Tammy's journey to refinement and FREEDOM. GREAT THINGS ARE HERE!

Tammy....=)...this is exactly why 'we're' gonna be sucessful...we just need the sun to rise and continue working the system. Theres only one way to go..the number just make sense...lets just stay on it..=/we already know the result form the other path....n we're not on it=)

Thanks for stopping by and giving me Carol's info!

I have some news! I have secured my FIRST corporate credit card! Yipppppeeeeeee!!!! Wooo hooo! 1 small step towards great success!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

I just run across you journal IT's great I really enjoying watching people as the progress each day. Keep posting, I am watching now.

Randy

I know right now, I have little to no entries on the actual REI, but I believe the most important and beneficial thing I can be doing right now is setting everything up so I'm ready to just TAKE OFF. When I do start my investing, I'm going in all out. There will be several deals I want to be doing at a time.

Right now I'm struggling with this obstacle of getting on the phone without having the kids explode or be all over me while I'm on the phone. That is so unprofessional and I don't know how I'm going to be able to curtail it, short of finding a babysitter for a few hours a day. Being a homeschool mom of 4, I've always had to put ME by the wayside, so going on this journey is a HUGE undertaking for me, someone who never had time to get it all done when I wasn't expanding the business. Sooo,

I listened to Dean's message from last year's edge about organizing your time today and that is exactly what I'm doing right now. I'm not trying to be creative or anything, I'm using his methods verbatim. And, I'm on my 3rd page of things for me 'to' do, organized and written in 6 or 9 boxes on each legal size page. I write tiny too, so this list looks overwhelming and daunting, and to think I'm going to have to rewrite it every other day... LOL ... well, I hope to get a LOT of it done so I can SEE how much I've accomplished, and not have to rewrite a lot of it.

If I can optimize my time and not waste a second of it, I could progress extremely fast. But, I still intend to enjoy my children so I don't miss out on a second of their life at the same time. I don't ever want to look back and say I didn't spend enough time or give enough of myself to my children.

Is that even possible? My baby is already going to be 19 MONTHS old in 5 days; my little lamb is now 3 and 3 months old, and my oldest just turned 11... the little boy I nurtured and held so often can now fit in my shoes and has feet the same size as me. Then there's my daughter, 9 going on 13, who is looking more andm more like a beautiful woman... :::THINKING BUBBLE::: Would it be wrong to do Dean's books as a school subject for my older kids so we can read the books together? (I am joking, they're a little young) But, my son is vastly interested in RE and both have taken on this attitude of wanting to play monopoly every waking free moment they have. Hmmm...

So, I applied for my 1st business loan and was denied.. again... because of the ratio of credit due to the investment homes being on my personal credit.

One of my tenants has been in the hospital and left the house go downhill, so I had to go over there a few times now and the city got involved because the exterior of the house was going downhill because of the lack of upkeep. Took care of that.

On the other home, I still haven't chosen a tenant, and one prospective tenant isn't getting back to me, so I believe I've narrowed it down to the one I want. Just have to do my calling of employers, neighbors, references, etc.

My 3rd rental, my tenant is on unemployment right now, so rent is coming in staggered instead of all at once.

All this at one time. AAAAAHHHH!!!

Because I've been doing taxes. *sigh* What a drag. My husband won't let me hire the CPA because of the money I've spent on the training for the business. Taxes are a huge headache. But, at least I'm getting a refund. I still have to do the business taxes. I'm slowly reading Your Town Your RE Profits when I have a free moment. No audio for that one.

I'm catching up on my workbook and I'm going to post a few ads soon. I wish the business credit card would come so I could sign up for the voicemail system to record a series of voicemails targeting different groups of people. I want to focus on preforeclosures, FSBOs, probates and I have an idea I want to talk to my instructors about. But, for now I want to work on building a concrete buyers list because as I get started, I expect to be working on a few deals at a time. I can't wait to share my first deal! .

Hello, here I am without my normal computer, and blocked out my education center (firewall is not bypassed on this computer, and for some reason the education center is blocked). So , this week I've started rereading PFRERN (I only listened to it the first time) and MTMRE. I've also been working with the tax club because I just found out that they haven't even STARTED my business plan yet. They've just sent me a second 'survey' yesterday for more information so they can 'get started'. This is a MONTH after giving them $2600! Now, I know how to do a business plan, and I can get a sweet program for $200 to do it and by answering all these questions, I'm writing the majority of it myself anyhow. (upwards of 14 pages...) Is there a benefit for me to stick with the tax club? I think I'm going to post this in another forum, because right now I'm really frustrated with them. This isn't the only problem I've had with them. (scheduling, canceling appointments, not able to get ahold of them, being put on hold for a very long time, putting my account on hold because I didn't want to sign up for bookkeeping at this time. *%$$#$###@@#@!%$^#$!! Just frustrating is all.

I am preparing to get ready to do my first deal! I am very excited! I still struggle with being able to call people back without the kids screaming, but the academy told me if someone isn't comfortable with that they're probably not someone you want to work with anyways. I need to get over how I feel its very unprofessional to have kids in the background making all kinds of noise. And I need to go read more of Carol's journal!

Yeah! So, I went to the dentist yesterday which is in a neighborhood I used to live, and I found 2 FSBOs and noted down a couple of properties that were looking pretty neglected. I went to go look them up, and I'm having all sorts of problems accessing both Proptrend AND 4closurealerts.com. I'm so excited to start looking these up and now they've gone home without fixing my problems. . I'm getting ansy, this is the part I've been waiting for! I can't wait for my first deal! I can't wait to post about it and tell everyone about it. Because if I can do it, while homeschooling and being a mom to 4 kids who are constantly with me, than ANYBODY can do it! I look forward to using Dean's techniques!

I also have talked to the folks at the tax club, (FINALLY) and they suggest I do a business plan to get funding for a property to buy completely (100%) and turn around quickly to take all the profits for myself. Hmm, now that has an incredible sound to it! If I pick up a 250K property for 175, that sounds just too good to be true! Both of them were positive they could put something together for my business if I presented them with a property ready to purchase for 50% of FMV. They seemed skeptical I could find anything. Now, I just LOVE a challenge and I KNOW there are deals all around me waiting to be found! I'm not sure if I should focus on REOs for this particular project. How do banks react to business plans? Does anyone know? I will be calling the academy on this one!

Yeah! So, I went to the dentist yesterday which is in a neighborhood I used to live, and I found 2 FSBOs and noted down a couple of properties that were looking pretty neglected. I went to go look them up, and I'm having all sorts of problems accessing both Proptrend AND 4closurealerts.com. I'm so excited to start looking these up and now they've gone home without fixing my problems. . I'm getting ansy, this is the part I've been waiting for! I can't wait for my first deal! I can't wait to post about it and tell everyone about it. Because if I can do it, while homeschooling and being a mom to 4 kids who are constantly with me, than ANYBODY can do it! I look forward to using Dean's techniques!

I also have talked to the folks at the tax club, (FINALLY) and they suggest I do a business plan to get funding for a property to buy completely (100%) and turn around quickly to take all the profits for myself. Hmm, now that has an incredible sound to it! If I pick up a 250K property for 175, that sounds just too good to be true! Both of them were positive they could put something together for my business if I presented them with a property ready to purchase for 50% of FMV. They seemed skeptical I could find anything. Now, I just LOVE a challenge and I KNOW there are deals all around me waiting to be found! I'm not sure if I should focus on REOs for this particular project. How do banks react to business plans? Does anyone know? I will be calling the academy on this one!

I put off joining the academy for about a month because I was investing in a second home, as I mentioned about in my opening entry. This home is in the CA mountains and it was a divorce sale. The broker had underpriced it by over 100K. They also had 2 years of tax liens and were the original owners. They took excellent care of the property and it was turnkey with only few very minor repairs. We had a great realtor who caught it the second it was listed. He showed it to us a few hours later and there were so many people looking at it already, just while we were there.

We gave an offer close to asking since it was already so underpriced and there were multiple bids on the home (5 of them!!!). (2 homes down went for 125K more, and across the street went for 100K more, and one is for sale down the road for 105K more) This is doing a deal the hard way, boy I tell you! Dean's techniques are so much easier because the competition is minimal! We asked to have all the furniture included, so we not only got a beautiful second home, but we have 100K of equity, and awesome cabin furniture. They even left ski clothes, a ping pong table, toys for the kids, nic nacs, dishes, full kitchen items; it was a whole package at a steal. They needed to sell it immediately, and we were there able to close ASAP.

Being in the right place at the right time and some help from God! If we choose to, we can rent it out as a vacation property and get our mortgage paid within 2 weekends of renting it after doing a complete market analysis of vacation rentals in the area. We'd need one more day to cover the insurance and taxes. But, for right now, we are enjoying being up in the mountains with the snow and really loving it! I don't know if I can count this as my first deal, but I can say this is the first time we've beat out the competition on a deal like this! It was an awesome feeling! And THIS FEELING is why I am so excited about my first paying deal through Dean's program!

So, I put out my first ghost ad early this morning (like 1AM) just to test the waters to prepare for attaining a property and already have 2 responses by the time I wake up. They want the address, of course. So, now I'm froze trying to decide how to handle it. Do I just say this property is sold and that I am always looking for investors as I get inventory? Won't it be obvious that I didn't sell this property in a day? HELP! I'm a horrible liar, and people see right through me, so saying I sold a property I never had doesn't seem right. What page in which book? I need to call the academy right now!

Also, I have a guy who will pay me 2-3K for each BUYER I can find him that closes a deal in areas he has properties. I'm not sure where this falls in as far as classifying it... is this a reverse bird dog strategy? How do I secure my payment before giving him buyers? I want to be sure to get paid of course. I will be making my call now; just wanted to put it all down in my journal. If someone reads and has any info to help me, that would be great too!

This is getting exciting!

Well, I didn't even put much thought into my ad, but in 12 hours I've captured 3 buyers' interests. I called the academy, but now I have one who wants the MLS#, and did not give a number. I want to make sure I word a responding email correctly so as not to put anything that comes across as illegal. I don't have a RE attorney yet. Am I ahead of myself?

that you should say that the property is now unavailable, but you may have another coming avail. What are they looking for etc. and when. And go out and find it!!!

That is about what the academy told me too!

So, I've reread the PFREN chapter 11 about selling a house in 7 days by holding an auction. Ba BINGG! But, I don't know if I'd need a license in this state to do that, so I called the academy and they advised me to contact the state commerce board to see if that can be done without being licensed. This is so exciting to me, because since 1997, that is one of the main ways I have gotten renters for my local houses rented out. Now this goes a step ahead and attempts to get a house sold through holding an open house and auction. Not to mention, what a great way to build a buyer's list! So, the wheels and gears are turning in my head, but I don't want to get too excited in case it is something that wouldn't be legal for me to do. I'm about to go search this website for anyone who does the auctions. I already have a couple FSBOs I'd love to try this technique with!

I am going to finally call back the numbers I have for the people who responded to my ghost ad; for some reason getting my feet wet with the email one was easiest. I haven't heard back from that one, but I just replied that it wasn't listed in the MLS. I need to find a RE lawyer I can trust. I already had a bad experience with one charging me for every question I asked. HOW do I find a TRUSTWORTHY lawyer? Any ideas?

And it reminded me that I shouldn't be afraid to do anything with regards to talking to people. They are only people, and all they can do is ignore me, throw out my business card, or say 'no thanks'. I have this holdup still that I will come across as not knowing what I'm doing (because I'm just learning) and I'm saying everything positive to encourage myself to JUST DO IT!

So, I decided to post my results here on this forum. They are very personal, but I want to look back when I read this journal after I've become successful and remember these! So, here they are, verbatim from the questionnaire!

We have determined that based on your answered questions, the reason real estate investing is truly important to you to you are the following:
• because we've worked hard to get where we are and don't want to fall victim to the interest only loans we're under that come fully amortized in a few more years.
• because as a child, I was always told that I would amount to nothing by my mom's side of the family because my mom had schizophrenia and they expected the same from me.
• because I've always beaten the odds and proven them wrong time and time again, and its important to show them, the world, and myself that I have God given capabilities and no one is going to stop me from using them. I want to make a difference in the world, and I want to pass on my knowledge to others, and be in a position to help others become financially independent and overcome any obstacles blocking their path as well!

I haven't been doing this daily, so my new first thing of the day will be a 5 minute time of writing down everything I'm grateful for. I've been under the weather with a lot of personal stuff lately, and Dean's advice is right on. I get so sluggish when I lose my perspective. So, that I am going to do and then I'm going to do a lesson at the RESA later today.

11am today I have the programmers of proptrend calling me because it will not work on my computer anymore since the upgrade. I've tried EVERYTHING they suggested, and they even reprogrammed it thinking it was a universal outage. I am always the lucky one to have these kinds of things happen to me.

I've been calling all over to see if I can be a 'marketing consultant' without a license to sell a FSBO property via auction. The success acadamy advised me to call the chamber of commerce, the chamber of commerce didn't even know where to direct me, except to call a RE broker. I know a lot of RE offices give incorrect information, and I haven't gotten a response to my thread. So, I will keep trying to find out.

In the mean time, today I went and got my mailbox with an actual business address, I finished making my business cards, and plan to share them with the DG family here before I print them out.

Yesterday I spent rolled up in a ball. I get these horrible ovarian cysts, and I have one sitting on the nerve in my left leg and it is EXCRUCIATINGLY painful. So, I didn't get much done yesterday. It subsided in the evening so I sorted the papers for starting the business portion of my taxes, and get to cut that nice $800 check to the government to have an LLC in good ol' CA. Paid the property taxes on all the CA properties, and folded 4 loads of laundry. My poor kids didn't get much out of me yesterday. I'm off to go establish another line of credit for the business, it will be the 4th one!

I had been denied 2 credit cards for the business and I told earlier in the journal how I'd written to them for a second consideration because I have perfect credit, just a high ratio. Well, 1 of them came back and said they still wouldn't consider giving my business credit (with a personal guarantee to start), but the other one GRANTED me CREDIT!! YESSSS! It always pays to persevere and NEVER GIVE UP! It always pays to try, all someone can say is NO!

Best to everyone following, and I hope you had a terrific Easter!

So, I started going over my networking list portion of the success academy and how 60% of your business comes from networking. The lesson goes on and talks about going to a networking event to meet people and going up and talking to strangers. ***GULP***

Ok, now I am extremely introverted here, and I'm wondering if an introvert can do this? Really? The dreaded D word is entering my mind.... DOUBT! Also, going to one of these events is about as likely as it snowing in Hawaii because I am always with my children. I don't have anyone to watch the kids, and my husband surely wouldn't support me going out to network with people. *sigh* HELP! Am I doomed if I can't go to these events? Can I use an online forum like www.meetup.com?

I didn't finish my lesson yet (kids needed me) so I will continue to do the lesson and call the academy tomorrow. I'm getting worried even more now. And I feel about as confident as when Shrek met Fiona's family.

I had 2 more people return a response to my ad, which I only listed that one day, and is PAGES down the list. WOW. I am just amazed at how simple it is to get a response. Its just difficult for me to make that call out to a stranger.

Is anyone else here an introvert and the prospect of going out and talking to other people scares them?

Well, today I refined my business cards, added my new business address to them (UPS Store, baby!) worked on my website a little, read a lot of forums on here again to gather information, did some research, tried to call to get my PROPTREND fixed (STILL broken), cleared off a counter that had amassed a major amount of papers over the past couple of weeks, found a few papers I was looking for for my taxes, contacted 2 RE agents to see if they're up to the job of representing a RE investor, and invited 4 people to join this site! Not bad for a day, I give all the credit to God. And I thank God for bringing Dean and this site and DG family into my life! Goodnight all.

Tammy,

First thing is keep on doing what you're doing. Your husband is skeptical by right but I believe he is proud of you and I truly believe he watches every single thing you do but is holding off the praise until he sees something; not that he doesn't care, but he wants to be sure to himself that things are going correctly. Its a Man Thing.

But trust he's proud of you.

Use the kids to your advantage; I took my son on a showing, my clients weren't overly impressed with the house, but speaking with them and telling them about the afterschool and summer programs and me asking them questions on what to expect made them change their minds and a solid offer went in that evening.

Believe me, kids are a perfect buffer for a conversation; i'm sure if you're talking to an investor and the kids are screaming in the background, they'd understand and would be more willing to work with you seeing that you can handle more than one task at a time. Incorporate you having multiple houses in convo's w investors sothat they know you're no amateur, which can make them more comfortable working with you. Ask them if they know of any financers who can do your re-fi; flip it on them so they feel like you may need them as well.

Sooooooooooooo many ways to get things going with minimal effort; just being comfortable in what you say and how you say it is the key.

Keep up the great work

Last night I sent a detailed message of what I'm doing to a RE agent in one of my target markets. He said he would do everything to help me out! Now, I've put an ad on craiglist that reads: I have homes 30% under FMV in XYZ. I put that I require a LOI and and POF and that I can find anything anyone is looking for. Say a little (big) prayer for me that I get a lot of response quick! I'm going to step up the advertising from craiglist to a few other resources. My agent is all set up to handle an assignment because this is a GOOD RE agent! I just need to build up my buyer's list in this area.

I'm just going nuts with my husbands pessimism and low blow comments about how I'm 'doing nothing'. I told him about Greg Murphy and Rina and his response was 'what happened to us if this Greg guy made 96K in 6 months. Why aren't we there yet? (I've been at the academy 8 weeks now...)' I'm sick of him putting me down and making me feel down. I homeschool my children, take care of the little ones, am doing all the taxes, trying to keep the house from looking like a cyclone hit it (with 4 kids home all day and limited time, that isn't an easy task, but if there is any mess he has a conniption fit about it!), get in at least 1/2 hour of exercise (hasn't happened for a few weeks now), setting some time aside for God, pay all the bills, set up the business, creating marketing materials, constantly doing IT work on our computers (there always seems to be problems ulghh!), do about 5 hours of learning every night alone reading on this site and doing my success academy tasks and learning, and that's only about 25% of what I'm doing and I don't want to drag on...
Ulggh I'm doing my training, and he's going off to his job, pouring out his best there instead of into our business, and then coming home and bringing negativism to me and trying to bring me down. I wish he wouldn't just turn the tv on from the time he gets home from work until he falls asleep snoring on the couch because he's worked all day and would get his butt on this site or doing some of the lessons . I have tried so hard to block it all out, but tonight I'm feeling vulnerable, and maybe its that time of month, but I'm at a breaking point and I have to vent so it doesn't consume me. I am HOPING this will help. Now, I'm going to get back on task. *sigh*

I'm just going to list.

-Almost completed our corporate and personal taxes
-Redesigned my business cards after lots of good input
-Called the academy for some additional input on the card
-Put out several ads on craigslist
-Networked with an agent and a few other power team prospects
-Chose a tenant for my NC home
-Configured the rental binder to secure the tenant (its not vacant until 6/1)
-Did a LOT of reading on this site, the academy notes, going through Dean's books and rereading certain sections.
-Looked up a few homes for a buyer
-Tried to get the PROPTREND to work again (no luck...)
-Secured another line of credit for the business (4 now! )
-Found a realistic realtor in the Poconos, right here ON THIS SITE to list one of my lots in PA. (Does this count as a deal?)
-Read over self directed IRA material and trust deed info
-JUST GOT MY HUSBAND TO LOOK AT THIS SITE!
-Took several lessons on how to use Access for my lists. Created the database to start using when I get my leads and Powerteam.
-Constantly working on building my website.

I've got an idea. A big idea outside the box that tweaks one of Matt's techniques. But, I need to get my buyers list done and my networking list. But I need to do a lot of research to do this. I need a mentor. Darn it, I'm just going to email Matt my idea on that contest he's having because I held it back and I probably shouldn't have.

I conquered my fear of calling people from my ads, and I did really good!!! I am proud of myself. This is one of the biggest obstacles I've been afraid of, and I just went at it head on and WAALAA, I did it! A happy moment indeed!

Tam,

Remember in the Charlie Brown cartoons where the teachers talk "WAWAWAWAWA...." Thats how you may have to hear your husband. Sometimes people don't want to believe in something they can't immeduiately see or conceive. Just keep doing what you're doing and once the money starts rolling in, notice how much he'll be kissing your arse.

Don't stop because if you do, you'll prove all your naysayers right and you don't want to do that.

Elix! Maybe next time he makes a comment I'll just have to say WAWAWAWa waawaa wwa! LOL

I haven't done too much these last couple days. I've completed my networking lesson and am almost done with my marketing myself on the web call, contacted a few mortgage brokers who specialize in a few areas to let them know I would like to add them to a referral list for my clients. Other than that, this being tax week, all I've been doing is taxes. I'll be SOOO glad when I start getting my deals going and I can get my CPA back to do my taxes again. I waste SO much time on those darn things, and I'm not confident at all that I'm doing them right. *sigh* That being said, does anyone know how to put land assets on the 1065 form (non depreciable) I don't know why, but when I had a CPA, he told me not to file the business with the personal even though I technically could with the new laws. I don't remember why he told me that, but for that reason I am still doing all 4 forms. (State and Fed for both). I'll probably end up filing an extension. I really need the refund though to help cover some of these bills, not only the acadamy, tax club, but also I had over 5K of car repairs done right before signing up for the academy. I NEED to do my 1st deal, fast! I'm itchin' to just go forth with an idea I have, but when I get to the point of dealing with the bank and finance, I can just call the academy for help. I wonder if they would help by being on the phone with me while I'm on the phone with them. That would certainly make things work out a lot better.

Happy investing everyone!

Tam,

You know what you have to do; make it happen or go hungry

And you don't look like the type that likes to hear your stomach growl

Well, apparently the RE agent who was all fired up about working with me as an investor got cold feet. No reply from him in over 6 days. Phhooeey. I have a buyer all lined up. I interviewed another lady and I'm going to try her.

I have been working NON STOP trying to get my PROPTREND software to work. I think its hopeless. I'm up to the 2nd company and working with the actual developers of the program now. I'm so frustrated that I can't access that, I REALLY need to start using it NOW.

Today I am catching up on what I love; learning RE techniques, reading people's journals for inspiration. Its been a tough week with taxes; but I finally gave up and just filed an extension. The stress was too much to handle. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm a wreck from reading form after form instructions over and over and still feeling lost. (Even with Turbo Tax). I have very complicated taxs due to all the land (7 lots) and homes (5 of them). I miss my CPA WWWAAAAA!!

And with all the extra mouths to feed in my house, I need to go get the deals like a tiger! Grrrrr!