Jen's Journal

I am hoping you can show me what to do soon. I wanna take over as well. I am sick of my J.O.B. too!! Tired of padding others pockets. I am glad to see that your head is held high now. I am trying new things as well but going a diffrent route first. I will be watching for your first deal. Best of luck. And welcome back, looking forward to learning with ya.

Billy

Welcome to Dean's Site! If you have not already figured out there is massive information to be learned and lots of wonderful and supportive people that you will dub as both friends and family. I am back with a vengeance and boy you better watch out as I am taking over the real estate world in my town! Let me know how your strategy works out for you and we could help to encourage each other when times get rough. Do you have a personal journal yet? If so send me the link as I would love to follow you and your success.

Jen

1/25/2010

Ok so I posted an ad on craigslist the other day and I got a bite. A gentleman contacted me through email and asked how I could help him sell his house fast. Yeah for me! I told him to send me his phone number and I would be more than happy to answer any questions he may have and help him get out of his home! Hopefully this bite is going to be it.

I received a phone call this last Saturday from a gentleman named Nick. He and I have spoken a couple of times before and we met here on the DG site. He has given me so much information and has been helping me soooo much that I am eternally grateful. He is the reason why I have decided to peruse the sandwich lease option. I would really like to work for myself and work whatever hours are convenient for me. I am really tired of my JOB. I learned a new acronym for JOB:

J-Just
O-Over
B-Broke

so excited for you...great work!!!i can't wait till you get that first one!!!

Catching up on your journal here.....I'm so happy you are back in game and with a vengeance too Thats the way to be....we have to keep our eyes on the prize....I just read a fabulous entry in Louisas journal...its so worth following her journey if you're not...speaking of sandwich leases...do you have the new book yet? Greg is the king of that and his chapter in the book is all you need to know on that!!! Jenna I know 2010 is going to be a great year for all of us...so keep up the good work and determination and I know you can do it...you have the passion and the willingness to work hard...once you find the strategy that suits you there will be NO stopping you !!!

I can't wait for you to find your strategy like laura is talking about...The new book is GREAT...so if you haven't gotten that, def try to do that...

Gregs section is awesome on the lease options...

someday, working for yourself without the J.O.B. is going to happen for you...just KEEP GOING!!!ITS THE ONLY WAY!!!

1/23/2010

I am coming back to Dean's website a year after I gave up. I gave up the last time because I worked really really hard for almost a year and I had no success of making a deal. I had negative Nancey's all around me telling me that I had made a horrible investment and I was only wasting my time at this point. I finally cracked and threw in the towel.

I have worked really hard at my job that I have had for almost 4 years hoping that things would change with them. Oh how I was so naive to think after all this time things would change with them. Now we are facing lay offs and I cannot be totally sure that my job is safe. I am scared to death because if I lose my job, I am going to lose everything. I am really tired of the rat race in life and I want my life to change. All of my friends are planning a trip to Mexico this year and I really want to go and be apart of that, but alas, I not only can't get the time off of work, but I have so many bills at this point I can barley keep my head above the water. I am tired of this life and I want it to change. The only way that I am ever going to get anything to change is if I stop complaining and do something about it.

Well here I am again doing something about it. I hope and pray to GOD that he will help me make this work because I don't know how much more I can take.

I have no idea what inspired me to come back to this website. I just thought that I would stop by to see what was new after a year. I immediately got sucked right back in and I found both of my books and dusted them off. I have start to read them again to refresh my memory on somethings that I was a little bit rusty on. Most of it came right back. There are still a couple of things that still don't make sense, but I will get there.

I have decided that if I have enough money at the end of the week after paying all of my bills, I am going to Borders and getting Dean's new book. I need to get up to speed with all of the new lingo.

This is what I am planning to do. I need the best no money down strategy to make this work. I have been reading a lot of posts about lease options and sandwich lease options. I want to know more about them. I need to get going on this as I would like to purchase a multifamily unit one day. I would like to move into one of the units and let all of my tenants make the payments, letting me live virtually for free.

I sure do like to dream and I would love to be able to put those dreams into a reality.

I decided to check out your journal and saw that you have been out of the loop for a year. I myself was out for about a month and have been brushing up on all I forgot. I too joined the success academy, I just call it RESA, around Oct/Nov 2010 shortly after discovering the site and ordering my first two books. It was the people on here that made me decide to order Dean's books PFRERN and YTYREP. This DG family makes all the difference in the world especially to those that don't have the support of those around them at home.

This WILL be our year and in 2012 I hope to see you at the EDGE event.

Welcome Back Jen

Steve

My plan is to use the people at the RESA this time a little bit better than I did the last time. My mind raced all night last night and I was hardly able to sleep. I thought a lot about how I failed last time and realized that I was trying to do to many things at one time instead of focusing on just one thing. This time I have picked doing sandwich lease options. I am going to study them until I know the ins and outs of what I need to do. I have thought outside the box and I have come up with a really great idea, so I am really hoping that it works. I am going to test it to make sure that it works and then I will share with everyone else

Thanks for the welcome back Steve and I really hope that I will have accomplished all of my dreams and then some by next year. I would really like to follow your journey, so if you could send me the link to your journal I would love to follow it!

Jen

1/24/11

I just noticed that in my last post, I dated the year 2010. I am still having issues writing 2011!

After I got done writing here and letting everything out in my journal, I journeyed over to see if there were any calls that were recorded that I could listen to and there was. It was from Sept 2010 and Dean had Matt Larson on the call telling you step buy step what he does to achieve success. What a GOD send! I loved the fact that it was recorded and I could pause as many times as I needed to take notes. And boy did I take notes! It was some really invaluable information that I just soaked in.

After listening to the call, I had to force myself to get off of the computer last night and go to bed. I still have to get up every morning and go to work and I knew that I had to get some sleep. But that was really hard. I was pumped about what I had just learned. I was laying in bed thinking about all of the things that I needed to do to make this thing work. I finally forced my self to sleep at around midnight.
I have to tell you, that for going to sleep late last night, I got up in the best mood. I credit that mood to the start of a new beginning for my life. This is the first time that I have ever felt this good waking up to a new day and I hope that it continues everyday.

Last night after I listened to the call, I posted ad's on Craigslist hoping to get hits from potential investors in my area. I was hoping to get at least one response and to my excitement, I received three! I put them all on my buyer list and responded to all of their emails asking what their criteria is on properties. I told them that if anything became available I would contact them right away.

I am also going to put into practice one of the things that Dean and Matt talked about on that call I listened to last night. He said that one of the best things that you can do to add to your buyers list is go onto Google or Bing and type in "We Buy Houses" and type in your location and see what comes up in the search engine. He said to contact them all and put them on your buyers list. I want to build this list up to at least 50 people so that I have lots of resources to sell to.

The next step that I am going to do is to put out bandit signs to see if I can attract any desperate homeowners trying to unload their homes. This will help me find those killer deals to send to my buyers.

These are the goals that I want to accomplish buy the end of the week:

Building up my buyers list to at least 10 people this week. I want to set a reasonable goal that I can accomplish with a hectic work schedule. This way I don't shoot for the moon and get discouraged by not reaching it.

Find an ALL STAR real estate agent that is willing to work with investors.

Get a list of cash buyers in my area that purchased in the last 90 days from my real estate agent. I can research them online, contact them and add them to my buyers list as well.

So much to do and so little time to do it! I better quit writing and get cracking!

I did not see on your list the number one thing an investor must do in order to make money. Well its actually several things in one. I assume you are planning on assigning or double closing the deals you get under contract.
1. Learn how to determine what the property you are looking at will actually SELL for in this market. This does not mean what it appraises for or what a realtor tells you it is worth. That will be your quick sell ARV.
2. Learn how to accurately determine rehab/repair costs.
3.This is how you learn what is a real deal and what is not. What good does it do to have 100 cash buyers and 50 people contacting you to buy their house if you do not know what it will ACTUALLY SELL for!! What amount of work is needed to get that price, how much your buyer wants to make and how much you want to make. When you know that you know what to offer!
4. Rule number one in REI. NO OFFER = NO CHANCE OF MAKING MONEY!

People that do this business will all honestly tell you that finding a deal that your buyers will actually take is the hard part of this business. I.E. finding a real deal. People get properties all the time, but no one buys. Why? They paid to much!! If its a deal you will find buyers when you market your killer deal.

When you start having the capability to put true killer deals under contract, everything else falls into place.

Good luck and go get em!!

Michael Mangham
MD Home Acquisitions LLC

Thank you for putting somethings in perspective for me. I am still trying to sort everything out and I think that what you said will help me to put some more goals in place. I will make sure that I put everything you said into practice and learn the ins and outs of it. I really want to make this work for myself and I am willing to work hard for it.

Thanks again,
Jen

Welcome back to DG!

It is not an easy road but that is why, as I'm sure you have heard, everyone isn't doing it.

I am also concentrating on L/Os. Here is a good thread that John Jackson started today. He is very successful in TX with L/O and very knowledgable. Has a lot of info on his website too.
http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/buying-foreclosures-reos-...

Wendy Patton is also a L/O expert. If you google her she has a ton of free articles specifically on them. They are on WendyPatton.com. She also has a very good book called "Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject To Deals" Gives a huge amt of info.

I also found a source for very good contracts that are state specific if you are interested. They are very inexpensive. I had them cked out by someone very knowledgeable in the biz and they approved them for me.

Let me know if I can help. I haven't done any deals yet but I have studied L/Os extensively.

Karen

Hey Jen, Ian here. We tried to meet up a year or two ago but that did not work out.
I since took the path of lease option.
Have a buyer's list and homes coming available.
This does work and yes even in the Puget Sound of WA State.

see for yourself at www.godfreyestatesllc.com
Let's get together soon and form a "MASTERMIND"

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!... 3 For there the LORD commanded the blessing"
Psalm 133:1,3

Mr. Godfrey

Thank you very much for all of the wonderful information that you have provided to me. I will definitely be checking out all of the resources that you listed for me. Please keep in touch with me and let me know when you land your first deal and how everything played out for you.

Thanks again!
Jen

My cell number is still the same from the message that you just sent to me. Let me know when you would like to meet up and form this "MASTERMIND". I work full time during the week so the weekends are the best time to catch up with me. I have to work on Saturday this weekend, but Sunday I am free. I also don't know how I am going to feel next weekend as I am having surgery on Wednesday. Get a hold of me and I would love to meet for coffee or something of the sort.

Jen

1/30/11

I have found that this week has been stressful with work and trying to get in all of the things that I need to do. I know that this is me making excuses and I need to quit.

I am excited because today I am going to meet with another DG member for coffee. It will be helpful to speak with someone who has been there and done that to get some idea's from. I hope that he can teach me lots.

I will let you all know how that meeting went.

This week I want to make sure that I stick to my goals as I didn't accomplish any of them from last week.

2/08/2011

I have been recovering from surgery and that has been quite a task all in its self. I could not have picked a better time to come back to Real Estate because it honestly has been making me want to get better so that I can get on the phone and start making calls. I told Godfrey that I was going to call to see if I could find a REA last week, but because of everything that went on and the prep for surgery, I was not able to complete my goal. Well I am going to do that today!
I had a meeting last week with Godfrey and Simeon and it went well. I learned a lot from both of them and I am going to start setting daily goals that I want to accomplish.
Today's Goal - Start building my power team.
Step One - Find a Real Estate Agent
Step Two - Find a Title Company
Step Three - Find a Mortgage Broker

Hey Jen glad to know you are recovering well. Take your time-no rush, just get well soon.

We have built a fine team.
>Lender.
>Title Rep.
>Escrow Agent.
>Broker/Agents.
and will continue to build.

Stay the course and keep the passion, you will see fruit of your labor soon enough.

Mr. Godfrey.
check out my blog.
http://godfreyestatesllc.blogspot.com/2011/01/be-real-estate-investor-yo...

Hello, just wanted to say welcome and keep moving forward,

Hi Jen

I hope you are recovering well from the surgery.

It sounds like you and Ian have got a great team in the works. very happy for you. My coach has me shifting focus from buyers list to team building now as well. I think I need to talk to an attorney soon to get some clarity on our state laws as they pertain to my future deals. The more I learn the more obstacles I seem to be finding. I just have to find the path around, over, under, or through them, whatever it takes.

I am starting to lean towards the idea of "lease options" and "subject to existing mortgage". At least that's legal in our finicky state. Then again I should stay focused on one strategy and not get sidetracked by so many other appealing tactics. That's something I learned from you here in your journal.

Best Wishes
Steve

I am very interested in what you said about having a source for contracts that are state specific. If you wouldn't mind sharing your source I could really use that kind of help right now.

Thank You
Steve