The Short Sale Sisters Journal

After my partner and sister Donna and I were talking about our experiences with the real estate world, we thought this would be a great place to let everyone know what we have been through with our progress. And what it took to get where we are today.
First off we started into the real estate investing journey after our mother had passed. Our mom and I had talked about getting into real estate but she never got a chance to be a part of it while here on earth. She is looking down on us always. Donna and I were talking one evening and decided to partner together and start our very exciting and somewhat scary journey into investing together. We started scouring the internet for everything we could get our hands on. We talked with other people who claimed to be mentors and even paid for their "systems" which were not much to speak of. I am not saying that there are not some out there that are very informative.
Like a lot of us on this site I also came across Dean on late night television and was so motivated for his books that I went out the next day to the book store and purchase his BARM book because I did not want to wait for it to come in the mail. Education is the key to anything that is worth a change in your lifestyle.
Now starts the journey of the short sales!
Our first experience with a homeowner that was in trouble actually contacted us through a friend who knew we were starting in the business. We were so excited but also really did not know what our next move would be. So we were learning as we go along. I talked with the homeowner who had already vacated the property and met with her along with my contractor to access any damages and she signed the contracts, handed me the keys and left. She did not want anything to do with the property since she was in default. She had a few pieces of her short sale package with her and signed an Authorization to Release so I could speak on her behalf to her lender. I did that and got all the information from the lender that was needed to move the short sale forward. I let the homeowner know we needed to move quickly on this and then we waited and waited. Finally she got the rest of her information to us but by then the lender was moving faster towards a foreclosure. And it was foreclosed on. The lender changed locks on the doors since the homeowner had vacated the premises. We were actually at the mercy of the lender at this point plus being so new to this we were not sure what direction to take. We had a "mentor" who took the money and ran so we were left standing trying to help this homeowner.
This was very frustrating but also a good lesson learned.
So we went back to the books and learned to gather a team of liked minded people to start our next deal. Best decision we ever made! Getting agents, negotiators, BPO agents, and anyone who wanted to be a part of our dream team were welcomed. We started in our REIA group. Put an ad on Craigslist. Talked on Forums. Listening to webinars. And also had weekly meetings with others who wanted to learn at a local Coffee house. We were spreading the word to everyone who would listen about what we were doing with short sales and investing.
An agent contacted us and had a few clients who were in trouble with their properties. So I set a meeting at the real estate office and met agents and their brokers and we discussed what we were doing and how we could team up together and make this happen. This agent brought us 4 properties from an investor who was in trouble. We started the process with this client and we off and running again. Next step we explain to the homeowner what is needed for the short sale package.
Then another client and another and before we knew we had 10 properties under contract for short sales within 3 months.
More to come.........