Mark's Millionaire Mindset (M³) Journal

This was on a flyer with an item I purchased online:

ATTITUDE

In addition to friendship, attitude is one of the few things in life where we have a true choice. We cannot change what is fated to happen or the actions of events or other people.

What we can change is our reaction to such things with the attitude we adopt. In truth, our attitude can be more important than anything we do. It can make or break families, companies, and nations. It is more important than schooling, talent, looks, or wealth.

How we react is everything and our attitude is the choice we have; it is a choice we make every minute of every day. It is a state of mind that no one can take from us. If we are in control of our attitudes, we are in command of our lives. And that is the best way to live.

I finished two more lessons in my SA courses.
Participated in two teleconferences, one dealing with RE agents and the other about finding the value of a property and what to offer on it.
Missed out on a property that was on CL. Seller was VERY motivated, selling because they relocated due to their job. Their cash offer was more than 50% off FMV, property was free & clear. I figured I would make between 5 to 9 thousand from an assignment or over $30,000 if I was able to sandwich L/O it. Unfortunately somebody else had already gotten to it by the time I found out about it. But it goes to show you that there are properties all over the place that you can get great deals on.
My former landlord called me today, trying to get me to join some money saving deal involved with the electric company. Wrote the info down and told him I'd get back to him if I felt like it was a fit for me.
He does rehabs full time and I asked if he would mind if I put him on my buyer's list, he said no problem, Gave me his property criteria and told me money isn't an issue as long as he turns a decent profit. He's currently getting his leads from an agent so he should be quite happy with the deals I'll bring him.
I can feel everything starting to fall into place. My journal may not sound like much, but there are things happening in my life that one can't put down on paper (e-ink?). My horizons are expanding.
I'll definitely be at the EDGE next year.

I've never heard of anybody doing this, this idea popped into my head as I was brainstorming on how I could've made money on that CL property I mentioned in my previous post.
The thinking goes like this, get a property on a L/O with sub-leasing allowed.
Clean up the property to be presentable then hold an open house and have a non-binding silent auction type format.
Have a form with columns for the person's name, phone number, amt of non-refundable deposit,monthly rent amt, length of term (say anywhere from 3 to 7 yrs) and purchase price.
You would list the minimums at the top of the form. Something like Deposit would be what you will give the owner plus $2000, monthly rent min is payment to owner+$200, Length of term (3 yrs min for some cash flow), and purchase price could be double amount of yours to owner.
It's basically the same auction format Dean teaches in his book, just applied to a L/O instead.
Let me know how it works out if you do one.

I've been pretty discouraged lately at calling re agents. Most of them don't understand what we're trying to do and how they will benefit from it. It's not them misunderstanding me but not being open minded to new ideas.

Well, jbtoggs posted a thread regarding fear (see it here) that got me moving again and yesterday I started calling agents and found one to work with.

He sent me a list of towns with the number of cash purchases made in each one, not what I asked for...

Called him up today and spent almost an hour and a half with him. He was really patient with me and answered all my questions. I will be getting at least two lists tonight of different search criteria. The MLS in our area is antiquated and doesn't allow for searching through the description area for terms like as-is, vacant, must sell, etc. So we discussed what we can and can't search for, which was a great help as I won't be wasting his time with futile searches.

Also found out what other investors are doing around here, where and why. He works with other investors and has done assignment of contracts and has done rehabs of his own too. He's a licensed Realtor in two states and handles most of the paperwork electronically and allows e-signing of documents.

I think I got a winner here, keeping my fingers crossed.

For those of you feeling discouraged and hopeless like I was, keep pushing on. Somewhere, out there, is somebody that will be a good fit for you and make life a little bit easier.

Moving on!

Whenever I purchase something off the net I research it to find the best prices.

So, for me (because shipping varies for each person), the following is what I ended up getting:

From Signwarehouse.com I got the sign stakes -
A box of 50 for $36.00 + $21.22 UPS Ground
Stakes Total Price = $57.22

Direct Link to Stakes page: http://www.signwarehouse.com/SU-CP-p-SS-END-STAKE.html

Update...
**Now for the sheets I used wmplasticsinc.com and had nothing but trouble with them. They had no charts on the site to see how to order to get the proper rib (corrugation) direction. Apparently I got it wrong the first time and sent it back at my expense. The replacements came in white, which was the managers fault, Returned at their expense. Third shipment was 46 pieces (triple counted) instead of 50 pcs. Pretty much gave up right then and there. Keeping an eye on my credit card statement, if they can't handle a 50 pc order I can only imagine what the charges are going to look like.

Moral of the story? It doesn't always pay to get the cheapest. Stick with signwarehouse.

A great forum about bandit signs written by bamagirl6730 is here: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/marketing-buyers-and-sell...

Last week I called on a "I Buy Houses Cash" ad on Craigslist and left a msg. Last night while making supper he called back. Turns out he's a RE investor buying up rental properties at a certain price point. Says he can close with cash, usually within 2 weeks. Another buyer added to the list!

On my to-do list is to get my RE atty and title companies on my team, call another "we Buy Houses" ad in a local newspaper online classifieds. I'm also thinking of virtual bird-dogging for some fellow investors as they aren't as computer savvy as I am. Will have to see how that pans out as my marketing skills improve.

Onwards & Upwards!

I was getting tired of having to scroll through & read practically each ad on Craigslist to find those in my cash buyers targeted area. While Google-surfing around I tripped over this nice little gem of a site. Here's how to use it

Start with opening a tab going to your Craigslist area site of choice, click through to the real estate for sale listings. At the top of the page there is a search area. Select the number of bedrooms you want. We'll use "2" for this example and then click search again. When the results have loaded up, go into the address bar of your browser and copy the full url (address).

Now, open another tab and go to: http://www.earthify.org/ and paste your CL address you just copied into the box under "Option 1:Form" and then click on Submit.

After a few seconds...

This will take the listings from your CL search and map it on google maps. On the left under "mappable listings" you have your CL ads, click on each one and the description will come up on the map pointing to the corresponding place marker. Click down the list until you find the areas you're interested in and view the listings. You can zoom in/out on the map with your mouse wheel.

There may be a way to number or letter the listings so it's easier to correspond them to the map but I haven't found it yet.

Don't forget this is based on our 2 bedroom search example. You can play around with the different search settings to get different listings mapped out. For example you could search for 3bd, real estate - by owner (drop-down menu) and others. Just remember to copy the address and paste it into earthify every time you do a different search.

Have fun!

Drove around for about an hour today looking for vacants, FSBOs and others.

Found:
- 1 3-unit REO (by BOA)
- 4 FSBOs
- ~8 vacants
- 2 tax auction leftovers from last year

Got some homework to do!

Found a nifty cash-flow program that analyzes cash-flow for your properties, whether buying, selling or wholesaling.

From the software description:

It doesn't allow for insertions of pictures and other minor issues. But overall I think it's a keeper.

This IS a squeeze page (not mine and am not affiliated), so opt out after you download the software if you wish.

Link (software program is on the right):
http://www.realestateinvesting-gurureview.com/

One more thing, you download it as an .exe file. I scanned it with AVG antivirus and it came out clean, for those of you that are cautious about such matters.

Enjoy!

I just pledged $20 to help somebody go to the EDGE 2012 this year.

I'm challenging all of the Skyping DG'ers out there to match my pledge... Or even out-do me!

Let's make this happen!

Link to thread:
http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/deans-gain-edge-event/100...

Pay it forward.

Hello Mark,
I began reading your journal this afternoon but you have been taking so much action that I had to return to it this evening to catch up.
All I have to say is that you have been on quite a tear taking positive steps to build your business from scratch. And... it shows through too that you are quite tech savvy. I downloaded the wheres-my-money app to take a look at it.
I find it interesting to see many individuals in here getting started in the right way. I started much longer ago and although I took action, in many ways it was not the right actions and I am finally coming around back to where others are that are just getting into the game..... building buyers lists, creating Power Team, etc.
SO. Just wanted to stop by and greet you and wish you well on your continued RE journey!

Roger Schafer
Jaguar Investment Group, LLC

Thanks for the inspiring comments. As you can see from my profile I actually started visiting dg. com back in January 2011.
Thank you for the compliments regarding the action I've taken. Personally I don't feel like I'm moving as fast as I can or should be. The 30 days to RE Cash is ending up being like 6 months instead lol.
Just remember, even if you only made one phone call today and that was the only thing you did RE-wise, it's still one more than yesterday and one less than tomorrow that you have to deal with.
We all have our pitfalls, our ups & down (God knows I've had mine). We just have to persevere and push through.
Real Estate is where our future (and present) success lies. It will be what allows us to rise above the 98% that don't do anything to improve & change their lives for the better.
OK, I think I'll cut this short before it requires 2 days to finish reading this reply LOL.

Fear sucks, but not changing and being stuck in a rut for the rest of your life sucks way more.

The only limit to our success is our imagination!

Regarding your comment about individuals getting started the right way vs how people were starting out a few years back. You have to remember that the housing market has been in the dumps for a while now so you have more people sharing their insights and experiences which is spreading to others. On top of that you have Dean put out a highly condensed action plan (30 Days to RE Cash) that is unlike anything out there.
People have Dean's latest book and dg. com to complement it and it's no wonder why people are taking the right action and moving quicker to their first deals than ever before.
Thanks to Dean and people like you and I on dg. com.

As a famous chef says:

Another Notch!

You're moving right along at a steady productive pace.

Alot of ppl try to go too fast and mess up-then quit

When I started out, I didn't know about assignments,L/O,OPM,sub-to's,or any of the 'creative' techniques. I DID know numbers, and thats what got me going and was able to quickly visualize profit by just by looking at the numbers.

After I re-started the right way (as Roger above) things took off and as they say, the rest is history.

Best wishes on your REI journey

Thanks for your point of view, all true and real.

I didn't know anything about real estate in the beginning either, which was technically back in 2009-2010. I even had Carlton Sheets' course but that was an information bomb with no sense of direction.
Saw this guy on an infomercial late one night and there was something different about him. He wasn't in it just for the money and was genuine and sincere.
Grabbed his books, became a member of dg. com and promptly hit info overload. So I kept reading everything and it started to click together and make sense.
And here I am today!

Put up a handful of bandit signs Saturday morning and got two calls a few hours later. One is a 3/1 1100sq ft house in which they also want to sell the adjacent 1 acre lot with it too. Making some progress on this one. Even though it doesn't meet any of my current buyers' specs, I know if I can hit the right price that won't be a problem. It's an older house (1900) so I'll probably sandwich L/O this one. We'll see.
Also set up a sign at a U-Haul (with their permission) and they said they'd be more than happy to allow me to leave business cards there too as well.
Oh yeah, not taking the bandits down Sunday night either. I want all the people in the morning rush hour to get an eyeful of them.

That's it for now, onward & upwards!!

Thread and for sharing the links back to your journal. Like how you are mapping out your progress. Seeing it here I guess helps keep you accountable. Hmm, probably I need to do the same thing. Best wishes!

OK, for those of you interested, I actually only put up SIX signs this past Saturday. Yes, you read that right.

Remember the top 3 rules of Real Estate?
1 Location 2- Location 3- Location.
That applies to Bandit Signs as well.

Click Here for a picture of the exact wording I used.
So I thought this through...One thought was: Maybe the sign police call you because you flooded the town with your signs, so that's why I went with a small quantity.
Next thought was: What locations will be the most viewed? To that end I put them:
- 1 at a Walmart exit
- 2 Diagonally across from each other at a major 4 lane intersection
- 1 at a light leading in/out of a decent sized plaza
- 1 at a U-Haul (with their permission)
- 1 where two major routes split (at a light)

Take a guess which one hasn't produced yet? U-haul!

**side note, also tried to put one up at a thruway(highway) intersection exit/entrance median but couldn't time the red light right to try. Would've definitely yielded calls, will try next time.

So for the results so far:
Sat - 2 calls
Sun - 0 calls

Oh, did I mention I wasn't going to pull them out Sunday night either? Yeah, when's the most traffic after the weekend? Monday morning rush-hour.

Mon - 4 calls
Tue - 4 calls
Wed - 1 Very Special call - Talked with caller, been doing this for 25 yrs and wants to sell 2 of his cash flowing properties. Oh, and he's interested in being a PML as well as a call-in mentor for me. Can't put a price on that!

Property for sale break down:
2 - 2/1
1 - 3/2
1 - 5/3
2 - 3/1
1 - 3 unit
and 3 mobile homes

Also, one of the sellers wants to move to Prescott, Arizona and plans to rent (a 3/2 $800/mo max). He's looking to rent so he's not rushed in looking for his next house there. Any DG'ers willing to pay me a bird-dog fee for this client after he sells his house let me know.

Number of sign cop calls: 0

UPDATE: After over 2 weeks only 1 or 2 signs are remaining. One even, somehow, made it on the front lawn of the city's code officer's home. Nice! He left a voice mail and I quote: "I found an illegal sign on my property with this number on that. Something about buying houses. If you want your sign back to you can call this number." I googled his phone # and that's how I found out he's the code officer. I decided to let him keep it.
I'm using a google voice number stacked on a tracfone. If you google my number you find the location of the exchange where the number is registered at. The exchange is about an hour and half away from me.
Due to the quantity of signs remaining the call volume has dropped which is good actually because I've been busy with the sellers that have called. Read more in my latest update Here (at time of writing)

Thanks for stopping by and the great comments.
Everybody has their own place and time. We all will find what will enable our success through different channels.
Some take longer to reach their first deal than others. As long as you're moving forward you're doing great!

And always by home depot. Lowes, or other hardware stores are a great place as well.

Great to see that you're out there taking action by putting out bandit signs. Today, I actually put some flyers out. Went to local places with bulletin boards like libraries and laundromats. Got 2 reliable people on my buyers list so far and now I'm trying to find some awesome deals. I can smell the 1st deal right around the corner!

Best of luck!

Keep going Millionaire Mindset!! Doing great Mark!!

Taking action everyday = love it!

God bless,
Jen

Thanks for stopping by Gabriel. That's awesome that you're making such progress too!
Yeah, I've been smelling & drooling over that first deal for too long now, time to make it happen!

bamagirl6730 wrote:

Keep going Millionaire Mindset!! Doing great Mark!!

Taking action everyday = love it!

God bless,
Jen

Thanks for the encouragement Jen! You've been a major motivator for me, watching your trials & tribulations from the sidelines. Now it's time to make it happen!

As much as I admire diamonds as the next person, I wont take what I haven't earned yet. Also, I'm sure that the diamond will be removed sooner than my first deal. If not, this site has some issues! LOL
But seriously, I see your point, and am definitely striving to reach that first deal.

After you've talked to sellers for a while you get a feel for who's truly motivated and who's just kicking the tires.
One seller stopped returning my calls, no prob.
Another said the well on the property was shared with the adjacent property. After calling him back and telling him my attorney said that has to be taken care of first before anything else can proceed he twisted his story by saying that the well was on his property and that the neighbors could tap into IF they wanted to. Umm, sure, and you would mention this in a sale why? Then he tells me he's going to sell the house through his realtor/friend. OK, you have my number, call me if you change your mind.

Offer was accepted on an estate sale, lady (executor) is selling her mother's house.
ARV of ~$37,000. Putting under contract this Saturday for $10,600. Needs a new furnace, some windows, bathroom rehab finished and regular updating.

Called an attorney, says he's been a RE atty for over 35 years. This immediately raised some flags as I'm thinking traditional strategies. He says he'll work for me as he understands what I'm doing. He's wondering how he'll get paid for looking over my contracts if I'm neither buyer or seller at closing. I said we can either take it out of my assignment fee or just do a per contract fee. He normally charges $525 to do closings.
I'm calling another RE lawyer today, see if I can get somebody a little more 'outside of the box'. The previously mentioned lawyer gives me an impression of rigidity.
I'm also calling on agents again lol, as the latest one didn't pan out either. Sooner or later something's going to happen.

One of the sellers I have is a landlord that's selling two of his properties (previously mentioned in my bandit sign post). Checked his name out in the tax records and he has over 20 properties. If I pull this one off right I could possibly be his go-to seller for the rest of them.

I also have a casual bird-dog too. The reason I say casual is that properties drop into his lap all the time in conversations he has with people. He's a very talkative/social person and he'll send me leads and get paid if they close. It's a way for him to make extra money in the normal course of a day for him.

One last item of interest, I got accepted in the Only REIA in the whole county last week! Woohoo! There's over 100 members and the majority are landlords. Next meeting is on April 17th.

That's it for now, Onwards & Upwards!

You are so incredibly organized! It made me laugh when I saw this post! But not AT you. I think you're awesome!

Then, I looked again at your profile and saw that you were previously a machinist. That explains it all. My Dad was for years and years a machinist and a tool and die maker. I know that that work is SO detailed. As he would tell me, down to the thousandth of an inch! Now I understand why you are a perfectionist.

Don't change! You are such an asset here.

We will be having our diamond parties soon.

Karen

If you seem to be struggling along trying to make real estate investing work, put up Bandit Signs!
The calls will start coming in and this will be one of the most intense & quickest learning periods of your RE career.

Why this works: It's pretty simple actually, if you don't follow through and keep up with it, you'll lose the deals. Think of it this way, people are calling you with blank checks, it's up to you to fill them in so they can be handed over to you.

Make it happen!

If I'm not mistaken, haven't you done a bunch of L/Os? You should have like a diamond necklace by now! I have a particular Bulova watch in mind that has a diamond in it for my first "diamond deal".

Regarding my being a machinist, that was one of the best (and longest) jobs I've ever had. You had to use your head on a daily basis in a myriad of ways. FYI, I worked with thousandths of an inch (.001") all the time, we even went to half a thousandths (.0005") at times. It was quite a fun job. I miss the mental engagement of the daily routine there but I definitely don't miss working for somebody else!
So you know though, I was an organizational type of person before I ever became a machinist. Well, not when I was a teen, but afterwards, you know...

Thanks for stopping by Karen!

Hi all! I know it's been a little while since I last updated.

Last Saturday I went to a seller that I got off one of my bandit signs that's selling her mother's house as part of the estate. We filled out the contracts but didn't sign them so she could have everything checked out by her attorney. I had asked permission to put a for sale sign in the front to get buyers and she happily agreed.
I put the sign up about 8pm Sunday night and up to now (4/4) I have put 3 cash buyers, 2 retail buyers and one contractor on my lists. I also have the criteria from all interested parties for future sales.

Talk about getting laser focused!

Here I was, thinking that very few would be interested in this quite distressed house and I was totally wrong. Now I gotta find more!

I'll announce the numbers when the deal goes through.

I don't drive due to my vision so I searched for local, walking distance real estate attorneys around me.
Last Tuesday (3/27) I talked to one that hemmed & hawed about how he's been in the business for 35 years and, quite frankly, kept blowing smoke. He charges $175/hr and the soonest appointment with him would have been after looking to put the first house under contract, but I set the appt anyways.
The day after (Wednesday), I was still feeling quite annoyed with this attorney and started searching again. Called another atty and left a msg. He called back and understood what I was doing. We spoke on the phone for 1 1/2 hrs. He called the next day to make my appt for Friday. Yes!
He charges $125/hr and knows exactly what I'm talking about, has participated in closings with assignments and double closings and knows who to refer me to if it's something out of his capabilities.
Met up with him on Friday for him to review my contracts and agreements and to learn more in-depth how things are done in our county. We talked for an 1 1/2 hours again and he only charged me the $125. $125 for 3 hrs total consultation, can't beat that!
Needless to say, when I got home and canceled the appointment with the first attorney.

Another piece of the puzzle put into place.