Carol Stinson is sharing tips and answering your SET FOR LIFE questions.. Post them here

Daltonstrail-
I would recommend starting with the SFL tab within your Smart Automation account. From there, click on information and this will pull up a step by step guide on the Set For Life system. Follow these 7 steps, take advantage of the bonuses within this page and get familiar with the Smart Automation by playing around with it and watching the webinar videos located in your classroom. If you have specific questions, this is a great place to come. You will not only have dg.com support, but also our customer support that has been trained on the system and can help you along the way. Feel free to call them at 1-877-778-9374 or email at edge10@nmrdirect.com or support@sflautomation.com.

Thanks!

Your are such an inspiration to me on the Edge 2010 Videos. I am also grateful that you purchased the SFL and Just imagine you did it with a book and pure dedication. Now I am anxious to know how you plan to implement SFL in your REI Business. I am going to say now that you have purchased SFL you are going to be able to figure things out that most people wouldn't I know because you have really made a wonderful life for your family and our DG Family here.

I would say your right up there with Dean and the way he thinks. With all that being said, Would it bother to explain further of how you analyzed deals when you barely got started? And unless I am missing it, I have attended the webinars for each SFL Call, now that you have SFL how would we be able to analyze deals now with the SFL? I noticed that Dean has provided a Deal Analyzer for $197 that you can buy if needed. Does SFL enable us to somehow analyze deals simply? What's the best and simple way to do this.

Also I wanted to address the fact that I know that you got about 1500 Buyers List, now before you had your first few Buyers how did you go about funding your deals? And did you ever consider using Private Funding? I am new to all of this. I think that Wholesaling is the best way to start out and as well make a long life career out of it. I was able to purchase the SFL and I would like your priceless knowledge. Thanks.

P.S. Do you think SFL will ever get a deal analyzer. I have seen other programs that do offer this.

What do other people think about using the Free web site we get from Dean on DG.com as our home core site and using the squeeze web sites to feed into the free web site from DG.com. Or should we use a core web site from SFL to have our squeeze page sites feed into.

I know we have to get away from being cheap but every little bit of money we don't need to spend helps.

Steve and Veronica.

Gary,

You are getting overwhelmed because you are trying to do to many things at once. I suggest that you take one task at a time and dedicate your time to it until you have it performing. I see that you are already working on your buyers list so I suggest that you keep going with that.

First I would strongly suggest that you take advantage of the SFL website automation by creating a website that you can automatically drive buyers to. Send out the postcard mailings from the Done for you marketing to all of the cash buyers in the SFL system and put your buyers website on the post card. The first thing you want to do is AUTOMATE your buyers list.

Second after you have your buyers website on auto pilot you want to create your sellers website to drive motivated seller leads to you. once you establish your sellers website you want to start posting the website address on internet classified sites like craigslist etc...

By taking the time to ensure these 2 steps are complete you have already started your financial automation. the key to successful real estate investing is to get as many things automated as possible. YOUR TIME IS THE MOST VALUABLE ASSET YOU POSSES! The less time you have to spend finding sellers and buyers the more time you will have to work on other areas such as negotiating with the sellers and closing deals.

Many people fail before they even start because they don't take the time to automate themselves and they burn out. Take it one step at a time and you will see effective results.

I use http://totalviewrealestate.com to analyze all of my deals. this is the most thorough and detailed property analyzing tool that I have ever seen. When I put the property address into the Total View Real Estate website it pulls up everything that I need to know about the property. Purchase price, current rental rate, neighborhood info etc... I then go to http://propertyshark.com to get the owner's name and current address, send them a mailing and then follow up with another mailing in 30 days.

So in answering your question "Do you think SFL will ever get a deal analyzer" Dean has already provided one for you and it is http://totalviewrealestate.com

As far as how I funded my deals when I started, I have never had to fund a deal. I have wholesaled many properties since I started 2 1/2 years ago and have NEVER used a dime of my own money. I never had to because I never purchased any of the properties. If I could not find an end buyer for a property I just exercised my exit clauses and moved on. That is the best thing about wholesaling... NO RISKS!

SFL has absolutely without a doubt improved the way I do virtual wholesaling. This system is a HUGE asset to anyone looking to wholesale real estate. I am enjoying every moment of using it.

Good Luck!

I am going to answer the last question since I feel this will answer them all...

#1 New wholesalers tend to spend to much time doing due dilligence before they put a property under contract. This is because calling the property owner is the most uncomfortable part of wholesaling. We would rather spend hours doing due diligence rather than spending 5 minutes asking the seller questions on the phone.
In all reality talking to the seller is the best due diligence you have. I suggest that you get the basics on the property from http://totalviewrealestate.com such as last purchase price, After repair value etc... then call the seller to have them fill in the blanks. OVER ANALYSIS CAUSES PARALYSIS!

#2 The contract. You must remember to put contingencies in the contract that will protect you or give you an exit clause if you do not find a buyer for a particular contract!! Very Important! My contract is included in the Done For you marketing section of SFL. I suggest you use it to protect yourself.

#3 Marketing a property before you have control. BIG NO NO! Never market a property or share it with a buyer until you have it under contract with the seller. If you share it with an end buyer before you have it under contract he can very well go around you and negotiate with the seller and kick you to the curb. Trust me I have had it done to me

Hope this helps Kevin

I am wondering if your a member of the success academy, why are they not helping you with the questions you have. I'm curious are they two different company's with in the DG company. I have been considering joining the academy. Do they have staff and mentors available at all times or is it just give you directions. I had a bad experience with rich dads mentoring program, that is why i have delayed in joining the academy. Just curious as to why you singed up for sfl if you have not had a deal with academy.I don't think I am sure how these programs work. Because when I called the academy accidentally with questions for sfl they told me the academy was 10 times better than sfl. I'm a little confused I need to make wise decisions as I move my RE biz forward. thanks for your help in this matter. D

Hi Carol, hope your day is good. I have a request of you. I do not have SFL as of yet, hesitant that it won't work for the Canadian Market. Would you be willing to run a little test for me please? If you will, send me a note and i'll give you an address. I especially want to know if the comps work. I hope you can test this for me...I would really appreciate it. Thanks Again, Stan

Disanch,
To address your question regarding the success academy and the SFL system, they are two separate programs. The success academy is designed to assist you along the way, providing you with investing techniques, strategies, and methods to further your real estate business. Our coaches are here to hold your hand and are just a phone call away. They will provide clients with assignments/homework and give them the best, most up to date real estate knowledge/training in today's market.

The SFL system is going to help organize your business. It is the worlds’ first all-in-one real estate investment platform. Investors are opening a door to a community of over 10,000 members that will help them buy and sell properties, find leads, and get their properties out on the market faster than ever.

As for SFL support, we have a trained support staff that are available to assist when needed. The success academy, being a separate program, has their own support staff referred to as coaches. If you are in the success academy, you will be assigned to a designated coach, but all coaches are available to assist. They all have years of real estate investing experience and there is no better teacher in our opinion.

Thanks for your questions. I hope this helps.

Megan than you for jumping in to help As always you are AWESOME!!!

Thanks for always being so helpful and willing to share! I don't have the system, but moving forward and getting out there. Nothing has closed yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Geri
NJ

Hi Carol

Nice picture. You look realy relaxed! Very happy for you.

thank you for all your help and inspiration - i am so not computer savvy and the system can seem overwhelming

Hey thanks for all the loving support and quick reply. I really appreciate people like you. I am honored. Keep up the great work Carol. The Queen of Wholesaling! I really hope you liked those videos I sent you on Face Book. Please let us know of any other secrets you learn about SFL. I would appreciate it. Have a wonderful day!

I'm not sure how to get to the smart automation so I am calling the support number to get some guidance. Thank you very much for responding.

Thank you so much! I don't know how to get to the smart automation so I called the support line but had to leave a message sso I'm waiting for the call back. But just knowing what I need to do makes me feel a lot better. Now I can focus on what to do. Before, with not knowing what I needed to do, I was lost and all my days were non-productive. And that just burns me up because I know I'm getting no where like that.

THANK YOU very much !!!

Garry C.

I see the "marketing" section, but it doesn't say "Done for you marketing" Am I in the right place? I'm trying to find the postcards to mail out to potential buyers, but I only find the ones that should be mailed to sellers. Please help! Thank you so much!!!

Penny

Done for you marketing is located under the SFL tab> information. Once this page comes up, you can scroll down to view all of the bonus material that came with your system. You will see the downloadable done for you marketing packet there.

As for the seller postcards you are referring to, this marketing section is the correct place to find what you are looking for, however, we will be adding the postcards and letters to send to buyers as well. Please check back soon.

Thank you Megan!!!

I hope everyone has taken advantage of the many features in the SFL system. I would love to know what steps you have taken so far... Have you mailed your postcards to buyers, created your websites, started marketing your websites and if so have you gotten any response?

I think if we all shared our results it would encourage others.

I have created my websites and mailed out my postcards. I had over 18 pages of cash buyers come up in my area, some of them were repeat buyers that purchased a few properties so I had to scrub the list a bit. I did not put a phone number on my postcards but instead I put my SFL website to drive them to input their information. This is just more convenient for me since their info will go directly to my email.

I will let you know the response I get.

Did you get all new web sites from the set for life system or did you use the web sites you already had working. I know you already have a great web site.
Steve.

I actually had some domain names that I purchased a while ago through godaddy and I just connected them to SFL. I purchase domain names all the time that I think would make a good real estate wholesale website and then I park them in godaddy for future use or sell them to bidders. So I just picked 2 that I already had purchased and activated them through SFL.

Thanks for taking the time to help all of us here on DG.com.

Carol you look Freeindeed in your new picture.

Steve and Veronica.

Hello Everyone,
I am extremely excited to put a lot of the system into action, it makes running the business so much more effortless. I wanted to post this comment because I just came out of a meeting with an agent. I want to give you a quick backdrop of what occurred.

I did exactly what Matt suggested we do to find an agent, I googled Keller Williams and Remax, and what Matt said would happen, actually did. I called a total of 80 different offices. I called 40 Keller Williams Offices, 20 in Los Angeles County, CA and 20 in Riverside County, CA. Then I did the same for Remax.

So I set a 9:30a appointment with a Keller Williams office who I qualified over the phone as a potential rockstar agent. Long story short, I meet with the actual broker of the office, which was fine. What I thought was interesting was that the broker asked me if there would be any additional compensation if they are able to find me properties that I can buy fix and sell. I never had anyone ask me that before. So I replied that if we work together, that they would represent me when we buy, and also when I sale. So in essence, they would be getting paid on both sides. They weren't pushy about the suggestion of getting paid a portion of future profit, but I thought that was very interested. So just know as we go through this process we will hear things that we never heard before, but trust what we know, because I thinking that all the training and the books have put us miles ahead of everyone else out there.

Good Luck everyone,
Jeremy K.

Your knowledge is invaluable!! How long have you been using this system?

I haven't completed all the training yet, but I am more of a self learning and eat up this kind of stuff. So far I have set up a buyers and sellers "squeeze page" and have begin marketing them on Craiglist. I hope to expand that marketing with the video system that Dean had included with the program.

I loaded all the current buyers that I had, as well as the deals that I have in place. I have had some buyers and seller automatically imputed from my web pages!! Awesome. I have also marketed properties using Sellpoint and Power Matching! Not sure how well these have worked for you?

I have also run some of the comps and Hammerpoint through SFL. Which features are you using the most?

Can you choose just one county to start with? When you open up the state tab, the 2 boxes for counties are automatically showing the first county by alphabetical order...so I'm wondering if I could leave both boxes with the same county and at a later date, choose a second county, or would leaving both counties the same, lock you into the same county twice.
With so many choices, and only two to choose from...well, I believe it's a known fact that women like to change their minds?
thanks!

Nevermind - Cust. Support cleared this for me; basically I have to choose two for now and will be able to change it in the future

Hi Carol,

Here are a couple of the questions that I currently have:

1. Where can find the email skits that were referenced in The Edge?

2. Where exactly is your contract? You mentioned that it was in the Done For You Marketing section. Are you referring to the PDF?

3. My challenge is finding motivated sellers! I've called Craigslist ads, but many of them are wholesalers looking to sell their properties. Do you have any other suggestions for finding sellers other than putting up flyers (limited to places in your area where you can actually hang signs),posting on Craigslist, and mailing expireds? What more immediate ways of finding motivated sellers do you suggest?

4. Found my solution to this already. - You mentioned that mailing to expireds have worked well for you. How are you and your Realtor partner organizing this? In our MLS there is no streamlined way that I know of to just download a list of expired addresses? Are you using Mail Merge to automatically fill in certain fields. I'd really like to know the system you use to automate this process.
-Do you hand write the envelopes or using a certain printed font?

Thanks & God Bless!

Hi,

I just wanted to get clarification on what is available and what is missing in the marketing section.

Cash Buyers Postcards 3 & 4 - are not for marketing to cash buyers. Is this how it is supposed to be? Are the materials meant to market to cash buyers or to be used to market that we're cash buyers. This is not clear.

Also, are there currently no sample postcards and/or letters to send to sellers in the Marketing Library and outside of the Done for You Marketing PDF?

Thanks & God Bless!

My name field actually has the name and then there is an address below it. Also, the only information that transferred in the list is the Full Name and Date Created. I can see the city information only after I select each file. Is this how the system is meant to work?

Hi Carol,

Like so many people, I am definitely inspired by you. I've read your first posts on here and take comfort in the fact that you started out just like the rest of us on here... scared w/ a million questions. In addition to everything else, thank you for this thread!

A question I have....what are the pros and cons of saving my Cash Buyers to an area within the SFL system (like "Rehabber" like you'd mentioned before) and of exporting it to an Excel file? I'm thinking I want to export it to be able to manipulate the data, but maybe it's better to have it within the system for some reason? Do you know if I can I do both: save to the "Rehabber" area in SFL as well as export to Excel?

Thanks!