Louisa's Journal - The Sky is the Limit!!!

I'm so glad you are back on the site! GREAT! I was just reading through your journal and catching up and I love your "Center Ring Realty"....how creative you are!!

Thank you for the kind words, and I look forward to watching your progress as well.

Cheers my friend!!
Louisa

Louisa you are so sweet! I know how busy you are and I'm very appreciative that you took the time to peek at my journal. Thanks for the comment about my company name. I hesitated to call it "realty" since that invokes being a broker or agent, but I realized that realty is just another word for real estate so it was appropriate - and I love alliteration!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Nancy

Long time since i stopped by lol, I saw the pics of Zackery and I cant believe he is 1. wow time go's by so fast.Hope all is well and Jamie is doing well. keep up the good work and we will meet on the top.

best wishes
Richie

Nancy ---thanks for the kind words. (So long ago, I know!! Hope you are doing great and my apologies for being off of here so long.) Look forward to catching up with you, your journal, and your success.

Richie ---I have missed you, my friend. We'll have to talk soon. Maybe over the holidays! I hope you are taking the RE world on by storm. Thanks so much for your note.

UPDATE
Well, I have obviously fallen off the site for awhile. For several reasons...but namely, I just have struggled time-wise to keep up here, however, I have realized I need to, if for no other reason than to stay encouraged and STAY the course even upon failure. It has not been a bad year ----but a good year of learning on the real estate front for sure.

DEAN'S "OXYGEN MASK" WEEKLY VIDEO BLOG
It has been a few months, but Dean's oxygen mask blog meant a lot to me. The one where he said something very powerful -----in essence, what we all want, is not only to be successful in real estate for ourselves, but to be able to help others ----to get that oxygen mask on ourselves [as on an airplane], and THEN be able to lend a hand to others to give THEM the oxygen they need, and breath life into THEM, helping them in a HUGE way. This was a healthy reminder of why I am in this business and HOW MUCH I want to help others. It was also a reminder of the fact that I need to help myself FIRST.

Right now ----I'm treading water a bit. I have had some mild success, want to take it to those HUGE levels, and I'm determined to do it. But I'm also at a place where a couple people have looked to me for help, and I feel I'm a disappointment because I don't have the time and resources to do so right now. Dean's blog reminded me ----I'm not ready. I am not in a place where I have been able to FULLY put that oxygen mask on myself...meaning, I don't yet have the success needed which would create the time to REALLY help others in the HUGE way that I want. As much as I hate to admit it, despite some success, I'm treading water just to keep my RE alive. Some people live from "paycheck to paycheck". While we are not THAT desperate financially, and have a plan and a budget, I do feel like I'm living from "real estate deal to real estate deal" and that it isn't all "flowing" quite yet to be constant. I'm also not at a place where I can just re-invest my profits in my business ---we pretty much need the profits so far to live on right now. Which is NOT the ideal place to be to really step out and take time to help others. Especially when that income is nice, but not at a level that "is better than me working a full time job" as far as income goes (well, at least to where I was at the peak of my "corporate ladder climbing" years ago.) But it IS a motivating force that tells me, I have got to do something different to get something different (and more quickly) to be able to have the time, energy and money to HELP others in many ways and on many levels. In the meantime, I have to say NO to others, in order to say YES to myself to ultimately create the environment to help others at a later date. It is part of the reason I stopped journaling, to make more time for myself ----- but I'm back because right now, I can use this place....the spirit of this place, the positivity of this place, the encouragement of this place, and the peace in being surrounded by those that are motivated, that are inspired, and those that are DOING IT EVERY DAY!!

2011 REVIEW - SUCCESSES & FAILURES

This past year has not been bad for me. While I beat myself up for not having done more deals ----I am grateful for what I have done. I have learned a lot. I have failed a lot. And I will succeed in the future for having gone through those failures. I am in a place of some frustration, but I truly look forward to 2012, and look forward to what I can get done in the next 10 days of 2011.

I have bought, rehabbed and sold 2 houses this year. One with hard money. One with private money. I rehabbed 2 additional properties - both with bank money (commerical rehab loan side), and turned them into rentals ----surrounded myself with a couple people who have LOTS of rentals and turned to their experience to do a better job of screening tenants, and put great tenants in place, and great leases and policies in place, and so far I have been super pleased with the cashflow on those properties. Now to go get 18 more of these!! It has been a nice bonus for my husband to see how valuable these properties with serious cashflow are to our household!! For any financial struggle we have had this year regarding real estate (temporary struggle in the middle of a deal ---not on the profit side---but due to some poor planning on my part, another lesson learned!) ----this monthly money now coming in has him thinking good things about real estate. And it is always good to have your spouse in your corner!

I have also unsuccessfully done a lease option (with a promissory note and tenant never came up with the funds for the option fee, so now they are a pure rental). Learned some good lessons/expectation setting, etc...

And this month, I had a property under contract, had a bunch of cash buyers walk through with the intention to wholesale it, and had to actually "walk" during the inspection period because I didn't have a taker. This was a property on the MLS represented by a listing agent, that I put an offer in through my buying agent. This was pretty embarrassing for me. Especially because I thought I had a solid deal. I thought I knew what my buyers wanted. I thought it was going to be a success. I thought it was a no-brainer. I WOULD HAVE rehabbed this one myself if I had private funds to do it, and I have made money on every rehab I have done. I was confident on this property and the area. And this scenario happening has always been my biggest fear with wholesaling on the MLS. This made me question myself a LOT. But you know what? I failed. I faced it. I looked stupid. I survived my biggest fear in this business. It didn't break me. Moving on. I actually had a cash buyer ask me for advice on his property so while he didn't take this one, it made me feel good he was at least calling me up for advice! (Trying to see the silver lining here!!)

But I'm saying NEXT ---and I'm resolving to get more done, get more offers out there, and get past the failure to see more success in 2012.

I'm at a tough place at the moment, and it's really why I have stayed away from here lately because I like to STAY POSITIVE here, not dwell on failure, and I have felt a negative vibe the past couple of months during some of my frustration, and I want to shake it!!!

MLS OFFERS FOR WHOLESALING

I have been on the bandwagon of aggressively making offers through agents. And I really like the system I feel like I have down as far as our offer spreadsheet, keeping our communication in sync, our targeted goals, etc... I can definitely hold my own as far as presenting it confidently to any agent and I feel like the kinks in the system are worked out from past experience (with the handy help of Matt's scripts, process, etc...I stick with exactly how he has taught us to do it.) Of course I'd like to close more deals with this at a MUCH faster rate. And I am starting to interview agents again as my current one is not working out (she has another full time job plus some personal issues, and while she was initially motivated, and totally on the ball to work this with hopes to go into real estate full time, her lack of time and commitment to our goals has left me needing to find another agent). Although at this moment, she just emailed me that she put 5 more of my offers out there, so maybe I'll still hang onto what she has going, and just add another agent to my world to double and triple the amount of offers getting out there to accomplish my goals. I am interviewing another agent tomorrow. We'll see how it goes!! I'd like to get an interview with 2 more by the end of the year.

FSBO SIGNS

I also have a couple real estate friends starting out that are hanging We Buy Houses signs for me for other property leads starting the weekend after Christmas, in exchange for $$$ off of deals from the phone calls I get. I'm super-excited about that. They are hanging Friday and taking down Sunday night and have committed to 4 weekends. (I will do it longer, but their initial commitment is four weeks). We're starting with 40 signs. This is super helpful as with a 16-month-old son, my time is limited, so I'm leveraging it any chance I can get!!

VACANT HOUSES

I also have a recent connection in my own neighborhood of a guy who cleans out vacant properties for banks. I ran into him walking my dog (talk about a nice coincidence!) I have given him an info sheet, and will give him a referral fee for anyone that works out. He says he can get all the address information, pics on the houses, bank name and asset manager name and get back to me with completed property info sheets. Waiting on the first property but hoping this will be a great resource!

GOALS FOR 2012 - GIVING

I set my financial goals for 2012 with my husband. Looking at next year, is a little different than the past ---- and has me very excited. My husband and I have had a household budget for 3 years. It is a strict budget where we know where every single dollar will be spent for the month, no exceptions. If our income grows for the month, we set down and put into categories where the new funds will go. If it shrinks, we figure out where we will cut in our spending or saving. There has been nothing easy about sitting down and doing this every month. But we've done it. And we've stuck to it. We've made mistakes and are still working to perfect it, but it has really helped us to set goals for our future. This past year, we sat down and decided we were going to give a decent percentage on an ongoing basis (not just a random number at various points of the year) and we started doing it consistently based on the income we receive. It has been nice to be intentional about our giving and know exactly where our giving is going (church, charity, child in Africa, etc...). Towards the end of this year, I have found there are more places and more causes that I want to give money towards in 2012 (especially during Christmas time). I increased our giving for 2012 based on all of these new things I want to give towards. Then I looked at what income requirement we need in order to be able to to give where I want to give next year. It is a serious increase. It requires serious work in my real estate. But it is not impossible to reach. Now I'm going to work backwards and figure out how many deals will it take to get this income. And break it down into what action steps it is going to require to get those deals done. Break it down from one year, to 6 months, to 3 months, to 1 month, to one week ----and see how I'm going to get it done.

What I'm excited about, is yes, there are some major personal financial goals for my own family to take care of and believe me, these are PLENTY motivating!! But I'm excited that when I reach these giving goals ---I will have already taken care of my personal goals (as that income will be there!) ----and to base my future real estate goals on what I can give to others ----and see on paper, what money will go to what cause when I commit to my goals and make them happen -----that truly excites me for 2012, pushes and motivates me to no end and gives my work a greater purpose. I know, when I reach each monthly goal, I am supporting a greater need in a HUGE way ----some of them are small giving amounts and some are large giving amounts, but at least they are on the radar, and each year, based on my future goal giving amounts, I can increase these with intention to a level I have never been able to do before. And that specificity in who and where my money is going to go and how it is going to make an impact makes me more passionate about this business than I have ever been before!

I totally see this as a place God put me in to inspire me and challenge me to do more and be more for my family and for others. I would have never looked at it this way without God's nudging to intentionally plan our giving for next year. There is so much in the journey that I need to remember to be grateful for every day!

Looking forward to catching up here, getting a good dose of some positive motivation from the amazing energy on this site, and hope that everyone is doing well!!!

Cheers!!
Louisa

Wow! The last time I was here, I was reviewing my year for 2011. And here it is 2013! I haven't left real estate. I have just fallen off this site.

And now I'm here at The Edge 2013 and it has been incredible!

22 deals later....I'm here. I did several rehabs to rental last year and made all of my goals for the cashflow I was looking for for my family for last year. I have new goals I am working towards, and new steps to take, and new mountains to conquer.

This is my shortest post in awhile, but I mainly wanted to stop by and say "I'm back!" and start this journal dialogue again. I have missed you all here at DG. And I plan to journal my progress all over again. Just me taking it to the next level.

And keeping myself accountable to that "next level" through this journal again.

I can't wait! Missed you guys and missed DG.com!!

DEAN is amazing and The Edge was incredible again this year. So blessed to be here. What a powerful event!

Louisa

So I'm on the plane back home and there is no time like the present to make a plan and get started!

Just thinking about several "buckets" I need to pursue for that next level of volume...

--INTERNS-----I need to advertise on Craigslist for interns for putting out bandit signs, and assisting with the every day on rehabs and getting more streamlined and organized, and assisting with screening seller calls w/ lead sheets

--REHABS ---FOREMAN-----In order to have multiple projects going at once and more efficiently and effectively than I've run them before, post on Craigslist and interview, interview, interview. Jen Gray said she interviewed 47 GCs before she found her foreman. 47!!!!!!!! She knew that number off the top of her head. Other than Matt, I think she's the hardest working person I know. I need to get that process going to get past the nos and get to the yes' and find that person who will fit in this position the best

--PROP MGMT ----Setting up a property management company ----I decided I'm going to do this through a sponsoring broker as I don't want to get my RE license. This part of my business will house my property management in house, and I will leverage time to run it with my current requirements, lease agreements, screening process and showing process in place, and train someone to do what I believe is really a strength of mine. In fact, if I were going out to get a job, i think I would lean towards being a property manager. And I have a unique ability for the details from the lease agreement to the walk through, to the rent payment, to all the deposits and just the process in general. I love showing properties and getting people excited about a new place to live (although that's my social self. My business self has the goal of showing the property no more than 2 times before it is filled because they were already self-screened with the requirements I sent, and they already drove by the house, and in the future, will also see a walk-through video before they are shown the property, so I'm not showing the house to those who haven't done all of that first, plus a phone screen). With all the bad press on property managers out there, I decided I don't want someone else to reap the benefits of controlling my properties in house, when I know what I've had success in ----and that is keeping my properties with no vacancy, filling them fast, and with stellar tenants (for the most part) Not to mention another source of cashflow once my system is set up, and my new LLC formed.....in terms of my business taking on the management of other people's properties.

--OFFERS ---I have many agent emails to sort/sift through new properties (DOM 120+) and target getting out 25 offers this coming week.

UNDER CONTRACT----Last week I put out 16 MLS offers and got 1 under contract.. I got really lucky!!! I'm actually looking for retail flips, but this one is a rental for sure. I was super-pleased and excited about the new one as it can be structured as a duplex type of situation (although not formal duplex....one is a private entrance/separate section of the house to rent out), and I expect cashflow to be $1000+ after maintenance, insurance and taxes with equity at 25-30%. I'm still early on budget, but I have room to play here. I'll know more for certain when my crew reviews everything on Wednesday but this one is solid.

CURRENT REHAB ----work starts tomorrow. It's not a finely tuned machine like it will be, so I actually have some "busy work" to get done.....more busy work than I should after having done several rehabs. But it's all part of the growth and I'm eager to get the kinks out. I won't belabor the details here at the moment!

BREAKING DOWN THE ABOVE - BABY STEPS
I arrive home this evening.

Before bed, I will spend one hour doing the following:
---Reviewing my goals I set for this year ----writing them down in two places to put in the house ----and one in my car
---Post ad on Craigslist for interns
---Post ad on Craigslist for foreman
---Review properties my agent has sent to me, and run down amounts I'm willing to offer for at least 15 of them and save them to our shared Google spreadsheet. Send him the alert that new ones are on there. He's so on the ball, I know they will all be called for verbal offers, and when needed, sent electronic offers by noon tomorrow. He's a rockstar. I am so blessed. I worked so hard to find him, and it was worth my every phone call and every meeting, and anything I ever went through for any other agent. When it works, it works phenomenally. If you don't have an agent you love, call another and another and another. You will find someone that will service you like no one else when you believe in yourself and believe in your business.
---Write my agent to get expired listings ---I don't know why I haven't been taking advantage of this more.
---When I get off this plane, I'm calling my agent to set up a goal-setting/planning meeting for tomorrow as soon as he is available. This will be my "property management" piece for the day, as he is my first step of discussion for the sponsoring broker. Once he is on board, that will be in motion. I'll delegate him getting the initial info, starting, and get it in process. I expect this set up to take up to about 3 months from talking to other DGers, so I want to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. i want to see if I can get it done in half the time, but my agent will need his brokers license and i know that takes some time. Good news is, his sense of urgency is everything should have been done YESTERDAY. I love it!!!

Those should be some pretty solid steps tonight at moving my business forward. I have other buckets to attack, but the ones above are the highest priority.

By the end of the week, I will have a yellow letter campaign go out to expired listings. I have the goal to at least meet with 3 sellers by the end of NEXT week. I'll break this goal down too, because I know that is a lot of calls, and screenings, to get there! If I don't get enough response to my yellow letters, I will call For Rent ads, but I will call until I get 3 seller meetings. By the end of this week will be tough with all the above goals, so I'm setting that one for next week to be realistic. But offers are definitely where it is at, and I need to get my non-MLS offers going on full speed.

THIS WEEK PRIORITY: Getting people to help me build my business + at least 25 MLS-offers out there
NEXT WEEK: CALLS, CALLS, CALLS and OFFERS, OFFERS, OFFERS and many interviews to get the right people in place from my Craigslist ads.

Hope you are taking the baby steps to move forward in your business.....no matter where you are in your business!
Cheers!
Louisa

sounds like a plan, girlfriend! i know you will do it and more.

So great to see you here as always!!! You are such an encouraging friend. Thank you for your words!!!

I'm so glad to be back on the site and see good friends like you!
Louisa

So good to see you back on here. Looking forward to your journal entries and success stories. May I ask r u in Insider Elite as well ? Have a great day and welcome back.

happy investing,
WALT

Great to see you, too!!! Thank you for the warm welcome back.

I am indeed on IE. However, I haven't been able to login for the past several days. I have tried to reset my password but I don't get an email and it isn't in spam folder. So I've contacted tech support.

Honestly, I joined IE at the very beginning, but my daughter was just born within those first couple of months, and I wasn't sleeping at all. So I joined IE really in name only in the beginning. But I'm finally wanting back on, but I can't remember how to get on. Hopefully it will be resolved soon!

Definitely hunt me down on IE....I'll be there soon!

Thanks again for saying "hi'!
Louisa

Well I think you are a complete Rockstar! I absolutely adore you Louisa. You are just so very precious. Loved chatting with you and I could absolutely feel your passion and see the fire in your eyes and through the conversations. (Everyone kept saying we talked fast -- heck I heard every word you said. Not sure what their problem was! We communicated just great! bhhahahaa! jk)

It is clear you know exactly what you want! Sounds like the Edge gave you those one or two slight millimeter adjustments Dean talked about to dial you into and be dead on hitting that target!

Super excited for you because you know why??!?? I know you are right at that tipping point. Point were you are about to BLOW IT UP!! This is YOUR time Louisa!

Proud of you girl!

Can't wait to hear the updates!

See you in a couple weeks!

Big hugs!
Jen

It was a real pleasure meeting you at the EDGE. I have followed your posts for a few years and I agree with everything that Jen said in her post. You have such a bright and shinning personality, you are perfect for this business! I know nothing will stop you.

On to the next one!

Michael

Thank you so much Jen! I was running around having a crazy wonderful day w/ RE and I was telling a girlfriend about The Edge and how amazing, yet again that it was...and when I started talking about your presentation, I literally could not help but cry out of nowhere just talking about it! It was SOOO inspiring! YOU are amazing. And you are such a great communicator of everything too!!

Also, thank you for your confidence and faith in me and for telling me. Means the world!

I've already taken all your info and put it on hyper-speed this week LOVE IT!! Of course I have about 100 more questions. You probably lost your voice talking to me...LOL...and yes, it is awesome you are a speed-talker too. hahahaha!

Yes, see you soon!!!
XO
Louisa

to meet you after seeing you and your posts here for so long! Thank you so much for stopping by to say "hello"...it means a lot to me! I appreciate your kind words.

You have always hopped on any posts, etc...giving great advice, and to everyone on here! You have a gift for this business and a heart for giving here which is so, so amazing.

Love the pic with you and your wife and Dean! Awesome! All the best to you this year in your RE and look forward to seeing you here again on the site! So wonderful to meet you in person, Michael!

Cheers!
Louisa

My agent is amazing. I have said this before. But I am stoked that we met up after The Edge and I had a whole game plan with him in terms of the investing side on non-MLS offers (although he does an amazing jobs with MLS offers), he has been trying to wholesale without success and I wanted to work with him to take us both to the next level. I'm just excited to have the man-power to get more done and so thrilled that he wants to be on the investor side too. He uses my name for all the collateral so he doesn't have to go with the "licensed agent" stuff for legal purposes.

So we came up with a game plan and have underway:
--Bandit signs (done, will be put up Friday)
--Driving for dollars drop yellow letters/notes @ doors (handwritten but printed off by professional printer that matches his ink to the exact blue....they look so real, he gets calls back just thanking him for the handwritten note even when not interested) ---printed today
--Yellow letters to mail ---printing tomorrow
--New business cards for him that have a referral on the back of them (printing tomorrow). I'm adding my referral $500 to the back of my cards too
----Google voice numbers for responses to all of the above. Recordings will be set tonight. Agent will do all the call backs
---15 more MLS offers going out tomorrow
---Agent in the process of going after his brokers license and we're setting up a prop mgmt company in the next month. SO thrilled about this.

Just closed a rehab loan today on my current rehab. Rehab is in full swing.

Found out bank will do cash-out refi in KY and TN up to 80% LTV. I did use them for one, but wanted to confirm states, etc...

Talked to same bank about my next project closing May 17, but I may use private money...just depends. Gathering numbers on project by Tuesday. Meeting several contractors to walk through tomorrow.

Rented one of my units yesterday. No Vacancy. YAY!

Set multiple prospective tenants to show another rental of mine Saturday morning. Look forward to outsourcing this to an agent to save time in the future(mine is not interested). Need to rent this one ASAP.

More to do!!
Louisa

Louisa I knew you would blow it away, two kids and still going lol, god bless .
One day we will have to talk,been a long time since the edge 2010. Tell Jamie i said hello. You were two of the nicest people Ive ever met.
I hope to get things settled by the end of ther yr and make it to the edge 2014. I hope to move back home by mid june.

Never EVER give up!

Richie

you go gurl. you are the rising star. hope to see you next year and congrats on the birth of your child.

Louisa - WOW! I thought I was busy. LOL This is awesome!

Question: Who do you use for printing yellow letters? Do you print yourself at home on lined yellow paper or do you outsource? I've been considering printing options for both yellow letters and post cards.

Thanks in advance
Kristin

You are definitely on a mission !!

Your planning skills are incredible .

I am pulling for you to hit your goals for this year !

Randy

RICHIE ----HEY!!!! Thanks for dropping by! I SOOOOOOO missed you at The Edge! I am so sorry to hear about your home and Hurricane Sandy. I can't imagine the struggle....I just heard about this from Cathy....I had no idea. I am glad to hear you will be moving back into your home soon. It must be a long time coming. I know you'll get back to your RE when you can...it takes time to get settled, and get your life back after going through something like that. I'm pulling for you!!!! (Heck, you may be doing deals right now....not trying to assume you are not!) I would love to see you again at The Edge next year. Thank you for your kind words. I passed them along to Jamie too. It was so awesome we met at that first Edge (for us!)!!

ROB ----Great to finally meet you at The Edge! Isn't it awesome to see who we've been "writing to" all this time! And congrats on your "rising star" stage!! Whoo hoo! Thrilled for you. And glad to be back on here to follow your success.

KRISTIN -----Thanks! I'll do a separate entry on the yellow letter deal....up next. In fact, I had already started it.....just didn't have time to finish it and post! Will do!

RANDY ----I SOOOOO appreciate the words of encouragement. Thank you!!! It makes me smile....it's so much hard work of course, so I can't tell you how much it means that you stopped by. I appreciate it!!!

Cheers!
Louisa

Check your local printers!!!!

This past week, my agent (who now I'm also partnering with on getting wholesale deals and others done w/ non-MLS properties)...he picked up yellow lined pads at WalMart....totaling $8. (enough pads to total 500 sheets)..the same yellow lined pads with the cardboard in the back. He brought it to a local printer and had written a hand-written message on the top and the bottom of the same page (small note that you could tear the paper in 2 and have 2-up on one 8 1/2 x 11 page). Said something to the effect of "Hi, I recently renovated a property in your neighborhood, and noticed your house. I'm interested in buying your house. Give me a call. Phone number. His name" So the local printer matched the blue ink, took the legal pads, and cut the pages out with their cutter, color copied/printed them 2-up making a total of 1000. So the amazing part about this is the PRINTER COST. $60.30 including tax and everything!!! FOR 1000 notes!!! That look so amazingly perfect with the blue ink, I thought for sure he had written it on the paper he gave me. He said when he did this before that it looked so real, people would call him, even if they weren't interested just to thank him for the hand-written note.

While driving for dollars, he will just rip the one page in 2 since there is one at the top and one at the bottom, and drop them at front doors of distressed property in the same neighborhood /general area where I have indeed rehabbed property. Figured the "ripped" page will look real too....like he just took it out of his notepad.

We are also going to do a traditional "yellow letter" mail campaign which will go out by the end of next week and we will use the same local printer for it as well. $68 for 500 letters on yellow lined paper. On those, we will personalize, and have found that we can use the same blue ink, leave the space there for their name and the printer matches the ink, and when you write in the name, you take a yellow highlighter and go over the new written name, and the receiver believes the whole thing was handwritten. We know this for sure, as this was the type of letter he sent out last time -----duplicated by the printer ----just wrote by hand the individuals name before mailing ---and those were the people that called him to thank him for sending a personal note.

We are also thinking about a post card campaign, but haven't nailed it down for sure.

I really don't think I could find a better price online that looks this real ----You might want to check a local printer or two to see if you can get things at a better price point and can save yourself some duplication. Make sure your printer can match ink color and everything. And use the same pen for the name!

Cheers!
Louisa

By the way, I can't remember if I detailed this here in my journal, but I once had my agent pull cash buyers up by area, and when needing buyers in a particular area, I hand-wrote 20 letters to 20 cash buyers when I had a property to wholesale in a certain area. They were one page each and it took awhile....a few hours. I did about 10 one day and mailed them out and 10 the next day. OVER 50% of the people that were written called me. I had something like 12 out of the 20 call me. It was amazing. And it was worth EVERY bit of my time. So if you are needing a "quick fix"....look at "repeat" cash buyers for the past year in a certain zip code and write your top ones. In my case, I had a specific property (and made them call me for the address).

But in another case, I did a typed letter with a hand-written address and hand-written signature to 100+ cash buyers and that one was more generic saying that I found properties often...etc... and I got about 14 cash buyers off of that one which I thought was great and well worth it too.

Just thought I would pass along!
Louisa

wasn't that crazy? I was waiting for the start after the break thinking, in 2 yrs. I can be helping people on that stage. then not 5 minutes later he called my name. I looked at my wife in disbelief. she said the blood drained out of my face, but all I was saying in my mind was "no not now, 2 years from now". lol! one things for sure, I definitely had to get comfortable being uncomfortable in a hurry. afterward though I realized nobody got hurt or laughed loudly at me. the fact that we're likeminded people makes this whole experience so grand. i'm so happy you're back on dg. you've been a really busy girl. looks like I need to pick up the pace.

Keep up the good work. It sounds like things are really moving along and thanks for sharing all those wonderful tips with the DG Members. Keep those real estate deals coming. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Thanks for the post on yellow letters! This is great and very useful information...
Will research now on my end!! Thanks so much for sharing
Kristin

Great info Louisa. Deborah thought of using envelopes that looked like Christmas cards during the Christmas season. Then a fellow DGer that I was talking to at the EDGE told me we uses wedding invitation type envelopes, hand addressed with no name on the return address. He says he is getting a very high rate of return. People open what they think may be a card or an invitation. We are trying it with 100 mailers and will gauge the increase in response (if any)

Michael

ROB ---yes, it was awesome! You so deserved to be up there!!! YAY FOR YOU!

JOE ---Thank you so much for stopping by and for your encouragement!!! I appreciate you!!

KRISTIN ---Hope it helps you!! Thanks for the comment!!!! We all search for so many online things (and it is efficient) that we forget sometimes in our own backyard there are local people who will get it done cheap!

MICHAEL ---That is great on the high rate of return on invitation style. My agent who is working with me on deals off the MLS as well had heard about putting stickers randomly on envelopes so people would open them. My general thought is ----as long as the address is hand-written, have you ever not opened an envelope no matter what it had on it that was HAND-WRITTEN to you? I always open up hand-written addresses. Period! Invite or no invite. If they hand write my name, I'm opening it, no doubt! Keep me posted on your numbers for your campaign. I hope it is productive for you guys!!

I will have to update the journal later. Lots going on!!!

Cheers!
Louisa

it was so nice meeting you at the Edge!!! we didn't have much time to catch up, but in the little time that we talked your energy and vibrant personality just shone through! It's no surprise that you're doing so well with your rei! You have an incredible determination! This site is awesome, so many wonderful investors sharing their success stories and their journeys; I'm glad that you're back too!

To our success!
Val

of course you would know about the early morning calls!
and I don't know how you managed with the little ones!!!

It was just funny that Cathy was telling us that she was a bit concerned because it had been a couple of hours since you supposedly arrived, and next thing, you walk in with your shopping bags! You did look adorable! Like a little girl who had just been to the candy store... so now I understand why! Felt ridiculous?? Are you kidding me??? Next time, I'm joining you!!!

LOL. You make me laugh! Thank you!!! And you're more than welcome to join me shopping next time! Shopping or no shopping we must hang out more next year! I get so excited thinking about The Edge!!!!! It's amazing, isn't it!?

You are on such a roll, I think just scrolling just one page of your journal, you have like the last 4 deals on there....amazing!

Cheers!
Louisa