Centralcalinvestor's Journal

Thank you so much Roberta. I appreciate all the help you are giving me. Everything you and Keith have shown me is working.

Things are picking up now. My bird dog has been feeding me a steady source of leads the past few weeks. Looked at two with him about an hour ago. Met with my Realtor last night. I taught him how to find the cash buyers on the MLS. I've never even been on the MLS before, lol. He knew of a way to find the cash buyers, but after a few minutes I was able to figure out a much more efficient way to sift through the data. And it worked! He was very impressed. He said it literally will save him a day or two of work. Apparently no one else in his office knew how to do it either. Really guys? You guys have been using the MLS for years and it took me 5 minutes. Haha. My agent is also going to connect me with a number of contractors and handymen that I can work with when I need rehab estimates.

My buyers list continues to build from my Craigslist ads. I have 70 other contacts (from other sources) that I still need to make. Plus whatever I get from the MLS, which from what I saw was a lot. My Realtor is putting that together for me.

I put out more bandit signs the other day. Got a call from one of my bandits today. Tried calling the seller back twice, but didn't pick up. I keep my phone blocked so I gave him directions on how to contact me. We'll see what happens.

Adam,

You are rocking! - so proud of you for all the action youre taking, relationships youre building and with so much determination - Great job!!

See you never know how others may not know what they dont know. You just stand where you are and reach out behind you to help and when you do that, I have found in my experience there is always something you can help someone else with.

Good for you for finding a more efficient way. Based on all that we have talked about and I know of you, Im going to call you Mr. Efficient & Effective!

Let's dig into the handyman, cost repair relationships your going to start building. Lets connect about that in our exclusive Tycoon area where Keith and I will provide you the tools you need for that stage of the game, ok?

Look forward to hearing more about where you put your signs, love that you got a call already in less than 10 days!

Dont forget to measure & track where that call came from so you know what signs are working & which one's arent. Understanding ROI (Return On Investment) in your marketing is something we always measure so we can manage the process. The old saying goes: "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" - Peter Drucker

Often the person calling and leaving you a message will tell you on their voice mail how they found you, if not when you do connect with them make sure to always ask (anyone who inquires with you) - How did you hear about us?

Look forward to connecting with you further this week.

Committed to You Multiplying Business,

Roberta E. Eastman
Business Management Medic

I like the part in post #32 about how you had to help your Realtor finding cash buyers on the MLS.I have had to do that before also.I now have software that can do it for me.Looks like you are taking action and are on the fast track.I look forward to reading about your progress.

You and you alone are making this happen. So many people here get started and hit a roadblock and stop in fear. As I stated when we came up that you had a great area to work and all you had to do was work it. Make it happen for you. I am back now from knee surgery so I will be back on our Facebook page tonight. Great job getting stuff done. Now go get some

Yup, I'm all about efficiency. That's one thing I learned in business. Create a system and automate it as much as you can, or teach someone that system and have them work it for you (people leverage).

Building a relationship with a handyman is something I need to do so I'll think of some topics to cover on the Tycoon site.

The bandit sign that got me my latest call was one that I put outside the city limits in a spot where I know there is a lot of high traffic. I drive by all the time. I do monitor my marketing just as you have taught me so I know what's working. My strategy with my bandit signs is to cover every road in/out of each town. My theory is that people have to go through one of those roads to get in and out of town so the odds of them seeing the signs are high. It's gotten me some calls so far and it's only been about 2-3 weeks since I put them up.

Hey Anthony, did you get any good buyers from using the MLS? Just want to see if it's an effective method before I put a lot of work into it. I guess it couldn't hurt to do it anyway right? I'm curious, what software do you use to get your buyers?

It took me a while to get up the courage to take action but now that I am out there making contacts with buyers, sellers, agents, title companies, etc; it's really not that bad. Like I told you on the phone the other day. What's the worst that could happen if I fail? I can't get fired from this. I'm the boss! I know that if I continue doing what I'm doing, success will be sure to follow. I'm just having fun doing this.

I had 2 meetings back to back with two sellers. One was a seller getting divorced and his house is slightly underwater. I gave him two options. We could either do a short sale or we could do a subject to. I told him the main difference would be that the short sale would be bad for his credit and the subject to would help rebuild his credit. The seller didn't like the idea of walking away from his home with no cash, which I don't understand because he's underwater and facing foreclosure. Does he really have any other options? He was almost $13,000 behind on payments. If he wasn't so behind on his payments I may have been able to give him a few thousand to walk away by doing a subject to. So nothing has become of this one. I told him to think about it and to contact me if he decides he wants my help.

The other seller was a mess. The guy didn't even know if he owned the house or not. He said he had the deed, but couldn't find it. I don't know if that's true or not. His mother past away about a year and half ago and left it to the kids, which actually turned out to be his sister. Problem is that he doesn't get along with his sister and they do not talk. How he's living in this home if his sister owns it and they do not get along, I have no idea. I gave him a list of information and documents that he needs to find for me in order for me work with him. And he needs to get his sister involved too. I'm pretty sure he's not going to do it because I can tell that he's not the type to go through the effort. It's too bad because if he does get foreclosed on he will be out on the streets. I want to help him, but he needs to help himself first. It's that kind of situation. If he contacts me and has everything in order, I guess I'll see what I can do. Other than that I'm not going to bother with this one.

So two that probably will end up with no results. Do I see these as failures? Have I hit a roadblock? Should I give up? ABSOLUTELY NOT! If anything this has given me more motivation to continue because now I have more experience to deal with the next ones that come along. That's the way I see it.

Got another bandit sign call this afternoon. From the same intersection as my last bandit sign call. I ended up spending 40 minutes on the phone with this guy. I know it's not usually supposed to be that long, but he was telling me about how he is a promoter and a DJ, so I was telling him about some bands that I might get him in contact with. Then we got into a conversion on how he may be able to promote my business. Seemed like a really cool guy and I enjoyed the conversation. Built some rapport with him at the very least. You never know what opportunities may come down the road.

He wants to get rid of his 3/1. Problem is he wants to walk away with some money to rent a better home or apartment and he may owe more than it's worth. I'm going to have my Realtor run some comps tomorrow at our meeting. I was thinking subject to until he mentioned he had a loan with a private lender at 11%. I did some math and it looks like it is more like 14%! Then after I got off the phone, I started doing more research and found that he is also $2,700 behind on taxes. He didn't mention that and it's my bad for not asking. I also found that the house right next door sold for only $16K! His house was paid off but then he took out a $50K loan back in July 2008. Bummer. So I'm not sure if there is a deal here or not. Either way, I'm going to stop by and check out the house, just for the heck of it. And being that he is a promoter, he said he has a huge network of people (roughly 20,000 people) so I want to be there to hand him some business cards and see if he wants to do some bird dogging for extra cash. Constantly building connections.

Consistently sending out yellow letters each week.

Sent out a nice batch the other day to Pre-forclosure prospects and to MLS cash buyers.

Looks like you have it going on in several areas now adam. Great job getting things going..Tycoon info if you need help..Keith

I just read your response to my post. I'll send you a PM with my contact info. We can cover a lot more in a shorter amount of time in a conversation. I also agree it couldn't hurt to do it anyway...you never know until you try.