three hours every night.Let me ask you a question.If your eyes glazed over just now and your mind shut off because this piece of advice is inconceivable to you, put yourself out another 20 years of watching TV.Have you gotten anything from it?(Look back on the last 20 years of you watching TV.Have you gotten ANY value from it at all, outside of distracting entertainment?).

Why not spend those 2-3 hours per night on your dreams and your goals?Why not spend those 2-3 hours a night trying to get to the point where you secure your first (or next) investment deal?Why not?TV IS safer.TV IS comfortable.

TV does not bring you your wishes.TV does not get you your goals.It distracts you from what you want.It lulls you into complacency.It hypnotizes you into the action of nothingness.

Give up TV.Focus on real estate.Get a deal.

2) We, as individuals have approximately 20-35 hours of week of free time.What are you doing with that free time?Do you know what it is that you truly want?

Do you want money?(There’s an underlying reason.Nobody wants pieces of paper with dead notables.It’s the things and experiences that money can get you that you want.What do you want?).

Sit down one evening this week.Give up an evening of TV.Write down the answer to this question.Take all the time that you need.

“What do I want?”Write it down at the top of the paper.

Be as detailed as possible.What do you want?Most people never figure it out.

What do you want?

Do you want to secure your first real estate deal by the end of this year?Fantastic.Get a little bit more detailed.You want to have purchased your first buy-and-hold deal by December 31, 2016; having purchased it with private money.

Awesome.

Now that you know what you want, what are the steps that you commit to in order to achieve it.

"I will spend no less than 1 hour a night, giving up TV to get the extra time, in order to find deals.I will search the local MLS, Craigslist and call 1 realtor every day.If I find a house that meets my criteria (which you better have written out), I will make a purchase offer on the house immediately.I will drive for dollars, to find vacant houses for 5 hours every weekend.I will spend 2 hours every weekend on the GIS website to find addresses, in order to send yellow letters to the vacant property owners.I will answer the phone immediately when people call me, in order to find my next potential property".

Your action plan should be loooooooooonnnnnnnggg.It should detail out everything that you are going to do and focus on.

“I will post my action plan on Bigger Pockets in order that the community can help hold me accountable”.

…

Get out there and take action!What happens without action?What happens if you don’t do anything?

This is my mentoring advice for you.If you are serious about this game, it is requested that you really take some time to think seriously about this advice.

Where will you be in 20 years?It’s all up to you.It’s all your choice.Your destiny and outcome of your life is 100% in your hands.

…

Keep rockin’.

I probably should say my time, or financial freedom, or vacations, or beach living, or escape from the 9 to 5, or something very similar.

But, really, my why is based on what can only be described as a severe psychological issue.

That is, I want to destroy my competition to a pulp.  I want to be number 1 at anything I do.  I don't just want to beat the competition.  I want them to look at me and shoot for second-best, because they know they're not going to come anywhere close to besting me.

You'd think by that description I'm a heartless bastard intent on stifling business competition.  Quite the contrary, I WANT competition.  It's what drives me.  

Indeed, I'm hosting free networking and education classes every month, mostly centered around newbies (although, granted, it's aimed at anyone that wants to improve their investing career).  The reason I take time out of my schedule to do this is multi-fold. 

Ultimately, it will bring more deals to me, organically.  I'm a buyer.  There are some wholesalers.  That's a real estate match made in heaven.

Secondly, though, I know if these investors are trained "right", they will become players in my local area.  There will be a whole generation of people that I know that could very well turn out to be my hardest competitors.  That's awesome.  It will make me work that much harder and more efficiently to be #1.  

(P.S. I'm no expert, and can't say that I know anywhere close to anything to be able to teach someone.  I have three deals under my belt.  When I get closer to a couple of hundred, I'll feel comfortable saying I know better.  Right now, it's sort of my best way to learn as well).

So, may be a weird answer, but I can assure you it comes from deep inside of me, probably someplace dark.

Keep rockin'.

I had always wanted to invest.  Didn't really focus on it, which really means I was never going to do it.

In March 2009, my wife introduced me to poker, which I quickly became enamored with as a game.  I played it all the time; obsessively. 

One weekend in 2015, I was having amother poker game at my house on a Saturday night.

One of the participants came into the room after a break and told my wife and I that our toilet was leaking.  I turned off the water to the toilet and we finished the game.

The next morning, we investigated the problem.  As it turned out, the subfloor had rotted because it had been happening for a while, unbeknownst to us.   Awesome. 

My thoughts at the time were, "Great.  Here's a grand that I'll have to spend for someone to come fix this."

We called a buddy of ours, who had been at the house the night before and was aware of the problem, and asked him for advice on contractors to call.  He chuckled a little bit and told us he could show us how to fix it.  With some gratitude, we took him up on it 

Two days later, the problem was resolved.

My buddy left that day.  Once he left, I turned to my wife and asked her if she realized what had just happened?

Here we were with no knowledge of how to do rehab work.  With his guidance and assistance, we had done something that, two days before, was impossible for us.

The light bulb went off.  We asked him back over that day or the next, after discussing it amongst the two of us, and asked if he and his wife would be interested in partnering up to flip a house.

He said absolutely yes.

So, we found a house. It was a HUD foreclosure. I bought it and quitclaimed it into the LLC I had created for all of us. I took a loan out of my 401k (at 3.5%) for the down payment and rehab. I took a mortgage out for the rest through a local small bank.

7 months later, it sold.  We made a little over 26k on the deal.

So, we bought another one, that we're currently working on.  

My wife and I, with some of the proceeds, also out a down payment on a rental, which we closed on this week.

So, my investing career happened because my wife introduced me to poker.

Good times.

Keep rockin'.

Awesome.  @James Stevens, post back here after looking at the two properties. 

Let us know what you've discovered and whether or not you'll be putting an offer on either of them.  

If yes or no, why or why not (on the offer)?

Ok.  It's been a week since you've posted.  

Post your progress, no matter how much or how little it is.

You've asked for accountability.  You shall have it.

All I did was ask my lender up front if this was ok. I purchase the properties in my name (my name is on the note), close, then immediately (at the same time) quit-claim it to an LLC. This is all done in front of the lender, so no issues.

I'm still responsible for the note, no matter what happens.  If I stop paying, they still have a mortgage lien on the home to foreclose.  It doesn't really change much in terms of my obligations.

"The Real Secret of Success

Choose Your Suffering.

Everything you want in life; every goal you want to achieve; every dream you want to manifest: all comes with a price tag.

Legitimate success in any endeavor requires that you pay upfront, in full and with your own sweat.

There is no other way.

To achieve any goal, you must choose the suffering that is right for you.

Subsequently, you must live with the consequences of that decision.

The moment you choose to not continue to pay the price of success, is the moment you choose to suffer the consequences of failure, which is, the WORST kind of suffering.

The suffering cost of failure is ALWAYS higher than the suffering price of success.

The cost and consequences of success in a job, relationship, career, or any area can cause a monumental amount of disruption and chaos in your life.

Here are some examples of the suffering costs of failure:

If you lack financial discipline, you will suffer the consequences of debt, harassing bill collectors and sleepless nights.

If you do not manage your diet, you will suffer the cost of diabetes and poor fitting clothing.

By not keeping your promises or honoring your commitments, you will suffer the loss of reputation and contaminated character.

Sooner or later, each of us must choose to pay the price of success or pay the cost of failure.

Sooner or later, you will come to the understanding that you MUST choose your suffering.

The price of success is often more than people are willing to pay. But, it's not more than they are capable of paying.

Here are some example of the suffering costs of success:

If you suffer the cost of disciplined spending and investing habits, you will have peace of mind and an early retirement.

If you suffer the cost of daily exercise and nutrition, you enjoy a great physique and an exception quality of life.

By suffering the cost and inconvenience of going the extra mile for your clients, you will enjoy bigger commissions and increased opportunities in life.

By suffering the cost of preparation and doing more than what's expected, you will enhance your reputation, expand your opportunities and increase your social capital.

The price of success is temporary discomfort. The price of failure must be paid forever."

Gary Ryan Blair"

Choice is a powerful thing.  Most of us humans have no idea that we have this superpower.

We choose the path we want to take in life; in everything and always.  

Choose wisely.

Keep rockin'.