Linda's (from Indiana) Journal

okay, i'm going to try and post and make sense, but it's been one of those crazy days and i'm exhausted on top of it with only 2 hours of sleep last night. i told Lea "they just let me out for the weekend" and Chuck said the weekend was too long. i faxed Chuck's offer to the broker in Indy and set up files for him and my client that made the HUD offer. we are on the lookout today to see if it was accepted or not. 5 times my daugher, Danelle, and i tried to talk on the phone this morning, then finally gave up. Jared, my son, called at the start of the World Cup games this morning. he has been in a refresher course for a kind of medic training all week (he's the guy who has to keep people alive until the medic can get to them) and so his classes are not requiring a lot of his time and he can watch the games. we talked a little, then i had to go. i finally got a hold of my friend in Tulsa. i haven't been able to reach her for weeks and i called her cell phone. we had a great talk and she told me she has to talk to me more often. i feel the same about her. i just wish we were closer. then i got to talk to Lea while Chuck was charging the battery in my car. last night i left my keys in the ignition with the battery on and ran it all the way down. talk about swift! once it was running i had to take the offer originals and the earnest money check to UPS and get it sent to the broker in Indy. it will arrive Monday. we made an offer of $5000.00 because the rehab numbers are in the $40,000 range right now and there are some other issues as well. yes, it's a low ball offer, but there is no way to offer more. by the time Chuck got to the office last night, my sales manager and i had most of the offer filled out and ready for him to sign. i also submitted the HUD offer online, which i enjoyed. you just submit a bid, then if it's accepted (usually in 24 hours), you have 48 hours to get all the contracts/paperwork to them and close in 45 days. after that we went to supper, to the mall and to Sam's Club. it was a very nice evening and we were celebrating taking action with the offer. that is the fastest we've moved on anything, and i really believe playing Cash Flow that night a couple weeks ago made a huge difference. i haven't accomplished near what i wanted to today, but i guess that is okay. i need to rest and regroup for now. another busy weekend ahead, starting out with 4 hours in class tomorrow for my brokerage. they are doing a full 8 hours, but i cannot do 8 hours like that. besides, USA plays tomorrow at 2:30pm and i'm not missing that game. business will just have to wait on that one. i hope everyone has a great weekend.

we are finally having some nice days of weather. very sad that the USA lost yesterday, but they have to learn to play as a team. that has always been the men's team's biggest issue. my son, Jared, was invited to Churchill Downs, got to be on Millionaire's Row, wonderful buffet and he was up $200.00 from betting on the races. he had a wonderful time and made some very good contacts that were retired Army and now in business. that kid leads such a blessed life. i was in class at my brokerage for almost 4 hours yesterday morning. good information, but i've been so tired and listening to someone else talk and sitting is so hard for me anyway. i did interact when i could to help with the boredom from sitting. it was all about being a realtor, but i can see things i can use as an investor. i have to get busy on my buyers lists again. i promised my coach i would do that, despite not being in total agreement with that. she gave me good information to use and i will do that this week. just listened to Dean's new blog about the entrepreneur time system and will work on that along with Dean's scheduling idea from the Edge 2009. my client's HUD offer was not accepted, but they will probably bid again. our offer probably didn't get submitted to the bank because it was all sent over on Friday. today i will play catchup and rest as much as possible. i just haven't been able to get with it and get past the exhaustion. i will keep at it though.

i started off my day by calling Verizon to get my final bill taken care of since i cancelled my internet and landline with them. they have made so many mistakes since i cancelled in early April. they sent me a refund check last week and now they are billing me for the refund check amount. i finally got a guy to request it be zeroed out and then got a collection notice from them in the mail. the thing is, i have never paid a late bill and they have messed this all up. so, Chuck told me several things to do and i will do them: 1. call Verizon and see if they will take care of it immediately 2. if not, i will call Prepaid Legal for legal options 3. i will contact the Attorney General for Indiana and 4. i will call the TV news station here that helps resolve these matters. we'll see what happens with all that. that took up way too much of my time. i just got off the phone with Lea and i love our conversations. she is one of the nicest people i know and i always appreciate her calls. i had to renew my real estate license today, despite only having it for 3 months. it's something to do with the way they have the renewals set up. i had to do it online, which is fine, but then they charge you for doing it online, almost $5.00. i also had to pay my annual dues to my realty franchise, so i guess everyone thinks i'm made of money! nice thought - let's make it come true! i ran comps with my sales manager on the HUD house my client bid on and they came out the same as the client had predicted. i called on some information i received about getting realtor buyer leads; the price was exorbitant and who knows how good the service is. i did manage to study with the Success Academy and i'm working on getting through the first Edge '09 CD. i have pressed the wrong thing so many times that it keeps starting over. it'll take me forever to get through them at this rate!! i plan to be on an REO webinar tonight and need to work on flyers and getting more criteria from my buyers. they haven't been real cooperative and my coach is really pushing me to get my lists finalized within the next couple weeks. i am practicing "The Healing Code" and it has helped me to keep my stress level down. you can check it out on Amazon. well, back to the EDGE and let's see if i can get through the Probate lesson without any more mess ups on my part.

these days have been stressful, but i'm learning to go with the flow a little more. i had to call Verizon again, but it seemed to go better this time. hopefully everything is taken care of once and for all, but time will tell. i am waiting on a call concerning the short sale deal. everything is a learning experience. i made another bid on the HUD property for my client, increasing it and increasing my possible commission. i worked on one of my Success Academy lessons and hope to finish it tomorrow. my real estate license renewal went through, so that's good news. i placed a ghost ad on craigslist according to what my coach told me to do. she said to run it consistently. i emailed a prospective buyer and she emailed her simple buying criteria, but she is willing to look at anything. i also created a flyer according to information my coach gave me on flyers. that was a huge help and it was quick and fairly easy to create it. she gave me several possibilities, so i will try them all out and see what happens. we have to run some errands tonight, so i have the flyers ready to leave at a few grocery stores by the real estate magazines. thanks, Indiana Joe, for that suggestion. most of the stores here do not have bulletin boards anymore. i finally got on the student call last night and got to talk to Andrea Wuehle a little. i love to hear all the testimonials and how they bit the bullet and just did it. our offer on the rehab property was turned down. the realtor was pretty good about it and we talked a little through email about it. she knows it's way over-priced, but there is nothing to do about it. if we want to, we'll offer until it goes to the tax sale. otherwise, we'll look for it at the tax sale in late September. i think i need to find us some other properties to look into. tomorrow i will be on a call with an attorney explaining the Safe Act junk and about land contracts being outlawed in Indiana. how stupid. anyway, i do need to know what is going on. i was on a webinar last night before the student call about a "guru" who buys REO's, usually directly from regional and local banks, and does mostly lease/options on them. he only does them for 3 years so he doesn't have to look for a new tenant every 12-18 months. if they don't cash him out, as long as they are good tenants, he'll renew for another 3 years with them. one family has been lease/optioning one of his properties for 18 years and he has made a bundle off that. it was very good information. i'm moving more and more contacts to using my Google Voice number. can't wait to see how that all works out. gotta go read some other journals now.

lol! I thought I was busy with three kids and baseball but boy are you on the go! Keep up the good work. I can't believe they would outlaw land contracts. That's an easy way to buy/ sell without having to go to a bank. Keep me posted on that one. Thanks

There is no grass growing under your feet.

Will talk to you soon.

Your DG Sister,
Lea

hey Linda,

You are really advancing! Great work! This webinar you attended, was it one of Than Merril's webinars? There was one I missed and it may have been that one. I too have been listening to tons of webinars!

Also, you talked about a student call? Is that something through the academy? What tier level are you at? I joined the level 2 because 7K was pretty tough for me as it was. Can you let me know about that? It would be great to be on a call with other students talking about deals and such.

Take care, and keep it up! It is CERTAIN you will succeed!

Sorry Linda, I'm catching up on your journal backwards. Did you try the service Dean recommended before trying out Google Voice? I'm just wondering because I'm at the point I'm getting a lot of calls and I need to turn in my free voicemail and start using something with extensions.

How much are you paying for it every month? Do you like it?

Sorry, i'm full of ?s tonight! You have grown so much in your journey, it is amazing to see how people grow in their endeavors! You are well on your way!

Blessings to you!

sometimes i feel like i'm running in circles! i have that call at noon today and then i'll post about it. i think it is ridiculous but right now everything is pretty messed up. it has to do with the Safe Act, so hopefully after the call, i'll understand things better and be able to pass the information along. i read your journal yesterday and you are busy with REI as well as kids and baseball. our sport was soccer and i sure do miss it. the World Cup has brought back a lot of memories.

hey, my DG sister, i loved our talks yesterday. i was so wound up i'm surprised you could even understand what i was saying. when i got to the office, my sales manager was his usual cheerful self with me. i'm so glad i talked to you and Chuck about his messages and realized he was probably trying to be funny. as far as the grass not growing under my feet, just one less thing i have to deal with. ha! boy, am i having fun spitting today!

great to hear from you. no it wasn't Than's. it was Robyn Thompson, the queen of rehab and she was Than's mentor, and Andy Heller. it was very good and i think she posts her webinars on her website. you might check it out and see. i love webinars but Chuck gets really jealous when i don't spend all my time with him when he's home. he's trying to do better and i'm trying to keep them to a minimum right now. plus, i've heard most of them all ready, but they are such an encouragement to me. the student calls are with the Academy. i'm only level one and i paid a little more than you did. i'm not sure how they break all that down, to be honest. you should be able to call the Academy and get the number, which your coach should have given you. they are Monday - Friday, 9pm EST. i find them very helpful and encouraging, and i love talking to them. i get on the call a few minutes early and usually get to talk to them a little, then they take questions about 9:30pm and stay on until all questions are answered. i have talked to Andrea Wuehle, Laura Johnson, Rina and Greg Murphy several times. he's always so helpful. thanks for your encouragement too.

i haven't tried what Dean recommended. is there a cost to it? i'm thinking there is. Google Voice is free, but you have to be invited to join and it takes several months. it took me about 5 months to be invited. you can go to www.google.com/voice and you should be able to request an invitation. you can get a new phone number and i got one that has the last 3 digits as REI. it's a pretty easy number to remember. i am starting to use it more and more. i can put it on "do not disturb" and specify the amount of time. voice mails go into your email also and are in transcript form. you don't have different voice mail boxes but you can choose which calls you answer and which you want to go to voice mail or block. once you have a person' # in your list of contacts you can put them in a group, then have a certain voice mail for them. i have something different for friends and family, as opposed to professional. check it out and it should show you what it offers. you might check out Magic Jack. i can't find mine, but some people use it for their business line during the day. i can't remember if it has more than one mail box, but it might be worth checking out. they have infomercials on all the time for it and i think you can also check it out online. i have an "800" number as well, but to get several voice mail boxes it was running about $50/month and i don't get that money calls right now. the company i used is www.tollfreenumber.org and i think once you purchase the number, it is yours forever, even if you cancel your service. i've also heard www.kall8.com is good. hope this helps.

so far, the new HUD bid has not been accepted. i am sure they do not realize the extent of the repairs needed. i worked on the short sale paperwork last night and faxed them this morning. it's a different process from a regular buy/sell situation. should be interesting. i want to talk a minute about emails and how they can give you the wrong impression. i called my sales manager in the morning and never heard from him. now, this is a guy who almost always answers when i call and will call right back if he can't answer right then. i called him again at 4pm and he messaged me through email that his blackberry was broken and he can't take any calls. so, we were messaging back and forth through email. he made some comments to me that seemed really stupid and rude, and i got upset. i called Chuck to vent (he is pretty good about being calm and helps me with that) and he reminded me how we have been emailing and misunderstood the intent. he said my sales manager probably thought he was being funny, while i'm getting madder and madder. i met with him at 6pm and he was his regular cheerful self and very helpful. so, i just wanted to remind everyone to be careful when emailing/messaging - you may take their intent wrong and that isn't what they meant at all. i am doing some medical testing all day today, until 2:30am in the morning. yippee. as if i don't all ready have sleeping issues. anyway, it's saliva testing, so basically i'm spitting in tubes throughout the day. fun. so, i'm staying at home and will spend most of my day with the Success Academy and the EDGE '09. i didn't even realize what all came with my stuff and now i'm like...duh. why didn't i check it out more thoroughly when i got it? i'll keep an eye on that HUD bid and be on that call at noon about land contracts in Indiana. i put a couple flyers out last night and will do some more. i have lots more assignments from my coach to work on too. i'm working up to those.

the call was actually pretty dull at times, but Chuck even came in the office and listened to it with me on speaker phone. we can no longer do land contracts in Indiana. we can do lease/options, but we have to be really careful. you must use a separate lease and a separate option, which i was taught to do years ago anyway. it is best to have the option signed on a different day from when the lease is signed. it might be good to have an attorney check it over and approve it, although i've had prepaid legal tell me lease/options scare them, rather than commit to anything. how silly. the Indiana Administrative Code to check out is: 750IAC9-1 and 750IAC9-1-1. there are some exclusions including the government and the attorneys, who made this junk up. you can follow this attorney's blog at www.askmattonline.com. he said he never liked land contracts because of equitable interest in the property and having to foreclose instead of evict. i have always agreed with that myself. i just don't care to be told what i can't do. when you do a lease/option, you should require your tenant/buyer to sign up with a credit repair agency, get regular reports and make sure the tenant/buyer is active in the credit repairing. there is an all-day class you can go to in Indy on July 17th for $79.00. i am debating whether to go or not because that is my REI club meeting too. i'm sure they could do without me for a day, but i really don't want to miss Shaun McCloskey talk on short sales. if you are interested in the class, you can go to www.reiprofitcenter.com. both the ladies who hosted the call today have spoken at my REI club, so i'm familiar with their businesses and it was worth hearing. hope this helps others out.

that information was helpful. Personally I like land contracts because they can help people who can't qualify for a loan, and lease-options usually require money down. We got the house we are living in on lease option, but luckily we didn't have to put money down.

I called the academy and got the info; I guess they forgot to give it to me! They said its for the new student just starting! Will be calling sometime in the next week!

I am going to be doing my first land contract here in a bit, at least I hope I am. This isn't going to become the new trend across all the states is it?

with a land contract, quite a bit of money was actually required up front usually. realtors didn't mind doing them because they got their commission paid up front as well. if your state adopts the Safe Act, then there is a good chance land contracts will be outlawed. i would double check with an RE attorney before doing one. a lot of these laws are being snuck in under the radar and people are not aware of them. ignorance of the law is not bliss.

unfortunately i bought lunch out today, ate it and ended up sick. lucky me.
i did want to post real quick. refi rates are really low right now, if anyone is interested. i went to post a new HUD bid for my clients and the property had an accepted offer on it today. how disappointing. the offer was $9000 more than the bid i was going to submit. maybe it's an end buyer who is willing to put the extra money in for a home to live in themselves. i don't think an investor would pay that much. i saw Joe Jurek's infomercial on TV this morning. it was pretty good and the host was very believable, not just a pretty face reading her lines. way to go, Joe!!!

Girl I am so proud of you, you are doing great things and still find the time to keep us all updated and provided with great information. I love that about you. Thanks so much.

I have not been on in a while but I had to get on today and get caught up.

You keep going and let us know how the testing goes.

...Hope you feel better from lunch. That is terrible when you get something that does not agree with you. It is always inetresting to see what people will offer on property and what offers get accepted. With the HUD proeprties you never know from one week to the next on offers, but at leats it is easy enough to see the high bids when they close (to maybe know if you were in the ballpark).

Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed the Craigslist/eBay Book Infomercial. It was so much fun to do and I really enjoyed all aspects of it. I apprecite your congrats and feedback. I hope you have a very Happy 4th of July holiday and good luck on all your future deals! Believe and Achieve! - Joe

glad you stopped by. i hope my postings help others as much as they help me. i do like to talk.... i plan on getting in touch with you before i head to Tulsa in September to see if we can somehow get together. i will be there 2 weeks helping my daughter with the new baby and my grandson, but i told her i have to have time to meet with friends/investors. sounds like you are moving right along yourself. keep up the good work because we will have so much to talk about in September.

thanks for stopping by. now i can say i had a real TV celebrity stop in. yes, i am feeling better today. thanks for inquiring.

in case i am not able to be on here Sunday, i want to wish everyone a happy and safe 04th of July!!! today is kind of my slow day and i can be very slow. i talked to my Dad, who just moved with my Aunt to Arkansas. he is hilarious and doesn't mean to be. he's actually very intelligent, but you would swear he is the absent-minded professor. example: years ago he was painting the garage. my mom came out with some lemonade for him and found him lying on his back on the driveway. she asked if he was okay and what happened. he said he was fine. he wanted to take a look at his work, forgot he was on the ladder, took a step back and fell. he does stuff like that all the time. i talked to my pregnant daughter and my son, who is on call for any "incidents" through Monday, but otherwise is off for 4 days. then i got to talk to Lea, one of my DG sisters and i just love talking to her. i messaged another DGer to see if we can do anything on deals. i called and actually got to talk to another "guru" i have a lot of respect for. i had a couple questions and he's always so helpful. i recognized that southern accent the minute he answered the phone. i'm not really pushing myself today, just kind of regrouping for the next few days, during the holiday. Danelle is having her baby on September 07th and her husband is having a little surgery right before that, so they will recover together in the hospital, then i get to take care of everyone. that would be okay, but most people don't think of me as a caretaker. it should be interesting. at least i have 2 months to "work up to it". they should be moved into their new home before then and i'll probably help a little with getting them settled in more. it was nice that i have been able to advise them on some things when they sold their home and got into building this one. all this real estate education is very helpful, in one way or another. we are going to the lake all day and evening tomorrow. pray for me!!! that is not my favorite thing to do (i almost drowned when i was 4, so i do not care for water much), but Chuck grew up going to the lake all summer and he loves it up there. i do love to cruise around on the pontoon a bit. last year we took my sister and her family, and my mom and dad up there. my sister asked where the pontoon boat was and i pointed to their speed boat. Shelly goes "that's not a pontoon". i said "i know, but i let him call it whatever he wants". she goes "oh" and my mom goes "mmm". well, i didn't know that they owned the other lot and the pontoon was over there. duh!!! we laugh about that quite often. well, i have a webinar to listen to with 2 of my favorite "gurus" (i trust them) and have the Ghana/Uruguay World Cup soccer game to watch. Netherlands beat Brazil this morning 2-1 and that had to be a shocker. my son used to be called Pele when he played soccer as a kid. i can't remember his EOD name; seems like it's Biscuit, or something like that. i think i like Pele better.

Your Dad sounds like a hoot! You had me laughing when I read about him. There is soooo much to be said for laughter. You must be getting so excited as Danella's due date gets closer every day. Have fun at the lake. Our situations are reversed. I love the water, however Denny on the other hand doesn't. Like you he almost drowned twice as a kid so it isn't on his list of fun things to do.

Happy 4th of July!

Lea

Yes Linda I can't wait to meet up with you in September, I want to look in some small towns down by Tulsa area who knows we may can set some viewings up and I can get some of your expertise on a deal or two...I plan on moving full steam ahead between now and then. Now I don't know though if you are going to be able to pull yourself away of that new grandbaby but, we will see.

Good luck I hope you had a Happy 4th, mine was wet and soggy it rained the entire weekend off and on.

oh, yes, Dad is a hoot all right. we did have a nice time at the lake and it was a perfect day. hope you had a great 04th of July and long weekend.

i can hardly wait for September to get here, and it's only 2 months away. my friend has a real estate agent she really likes in the Tulsa area, so we might be able to set something up with her. i might also be able to check with my "sister" agency in Tulsa. keep that steam going. i know you are going to get there. yes, i will have to pull myself away from the new baby and my grandson to go do some real estate. i'll have to have my RE fix, believe me! as it gets closer, we will start making some concrete plans, okay? yes, i had a nice 04th. my daughter told me you all had plenty of rain. better get that out of the way before i get there.

i just had to take this one more day off. yes, i have plenty to do, but i've had to deal with some not-so-fun stuff and decided i need to recover. yuk. we had a very nice day at the lake Saturday. it was perfect weather and we went on 2 pontoon rides, so that was really nice for me. i like to boat, just keep me out of the water. we got home around 10:30pm and passed out immediately. Sunday, the 04th, we did our "chores" in the morning, then went to see "The A-Team". we had both enjoyed the series back in the day and it was fun to watch. at least we made it through the entire movie without any alarms going off this time. we would also like to see "Killers" and "Knight and Day". i'm really into action movies, thanks to Dad and his black belt in karate. yes, i love Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme. okay, as for real estate, i got an email late Friday from one of my investors asking if i had any properties for him to make offers on this week. that was totally out of the blue for me. i've sent him some MLS properties a couple times, but he hasn't liked anything i have sent him. i asked him what i am missing so i can send him properties to his liking. he hasn't answered back yet. i will go over his information again and see if i can find some fsbo's or something to his liking. i found a couple motivated sellers on www.fsbo.com and i want to call on those. the houses are in the $200,000+ range, so i would be looking at lease/options for those. i'm hearing some about cooperative lease/options, so i need to find out more about those, if possible. my clients have found more properties on HUD and www.realtor.com, so we will be looking at those Thursday and Friday. i need to get more flyers out and be more methodical about it, plus posting my ads. i have never done anything with the free online papers, but i guess i need to look into it. i just found out i have really bad health insurance, so i also have to find new insurance, on top of everything else. i guess i just need to go with the flow and "git er done". many things to do on my coach's list also, and now i need to quit playing at REI and just do it. time to put up or shut up. here is a question for you to think about today: HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU FEEL WEALTHY? let me know.

Linda it seems like the To Do List is always growing....I always seem to be adding more then I am taking away from..I keep an ongoing copy scratch here and add to the list there.

I am off work tomorrow so this evening I am reviewing my steps for the rest of the week. I have a mtg regarding tournements for the basketball association and I am also looking for insurance. Since we have decided that I will not be returning to long term employeement, I will continue working for agency to allow flexiblity in my life and my hubby will continue to run our biz and the basketball organizaiton we must find insurance on our own. This is new....have been so dependent on employeers in the past but, no more.

I also will be driving and searching on the internet for some FSBO and I am going to make the calls...now what happens next I don't know(I sent you a PM)but I do know I got to get something happening. I will also be going to Sect of State off to make sure my biz name is secure and I have done the right things in that area.

I also have to do some mailings on tomorrow for the other biz and home life. But oh well that to do list keeps growning and life keeps going. REI mtg this week and I am not going to let nothing keep me from there at all.

so glad you keep dropping in on my journal. i love to hear about your progress here and in your journal. great job! sounds like you are on the right path; just keep moving forward. i love that you and your husband are doing both businesses together and he is supportive of you and vice versa. i want to hear about your REI meeting. i will reply to your PM; i want to think on it a little first.