Chris's - Rhode Island Real Estate Journal

Joe,

It was great to finally meet you and Stacey, it is great to see you two working as a team. I have been blown away so far, can't wait to see what is in store today! You and Stacey are the kind of people that we need to be around more! Look forward to following your trail!

See you on the beaches of the world!

Couldn't agree with you more, Chris! We are busting out of this conference room! YAY! (I would also LOVE regional events! How great for networking?) Cheers! Louisa

Couldn't agree with you more, Chris! We are busting out of this conference room! YAY! (I would also LOVE regional events! How great for networking?) Cheers! Louisa

Couldn't agree with you more! We are busting out of this conference room! YAY!

WOW WOW WOW

My cup is overflowing! Thanks to Dean his staff, the speakers and the Success Academy for all the work they did putting this together.

At the end of the EDGE, Dean invited anyone to come forward to talk about their "ah-ha" moment. I would have a hard time coming up with one "ah-ha" moment, there was so many of them. I have a ton more tools to put in my tool box, I don't know if I will use all of them, but if the right situation arises, I know where the tool is.

Probably the most amazing thing, was all the people I met. There were people who recognized me from my Journal that came up and said hi to me, or that wanted to meet me. It almost made me feel like a mini rock star at times (you don't get that on the J.O.B.). All of the speakers took time to stop and talk to everyone who walked up to them. I got to meet Dean and his wife, got my picture with him, his signed my journal, and probably the most amazing thing was that Dean said he has read my posts and to keep up all the positive postings.

I came up with a list of "to do's" based on the "I Need to do Something" worksheet:

1. Complete all of the Worksheet's that Dean discussed.
2. Call the small banks, both to find the REO asset manager and build a re pore, but to also find out about their refinance products and terms.
3. Come up with a Marketing Plan
4. Figure out which system to use.
5. Find a Rockstar Realtor

Some major goals that I came up with this weekend:

1 year goal - Speak at the next EDGE
Lifetime goal - help 1 million people to get in (or out of) their homes (I know that seems far fetched, but with the help of fellow DGers I think it can be done.

What are you going to do?

The EDGE was awesome, only it seemed to go by too fast, kind of like a wedding! It is good to be home again, and I missed my family, but now I miss my new "DG" family. I wish there was some way to bottle all that up and take it home, then open up the bottle when you get into a rut. The next best thing is to come here. Now that I have met so many of you, it is even more special.

Well, I had a long flight home, so I had plenty of time to think. I did all the worksheets in the front of the EDGE workbook. I brainstormed some new marketing ideas from my notes and the workbook, here are some of the top ones:

- Bandit signs
- Flyers
- Letters to distressed buyers (get a list of expired listing from your realtor...yeah you need one of those)
- Use door hangers

I need to refine my system, a word that was mentioned over and over again. I spent some time brainstorming that. I can take ingredients from each of the speakers to make my own cake. The ones that created a new "ah-ha" for me for new creative ways were Greg Murphy with his sandwich lease method, seeing him explain it live really cemented it. So if I come across a property that doesn't have enough equity to wholesale or fix and flip I can do a sandwich lease option.

I also like the Jurek's method for acquire REO with no money down!

The other speakers had their own method or systems for wholesaling, fix & flip, or fix and rent. They all had nuggets of information that could work with any system.

In addition, I learned three methods to finance properties!

One re-occurring theme we heard over and over again was to get a Rock-star realtor! They are the cornerstone of your business.

Some of the "buzz words" that came up during the weekend were:

System
FSBO
Craigslist
Buyer's List
Set Goals
Small Banks
Marketing
Private Money
Ghost Ads
REOs

Well, I got some work to do!!! Can't wait for next year!

Chris,

Congrats on all the goal-setting you've done since the Edge ended. Great goals...so much ahead of us!

Sorry about the multiple posts in your journal. It happened all over the site that morning (Cathy Loose commented on my journal and it posted 3 times). Anyway, just wanted you to know I wasn't trying to spam your journal and if I could delete the posts above I would! (was hoping that was possible)

All the best on your REI journey!
Cheers!
Louisa

I've been out of the Dg scene for a while... I guess I lost faith or something. I'm a nurse who believe it or not just got layed off again. I'm in risk of having my house foreclosed on. I need to get something going or some advice or just a kick in the pants. I realize that you're never secure with any job unless you're doing it for yourself. Hope your doing better. I live in Meriden 203 605-8749

Great to finally meet you. I think that was one of the best things is seeing everyone face to face. I too worked on the worksheets and did set some goals. But I have ALOT of to do tasks not just REI but other areas of my life too. It was great to meet the speakers like you said and shake/hug Dean himself. My daughter told me when she picked me up, 'why didn't you take me?' I told her you had to finish school but come to find out she could have after all. Oh well. I have to get to that JOB. I have so many more people to post to and read journals. But I will take ACTION as well.
Blessings,
Cathy

Chris, It was great meeting you at the EDGE. I hope you didnt take the yankee hat thing the wrong way, I was j/k with ya

Keep up the hard work and keep that action plan rolling, you will make it happen. It will probably take a while just to let everything we learned to sink in, but it will be worth it when it does.

good luck
Richie.

Great to meet you too, make sure you get some of those pictures on the facebook site! My whole family wants to come next year, so I know what I have to do! Go out there and steal another deal from Matt!

Great meeting you too...no problem with the Yankee Hat Thing I am used to it. See you here and at the next Edge

Isn't it funny how we came away from the event with the attitude that we had to go to work and accomplish things? It is amazing to me the clarity that came with the event and going to the EDGE. So much to do and yet such a big reward waiting for us.

I have to laugh when I think about the EDGE, I hear Tupac Shakur (sp?) song rolling in my mind: "See you when get here"

Chris, it was great to meet you and do dinner. See you when I travel up that way again.

Rick Kelly-Crapse

It was such a great event...who will be on the stage speaking next year?

Great meeting you!

I was so excited I forgot to update my journal!!!

Boy, it was hard to focus on work yesterday!! There was so much going on in my head (I think next year I'll take the week off after the EDGE so I can take advantage of all the energy), I found myself drifting off and thinking of this I could be doing.

My wife Lori told me she could see the fire in my eyes!

OK, enough of that. I have my list of small local banks, there are 28 to call on. I made up a form to use to call them (example is in Dean's latest book), I also copied the two pages out of Dean's book to give me a script to use. My wife Lori is going to make calls for me to get the REO asset manager.

I also started putting a list of Hard Money Lenders together (if anyone has success with a particular lender, let me know). I sent out e-mails to a few of them to get their terms. There is a great section by Nathan Street on this site that gives you a list of questions to ask them. I am thinking I put together a list of hard money lenders and put it out to bid when I get a deal and see who has the best offer. Oh, one other thing, one of my hard money lenders, is also my attorney, plus he has a short sale negotiation team..yesss...does it get any better???

I got in touch with my Realtor to have her run all the different criteria (there were a lot of them), to get a list of cash buyer, all the tips from Bill O'Rafferty, plus the criteria from Matt Larson. She was having a hard time trying to search on some of the criteria, but she was going to call the tech support person to see if there was a way to run what I needed. Oh, by the way, my Realtor e-mailed me to let me know one of the houses I had put an offer on was looked good, the bank counter, but she thought if I came up a little they may bite. My original offer was at 50% of asking price, so I went up to 55%. My offer is at $57K, the bank is at $69K, it was originally listed at $104K and the ARV is between $150-$160K, it needs about $35K of work. Oh, I still have a few other offers that are still open, I told my Realtor to raise my offer to 60% based on a tip I got from Matt Larson (thanks Matt).

I made a phone call to a friend of mine who recently started his own construction company. He is very interested in doing renovation work for me, yessssss!!!!

Man, what else..I know I am forgetting something!

I am putting my Power Team together, so I can put the pedal to the metal! Wish I could stay home all day and work on this! LOL

Oh, based on all the information this weekend I decided that I want to buy properties, fix them up, then put them back on the street as lease to own, a combination of many of the speakers. My ultimate goal is the help people get into homes, so I offering someone a way to get into a property that has little or no money down. I have a number of way to get the property financed, but I am going to use Rina's method of a hard money loan, the refinance.

You are on fire! I can see that something is going to happen soon for you. I'm still gathering my thoughts as well before posting my post EDGE journal entry, so many things swirling. Best of luck in your upcoming deals!

Thanks Cathy!

Yes, I am priming and ready to go! Just put some of those thoughts down in your journal.

Wow...still on a hi from the EDGE!

Forgot to mention, I offered my two oldest boys to be "Property Locators" for me. I told them if they find me a deal that I close on I will pay them $1,000 (who need a summer job???).

Lori (my wife...she's coming next year) made calls to all the small banks for me to find the contact for REOs. She's the Best!

I also resubmitting offers and countering on the one property that is looking promising.

My Realtor send me all the criteria that I was looking for, so I have a bunch of listings to go through. She is short handed this week, her partner is on vacation and I am bombarding her with phone calls and e-mails!!! LOL It will be worth it in the end!

Tonight I am going to focus on Hard Money Lenders.

Had to put the ACs in, it hit 100 today!!!! I think the Arizona weather followed me home!

It was great to see my fellow Rhode Islander at the EDGE in Arizona! I didn't want to leave either, but next year the family will need to come.

Your action steps are great, and making me feel a bit lacking. I have been hit with massive headaches since returning (jetlag?) or maybe just lack of sleep from seatmates keeping me up all night on the return flight. Getting better today and am ready to get moving. Will update my journal later today.

Keep that fire going and we can take this little state by storm!

Kristin

Kristen,

Put your action plan together...and start working it! You can do it!

I think the "high" is starting to wear off a little...I was dosing off at work today..LOL Hope no one saw me.

I started going thru all the sold listing that my Realtor sent me. There seems to be some good prospect there! One of the owner has 25 properties and that was in the one city I checked on...could be a good buyer???!!!! There are a bunch of names. Oh...to back up a little. I had my realtor run all the sold properties in the last 90 days that were bought with cash in two areas I am looking into. Then I had to go the the assessor's web site to look up the owner, then if it was a company to the state website to look up the contact info for the owner...whew....lot's of work, but it should pay off.

I also started working on getting info on hard money lenders, the National Companies seem to have high rates, but it will give me something to compare against. I want to wrap that up tonight, I am thinking the two local guys I have on my list may be the best option, plus I get to meet face to face and build a relationship.

I also want to take Bill Rafferty's advice and drive by the current, pending and sold properties in my target area to get a feel for the market.

Lots to do!

...Keep working the action plan and good things will happen. It sounds like your make great progress. The next deal is just around the corner. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

The encouragement that I get on this website is unbelievable! Hey, I told Stacey you are welcome to RI anytime!

It's hard to believe a week ago I was at the EDGE!!

Well, went through the list of hard money lenders. It looks like the local guys have the best deal. Probably better anyhow since we can make a face to face connection.

I have put together a list of "cash buyers" that I can call for potential adds to my buyers list.

Oh, I heard from my realtor, the offer I made didn't go through and the bank is dropping the listing. I told my realtor to keep an eye on it and we can make a new offer when it comes back on. One of the other properties that I made an offer on was not an REO and the owner is holding the price. So I am going to look into a lease option to buy (aka...Greg Murphy) or maybe owner financing??? See what happens there.

I have a bunch of properties to go thru, plus some drive by's as recommend by Bill O'Rafferty. Plenty to do this weekend!

Have to map out a route for driving for dollars today. Have to squeeze it between a bunch of events.....Lacrosse and Birthday Party for my neice. I have a list of properties to drive by. While I am out there I should get up some bandit signs and flyers, plus keep an eye out for FSBO and for rent signs.

One other thing I want to accomplish this weekend is to come up with a daily game plan to help keep me on track.

As long as I keep chipping away at the rock, I will come across a diamond once in a while.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

This is the time of year to think about all of those who are no longer with us who have touched our lives in some way, especially those who were in the service here are my memories:

- My grandfather Patrick, who I never knew, made the ultimate sacrifice by giving his life fighting for the freedom of others in World War II. My brother Tim has been searching our family tree and I am hoping to learn a little more about that branch of the family.
- My other grandfather Ovide who provided a great example of being a business owner and being active in the community through the Knights of Columbus and the Elks Club!
- My grandfather in law, Gene, who was the perfect gentleman and true believer in God. He provided a great example of how we are supposed to live our lives.
- My uncle Charles, a veteran, who knew that family is the most important part of our lives.
- My uncle Frank, also a veteran, who was my surrogate grandfather (filled in for my grandfather Patrick). Who loved kids and always knew how to make us laugh!
- My high school best friend Bob. I have many great memories with Bob! I never knew how painful his early life was, until he was no longer with us. Some of my fondest memories of growing up were with Bob. He loved to cook and he loved the water. After he passed on his family moved to Florida and I have lost touch with them. I hope to connect with them some day.

Looking forward to hearing about how your drive by's went. Glad to hear you had a great time at the EDGE too!

What a beautiful tribute to those important loved ones in your life. It's great that your brother is doing a family tree. My Dad gave me some old family photos, some so old that the ladies dresses were high up their neck and reached low to the ground with the old shoes they used to wear. It would be cool to do research on my family tree somday and put names to the faces in the pics.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

Thanks Lea!

Unfortunately I didn't get to do the drive by's, we had a full day of events on Saturday, Lacrosse, birthday party for my neice, yardwork, drop my son off at another party then pick him up again! Whew what a busy day.

What an awesome weekend, lot's of good weather and plenty of family time! Plus extra time to work on some deals.

I spent a good part of yesterday getting items ready to sell on e-bay! Wish me luck, got a lot of great tips from Joe's new book.

I also put together 15 more offers based on the information I learned from Matt Larson last weekend!

I went thru the second lesson on Short Sales (back on track with lessons). There was some good information that I will use going forward.

I am finalizing about 15 offers with my realtor, some are short sales so it may take some time to hear back.

I have access to offers in Massachusetts, Florida, and Tennessee, see the following posts:

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/my-deals/50212/deals-mass...

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/my-deals/50213/deal-tn

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/my-deals/50215/deals-flor...

I am having some success with my Craigslist / E-bay adventure, I have 19 items up for sale, 2 have sold and there is a lot of interest in many of my items. Thanks Joe!