patrickfleming journal

Great to hear you hit the ground running. Please keep us updated on your progress. The more information you gather the more the fear will go away. This site is packed with great information and people. I look forward to hearing about your future deals. Believe and Achieve

It's fun and exciting. Sometimes, it is frustrating as can be, but that's just like life. The main thing is keep your focus and remember what you hope to accomplish.
Good luck and welcome to our big extended family.

Yuri

Thanks Indiana-Joe and Yuri. I appreciate your comments. I have read many of your posts and have learned from both of you.

Have not had a response yet to my craigslist ads. I took them down and will repost today with some revisions. Will also post ads on some of the other on line sites recommended by others.

I did make contact with my local REI Club and will be attending a meeting next week. I'm excited to make some contacts and as always learn something new.

I am going to continue to work to build my team. I think that until I get a realtor in place and a mortgage broker on my team I am unable to move forward. I want to make sure that I do this right because it is going to be my path to financial freedom and I have a goal to make enough to start a foundation to be able to give back to my fellow man and woman.

I know that this is a long journal not a short sprint so I will continue to be patient.

I came across a new quote today in an e-mail but I don't know who to attribute it to. I'm going to share it anyway because I think it has a great deal of merit.

"You have two primary choices in life: To accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them."

Wow what a day. I posted ads on craigs list for real estate agents and buyers and sellers and I received two responses from real estate agents. After providing additional information to one of them she decided that she would not be able to help me out (which is okay because it's better to know that up front than later in the process.) She did, however have another agent in her firm who she felt would be more able to assist me. She is going to pass my information on to him. I sent some additional information to the second agent and hope to hear back from her tomorrow.

I spent the rest of the day looking at properties on line. Wow, I couldn't believe how many short sales and REO's there were to look at. I'm really getting excited about getting started with an agent to start actually going out to properties and looking at them in person. From there, it's on to my first deal!

I will be attending my first local REI Club meeting tonight. They are talking about short sales and REO's so the information is pretty timely. My plan is to make some contacts so I have people to put on my buyer's list. This would be a good step forward. I have to get my business cards ready to go for tonight.

I have made contact with orinvest, another DG'er who is here in SW Florida. We both seem to be in the same situation so we have decided to continue to communicate with each other and be support for each other.

One of the real estate agents that I spoke with decided that they were not inerested in working with me. I am okay with that because I want someone who is going to join the team and be giving me 100% effort. I do have an appointment on Friday morning with another Real Estate Agent who says that she already has 4 buyers who are interested in purchasing as rent to own buyers.

I had a profound thought this morning (at least I thought it was profound) while I was riding the exercise bike. The first thing that people ask themselves or others before they decide to move forward with anything is "What is the Risk?" I find this odd because the first thing that we should be asking ourselves is "What is the Reward?" If the first question we ask is what is the risk, we are expecting that the worst is going to happen. If we ask ourselves what is the reward and then find ways to get the reward, then it seems to me that we are expecting the best to happen.

I am going to re-read both books and be ready to start looking at properties after my meeting on Friday and then start to make the first offers. I would also like to find some cash investors using the techniques in the 100% Financing for Rehab post. This will give me more flexibility in how I move forward.

It's time for action. I have been on the sidelines watching others play the game for too long.

I attended my first local REI Club meeting and joined the club. There are some great networking opportunities and I was impressed with the open discussion part of the meeting much more than the formal presentation. I made a few connections and there were some people who were even interested in mentoring me. The catch was that they were going to charge me $7,000 for a 1 year mentorship. Before I did that, I would join the Dean's success academy and get the coaching/mentoring I need for much less than that.

Things like these meetings get me pumped up about REI. Everyone was so positive about the opportunities that exist for newcomers and experienced REI's so it just reinforces my belief that this is going to be something that will help me achieve my dreams!

I have a meeting this morning with a real estate agent to discuss having her be a part of my team. I am feeling a bit nervous about presenting my plans to her because I don't have any buyers yet. Should I be asking someone to help me locate houses to look at and then make offers on those houses when I don't have any buyers and no money of my own? Am I wasting my time and more importantly my agents time?

My integrity is very important to me so I need to make sure that I don't make any commitments that I can't keep. I think what I am feeling is that I am going to get way out of my comfort zone today. I am usually not a negative person and I know these techniques have worked for many people but I can't help asking myself will this work for me? It sounds funny when I think about it. Not long ago I posted a comment on one of Martin's posts about the tunnel being dark. It is easy to give advise to others but not so easy to follow your own advise.

I have been reading the book Rich Dad's Retire Young Retire Rich and I am feeling like Robert Kiyosaki felt when his friend Larry said "Why don't we write a plan on how we can all become financially free." I need to take one of Rich Dad's lessons when he said "If you find yourself arguing with a good idea, you may want to stop arguing."

I know that to move away from where I am now and move toward where I want to be I have to take this first step. I am so tired of always worrying about not having enough money to pay my bills and not being able to have the financial freedom to be able to spend more quality time with my wife and to travel more often to see my sons in Jacksonville and Iowa City.

Okay, I can do this! I must do this! More to follow after my meeting with the realtor.

Well the meeting with the Realtor went very well. I had my interview questions all ready to go and we had a great conversation. I have a good feeling about the rapport we were able to build during our discussion. I couldn't believe it but we talked for 2-1/2 hours. She has worked with investors in the past, but most of it has been with cash deals. She wasn't too excited about assignments, but she said that she would keep an open mind about them and also double closings.

She is going to begin looking at properties this afternoon that meet my criteria and I am going to get in touch with a family member who may be able to provide me with some financial backing. I'm looking at raising 100% financing through several investors and pay them interest on their investment.

I guess all of my worrying this morning was wasted energy. I feel as though I have at least taken a small step forward but it is a step forward and not back.

I have read your posts and I am very interested. What have you done so far?