Jason Smith's Journal- Tag Team Properties, LLC San Diego

This week I'm going to walk through 10 properties with my Realtor to determine how much repairs are going to be and I'm going to get private
money set up and get my offers going in.

I will recieve my bandit signs this week and plan on putting those out. So in all I should have a great week in setting up my REI business.

I forgot to mention I attended Anita's first REI meeting and enjoyed that very much. The food was awesome and it was great to finally meet Anita.

Hi Jason,

Good luck walking through with your realtor on the 10 properties and hope you will get some offers accepted. Glad that you went to Anita's meeting and she is an awesome lady to work with and be part of our team. Glad you enjoyed the food too.

Warm regards,

Paul T. La Moy

I have been very busy with my Mentor and his Program and it has been hard to keep up on this website.
Update on my business:
1. I have 200 bandit signs out and my phone # goes to an automated answering service who then emails me the answered script so I can pre-screen the lead.
My signs have been up for two months and no leads so far.
2. I teamed up with KimmyJ and we are setting up an LLC "Here we come"
3. I put in about 50 offers so far with my newest Realtor in the last month. This is my 5th Realtor in the past 10 months.
4. I started door knocking on pre-foreclosures.
5. I attend REI meetings regular basis in town and all the way up 3 hours to Anita's meetings.
6. I have a business and strategy notebook to show my Private Lenders. I also have post cards searching for Private Money.
7. I've called about 10 owners of abandon homes.

PUSHING HARD
More to come.
So when you think your doing enough, your not, do more. Every week I'm still growing.

It sounds like things are rolling along for you. Keep up the good work and effort. Looking forward to reading about your futrue deals and progress. Continued success with real estate investing. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Well, it's official. Kimmyj & I are partners.
Our business is called Tag Team Properties, LLC
with two offices in La Quinta & San Diego. We have big plans.
Thanks Anita for starting that thread, "Find a REI Buddy"

Today I signed ten more offers for Apple Valley & Victorville.
That makes about 50 offers in the last month and I'm starting to re-submit offers on the properties that are still available.
Did more door knocking since my leads are really slow right now.
Called a few properties direct to listing agents, offering them double commission.

I have about 3 Private Lenders interested, but haven't filled this hole in our business yet. I also finished a 12 week Mentorship Program. It was twice a week 3 1/2 hours a day. Now it will be, one hour a week for a year.

Even though it took me and Kimmy a long time to get going, I feel it was meant to be this way because our knowledge now is over the top and we're ready to dominate.

It is great to see you back and posting and with lots of positive progress!

Angela

We have raised 200-500k in private money. Very Cool! We're legit CASH buyers now. KimmyJ stepped it up & took over an REI club in her area 5 months ago as the organizer & our contacts have tripled & that's where our private lender showed up.
We still have struggled as the market has changed in our area & we're learning that we have to change with it. I noticed when Anita stopped pursuing REO's through her Realtor & got involved with buying in bulk. There are a lot of investors who have fallen in the trap of bidding up properties here & I'm glad we have a Mentor who taught us well & not fall into the hole.
We still have yet to find our dream team Realtor. I'm on my 6th one & she turned out to be unmotivated or just don't want to put in the time. It really sucks because now I have the CASH & I'm still struggling with these Realtors to submit my 10 offers a week.
Our hole in our system now, is leads coming in. Kimmy has an ad running in the paper & I have had 400 bandit signs go up in the past 4 months, which have brought very little leads & most of the signs are gone now. Once we have cash coming in, I plan on putting up 100 signs a month. We also have been using foreclosures.com to find pre-foreclosures with equity & hired some door knockers. I also network with tons of Investors at REI clubs looking for good wholesale deals but most of them don't lock them up at the right percent. They are wholesaling @70-75% to 75-85% buyers.Looking forward to 2010 as Tag Team Properties, LLC plans on buying several properties every month & raising unlimited amounts of Private Money.
I forgot to mention that I'm still in a Mentorship class once a week for 90 minutes & everyone brings there deals to the call, so you see how different deals are constructed & they all get recorded, so I can go back & listen again.

So excited for you Jason! And Kimmy! Sounds like you all have a great partnership and a great team!

I wish you were in NashVegas (what we call Nashville here) because I would BirdDog for you guys like CRAZY! There are several deals where if I had private money....I would sign up to do it today!

I'm in the middle of a rehab right now myself on my first deal, but I am still working the effort on building the buyer's list, assigning, wholesaling, and would be thrilled to make contact on the private money front and hopeful that I can do so after my next couple of deals (flipping my rehab, etc...).

I'm thrilled for you and Kimmy!

Thanks for keeping us posted on your recent success!
Cheers!
Louisa

Hey Louisa, thanks for checking my journal out. You might want to contact Sissy Treat as she is from Nashville, but I don't know if she's on this site any more.

We have our door knockers in place. I have 2 or 3 & Kimmy has a couple for her area. We are signing up for foreclosures.com & plan on hitting it hard in the next 30 days on pre-foreclosures that have equity & are close to the sheriff's sale.
I have also been networking hard trying to find good wholesale deals. It was really cool going to our local REI meeting with a sticker on my shirt as a CASH buyer. Man I got a lot of respect & got approached often. Hopefully I found some good contacts that will bring in the leads.
Our whole in our business is lack of marketing, offers going out. Another Realtor bits the dust & I need to keep moving forward.

I am still around. I have several houses I am working with right now so I am so busy....it is hard to find a minute to stop by. Good to hear you are doing so well. Teaming up with Kimmy was a great move. I wish all of you well and hope you have a really nice Christmas.

Hi Jason glad things are going great for you and Kimmy. Anitas meetings are great I miss the last one but I'm sure glad she not so far from us. I still have one of your postcards targeting investors with IRA acounts did you work with Lance? I'm also planing to raise private money here in Bako and wanted more info on how raise private money. Cound you give an exsample of the "right percent" for a wholesale for you? Thank-you for your post I have your journal bookmark.

If you are having trouble with marketing I found this tread from siss to be out of the box and thought you could use it. Its simply geneus!

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/marketing-buyers-and-sell...

The things I have learned this past year has been amazing.
I got to meet Matt Larson for an hour on Saturday while he was in town. Great guy & he motivated me to make it happen. It's funny how we think there's so many secrets we need to know but really it comes down to yourself. Stepping up & doing what it takes. Since I have placed myself around successful people this past year, the only thing that's different from them & your average joe, is that they keep going no matter what & they take massive action to get it done & keep educating themselves on the way. That's it!

I found another Realtor "I think #7" & she's turning out to be a dream team Realtor. She set me up with the MLS & sent me 15 properties to go through & when I talked to her, she wants me to go direct to the agents, for a better chance of getting the deal. "WOW" This is the type of Realtor, I will give my leads to, that I don't want, as possible listings for her, through my massive marketing I plan on doing. She is also taking over a listing & going to give me 1st crack at. It's been a good week with alot of door knocking, networking, & driving around to make something happen. I finally truly feel, I know what I need to do.
I'm challenging myself to land a deal within the next month.
I'm way past due!

I wanted to take note on what happened to me in Dec.09 when a family member "My Brother in Law, who has been in the family forever" really shot me down. He always listened to me & supported me to keep going & then it happened. We were talking & I was telling him how close we are, with taking over 3 REI clubs to having Private Money for our deals ect.& he just looked at me & really put me down. His words were, "I know Jay, But when do you give up, it's not working" He repeated this over & over with a discussed look at me, as I told him I would never give up, you keep going until. It was really uncomfortable, but at the same time it motivated me even more.
My dad failed a few times a long time ago & so did my brother in law as he has tried many avenues to succeed, other than a regular job. I guess my Dad would tell him negative things when he was trying to succeed & he even admitted to me that he's sounding like my Dad, which means my Dad got into his head, back then. I think the one thing they where both missing is that no matter how many times you fail, you keep going. It's a proven fact successful people failed many many times but they never gave up.

OK, now that I got that out there in the open, I took this whole weekend & worked my butt off. I didn't even watch any play-off football games. I took our lead source that we pay for & found 140 pre-foreclosures with at least 30% equity or more, throughout San Diego. These properties are 2 months or less away from their auction date. I took a map book & ripped the pages out & used plastic sheet covers & a grease pencil to lay out & circle all the stops. I then numbered them so it is easy to drive to all these properties. I put together 6 different routes & tomorrow I'm meeting with all 6 of my door knockers so I can give them their routes. If the Home Owners aren't home, we are leaving SELL YOUR HOUSE FAST! cards with some info on the back, also sticky post-its, saying sorry we missed you, we can help if you want to save your house or sell it, ect. I hope all the stops will be hit this week & I plan on keeping track, so we can follow up with these leads. So looks like a good week of progress & hopefully come back where we helped someone out & made it a win win for both of us. As were doing this, I'm going to try to keep moving in other directions as well. Driving around looking for abandon homes,offers on MLS properties, Calling for rents & fsbo's & networking with other investors. That would be massive action & I plan on doing it. I constantly listen to motivation CD's & still have my Mentor classes every Wed @noon, which really helps me stay focussed...LOVE IT!

Met with all 6 of my door knockers & gave them their routes with materials to hand out. 3 knockers are my friends & the other 3 I actually found them here on the DGsite & there very motivated. I already have 2 good leads from 8 doors we hit last week, which are going to be follow up's until there action date. We have a system to follow up atleast 3-4 times every week on the these properties. Curious to see out of a 140 doors we hit, how many properties we lock up under contract.

After reading your journal I am so inspired by your courage and not giving up. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Summer

Wow is right, keep trucking my friend. Have you finalized any deals yet? Have you tried lease options?

I personally knocked on 20 pre-foreclosure doors who have equity & got my 1st door slammed in my face today.Awesome! but I got a lot of business cards out there. The more I do this, the easier it's getting. I spoke to all my other door knockers & most of them haven't started yet, so I need to stay on top of them. One house I went to, she just accepted an offer, so I could of been a day late just because of pushing my route to another day. I'm constantly reading books & listening to motivational CD's everyday as I continue to take massive action.

I just love ANYTHING that makes me laugh out loud!

Your attitude: Priceless!

Angela

Hey Angela, It took me awhile to go up & knock on doors as I am not a good door knocker but becoming one. Been Getting comfortable with discomfort, Which takes time to program in your mind.
Kinda frustrated today because I spent last weekend making routes for all 6 of my door knockers & I don't think anybody has got there's done yet. I know 5 routes didn't. I gave some only 10 stops & others 20-30. We we're suppose to hit like 140 stops this week & that didn't happen. I got my 20 done & will just have to get a lot done myself but it's hard taking care of 5 yr old twin boys & a 7 yr old daughter with their daily schedule, but no excuses on my part. Three of my good friends kept telling me, I'll get it done tomorrow & still kept pushing it to another day. One stop I hit yesterday, The lady told me she just accepted an offer & I might of been a day late, so it makes me think I could of missed out on a deal because the routes got pushed to another week.
When I talk to my Mentor, "who is very successful" on wed. for my weekly class, he will tell me how this is why most people aren't successful & I totally see how normal people "including myself" don't get the things we need to get done first. Successful people have daily goals & plan their day & get the 5 top most important things done 1st & I have been working on that. You wouldn't believe what you can get done in one day, if you just follow through on what needs to get done.

Had a busy day today. My door knocker got me a lead & I met with the Home Owner today. His auction date is next week & things were going smooth until he got cold feet & wouldn't sign our option agreement. It was a very confusing deal as he filed Bankruptcy & thanks to my Mentor,Kimmy,& Shiela who walked me through everything. I chalk this one up as a great learning curve & next time I come to a deal like this one, I'll know how to structure it. Having a Mentor is so key because you have to know how to structure deals & work loop holes. Easily would of been 50-100k profit on this one.
We'll Kimmy called me after this deal fell apart & she has a meeting in the morning with a Home Owner & it looks like a good lead & hopefully will be a win win situation.
I also want to log in my journal what happened in my weekly Mentorship class/calls.
An Investor who just closed his 1st deal "by the way he just got laid off making 100k a year at his regular job" & walked away with 30k on a rehab & flip deal from door knocking. Well he has like 4 more deals in the works & since Nov.09 when he locked up his 1st deal, he is going to have made a total of $200-$400k in 4 months. Tell me that don't motivate you...Gotta know your numbers & how to structure deals if you wanna get paid like that.

Well, Kimmy met with that H.O. this morning, who has a pretty house in pre-foreclosure & he's looking like he'll be a good follow up. He owe's like 38k & it's worth 120k. Kimmy made a verbal offer of around 75k which he's considering. After Kimmy came home she decided to work hard today & started looking up pre-foreclosures phone numbers & sure enough found another deal & the lady wanted her to come over. Kimmy got her to sign an option contract & we're putting together a short sale packet to make an offer to the bank. While all this is going on, she got another phone call for another possible deal. The more where getting our business out there, it's finally starting to unfold. Our goal is 4 deals a month, & that shouldn't be hard to do. We try to make it a win,win situation because some of these H.O. just want a little more time in the home so they can find a place to go & we can prolong their stay.

One of my door knockers finished his route today & gave me his update. Hopefully it will bring me some leads. Tomorrow I plan on doing what Kimmy did & look up phone numbers so I can contact all the doors we hit in the past few weeks to follow up with them. We are offering to help them if they want to save their house or sell it & we don't charge a penny if they need some guidance on some options to help them stay. Our business is going to be about helping people for free & when they need to sell, we can make it a win win for both of us.

It's been a rough couple of months. Tons of action taken & so many deals that went south. My mentor knows how hard we are hitting pre-foreclosures but wants me to get offers going in through my Realtor at the same time.
On a good note Kimmy locked up a property last week & Shiela is working the short sale CASH offer for us. Should know if it's accepted this week.
Making a lot of phone calls this week on some of the door's we hit as I found a bunch of phone numbers, also looking at a wholesale deal & being a back up offer on another property as the listing agent thinks the buyer is going to back out.

Been awhile since my journal & after reading my last post, none of those deals happened.
Found my 10th & final Realtor.lol lol Can't believe what I have been through this past year with Realtors. wow!
3 weeks ago I found a Broker who is an active Investor, owns a property management Co. & Private Lends. So things are back up to speed & been averaging about 5 offers a week & trying to raise that number as more properties are coming available. Had a few more offers as back up offers & hoping the buyer falls through so I can jump in. Lost one of my private lenders money as he has his money in play but he's letting me still use his POF. I do have several other money sources but they are on a deal to deal basis & don't really know how legit they are.
Also gave my door knocker a raise to 10% of our profits & he's pretty stoked about that as he has been hitting the pre-foreclosures for me since like Jan.2010 & no deals have landed yet.

Been pumping in offers for 6 weeks now with my new agent & last week had 4 counters & 1 short sale pending on the bank, which the listing agent who is handling the negotiation's, thinks we're still looking good.
On all my counters, I have 2 that are still alive.
Just had a previous Realtor I was working with set me up with an offer system where I can type on the contact & change Offer Price, Address & EMD, so things should move even faster with getting offers submitted. No signing,scanning, printing.
Talked to my Mentor about the lack of leads from door knocking & found out that back in 2008, it took an average of 150 days to evict Home owners & Now it's taking 250 days, so people are living for free & no wonder my phone's not ringing. We decided to only go after Home Owners with Equity that are 2 weeks away from there auction date.
REI club tomorrow & I'll keep plugging away.
Also still reading my declaration day & night & I listen to motivation CD's daily as I clean the house & do laundry,etc. Tony Robbins, T.Harv Eker & Tim Taylor my Mentor....

My journal is becoming a great motivation story...lol
No deals have landed since my last post. I'm on 2 months pumping in 5-10 offers a week & resubmitting on whats still available but most deals should drop after the 3rd month, just need to keep it up. My POF is out of date as my Private Lender has no money in his acct.becasue it's in play with other investors but I ended up finding another Private Lender on FaceBook & raised $500k with a 10% return on deals he funds.
We told him that we need a POF but he would rather transfer the money into an acct. so we have easy access to it. We also asked him if he would fund our marketing so we put together a 10 page marketing plan with the costs. I need to write up a promosory note on a 2yr agreement for 20k paid at the end of the term on a flat rate.
I also hired a team of 2 hungry Realtors to make it 3 total that's working for me. Looks like I have a lot of work a ahead of me. Vision,passion,action....until

I always check your journal it keeps me motivated i havent done a deal but i learning alot in my REI club. Right now we are puting on a system that i will train bird-dogs so the deals just come to us. The club has investors that have pool money to put in cash offers. I love how you can find private money lenders and on facebook i still have one of your postcards form Anitas meeting at the country club. She has moved onto big numbers now with bulk deals. As always keep us posted.

That's why I post to help others see that it just takes consistent action with a belief. Successful people started where we are now. It will happen for anyone if they just keep going. Some get there a little faster than others. I know so many people who told me it took them a year or more.

Went to a rehab sub group with Fortune Builders/JD Esiason of flip that house & he invited 40 Investors to come out to there rehab deal & walked us through the project. Very cool & free education. Funny how it was everyone from the REI meeting who went.

I mentioned that I found another Private Lender in a previous post, well it might have turned out to be a scam, so I will be warning everyone on what I went through shortly, if it turns out that way. Really have to watch out who your networking with & pre screen them really good.

I Will be working on making more offers as my 2 new agents just set me up where we can type on the purchase agreement & change out price & address as my signature is already scanned onto the contract which will make it a lot faster submitting offers. I have also been networking hard with investors in my area to really get a feel of what they're buying at & I think I'm adjusting & seeing things a little better now as renovated properties are selling for top dollar here.
My partner Kimmy, is working on finding more Private Money & I need to keep hitting pre foreclosures & making offers simutanously. Goal is 15-30 offers a week, since I have 3 agents now.

The Private Lender was a scam on Face Book & Kimmy posted it on here for other investors to be aware. It Just really sucked that he took up so much of my time networking with me for a lousy $800 he was trying to get.
I'm doing great keeping up on offers but I fell behind on making phone calls & targeting Home Owners directly, so I'm doing a time daily management sheet everyday from here on out, as my mentor told me to that from the start, so I get the most important things done 1st.
Also Kimmy put together a 10 page marketing plan & costs, so we're looking for a Private Lender who would do a 2 yr Promissory note for 20k & would also want to fund all our deals. So were looking for a long term lender who wants join Tag Team Properties as we grow our business in San Diego.
I'm still seeing Investors paying way to much on MLS properties here in SD. 75-80%, so getting the rest of our marketing in place will be our major strategy, to get the best deals that are off the MLS. Our leads have still been very slow with the lack of marketing out there, so still trying to make the cold calls until that area of our business is filled.

Wow Jason you are a very hard working individual!! Good luck finding Private Lender. Sounds like everyday you are taking the necessary steps to reach your goals. Your persistence and commitment will pay off!
Good luck hope to hear some good things coming from you soon!

Will