Chris's - Rhode Island Real Estate Journal

I made phone calls on two responses to my Craiglist Ghost ads. Turns out they were both realtors. I will interview them and see if I may be able to work with them.

I also reposted my ads, plus I put ghost ads up on http://www.rehablist.com/ and http://www.postlets.com/home.php. Both great resources to find buyers and sell properties.

I am forwarded a bunch of deals I came across in MA to a potential buyer I met here on DG.com.

Continuing to work with my Self Directed IRA, working on trust deeds for property in Utah!!!

Finally getting back on track, sometimes you get derailed, just get back on track and keep moving forward.

Went through the lesson on foreclosures tonight, there are a lot of them out there and I need to learn as much as I can about them. There is still one more lesson on Foreclosures, plus one on REOs and two on short sales. I think that is where most of the opportunity is in my area right now.

Followed up on a couple of e-mails from Realtor that I want to interview. Seems we keep missing each other, that J.O.B. (just over broke) keeps getting in the way. LOL

I also signed papers for a First Trust Deed from my IRA account. I can't believe the options that you have with it. I am learning about things I never knew existed!!!!

Had a football board meeting, so not much time tonight. Did a search for real estate investors on-line and came up with a new name to follow up on. I also have two real estate agents that I need to follow up on also.

The other night I located the recent HUD auction sales listing, am checking the local tax assessor website to see when the property owner is posted.

Signed up for a fare watcher for my flight to the EDGE, see if anything changes in the next few weeks. I also need to book my room.

Celebrated my oldest son's birthday tonight with a small gathering and cake & ice cream!

Received the Confirmation Package for "Gain The Edge 10"!!!!!!!!!

My tax returns are complete!

Lot's to do tomorrow.

Buyer's List, Buyer's List, Buyer's List!!!!!!!!

I am continuing to work on my buyers list!!! I added a new buyer today, he happens to be a real estate agent that also invests in real estate!! Could be a win win!!

I send a bunch of message out to names I found on ****. We will see where that goes. A lot of them were national investors, but there were a few local ones. A lot of them didn't have contact information so the only way to contact them was to send a message thru the website.

There are some good meeting coming up at our local REIA club! There are a few DG members that are going, maybe we can all work together???

Weather is great today! Well for New England!

P.S. MY BUSINESS CARDS SHOWED UP TODAY!!!

Opps...guess I haven't done my journal in a few days!!!

Went to a local REIA meeting tonight. I was a great meeting. Meet a lot of new people including a realtor and a contractor. The active members talked about some of their deals, and shared a wealth of knowledge.

The topic tonight was getting over fear and taking action! Was excellent!!

Tele-conference tomorrow night!!!!

Wow, last night's REIA meeting was great! Lot's of great information, tips from the active local investors plus a great talk from the head of the organization (to help get us off our butts!!!). The summary of the meeting is as follows:

- Take Action
- Make Offers
- Get Checks

One of the attendees recommended the site www.squidoo.com and squidbids, check them out. I put together a list of "Transactional Lenders" (one day lenders) and got quotes from a bunch of them. Let me know if you interested.

Almost time for the conference call, should be awesome!!!!

Boy did I get pumped from that conference call!!!

Made a list of local small banks and credit unions, never realized how many there are. I also got a flyer in the mail from one of the local credit unions. They have money to lend for real estate!!! Have to get in touch with them!

Can't wait for the Edge now!!!

P.S. I almost forgot, my family and I are walking in a charity event for the American Heart Association, I am trying to raise $2,000 for the cause. If anyone is interested in donating you can do so on my web page:

http://heartwalk.kintera.org/worcesterma/cbrindamour

Thank you!

Couldn't get to the meeting this past week since I was dying with a vicious head cold, but am stoked to go to the one next Thursday night. Do you plan on being there?

Kristin

Yes, I plan on making next week's REI meeting, look for me!

Continuing to work on my buyer's list, it will be the only thing I work on till I get up to 10 qualified buyers. I find the I am all over the place at times, so I need to focus on one thing at a time.

I found a program to post ads on Craigslist called Rainmaker. I am going to try it out and see how it works. Going to post some ghost ads to attract some cash buyers.

I am also going to keep checking the HUD list to see if there are any more recorded sales, then check the City Tax Accessor's site to see if the closing is posted to get the buyers name.

Oh, last night I finished putting together a list of all the local banks and credit unions. Once I have my buyer's list completed, I plan on contacting them to see if I can get a deal!

...off to take action... TTFN

I have 6 people contact me (cash buyers) from my ads that want to be added to my buyers list!!!!! I need to qualify them, but looks like I am ready to go. 5 of them came from Craig's List, and one from Lead Tackle!!!!

I used the wording from Dean's latest book, from Greg's story. The "HELP Desperate owner!" ad got all the attention! Try it!

OK, I'm off to get my realtor lined up and start calling the banks on REOs.

Watched part of the EDGE video from last year, hmmm...looks like Probates are another avenue.

OK, I sent out "Matt Larson Realtor Script" to two Realtors (I was planning on coming up with a e-mail list of all the Realtors in the area I am looking). One of them called me back, to para-phrase his response..."I'M READY...I'M READY...I'M READY". I think I found my man!!! Time to put the plan in action!!

You are definitely on a roll!

I too am suffering from information overload and trying to run in a hundred different directions at the same time. This week, or the remaining half of this week, I am going to also focus on my Buyer's List with a goal of contacting at least 5 by Friday. As I qualify them they will be added to the list. Per one of the recorded messages sent in a DG email, I believe Jeff Jensen said to concentrate on getting the buyers for the next few weeks and then get the deals. Like shopping with money in your back pocket!!!

Sounds like you have an excited realtor ready to go to work for you and I hope he works out. I have one I am working with but am still not 100% sure he is the ONE. May meet with a few others to check out other personalities and mindsets.

Hope to see and meet you tomorrow night at the REI meeting.

Kristin

I felt the same way you did, I had a million things going thru my head and information overload. I decided that I would work on my buyers list and ONLY my buyers list till I had at least 10 cash buyers.

Craig's List worked best for me, there are some great tips for ads in Dean's latest book. I also have some leads from the HUD website that I need to follow up on, but will take a little longer to use, I have to wait till the house closes and is recorded to find out who the buyer was. So work on your list.

I will be at the meeting tomorrow night...looking forward to meeting with you!

Working on a list of 100 homes with my realtor, up to about 58, still need to get a few more. Then we are going to get together and pick the best 25 to make offers on. It's finally happening!!!

The video came in from the local REI club from the training they did on how to estimate repairs. Going to watch it tonight!

REIA meeting tomorrow night. The are going to have a flooring contractor and a Self Directed IRA Trust company speak. Should be a great meeting.

I am excited and hope this one is better than last months. Do you think the self-directed IRA folks can help me find a property for under $10,000? Cuz that's all I have in the IRA at this point in time! Probably not, but I can dream...

Kristin

I would love to be able to go to the REI meeting one week. I'm going to have to take the night off from work to go, but I think that it's worth it. I would also love to meet some of the other local DGers. I've met with Kristen a couple of times (which was great). Maybe if we get enought of us together we could form our own group. Even if it was a small group we would all be on the same page. Maybe even have possible investments that we could all go in on together. Well just putting some ideas out there.

Jean

Yeah it was great meeting some fellow DGers! There were a total of 4 of there last night. Last night's meeting was great if you have old retirement funds that you can roll over and want to invest in real estate instead of the stock market! Which is what I did with my first deal.

I am going to post some suggestions on the RI group site.

http://www.deangraziosi.com/content/rhode-island

To post on the RI Group Page do the following:

- Contribute
- Group Post
- A box will come up that you can type into
- At the bottom there should be a list of the groups you belong to
- Pick the group you want to post to
- Post your item

Hope that helps!

Hello Chris,

Just read through the latest posts in your journal. Congratulations on the flurry of activity. Your journal is an inspiration! I got your PM... and will respond shortly.

Roger

I am meeting with my realtor tomorrow to go thru the list and decide which 25 to put offers on. So far he has come thru, hopefully he can stick to the plan. If not I am building a list of all the realtors in the area I am looking (I think I am up to 200 of them so far). Wish me luck!

Chris,

I took the time to read through your entire journal and also that of Randy428. What you both have in common is Action Action Action! Your different approaches tell me there are a number of ways to get this off the ground. Congratulations on your progress so far.

Time for me to get off my keister and take action.

Roger

OK, today's the day!!! I got a list of properties from the realtor I am working with. In our area the most houses are selling in the $100K - $200K range (basically started homes). So I crossing anything off that was over that. I also crossed off any homes that did not have at least 3 bedrooms.

Next I focused on ranches, since a few of my buyer prefer them. I then went to Zillow to get a rough idea of the value of the home, plus some recent comps to see if it is priced right. Then I figure my offer based on 30-50% off the asking price.

I identified about 30 homes, meeting with my realtor around noon. I am expecting him to tell me that I am crazy, so hopefully he buys into it. I am bringing my secret weapon with me (shhh...don't tell anyone), my wife Lori.

If this realtor doesn't buy into the program (his loss) I am putting a list together of all the realtors in the areas I am looking and I am prepared to blast an e-mail out to all of them (i found a freeware program that will do this for me).

Wish me luck!!!

Update!!! All went well with the realtor, he is very excited about my plan. We ended up making 31 offers, now it's a waiting game.

Best of luck on those offers and keep us posted! Working diligently on my BUYER'S LIST which I put off the past few days. Procrastination or just plain lazy, not sure, but today I am working it!

Kristin

I had the best results from Craigslist. There are some good ideas for wording in Dean's latest book. Check it out!

Waiting on the results of my offers. I withdrew 2 of them since they required funding from a particular bank. I had to do proof of funds letters for the balance since most of them were Short Sales or REOs. I ended up using tempco funding http://www.tempofunding.com/index.html for this. They have some of the lowest rates and you can do the proof of funds letter immediately on-line (great for getting letters on a Sunday!).

I just booked my flight to Phoenix for the EDGE, and will call in a bit for my room. Can't wait, it should be awesome!

Well the realtors all wanted formal written offers, they wouldn't accept anything else...so the offers should go in tomorrow. About all I worked on tonight, found the form on here, call the success academy to make sure i filled it out right. Now it's a waiting game...... wish me luck

Stayed up late last night writing offer letters (not sure why they wouldn't accept a verbal, fax or e-mail offer to start?), they want me to put together a formal written offer, and I know most of them will just get rejected, but there is a yes in there somewhere...so. Well I worked on the wrong form, my realtor sent the form over tonight, so we are starting over. Offers should go in tomorrow. Keep moving forward.

I got an e-mail from my Realtor today, he is leaving the firm he is with so he can't process my offers.... UGHHHHH

I think I will try to locate a new realtor, so my plans are on hold temporarily. Started making a list of realtors, I think I am up to 200 and have a long way to go to complete a list for the Greater Providence area.

Got a call from a former co-worker (hey Jack), he just got Dean's books and came on here and saw my journal. Wants to go up to the auction in Boston this weekend. Maybe we can do some deals together.

OK..off to find Matt Larson, paid for a list, but the right Matt Larson was not on the list. Where in the world is Matt Larson????