Rick's Journal of Success

congratulations on getting started. much continued success.

It's nice to know that we all have such a great support team here at DG.com
Good luck to you and much success as well.

Rick

I've been going through YTYREP and I've been looking up all of the forms, ads, and web addresses I had flagged for futher review when I first read the book. (post-it tags are a wonderful invention)
I've downloaded all the forms and have them stored in a folder on my desktop for future referrence.
I have also just sold my first item on ebay and I can't wait to sell more because I'm using the money to help pay off debt so that I can improve my credit score and be able to save up some cash for my real estate deals. I know everybody says that you can make deals happen with no money out of pocket, but I would still like to have a little set aside for those little expenses that can crop up at all the wrong times.
I hate that I'm going to be at work Thursday for the conferrence call, but I'll be sure to catch the replay ASAP. By the way, what is it about Thursday March 11, 2010? I mean, Dean has a teleconferrence, another real estate professional that I keep up with has a call going on, and my local REI club has a meeting. -- And I have to go to my J-O-B.
Oh well, at least I can get a replay of Dean's call when I get home.
Well, that's my update for now.

Well, I just went to my second club meeting here at home and it was awesome!! I made a lot of great contacts and it looks like I might finally be getting some direction with my goals. I'll keep posting here when new events happen!

Well I've been busy writing my scripts for my COA account an I'm almost ready to begin recording them. Just have to draw up my questionnaires for the FAX-ON-DEMAND aspect of my account and I'll be ready to launch my ad campaign.
I hope anybody reading this has a great day and much success!

I've finally finished my website and it's now been published to the web. I'm so happy to have finished this goal. I've been waiting to record my voice mail messages for what I though was some unknown reason. But now I realize that there was something missing that was supposed to tie it all together. Now I know that it was the Set For Life websites. I'll be recording my messages within the next few days and should be able to start my marketing campaign very soon.

I've finished all of my voice mail recordings and my 1-800 number is now up and running. I'll be contacting a few local realtors next week and then I'll begin rolling out a marketing campaign at the first of the year. This has been a long journey to get to this point and I'm so excited about the next phase. Wish me luck!

I just talked to two Realtors and they are going to send me a few MLS lists to start pouring over and start marketing to. I'm excited about this because I have already started putting together a marketing campaign. I have some postcard templates set up and my address labels printed for the leads I got from SFL.
Best wishes to all who read my journal. Please post any comments or questions.

Rick

I've now got a Realtor to work with and she has sent me MLS lists of all the cash sales and expired listings. Now it's time to get my lists to the county records office to find the buyers and then start marketing to them. I have some postcards made up and I just have to print, cut and mail them out. I can't wait to see what kind of response I will get. Wish me luck!

Looks like you have been around for a long time. Good to see that you are still fired up and determined to do this.

So are you still planning the L/O route. That is what I am concentrating on also. If you get a chance check out my journal, too. I like reading the other journals, so often it gives me an idea I hadn't thought of.

I look forward to seeing your continued action. Keep us informed!

Karen

Well, it's been a while since I've updated my journal so here it goes...
I've kinda let life hit me in the face and I lost some of my mojo for a while. I had sent out close to 500 postcards to the names that I got from the SFL Lead Pipes and I got absolutely no response at all. That was a little discouraging to say the least since I spent around $400.00 and countless hours preparing, printing and mailing them all and for 0 results.
Then there was a problem with my 1-800#. The credit card that I was using to make my automatic payments had two unauthorized charges from Apple iTunes Store and when I told them to remove those charges, they also removed the charge for my 1-800#. The company I use got a chargeback and didn't bother to ask me about it. They just deleted my account. A while later as I was waiting to here from all my postcards, I realized what had happened. After working with their customer support (and kinda threatening them) I was able to get my # back. However, all of my voicemail messages had been deleted. I worked for several months to write, rewrite and record those messages and now I had to do it again. I hate to admit it, but I was a little upset about losing all that time and money, so I kinda gave up for a while.
I have since "gotten back on the horse" and I'm trying to go again. I've tweaked my messages and rerecorded them. I've gone through the old cash buyer's lists that I got from an agent a few months back and I've mailed out some letters to the buyers that I found. I just got my first response from a landlord and I hope to be able to make something happen this time.
I have to succeed in real estate. I don't have any other back-up plan and I have a horrible job and a boss that takes every opportunity to put me down and disrespect me. I make decent money, but the stress, hours and working environment are starting to take their toll on my sanity. I want out!
I will keep pushing forward from now on, no matter how many failures I have to deal with.

Would you say that getting post cards printed and mailed out are a waste of time and money since you didn't get any responses? Were those mailed out to buyers?

I'm not quite ready to say they are a waste of time and money because it is possible that because my 1-800# had been deleted without my knowledge, I might have gotten some responses that never came through. I still have a lot of postcards printed and will be sending them out soon. Hopefully I'll get a better response this time. If nothing else, it was a learning experience.

After almost a year, I'm trying to make a go of it again. I have let some set-backs slow me down again, but I'm still not giving up.
I have a new agent that a broker friend of mind set me up with and so far she has sent me all the lists I've asked for.
I've gone through the "sold for cash" list and marked them all on my map. I have found 72 potential buyers that I will be sending letters to real soon. I have started running the numbers to start making offers, just waiting on some comps from my agent.
I will succeed this time. I will keep pushing forward until I make it happen.

I'm glad to see you still working towards your goals you have. In the real estate world it can be tough some times, and it is only the ones that push through those tough times will eventually make it. At least that is how I feel about it.

I have had tough times as well. I was developing paper lots back in 2008 and when the market tanked, I found myself with proejcts and no buyers. I had to switch my direction and where I was going. Now it has been years since then and pushing through the hard couple of years regrouping, i'm now gaining my momentum again. We are currently working on 3 deals and i have a few new prospects coming up. Keep moving forward

Mikessler

It's good to know that I'm not the only one who has had some set-backs. I'm glad to hear to you've pushed through yours and I know I'll get through mine as well.
I love knowing that no matter what's going on in my world, I can always come back to DG.com and get the inspiration to keep going.
Best wishes to you and all the DG family.