Linda's (from Indiana) Journal

nice to hear from you. actually i'm in OK right now and they are buying here. yes, i know they buy in IN that way too, and maybe get a little better price in IN. how are things going for you? well, i hope.

man, i cannot believe i have 40 pages in this journal. i hate that i have been lax in posting, but i really haven't had much to post lately. right now i'm going through the process of deciding to quit my temp job because things are getting worse every day. many of the permament employees are giving their notice and moving on. the company doesn't treat their people well, but expects the world from them, and they are moving to Dallas. unless you are moving to Dallas, there is no stability, especially as a temp. they are not offering any permanent positions to temps and the temps are only finding out through other employees. they are being hired under false pretenses, as i was. anyway, i would like to take the time i'm not working, get well again, look for a permanent position that i would like to have and get back to working on real estate. this job has worn me out and taken up so much of my time. there has to be a better way. Jared is home on leave and will be here until next Friday. his girlfriend gave me the website to look for government jobs and i will do that because of the benefits and stability of the job. it would be nice to have insurance coverage at a reasonable rate and not have to pay $665.40 for lab work that i just paid this morning. i have no insurance and they took 10 vials of blood. i've never had more than 5 taken before and the price was outrageous, compared to Fort Wayne. if i hadn't paid it up front this morning, the bill would have been $1410.70. so, i guess i can say that i saved almost $800 and that makes me feel a little better. anyway, i would like to get more done on the REI front and since moving i haven't been able to get that going again. i haven't quite decided what to do, but since a realtor has come to me and says he's willing to help me, i need to take advantage of that. i would like to wholesale some properties and do some L/O's also. thinking about multi-families too. as usual, my brain is going in a million different directions. working a job on top of that doesn't help, but it sure is nice to have that regular income. the thing is, i need to take time off in February and March, and i don't think this present job will go along with that. i may ask and then make my decision from that. right now i'm off for 2 4-day weekends because of Jared being here. my boss tried to get me to take less time, but i just told her it wasn't an option and she was ok with that. that is one thing about being a temp - you have no real commitment to anything and you can have a lot more flexibility. at least i can because i'm very upfront and honest about that kind of stuff. not only that, but i did take this job against my will and have stayed to try to fulfill the 90-day commitment. now if i could just be ok without my kids' and Chuck's approval on what i do or don't do. they have no say in what i do or don't do, but sometimes it's hard to deal with that disapproval. live your life for you and let the others follow, NOT live your life for others and you follow them. it seldom works out well. on to bigger and better things.......have a great weekend!

Do you want to get involved in fix and flipping at all?

Linda, I hope to join the Success Academy by the end of January. I want out of my quagmire and I'm looking forward to joining the SA. Congratulations to you!!

sent you a PM and hope to hear from you soon.

go for it! i hope it all works out for you. use it all up and make it happen. i know you can.

Jared has been home since last Tuesday and the time has passed so quickly. i took time off from work, but it still wasn't enough. i worked quite a bit too and would go over to my daughter's house after work. i ended up with a bad case of the flu and could barely walk, talk or use my hands because i was in so much pain. i am doing better, but have a ways to go. trying to push fluids and get some electrolytes down me. i miss this site so much and was thinking about it the other day. i will get back to REI one way or the other. driving around makes me ready to do something, but i need to be 100% better first. my 90 days are just about up and i will be done with this particular job as of February 10th. it's a good thing, but i need to make some things happen and not get caught up in the situation i did with this job. i look forward to my time being my own, although i am thankful for the money this job brought in. it helped a lot. i know something else will work out so that i am taken care of and can do what i need and would like to do. right now i have to concentrate on getting well, so i'm going to sign off and go rest some. hope everyone has a great weekend.

Hello.

There's a guy in Muncie who deals in tax liens.
He buys them all the time (at auctions).
He tells me that after he buys them he can't do anything with them for about 9 or 10 months. It takes that long for some of the paper work to be processed.
They are fairly cheap.
He buys them for clients too. So if you want to buy through him he will do it for a small fee.

Hey, have you tried the Emergen C vitamin C drink? It comes in packets with 1000 mg of vitamin C, plus B vitamins and electrolites. You mix it with water and it tastes great. You can even get a free sample by going to their website. (www.emergenc.com)

i am not living in Fort Wayne right now, and i'm not sure that i will again. i would love to talk to him if i were still there, but now i'm trying to get things going here in OK. i don't know if you knew that i moved back in October. are you going to work with him? it might be a good deal for you.

Emergen-C is exactly what i am taking. unfortunately i have that blue one and i'm trying to finish it off (nasty tasting for me )but they are very good. they have gotten me through a lot of rough days in the past. i usually tend to drink 2-4 packets per day when i need them. thanks for the suggestion.

I am so sorry that you are having such a time with your health again!

But at least Jared is home for awhile. That has to help.

Take care of yourself.

Karen

i just keep hanging in there. it will get better once i don't work there anymore. only 8 days to go if that long; they don't have much for me to do. i could use the time to fully recover.

it was great seeing Jared, but never enough time. he should be back next week for a quick stop on his way home from Utah. he's doing a lot of traveling during his leave.

hope all is well with you and L/O's.

it's been way too long since i posted, but my health has been a huge factor. i had the flu while Jared was here on leave, got over that and then came down with a very bad cold. i was barely able to work and my last day was February 10th. i am home trying to recover and found out my iron is very low, so that may be why i'm still having some issues. as a result, i am still in the slow process of deciding what to do and how to do it concerning REI. i hope to get back to it very shortly and get back to posting because that was so good for me. my good friend here in OK is considering getting back in the REI game after some bad experiences with landlording. she and her husband hated being landlords, but they love rehabbing. they plan on going to the tax sale in June and hopefully buying a property at a good price to rehab. they are studying up on it now. that makes me happy because now we can talk more about REI, which i love to do. i have thought about just letting it go, but that is not where i'm at. i also hope to get back to keeping up with some journals on here, something i've had to neglect for months now and miss alot.

not sure how that happened. i have been on 3 webinars in the last 2 days. i'm starting to get that revved up feeling for REI again. the last webinar was the best because it was on wholesaling and L/O's, which is what i've been trying to get going. i may partner on some deals; just starting to work that out. lots to do and get my health back on track. at least today i was able to accomplish everything on my list. that is a miracle i can live with!

i intend to post, then i get side-tracked and don't make it by. it's way too easy for me to move onto other things. i found out that a guy in IN that i had been trying to help for the past couple years finally did what i suggested. he went to my mentor and asked for help and they are trying to get some things going in REI together. i was also able to suggest some commercial REI information that i think would be very helpful to him. i am working on being more diligent about REI now. it's a matter of scheduling it and making myself go for it, and i'm always glad i did. i have a webinar tonight and then i have some videos to go through today. the videos are short so that is a huge help. also getting my apartment in order. being sick and working a job really took its toll on me and my apartment. just trying to catch up as quickly as i can while not getting too carried away and overdoing it.

i just got a list of things i need to do for rehabs contractor searching. is that a viable phrase? i need to set up an excel spreadsheet so i can keep track of everything. Chuck gave me just a little more info to check out and then i will start making calls. i checked out Angie's List and i am going to join for a year. it's only $25 for the year here and i think it would be well worth trying it out. plus, if i don't like it, they have a 110% guarantee. i've heard good things about it from other REI's, so i think it's a good way to go. Chuck is thinking about another REI deal himself, and i still say it all goes back to our Cash Flow game almost 2 years ago. i posted here in my journal about it. it let him see what is possible if he's willing to take a calculated risk. i need to ask my REIA club if they have any games going on here. In Fort Wayne they did, although i never made it to one of those. i might have to make the time here. i need alot more practice, that's for sure!

i got the excel spreadsheet set up for my rehab contractor calls. tomorrow i will set up a questionnaire because i'm not sure i can keep everything on the excel sheet. i guess i could go to the next page on the excel spreadsheet and do it that way. i'll have to think on that. i'm just not sure how i want to handle it. thank goodness for my new desktop computer to hold all this stuff. i'm adding stuff daily and it seems like so much to me. i'm getting ready to go set up a quick, simple PML website. we'll see if it draws anyone in. i always have so much to do and so little time to do it all. how does everyone else do it? i've been listening to a free webinar series that is giving a lot of training and information. i'm pretty impressed and i need to start working on the homework tomorrow. at first i would get kind of irritated because this guy is a talker and the webinars go on for almost 2 hours, but now i'm relaxing and learning to enjoy it and appreciate it. i have to get over the "time factor". when you get good information like that you need to appreciate it and use it, so that is what i'm doing.

i finished up the excel spreadsheet. i'm not totally happy with it, but we'll see how i do on it. i have a couple things i'm not sure how to add, so i will have to play it by ear as i start making my calls. sometimes things just "hit" me out of the blue and i can go from there. i'm getting so much information, as usual, it's a challenge to keep up. just checked on my federal tax refund and it should be in my account on Wednesday, which would be very nice. i have to get my OK tax refund signed and in the mail this week. my federal was e-filed, but if you don't live the full year in OK, you have to mail state in. for some reason, that doesn't make much sense to me, but what do i know? it is beautiful here and we could really use some good freezing weather for about a week. maybe we'll get that in a couple weeks or so, before winter officially moves out and spring moves in. happy investing!

i started working on my contractor list and getting names, etc. put into my excel spreadsheet. i intended to make my calls using my google voice number, but for some reason, i could not get it to work. i've never had a problem before and there is no way to contact google to find out what to do to fix the issue. i finally just used my cell phone for the calls and managed to make one call today. the guy was very pleasant to talk to, answered all my questions quickly and it seemed honestly, and he gave me 3 references to call as soon as i asked for them. i was on a webinar about direct mail, which i would really like to do. the cost is high, yet i know it would be worth it. i am thinking on it. i had to call the bank in IN where i have my business account. they charged me $5 for each of the past 2 months for "mail handling". i was not a happy camper since the account is a free business account, but i released and got real calm before i called. i was very nice and the customer service lady was happy to refund the money and changed all my address information in my account. the fees were because they had not changed my address information when i moved. i think i had called or tried to do it online, but something got messed up in the process. a PML website i have had for quite some time was taken down and they were making it more SEC-compliant. it's been a while, but i emailed them yesterday and today they said it is ready to go it is totally free, except for my domain name, and so i have to get the information submitted to get it reactivated. i would really like to start doing something on www.youtube.com but i haven't figured out what just yet. for some reason i have that in my head and there are a few things i could do; just not sure which direction i want to go in. my daughter, Danelle, and her family just got back from Puerto Vallarta so i had to run over and see them this morning. they had a nice time, but are very happy to be home. Jared and his girlfriend went to a concert in Fort Wayne and Chuck was able to meet Jared for a few minutes yesterday. i was 800 miles away. something is not right about that.

today my google voice worked. i'm not sure what to think, but apparently it wasn't me. i called several contractors today and it went ok. i had to delete some because of bad information. i emailed my questions to 2 companies. the first one seemed suspicious of me and hopefully i explained things better. since my google voice # is from out of state, they wondered why i would contact a Tulsa contractor. if i hear from them, fine; if not, fine too. so far the first guy i talked to is the best, in my opinion. he seemed honest and direct, which i always appreciate. i have another of those free webinar trainings tonight and i wish i could keep up better. part of me just rebels at certain things and i really don't know why. i have to work on that because it keeps me from getting where i would like to be. i have to push through no matter what. and, of course, i should narrow things down better for myself too.

if everything works out, my friend, Cynde, and i are going to drive around for a couple hours Saturday morning and see what we can find. mostly i'm looking for FSBO's. she knows the area very well, so we'll drive some good neighborhoods and see what happens. i called more contractors today, but so far i'm not real impressed with these people. i called the building department to find out if a city and/or county license is required for general contractors. a state license is not required. i had to leave a message so i hope to get a call back today or tomorrow. also studying on private money, which would be a big help with the overall picture.

i find it interesting that as much as contractors say they need/want work, they really aren't willing to go after that work. my response rate is about 10%, if that high. Chuck said that is about what he expected. i think they expect the work to find them and they don't have to do anything to get it. i am supposed to meet with a plumber next Tuesday. he will call in the morning and let me know where we can meet according to where he is working that day. he's the only one that requested a meeting and i'm ok with that as long as it's in a public place like McDonald's. i got my OK tax return signed and ready to mail tomorrow. i always mail it requiring a signature because the mail gets lost too easily and too often. i started studying some private money stuff, but so far i'm not too pleased. we'll see how i feel next week about it. tomorrow i will be out and about running errands, so REI will have to take a back seat until Saturday morning. i also have a webinar tonight; hopefully it will be a good one. i am slowly weeding out the gurus and webinars, etc., that i no longer want to hear from. i am tired of the sales pitches and all that goes with that. let's get some real help and i am narrowing it down to just a handful to keep hearing from, including Dean.

had some really good days last week, then down with the flu again yesterday. i'm better today, but only at about 50%. i guess i need to quit being around my kids when they are sick. Saturday my friend and i went house hunting and she was pretty sick, but went anyway. we found some interesting properties off Main Street and they are "bread and butter" houses. she is very familiar with where there would be structural/foundation issues so she is someone good to have along. then i went to my granddaughter, Kadi's, soccer game. she is 6 years old and they don't play a "complete" game. her team won 12-1, which was great for us and very sad for the other team. they did not understand the game at all and the funniest thing to me was that one of the grandpas on the other team kept calling the ref "ump" and "umpire" and the ref had no idea who he was talking to. the President of the Soccer Club caught the game and he held a special training session for the other team yesterday, which i thought was really neat. you could tell he really cared about the game and the players. well, i guess i better go rest some now.

i am trying to pay bills online and one account just will not go through. very frustrating for me because i am so anal about my checkbooks. i'm sure the site is down and will be back up, but it's the waiting..... i have been reading a little REI stuff since i haven't been able to do much else so far. i know that will change and i will feel so much better. i'm so ready! i plan on being on a webinar tonight on L/O's and since i just have to sit, listen and take notes, i should be fine. i'm pretty good at that. well, time to rest again. can't overdo it right now. but i'll be back!

been kind of a rough day. i felt good when i got up and had about 3 rough hours mid-day. i made up my mind if i can't do anything else, i will sit and study REI as much as i can. sometimes i can't really concentrate too well, but i might as well get it in me as much as possible. doing my best not to feel frustrated and impatient. i'm getting better at both. at least i can put this "down" time to good use. hope you all are feeling great!

well, i'm still struggling physically and i think it's a tough case of anemia, but i'm working on it the best i can. could get really down, but that isn't the place i want to be so i'm not going there. just listened to Dean about Abundance and i am getting ready to be on an Abundance call with an attorney/REI in TX that is also into working on the inside of you as well as the investing part. i need all the help i can get! it's very warm here and i'm not ready for warm weather yet. we really didn't have much of a winter, which was nice, but i'm not willing to pay the price with a horrible summer either.

well, more physical stuff thrown into the mix, but i'm getting there. i figure by the time this is all over, i should be pretty well taken care of and feeling great! i managed to listen to a good webinar last night and have one tonight at 7pm. if all i can do is learn and listen right now, then that is what i will do. i was able to run a few errands real quick this morning, but now i'm kind of done for. at least i can do the bare minimum that i need to and i will just go from there. I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED AND I WILL NOT GIVE UP!

i keep telling myself that. i am past being very sick, but am still dealing with the anemia situation. at this point, i can barely function or do anything. just the simplest things exhaust me, but i know i am getting better as i pass through each day. i tried to be on a conference call last night on REI, but it's through Skype and the connection is not real good. it took a while to get on the call and i could hear it well, then all of a sudden i was cut off. i tried to get back on, but it took quite a while. last week i couldn't hear much of anything so had to cut the call short. i haven't been able to concentrate real well this week, but that is all part of it. i feel like i am letting people down, myself most of all, but pushing myself too hard causes more issues for me physically. so...i will just be patient and go with the flow for now. i am hanging in there and i will succeed!

i am feeling a little better finally. i was able to get some groceries yesterday and run an errand today. it can be challenging, but i keep pressing in. i am trying to eat red meat right now because i really need the iron, plus the supplement i have been taking for quite a while. i hope to be able to do a little REI stuff if at all possible this week and yet being careful not to go backward. i was listening to something totally unrelated to REI this morning, but i heard something very interesting and thought-provoking. i'll post it and then i'm going to start a new post just to see if i can get any comments about it. here it is: "ANALYZATION IS LIMITATION". what do you think? have a great Sunday!

each day seems to be getting a little better. still moving too slow for me, but what can i do? i had to run to Walmart twice unexpectedly, but it worked out in my favor, so i can't complain. i'm always up for that! right now i am listening to a webinar with an SEC attorney on private money. not sure how interesting it will be, but i'm sure it's important information. sometimes i listen for a while, then i do something else and come back a few times. it's not always real comfortable for me to sit at my desktop, despite how much i love using it. i am also working on setting up an appointment to meet on Saturday with a DG couple in my area who are very successful investors. they are also very knowledgeable about investing with SDIRA's and spoke to my REIC earlier this month on it, but i was still very sick and had to miss the meeting.

i am finishing up a very dull webinar on building your buyers list. it has some good information, but it has just gone on and on and the presenter has no excitement in his voice. i think it could have been a lot shorter and i never could have endured this live. at least i can stop it for a while, go do something else and then come back to it. i actually got a job offer because when i made a speech, i actually took my audience with me. they enjoyed the presentation and i made the audience a big part of it. i realize on a webinar that might be hard to do, but a long webinar with the same voice and no emotion is hard to endure for most anyone. it is in the 80's here today so i had to turn on my A/C against my will. i'm hoping that i will be able to get more defined in a schedule next week, but right now i have to be careful. i'm hoping that next week will be a much stronger week for me. i am taking my iron supplements and eating red meat and oysters. i'm not worried about cholesterol and all that stuff, but i really don't care for red meat flavor that much. i am making myself eat it and making it as flavorful for me as possible. i pray i don't have to deal with this again and that i just go ahead and do what i have to do to be at my best. at least i am fitting some REI in and hopefully that will grow soon. i have decided to track my time for the month of April, although one week will tell me everything i need (already) know. i'm also going to track what i spend in April because it's way too easy to just spend and have no idea what you are really spending or what you are really spending it on. i'm sure it will be very insightful.