Chris's - Rhode Island Real Estate Journal

Got my foreclosure website up & running. Dean's Automatic Foreclosure Finder makes it easy! I am working on getting it promoted, I have drafted a press release and have drafted a couple of article to be published on-line, waiting for approval. I have a few other techniques to apply from my "Marketing Yourself on the Web Lesson".

Time to spend some time with my family.....

Working on two lessons today "What's It Worth?" and "Contract & Offers". I should be ready to find some properties now. Yeahhhhhhh!!!

Can't wait!!!

Wish me luck!

Spent a good part of the day reworking my budget & getting my finaces in order for the upcoming year.

It has been snowing all day, light snow, but it still makes everything look pretty!!!

Thank you so much Chris for sharing how you got started. I have been a bump on a log; so much info not sure where to start. Starting this new year I will make my life different with real estate; I am 100% committed. I also listened to the call on creating buyer's list; i will have to listen again. You have shown me how to break it down into small steps and do some each day. I also need to write in my journal daily. I had so many excuses including 'I don't have an accountability partner.' Isn't that just nuts, more like stupid! I never thought about using my journal to make me accountable. Thank you. It's like 9:40pm right now so not alot I can do but will read Dean's books. I have 2 of them. Tomorrow is REI meeting in my area. I also am going to plan out my times to set aside for God, family, and real estate business. Just thank you for giving me the boost to get moving and DOing something.
Cathy

Go for it Cathy! You can do it!

Finally starting to search for homes!!!!

During my lunch break today I narrowed down my buyers list criteria. I am going to start with single family homes in areas near my home (both RI & MA). I have a bunch to sort through, plus I have to do a search in MA. Then I am going to narrow down the list and go look at about 6 of the properties and by the end of the week, make an offer of two of them! Wish me luck.

Had a confernce call tonight to start working on my business plan, and establish my business credit. I also worked on the demographics and property characteristics worksheets for my target areas!

Should be able to spend more time on them tomorrow.

Came up with a list of about 25 properties that I narrowed down to about 13. Going to make some calls tomorrow and find out who is really motivated. Then I will narrow down the list to about 5 properties to look at and make an offer of two of them, that is the plan for the week (or pass them on to other investors for a bird-dog fee).

Did a lesson on Property Inspections tonight, that will come in handy later this week.

It starting to happen!!! weeeeeeeeeeeee

Also working on setting up my self directed IRA, looking into some real estate investing with that also!!

FUN FUN FUN

Well, maybe the best time to call realtors is NOT at lunch time. I made a few calls at lunch today, only got one live voice. I think I will call earlier tomorrow!

I also stopped at the office supply store to pick up needed supplies to make up my "Walk-Through Kit" (ask me if you don't know what it is).

Used the Property Trend software to find comps on the properties I am looking at to establish a FMV (fair market value). What a great tool!!! It makes it a little easier to see which properties are listed below the FMV and which ones to look into further.

I now need to finish up my calls and figure out which properties to go look at and establish a repair value.

A lot of the homes I am finding that match the criteria of my buyers end up being REOs or Short Sales, which I can't assign. So if I pursue those I will have to Bird Dog them. Called my coach last night (I got Jeff Jansen himself!!!) and he suggest I bird dog those deals if they pan out.

Got the draft of my business plan, I am printed it out now to review. Still waiting to get my incorporation papers back from the state.

Made more calls to Realtors today, again, lots of voice mails, need to find a better time to call. One of the properties I am looking at is getting lots of action, so I will have to pass on that one.

Has a conference call on setting up some investments for my new Self Directed IRA. Did you know you can invest in real estate??? The things I am learning.

Got a draft of my business plan that I need to review.

Finished putting together my "Walk Through Kit".

Ended up working late, had some issues to deal with at home, so not much on the business tonight. Have to hit it hard tomorrow.

Oh yeah...one last thing.... GO PATS!!!!!!!!!

Not the most productive day today.

I have been doing a little research to narrow down my nitche market. There is an interesting concept that I think will work well in my area. Target the entry level homes (3B/1 - 2B or 4B/ 1- 2 Bath ranches), in good areas with mostly owner occupied houses. Buy them cheap, do necessary repairs and them offer as lease to own or as Section 8 housing. Make sure the tenants are well screened. I really think this will work well, and I can focus on one property type and become the expert in that market. I have several buyers on my list that are looking for these types of properties also. [Thought anyone?]

I also saw a very interesting video produced by on the the local REI clubs that shows how to automaticlly sell houses (using signs, 800#s, lock box, and flyer packets) only the interest and qualified will contact you, so you don't have to spend a lot of time talking to people who are not real buyers. Similar to what Dean does with the 800# for sellers.

I have also been editing my Business plan. Ohh, I got a Duns # today, so I am almost an offical business, as soon as I get my paperwork back from the state!

Looked at my first house today. Not the best deal, but it gets me started and some practice with using all the forms. The house was actually is pretty good shape structurally, mechanically & electrially. The biggest issue was repainting & all new floors. It is in a decent neighborhood. The house is a short sale, which means I can't assign it, so I would have to bird dog it. The property is listed above what I calculated for a fair market value. The buyer would need to get a substantial drop in the price to make the numbers work. I also did a full estimate of the repairs and calculated an offer price based on the "fast offer formula form".

I also finally made all my phone calls, not that I got through to everyone. Found out four of the properties that I was pursuing were either taken off the market or already had several offers. I am going to e-mail all of those agents and have them contact me if anything changes...and move on to the next one.

I spoke to 4 agents of promising properties (one of them I saw today). One of the agents I spoke to told me the house I called her on was a rental and the owner wanted to sell it, plus 3 other properties that they have!!! Smells like an opportunity. He is older and wants to cash out and find a condo somewhere. I called the agent back and told her I was interested in looking at it, but have not heard back yet.

Overall it has been a pretty productive day! I am going to go through another lession tonight after dinner...so many options of lessons to do!!!

Had a conference call tonight on bookeeping. A very important matter.

Then I had to take some time to get my heat working....was air in one of the heating lines, so the heat was not coming thru...also very important when it's in the teens outside.. brrrrrrrrrrr

My wife and I changed our strategy a little tonight. Since she is home during the day, she is going to make the phone calls on the house and also do the initial home inspection. It just wasn't working with me doing them at night and at lunch time. This will free up Saturdays to look at houses together or make offers depending on where we are at.

I can use the time at night to search for houses and do some research on different markets. Initially we are going to focus on entry level homes in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We also have a bunch of buyers that are looking for Multi-Families, so I will have to start looking at them once we get the process going on the single family homes.

The realtor I have lined up sent my the stardard purchase & sales agreement for both states that I need to review.

My plan for making phone calls wasn't working, so now my wife Lori is calling and screwing all the houses and making appointments to look at them!!!! AWESOME!!!!! Only one problem, what took me two weeks to do, she did in a few hours. Now I have to find some more houses= we have been finding that most of these houses go fast, so we need to move quicker. Also, a lot of them are REOs or short sales. We will keep looking.

Well found a few more house for Lori to call on. She is going to keep me busy!!!

Did a lesson on the Seller's List tonight. I have to work on some more marketing to bring in some sellers.

Awesome videos posted...look for me next year!!!

OK, quick post tonight.....

Weeeeeeeeee...my wife Lori is rockin...made some more calls, I think we found some motivated buyers!!!!! We need to take a look at the houses and see what kind of shape they are in.

Only one problem, gotta find some more houses!! LOL

Won't be long now before we make our first assignment.

Ordered Dean's new book tonight!!! Can't wait to read it!!! Love the new infomercial too!

Found some new houses to check out from Craig's list. While I was there I posted a few adds. I am getting daily calls to my 800#, but most of them are hang up (the screening is working). I need to expand my marketing to drive more traffic.

I think I forgot to mention that I ran a press release on-line for my new web site (automatic foreclosure finder). Once I get my incorporation paperwork back from the state (what is taking so long), I can post my full website and order my business cards (finally)!

I also got a call from a fellow Rhode Islander & DG Family Member for a possible partnership on some deals!!!! We are going to meet at an REI next week and talk some more.

Got some more houses to look at and call on tomorrow.

My wife Lori & I went to look at 2 of the houses we had called on. The first one would make a decent first home, but the interior has not had any upgrades and it has the original steam boiler and a 60 amp electric service, plus it was a short sale. The second house was scary! It looks like an old cabin that someone added on to, plus it was down a dirt road in the sticks, I think we need to keep looking.

I printed out a bunch of homes that we need to call on. And I am working on an estimate sheet to speed up the estimate process. I will put the unit price for some of the common items.

On our way home we notice a for sale by owner - open house right around the corner from our house. An investor has bought a tired house and fixed it up, they did a real nice job. We talked to them for a bit and wished them luck on their venture.

Oh, I also spent some time promoting my web site. In case you didn't know Google has a cool tool called Knol. You can post articles with links to your website, there is a bunch of great tools on Google to help track & drive traffic to your web site....check it out!!!

I'm days from a pending foreclosure and have begun the process of filing a bankruptcy. I'm the biggest skeptic on the planet since I've been "scammed" too many times and lost lots of money. I don't have money to invest in the real estate school but I got "Be A Real Estate Millionaire". In a week, I've almost finished the book (I haven't read a book in years). I ordered "Right Now" and hopefully will receive it soon. I work better with help due to an ADD condition but at present I've kept focused. With all these things working against me, I want to get going. I'm 56 years old and ready for a new life and I'd love to share my situation with others. Thanks!
Gary

Gary:

You can do it! You are in the right place, with the right people. There is loads of information on this site and lots of people willing to help. Keep reading Dean's book and come back to this web site for additional information. Dean's new book is just coming out now, I just ordered mine this weekend, you may be able to catch the 1/2 price deal if you act fast, I think I saw something about an extension.

I have found that coming up with an estimate for repairs takes the most time. So I have been putting together a spreadsheet with all the unit prices built in, so all I have to do is load quantities and the sheet will do all the math. If anyone is interested I am using RS Means Residential Cost Data (2010). I am about 2/3 complete with the sheet. I am putting the most common items on it, and if I have a unique item I can look it up in my cost book.

Continuing to search for new houses and contact the sellers, have to keep the machine going.

Traveled out of town, had to drive home in a snow storm and left a lot later than expected so didn't make it to my journal last night.

So today my wife & partner Lori inspected another home (first one she did on her own). A decent house that need some cosmetics, but it is a short sale. I have been hearing some horror stories on short sales from some of the realtors. Going to do an estimate on the repairs then see if I can get an investor to bite. I would have to bird-dog it since you can't assign short sales.

I am real excited about the cycle we are getting in. I know we have to turn over a few rocks to find the hidden gem. It may take some time, but it will be out there. Lori is home during the day, so she is able to make calls on the homes and schedule inspects. I will find houses, do a quick analysis on them and decide which ones to call on. I will also put together the estimaes and present them to our investors. I think it is a good system that will work.

We are focused on entry level houses for now, they seem to be the ones that are selling and I can assign them to many of the investors on me list. I have investors in both RI & MA for both single family and multi-family homes.

Tomorrow night I am going to my second REI club meeting. One of the DG Family members & I plan on meeting and figuring out how we can partner on some deals.

Attended my second REI meeting tonight, I signed up as a member. What a great meeting. The president of the club did a brief talk on the difference between a great deal and an OK deal with all the costs associated with buyer & selling a home. The guest speaker did a talk on Lead in homes. In RI, 80% of the housing stock was built before 1978 when lead paint was widely used. The laws will be changing in RI in a few months that will add some requirements to anyone who is a land lord or fixes up a house to resell. He also was a REI so he understood where we are coming from.

Met a lot of people tonight. One of the people on my buyers list was there, so we got to meet face to face, which was great. He gave me a lot of great advise and some insite on the local market. I also got to meet one of the fellow DG Family Members (shout out to Scott) who is also going thru coaching, we will be looking into how we can help each other out. I was talking to the man sitting next to me and he told me to call him if I find a house that meets his criteria, which happens to be the same type of houses that I am looking at (another add to the buyer list). I also got a card from a Hard Money lender, which may come in handy in the future. All in all it was a good nite. Oh, I almost forgot, I also met a fellow investor that I had called as a reference on a home inspector, this inspector does very detailed inspections, one of the home sellers says if he sees him again he will refuse to sell the house.

Oh, one other thing. As you can tell by my journal, I am quite the comedian...NOT. Towards the end of the meeting, one of the members mentioned that his paint supplier had an add-mixture for paint that enables you to paint in cold weather, down to -10 degrees. He a said it wasn't very expensive and it worked great. I quickly came back with...."yeah it's lead", the whole room broke out laughing.

Haven't made it here in a few days so I have a little to catch up on....very little. Family activities have kept me busy for the last few days. My youngest son had a football banquet Friday nite that I was a part of organizing, so that took up my Friday night. Then he has a wrestling tournament Saturday, had to drop him off a 6AM!!! We headed up to see him for 9am, was an all day event.

Once we got home I started working on finalizing my estimate spreadsheet, it will really save a lot of time on estimating repairs on homes. I was making some good headway when my sister-in-law called to offer tickets to a local college basketball game. Whew....busy weekend.

So I am catching up today....ok off to do a little dream building and watch some football.

Dean's New Book arrived today!!! Can't wait to read it!!

I also finished up my estimate form (finally), it sure makes estimating repairs quicker!! I ran it on two properties.

I lost my demographics forms when my computer crashed on me, so I am reworking it. I want to look at it again and determine where I can get the best bang for the buck.

Working on my education....

Last night I was watching the video that came with Dean's new book "No Money Down, Real Estate Profits From the Internet". Great information, I didn't get to finish watching it, was past my bedtime...another reason why I didn't write in my journal last night. The video was about buying non-performing notes, seems like a great concept with little to no competition!!!

Right now I am waiting for a webinar by Alan Cowgill - on Private Money Lending...I have his book but haven't read it yet...I have so many books to read right now. It should be interesting. OK gotta run....

Oopppss....been out of touch for a few days. Had a nasty cold that knocked my on my butt, had to get some rest!!! But I'm back, started reading Dean's new book wow!!! I am going to take a few steps back so I can take some steps forward. I think there are two things missing. I need to understand the markets I am in better, so I know where to look for the deals I need to find (Demographics exercises). I only did them for the areas I was originally focused on, they when I got some buyers lined up, the homes I needed to find were not in the areas I did the studies on. So I am expanding the area a little bit to cover some more ground. Also for now I am going to stick Rhode Island untill I get some deals behind me.

Once I have gotten thru that then I need to work on some marketing to draw in some deals. I am finding that you need to be the first one to the deal, and if I am relying on MLS listings I may not be the first one there. So I need to work on getting leads from other areas, ads, bandits signs, etc.

Hello from another RI DGer. It seems like you are on fire and have been taking all the necessary steps to actually get out there and just do it. It took me a while to get started, but I am also taking those first steps and currently working on my Buyer's List. Have a handful of properties I am interested in, and all of them REOs. What part of RI are you in?

Kristin

I really like the Market Composition Analysis form from Dean's latest book! It takes a little bit of time to tally up the counts, but it gives you a better feel for what type of properties are for sale in each city/town, but also the quantity by price range and type of sale (owner occupied, rental, REO, Short Sale..etc). I am really begining to get an understanding of the property mix in each town. Plus, now if I get a new buyer with a specific property request, I know where to focus my efforts.

I am also liking the student stories in the book. There are tons of great ideas and new forms that will be helpful moving forward.

Still waiting for my incorporation paperwork to show up, was supposed to take 2-6 weeks, I think they are taking the whole 6 weeks (or they lost my paperwork).

What are some of your favorite web sites? Here are some of mine:

www.riliving.com
www.totalviewrealestate.com
www.zillow.com

Continuing to work on Market Comparison Analysis for each of the markets I am looking in, 6 down, 2 to go. It is a very telling analysis. Not only does it break down total # of units by type (SFH, Condo, Multi-Family) but also price & type of sale (conventional, short sale, REO). Will really help with identifying where to to look for various properties.

Have been continuing to read Dean's new book, I like the format and the real life student examples!!!

This comment has been moved here.

I was so excited about the EDGE last night that I forgot to update my journal.

I have been spending my time getting my finances in order and preparing for taxes. Hoping that a nice tax return will help finance the trip to the EDGE and some business deals!

Still can't believe I am going!!!!