Real Estate Investing Journey's Blog

Learning to Stay Calm

realestateinvestingjourney — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:27:23 +0000

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 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. most of the stores here do not have bulletin boards anymore. 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.

Monday

realestateinvestingjourney — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:10:32 +0000

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 a friend and real estate investor 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.

TGIF!

realestateinvestingjourney — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:32:36 +0000

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 a friend “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 another friend 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.

Offer Day!

realestateinvestingjourney — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:56:11 +0000

boy, i’m feeling really brave here right now! i have been studying and researching on this property we are offering on tonight. i found out some interesting things doing my due diligence. never forget to do it!!! it has a code violation that is added into the back taxes and interest is 10% every time an installment passes and it’s not paid. we pay taxes here in May and November. this property is 4 installments behind and right now $3709.80 is owed on it. the next tax sale is in September, and this property will be going to the tax sale (per the Treasurer’s office) in September if the taxes are not brought up to date. i can’t believe they would do that since the bank possesses it, but the guy said yes, they will take it for the tax sale if the taxes are not paid up before September. usually if you are 3 installments behind, they take it. so….we are going to make the offer, but with a few very nice requests. my sales manager might want to kick me a good one after tonight. we are requesting these things: all taxes, bills, liens, etc., brought up to date and paid in full through closing; clear title, mainly a general warranty deed here; and we will pay cash and close in 7-10 days with our title company. if they won’t do this, we will wait for the certified tax sale list to be online in July and then try to buy it in September at the tax sale. there is no money in the deal for us to pay all that back stuff and the bank has had it for 1-2 years. it is normal that they don’t pay any of it, but after paying the $50,000-80,000 to foreclose on it, now they face losing it to the tax sale and being in the hole anyway. why not sell it to us and make sure it’s taken care of. of course, they don’t think that way and i’m not sure we have a way to be sure the broker even presents the offer. no matter what, it’s good practice and at least we are doing something and definitely thinking outside the box! i’m all set for the HUD offer for my client, but i suggested she do her due diligence too and gave her all the numbers to call. i’m really gonna have to rest up after all this. at least i am getting dinner out. yippee!!! hey, Lea, no “C” word again tonight!

Mid-Week

realestateinvestingjourney — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:38:04 +0000

where do i start? i heard back from the realtor with the short sale. she got me the information i needed and i have passed it on. she seemed to really appreciate that someone took an interest in trying to help her dad out of a bad situation. my clients want to make an offer on a HUD property we looked at last night. they really like it. they are going to make a low offer because it needs a lot of work. the ceiling in the living room is about to fall in from a bad roof and water damage. plenty of mold on the ceiling. the information from HUD states there is some foundation problem too. they are so excited to make the bid. we have tried to find out if my clients can have an inspection period for the HUD house and we are not finding out. i have left a message, but no call. i will try to email. for anyone who doesn’t know, HUD actually has a contractor that takes care of things now and the website is www.hmbiweb.com. i will meet with my sales manager tomorrow at 4pm to take care of that, then we work on our bid at 5:15pm. before i forget, the USA won their class for the first time since 1930 in the World Cup this morning. they scored another goal right off the bat that was called back for offsides, but they were not offsides (according to the replay). the winning goal was scored in stoppage time. my son and i got to watch it “together” and he texted me when they scored. England won their game and moves on. i am watching to see what happens with Germany right now. i am a big soccer fan and it’s something that my son and i can talk about at length because i helped coach when the coaches were gone and i helped train my son with lots of practice when he decided he would master the sport at 7 years old. he is my man of faith and my example to go after what you want and do not plan for anything but success. that is the way he lives his life. okay, back to real estate….i have several things to work on tomorrow for our offer. i might get a few things done tonight, but we’ll see how my time goes. i called a CPA that came highly recommended to me. we had a nice talk and i like him all ready. we are going to meet later in July, when he has more time available and isn’t so rushed. i was lucky to reach him by phone today, but he gave me his email too and answered a question for me concerning how to have my broker write my checks out to me. i did go back to my studies with the Academy and i’m glad i did. i am having problems with the courses i’ve finished not being shown as finished and some of the questions on almost every quiz are wrong. i have notified them of it, as well as my coach. i hope they get it fixed. i have spent a lot of money to do this and i would like it to be right. i’m very picky that way. i finished setting up Google Voice and i want to change all my numbers over to that and just have that as my basic phone # for everything except for my credit cards, etc. i really like the way it’s working and what it can do. Germany just won their class.

A Good Kick in the Rear! Ouch!

realestateinvestingjourney — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:56:47 +0000

talked to my coach today and she had to kick me a good one. man, am i repentant. i just got way off track and she gave me some huge assignments to get me back on track. she was very nice and encouraging, as usual, but also very firm. she told me i am right on the verge of getting a deal and i am just going to have to push through. i just really got side-tracked. so now i am back on the straight and narrow. i have to get my priorities straight. i went and got my oil changed this morning, then later met Chuck for lunch. we talked about our offer on Thursday and how we’re going to do it. i said “what if we get the offer accepted?” he said that i always say not to worry about, the money will come and it will all work out. i’m like “since when did you start listening to me?” i still cannot figure out where i put my Magic Jack. i have looked everywhere i can possibly think of, so now it’s gonna have to find me. i have not heard back from the realtor on the short sale possibility. i want to give her a little time because this is her dad she’s representing, and she may have to do a little research to find the information. i know that she was uncomfortable with the questions i asked, but she has to face that whether it’s me or someone else. i did run some quick comps on it and the BPO is probably close to the highest possible price. i am showing 2 properties tonight. i know my clients are anxious to find something. my coach told me not to chase properties for myself; make the offers first. when they get accepted, then go check them out. i agree with that, but i’m struggling about the earnest money. she told me to put in the contract that i will give the earnest money upon acceptance of offer. except that i don’t have earnest money, so i need to find properties not on the MLS. i might be able to borrow it from Chuck, but i hate to do that. I plan to go after expired listings and rentals and see what i can do with lease/options as well as assignments. gotta get over that fear!

Monday Adventures

realestateinvestingjourney — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:14:39 +0000

sorry i haven’t posted for a week. i was sick and mostly had to stay in bed.

it’s kind of ugly outside right now. more rain. i am posting early because i have biofeedback this afternoon and that will take care of the rest of my work day. i am so looking forward to bio; i always need it. i just got approved for google voice and so i am getting that all set up. you have to be invited and i have been waiting since January for approval. you set up one number and then you can have it ring all your phones, your voice mails are in transcript to your email, etc. lots of cool features and it’s free. i will be changing my business cards, etc. to show that number from now on. that way it is used by everyone and can still ring to my phones, but no private information is available. i got to choose a number using the letters REI, so the last 4 digits are 5REI. i love it! i also need to look for my magic jack so i can use that if i want to. i put it in a very safe place and now i can’t find it either. i set up 2 more showings for my clients tomorrow evening. one we are meeting with our HVAC guy because it has no air conditioning and needs work on the heating. i had a good talk with my sales manager from the brokerage today. i feel better about things and he is always really good about being available to help me and explain things to me. i found out more about the HUD process and you can’t submit an offer package or justify your bid because everything is done electronically. if they don’t accept your offer, you can resubmit it or a new one. every HUD listing is different and handled a little differently. they do offer an opportunity to do an inspection, which is good. they accept the offer or not, period. i also got more information about a short sale and hopefully will get the rest of the information tomorrow. i contacted an investor again because my first email did not go through. now, for some interesting news…..the house we decided not to make an offer on because we might break even…..the bank dropped the price from $54,900 to $39,900 and Chuck said let’s make an offer on it. yes, we are going to low ball it because that’s the only way to do it on this property. if we get it, fine; if we don’t, fine. the listing broker doesn’t want an offer package, which bothers me a little. she only wants us to email or fax the offer. we are thinking about making an all cash offer with no contingencies and close in 7-10 days. lenders do like to see that and this house has been on the books for a while and no other offers so far. i can’t say that this would be “my” deal because Chuck is actually doing it, but at least i would be in on it. i’m not sure if we can make it a deal for me, but i can live with that if i have to. talk about adventures in real estate. we are meeting with my sales manager Thursday evening to draw up the offer; we couldn’t work it into our schedule before then. i am excited, to say the least.

Cash Flow

realestateinvestingjourney — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:34:34 +0000

Chuck and i are not feeling very good today, but i promised i would write about our Cash Flow game and i am doing that before i go lie down. Chuck got home at 5pm last night, early for him, and he was going to take a quick nap before we left. as soon as he got situated on the couch, one of his fellow neighborhood board members stopped by to drop off a fence request. no nap. we went to my brokerage pizza party at a bowling place that Chuck’s friends own and had a little pizza and pop, and a little small talk. then off to our friends’ house for the game. Chuck was so exhausted and i felt really bad about “forcing” him to play a game he had no interest in at all, but we really needed him because we only had the 4 of us. needless to say, we were there until after 11:30pm and we got there right at 7pm. our friend had a Robert Kiyosaki trainer there and so he coached us through the game. Chuck was very skeptical and i had told everyone how ultra conservative he is with money. the trainer picked Chuck out, kind of picked on him and helped him win the game. he talked Chuck into buying an apartment complex and being $10,000/month in the hole. man, was he sweating. i had to remind him it was only a game over and over. he kept saying “i would never do this. i could never do something like this.” the trainer showed him about leverage and how to think outside the box. it did help that the trainer was from Nebraska and knew about hunting, deer, turkeys, etc. he and Chuck had instant rapport. Chuck ended up with like a half a million dollars and i went from saying we are dating to we are dating officially to we are engaged and i want a big diamond as his money grew. we really had a great time and Chuck kept telling me how much he enjoyed the game. the trainer also mentioned “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and i’ve been trying to get Chuck to read it for years. well, this morning (or last night – it’s all running together)he told me to get the book out and put the game out so we can play a little as we go along with our day/evening. i do have to say, the trainer was impressive and we both learned a lot. i was so busy watching Chuck with the game that i barely did anything myself. it was a lot more fun watching him! you can also play free online and you can play with players from other parts of the country, so i will need to get going on that once i get to feeling better. the trainer told our friends that we are to get together once a month and play, inviting another couple too. we are working on setting that up. the trainer will be available during the games if we have any questions. he taught us how to play a little different, but it was good training for all of us.

www.nirea.org

www.fortwayneinvestors.com

Luncheon

realestateinvestingjourney — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:19:50 +0000

i went to a luncheon today for the Women’s Council of Realtors and it was very nice. our HVAC guy and a former Countrywide associate are affiliate members and i knew one of the realtors from my REI club. men are allowed to be members and we had a nice time. i will probably join for the good networking. and the lunch was good too. i will be showing 5 more properties tomorrow night and i sure hope that mapping thing on the MLS works because i will need it. of course, i’m sure it does work; it will be the “operator”.

www.nirea. org

www.fortwayneinvestors.com

Stress and Then Some

realestateinvestingjourney — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:06:30 +0000

last night Chuck and I showed a young family 4 properties (well, one we couldn’t get into because the lockbox was broken and the key was missing. i did inform the listing agent.) it’s nice to have Chuck with me because he can go over the construction, etc., helping them understand what is going on in the house. they will still have a professional inspection, but he helps them out upfront. they really appreciated his input and think he is just great. he may do the rehab for them, he may not, but he is willing to help in this capacity. i ended up talking to a real estate broker from another brokerage this morning. it was a very upsetting call for me and very unnerving. the first thing she told me was that i made a huge mistake getting my license if i want to invest – double set of rules/laws to deal with. she helps the FBI and they are really getting nasty about every little detail in real estate transactions. for instance, a mortgage broker who buys, rehabs and sells an investment property cannot be a lender to the end buyer. maybe everyone else knows this, but i did not. i went right to my client and she knew all about it and is happy to disclose whatever in the contracts. i believe in full disclosure, but sometimes i’m not sure what to disclose. then this real estate broker tells me she won’t touch an agent who does investing, especially land contracts and lease/options because it violates the contract between the lender and the homeowner. if anyone has anything to say here, please do. she also told me it’s all about perception, and not just the law. to be honest, i haven’t recovered yet from all she told me. i meant to only have a short conversation with her, but it lasted over an hour and made me wonder if i should throw in the towel on real estate period. Chuck came home for lunch and helped me calm down some by just talking about it. well, my client wants to look at more properties and we’ll do that Friday or Saturday. tonight i’m going to my niece’s T-ball game tonight and hang out with my sister, who should have been a professional comedienne. i remember one time when Danelle was playing soccer and my sister, Shelly, had come to visit and we all went to Nell’s game. Shelly told my daughter, Desiree (who would not play sports because she cannot sweat or get dirty), to ask Nell if she could call her “boo boo kitty”. Desiree didn’t hear her right and asked if Shelly could call Nell “poop on kitty”. of course, Danelle said a big no! She hated us yelling “run, Nellie, run!” enough all ready, let alone someone calling her “poop on kitty”. this may not be interesting to anyone else, but it makes me feel a little better being able to laugh.