Shawn's Road in trying to be successful

Hello Shawn,

Congratulation on starting your Journal and signing up for the Success Academy. I am still in the process of completing the course and see how it will be beneficial to my business. I'll see at the top.

Ty

Thanks ty and lots of luck and good faith in your completion as well and hopefully your business will strive as well and who knows we may meet some time when we reach the top and look back at things and where we started as well.

Good Job Shawn,
Seems like you are taking action, which is awesome!!! No matter what happens, don’t stop!! Start making offers, build your team of agents, title com. Investors and other wholesalers in the area!!
Good luck

to take all the action I can. I have two agents in the area I work with that have and are still working with other investors, I have talked with the local title office to see what services they offer and what kind of closings and such they do. I also have four cash buyers in the area that are also investors looking for properties so I have been busy trying to find them properties also. I am currently looking at a property in the Dallas area for one of these investors. The hardest part to start off with is before I can refer it to him I have to have it under contract before I inform him about it so I have to be sure this is something he really wants and would buy from me. I have also recently bought Deans Think A little Different course and this is really some good information as well.

ba

Talked to a local bank about getting a mortgage loan to finance rental properties here in the area and things did not come out too good even though my credit rating is pretty good and was not looking to borrow a large amount of money either. At this point in time it is not possible for them to finance any properties I am interested in buying even though I would have people to rent these properties to so guess I will have to concentrate more on owner financing for rental properties and wholesale properties. Fix and flip I would have to try hard money lenders but I am not looking to fix and flip right now. As for owner financing there are few that are wanting to do this seeing how they want to pay off their current loan and move on.

ba

About luxury short sale properties for a person said he is buying such properties and has the cash for them. Well I called several listing agents for such properties just to have them not take me serious and then yell at me on the phone as well for no reason at all. Makes me wonder if they want to sell these properties or not and then if the person that says he is buying how serious is he after getting emails about other money making opportunities that have nothing to do with real estate investing at all. Then another person says they have buyers for commercial properties and if I find something send them to him, well I found a good one I thought, got the information needed after having to sign some paperwork and the like, make out a ndnca as well, what came out of this one, nothing either. Maybe the person is too busy, this is possible too but no emails keeping me informed or just to say no they were not interested or such. So if you work with some people on this site and think you got some thing for them and you think you may have something out of it, wait first then see how it goes. No I am not mentioning any names but I look at it this way it is all experience one can gather along the way too.

ba

Good properties that are well below fmv, close to everything in the area, nothing my buyer is looking for is the problem. Would be great rental or fix n flip or just to resale. I would have to go with private financing or hard money lenders in order to purchase these properties and resell them in a quick time frame.

ba

Hey Ba

Glad to see you are up and moving....What a way to start the New Year.

What is your niche that you are going for? How are you enjoying the Success Academy? I haven't joined but I will be doing so in this first quarter of 2011.

explore other options in bank financing if your credit score is decent, for example, local Fannie Mae homes or FHA financing. Also, if you found some great homes, consider using HML and buy them yourself. Just keep moving forward.

I have been trying to wholesale mostly to my current buyers I have here in the area but they are pretty picky when it comes to what they are looking for and one of them asked me not to send him any properties unless I have them under contract so when doing this I have make sure I have a good exit clause in the contract in case he does decide not to purchase the property. After reading deans think a little different I have also been seriously thinking more into tax liens and the like seeing how I live in Tx and the interest on your money you can make is a minimum of 25%. I have not joined the success academy yet, they recently called me are will be calling me back this week to discuss it further as for what it would cost and how I could pay for it as well.

ba

To as well since the banks will not finance my investment properties but I purchased my own house with no problem except for the 20% down payment I had to make when I bought my house. I have been thinking about HML and using it but have to find some good ones I could use and count on as well and see if they would go for these properties I have located. As for local fannie mae properties in this area that is very hard to find due to foreclosure and the like are very few. I visit with an asset manager for a local bank I deal with to discuss things with him concerning foreclosures and the like and since I have know him for a year now they have only had two foreclosures in that bank, and for the others I have been working on because there is not just one person that handles this but several so this bank could not just give me one persons name that handles them all. I think real estate all day, give cards every where I go, think of new ways to advertise, and at the end of the day when I go to bed I still think real estate.

Shawn

Got a new schedule at work, I enjoy this one more as I now work 3 to 11 pm, that way I have time before going to work when I get up to call agents, fsbo, and any one else I need to call and to check on listings I have come across as well. I am use to working a different schedule but I can adapt to this one faster seeing how I now have more time for real estate investing. I have contacted an agent about a property I found in dallas concerning comps and such but yet have I heard back so I will have to contact this one again tomorrow since I just got home from work at 11:30 pm and she is in bed. I posted an ad on craigslist recently and so far have not had any replies to it yet either like always so nobody in the area looking to sell or buy it seems.

ba

Several days back I inquired about a property for the comps and such, tried to contact the listing agent and got no reply, finally got a reply back today about the property just to hear that the property was under contract. I just love how fast some agent reply to questions when they are asked. This was a good deal on a property and a buyer on my list would of bought this property no doubt if I had a contract on it but the agent takes their time in getting me the comps needed for the property.

Yes I did thank the agent for her time and her really fast response time as well in answering any questions I had and for getting me the comps and the like as well that I never got and told her now I know which agent not to work with and when recommended I will ask for another agent to help me instead.

shawn

I have been searching for properties today for the two of the investors I have in the area and still have not come up with anything yet except maybe one property. I have already contact the listing agent of this property to see what kind of information I can get on it as well as for comps and the like. I currently have three ads on cl looking for more investors to ad to my list but no luck yet on this either. My daughter will be making me some flyers to put out in several places when I go to town. I think living out in the country and away from all the bigger cities does make things harder compared to one living right in the city but there is no way I would give up my county life either, have lived it too long.

shawn

I see you are making progress and I see your hard work and you are making great strides just stay focused on the end goal and you will go far. I too live out in the country I have 2 ponds and 70+ acres of land but am only about 30 minutes away from my nearest metro area, but to be honest I've lived in country and city and either one suits me just fine, but that's just my personal opinion. Anyways I look forward to seeing more of your progress and see what's in store for the future!

I have been reading your posts as well and have been keeping up with you and your accomplishments also and you are not doing to bad your self so who knows how far things will go with the both of us and maybe some day we will meet in person and look back at when we got started in REI. The closest metro to me is Dallas Ft Worth which is about 2 hr drive from where I live so for me to look at properties when needed is almost an all day thing to plan for.
The closest place for rei meetings in my area is dallas too. Texarkana is closer to me but they do not have any rei meetings there and as for the real estate market I have not really kept up with it as they are not on cl so for ads the only way to try and find investors there is in the local paper.
My wife is wishing to have that much ground to raise cattle on instead of only the six acres we currently have and the few animals too but they do keep one busy though and looking to purchase more in the near future to keep meat on the table.
I have spent most of my time living in the country and just enjoy the peace and quiet, lived in the city enough and did not care for it, the biggest city I lived in was in germany with a pop of around 200,000 and that was way too big so I moved in the country then too.

shawn

After finding a property one of my investors could be interested in, getting most of the information I needed to see if this deal would work, guess what happened, no I did not get a chance to make a deal out of this one it was taken off the market before the agent could even answer my last question. I contacted the agent about this as well and never got an answer back about that either so some one must of found this one the same time I did and just snatched it out of my hands. Well now I have to look for the next one too but thats okay I am always looking for the next one and then the ones after it too. Who knows maybe Greg from the Dallas Ft Worth area snatched this up from me as he invests in this area as well. Naw Greg just pulling your leg lol.

Shawn

Finally got an answer back from the agent I was discussing this one property I was interested in and would of been a great property to flip to one of my investors to. The same time I was inquiring about the property some one else was too and they got a contract on it faster than I could. Not really a big loss because I got the agent to work with me now because she asked me if she could help me find other properties instead and what would am I looking for exactly so gave her the information about the types of properties I am looking for so this will save me some time here. Now when I am searching for properties I have another set of eyes helping me look as well.
I also have ads on cl saying I buy houses but no response on them yet either so will have to wait and see how this comes out again. I have run ads on their now at least six times and only got two investors paying cash for properties right now.

shawn

www.sadj.usapropertywholesale.com

Well here it is a little after midnight, looking for properties for two buyers I have on my list and still no luck after the last one I found got snatched up from under my feet. Been running ads on cl and other places as well, no luck nobody has contacted me on them either, have been thinking about discontinuing my 1800 number since I have not received any calls on it in ages now. Later on today I will be celebrating my birthday doing work around the house and out in the back 40 getting it organized before warmer weather comes and have to fight snakes for territory. Later this week will be getting more calves in as well which will put some good beef on the table in due time. I was hoping to celebrate my birthday this year with at least on deal done no matter how much or little I made off of it but no luck this time. I think ever since my dad passed away a little over a year ago things have been going down hill, took quite a bit of money to drive back and forth with the whole family just to visit with him before he left us and have been trying to catch up ever since.
I have reduced my sleeping time now down to 4 hours a day in order to get more things done any where and every where I can and still have some time to visit with the family as well.
Before getting off the pc I will be running more ads in every place I can think of for people needing or wanting to sell their homes and see what comes out this time around. As for watching tv that I have given up mostly unless I spend time with the family watching it but also try to do other things.
Been looking for a REI club I can go to but I will have to drive about two hours to go to one of these. I am lucky in this part it is on a weekend so will make a family trip out of this no doubt and take my wife with me into the meeting and use her as my secretary lol.
At times it does seem hard for me to keep from getting distracted from investing lately but my will for this is just too much and then I want more out of my life as I know there has to be more than there is now. Who knows what can happen between now and my next birthday will have to wait and see.

shawn

Well I recently ran a new ad on homegain.com looking for real estate agent to work with on helping me find properties to buy and have had four agents contact me so far with their experience and whether or not they have worked with investors or are currently working with investors. I two investors waiting on me to find properties for them right now and since my last one I did find was snapped away from mew while I was talking with the agent I have yet to find another one yet so thought it would be a good idea to see what some of the agents in the area can come up with.
I currently have one agent sending me properties on the mls right now but all these properties are being listed right at fmv or 5 grand less so I do not think these will go all that well with my investor as the profit on these for both of us would be close to none.
The search goes on and continues at the same time and in the middle I am trying to find luxury home short sale properties too for another investor I have wanting these types of properties. Seems like a day or week just cannot be long enough as I average four hours minimum on the puter looking for deals for both buyers, in between getting my work done around the house and trying to spend some time with the wife and kids in between too.

Shawn

It has been some time since I have posting any thing on here so guess I will just write a few lines. I have been working with an agent in the west part of texas on a couple of properties that would be a good deal to wholesale but it just seems like all the agents that I get to answer my questions that I have takes three days to get an answer on the questions I have asked, but I still get answers though so they must be busy on that side of Texas selling properties. I tried homegain.com to find an agent and got five agent proposals saying that they work with investors and the like. I used matts letter with some modifications to it just not to get an answer back from these agents even after calling them. Yes I know just what others have said here as well about agents and not to waste their time too. But if I cannot get an answer in a reasonable time to even think what I could make of an offer based on the information I get then the property is usually under contract.
I have ran several ads on craigslist as well, all of which were mentioned by jeff jenson as well and no luck with these either.
Tomorrow I will be contacting a mortgage broker that also has contact with hard money lenders in the area that I am looking to invest in as well so I will have one them on my team in case I buy properties to hold and use as rentals too.
I have been trying to contact an old school friend about him needing to sell his house, well no luck here, all I got was his voice mail but could not leave a message because it was full, after I kept trying then the recording says this is not a working number try again so no doubt he got rid of his cell phone or changed numbers.
I no doubt will be getting rid of my 800 number since I have not received any calls on it in over six months so it is wasting money so will have to cut this extra cost out since I have not made money with it since I have it.
Deans new video blog comes at a good time too but still all is at a stand still no matter what I try. No do not take all this as complaints on the like this is just to keep up with myself and see how things go and if any body wants to read it and give me some advice whether good or bad sure go for it, who knows some one out there has to have some good ideas as well to throw at me and knock me upside my head too lol.

shawn

Well I am currently talking with an agent about a property in Texas that the current owner has which is a rental property he is wanting to sell, 4 br, 2 ba, brick home, 2100 sq ft, 2 car garage, and swimming pool,needs roof work, some sheet rock work, new light fixtures, master bath needs remodeled, new carpet and paint,new fence and foundation work as well. The kitchen needs a complete remodel also. I am currently discussing this with the listing agent as this property has been on the market for some time now and the owner wants to sell and will consider all offers. I asked the agent if he knew or had some good contractors in mind that could go over there and give me an estimate of what the repairs would cost so I could figure up an offer after running the comps and see what the arv on this one would be.
I am looking to pass this on to an investor on my list and discuss with the agent how long it would take to resell after all repairs are done. In between I will be contacting a hm that was referred to me from another rea in the area as well as for doing the financing on this if needed. I could rent it out but would have to be very picky on this. right now the place is listed 20,000 below fmv value but the arv would be around 120,000 with the asking price is 79,000 but the seller will consider all offers, property is in a good location as well.

shawn

Well it has been some time since I have posted in my journal, I was suppose to of heard back from a contract beginning last week with an estimate of what it would cost to rehab a property I was interested in, a week has past and nothing so I have contacted the listing agent and informed him to let the contractor know that I no longer need his estimate because he did not meet the time frame he said he needed in order to present me an estimate and told the listing agent I am no longer interested in the property either as his response time was too long as well. I have used home gain to try and find an agent to work with in getting properties for investors I have looking for properties and have the funds to close in a 10 day period, no luck with finding an agent here either, I used matt's letter on what to write to these agents and got no response to this either. As for my toll free number I have downgraded it to the lite version now which only costs 9.95 a month and not 29.95 I was paying for the normal setup to cut costs that are needed for other things. I may just drop this toll free service completely because from day one to now I have only have had six calls with no results in anything so the service has not paid for itself yet so I will be using a normal phone number instead and who knows talking direct with the people may make a big difference. I will be going to the local office supply store to pickup some bright colored poster paper to make some bandit signs to put out at the end of the week to see what comes out with these.
Overall in this area properties are not going to good except for the more expensive ones and those do take some time and all my buyers are for low cost homes and these are hard to come by as well as the owners are not selling much lower than fmv to have much of a chance in making a profit off them to resell.
Since over time has been cut off at my normal day time job it has given me more time for real estate investing but my luck with this has been very low as well in finding properties or any thing else. I sit here and spend three hours a day four days a week looking for properties and come up with nothing that fits what my current buyers are looking for. Hopefully when I put out a couple bandit signs this week things will change and make a turn but if not will have to wait and see what comes up next.

shawn

Contacted my agent about a foreclosure in the area to run the comps and the like to see what he has or can come up with a value on the property. Jen thanks for the info you gave me in other post I have here as well as I am trying to get this information as to fmv, list of properties sold, in the area, how long they were on the market and all the other info I can use to figure out if this would be worth pursuing. Been trying to find hml in the area and no luck at this time either, seems like those only exist in the bigger cities here because this is where they do most of their investing. Came across a restaurant this weekend as well, something for my wife as she has always wanted to own her own restaurant and this is something we have been looking for for some time. Nothing too big for the time being, just something she can run mostly herself with little help from others, and if needed I can do some things also but it is more her dream not mine. Never have had much of a dream, I just live each day as it comes and goes and take things the way they are.

Shawn

Almost two years later being on this site. No money, decent credit, and no deals how does this sound. My youngest kid just turned 17 yesterday, we had to celebrate real quick in the morning before she went to school, bought the cake the night before, she decorated the rest of it put on the candles and I lit them so she could blow them out. We all had a piece of cake and off she went to school. As for me back to bed for a couple of hours before going back to work in a couple hours. Next comes my wife's birthday later on in the year so I am waiting to see what can happen before that comes and then shortly after my big 25th wedding anniversary.

Shawn

One month to go then I have been doing this two years and no luck, I have passed out about 2000 business cards, dealt with several agents in the area and in other states as well, talked with local bankers to see what they have for properties, no answer on my bandit signs, spent many hours late and early doing research for properties and what has came out of all this not one thing but lots of lost time and no results. No doubt I am doing some thing wrong some where for all this not to be working for me. But needless to say this is my last posting in my journal and all other places on this site. Thanks to all for the great advice it is greatly appreciated and taking the time to post here as well and answer all the questions that I may have asked. A special thanks to those that said they would like to partner on some deals and never wrote back about this either, way to go.

Shawn

Man it has been almost two months since I have last posted on here and thought I would take some time to post a few words. I have been pretty busy for the past two months due to sons graduation, my wife losing her job and trying to find ways to cut spending as much as possible to get by on with what I make for the time being. Been busy in between trying to find some decent properties to make offers on. Been running ads for tenant buyers with no luck at all so now I am going to see if I can get some people that just want to rent for the time being until things change and people want to buy houses in a good area in Ohio that I am looking at but the main thing is that I have a positive cash flow for the time being. Due to other things keeping me busy I am trying to stay more focused on rei but some how other things keep getting me side tracked taking my time away from rei. Maybe when the kids are back in school and my wife gets a job it will be easier again who knows as things are at a stand still right now with nothing moving forward to really talk about or worth it.

Shawn

Well I have finally gotten my pc back up and running after having serious issues with it to where I was not able to get on here or even on the pc. Now I have a lot catching up to do in real estate. Will be busy running more ads to see with what I can come up with. I have tried an area up north with no luck there. I have contacted several agents on some properties that interest me, I was told they would contact me via email with a listing of properties I am interested in and nothing yet either. With my current work schedule I have my time is even more limited than it used to be so am having to try and find a better way to manage this. There are some bugs that I have to work out on a lot of things and do some fine tuning as well but lately it just seems like nothing is working where ever I look.

shawn

My new fight now is that I have to convince some one in my life that Dean is real and not just some person on tv trying to rip people off with a scam. This is hard to have this negative beside you, having to tell that this person is wrong. The time i spend is being wasted, you have been doing this so long and you still have not gotten anything from this. I can keep on but this is enough and no I am not going to get rid of this person in my life like some one else has done on here either I just have to convince people that Dean is for real and to take me serious no matter what even though it is not easy. Right now things are not going to good for us which I think this makes things worse too as things are still going down hill just like real estate and makes one wonder how far is this going to go before it goes back up for us. With the kind of work of do it is not possible for me to call during breaks because we do not get a break and I have to carry a radio with me that has to be on to where I can be reached at all times and this would no go good with clients that I call and it cannot be turned off or down. I leave for work early to make calls and read deans books then I get accused of having a girl friend, who are you calling, what are you reading (hustler mags lol) no I do not do this either. I have explained this and with this persons kind of negativety it is not possible to get this person involved as they think dean is a **** unfortunately which I do not think so otherwise I would not be doing this trying to make a better life for my whole family.

Shawn

Shawn, Im getting depressed just listening to you whine. I like it when someone tells me I cant do something. Thats when I knuckle down and really get serious. It was about 20+ yrs ago I met a girl, of course she asked what I did. I said I got a course by a Real Estate guy named Ed Beckley that teaches how to buy Properties with no money down. She says thats ridiculous it cant be done. I told her me an my partner just got a foreclosed duplex from a bank with no money down and were busy rehabbing it right now. She says, well, just becuz u done it once doesnt mean u can do it again. Of course, I showed her the gate. That property turned out to be a nightmare, but thats another story. And now I've decided to jump back in since I lost my job from this messed up economy. Im working on a "subject to" deal now, I think its the easiest way to get into RE and make cash. Send me a private message and we can help each other, Im learning some great stuff. Randoskie