Discouraging Start to 2017

[Ryan York]

Hey all,

My partner and I are staying positive and continuing to chug along, but we still haven't landed our first flip after about a year. It's getting discouraging! We're certainly not going to give up, but it'd be great to hear what's working and what isn't for other people out there. 

Here's what we've been up to:

We were sending out 1000-1500 post cards per month to owners who were delinquent on their property taxes and coming up on foreclosure (they were in forfeiture in Michigan). That was an epic failure! 

We've looked at dozens of properties, and we talked to a lot of leads, but didn't get a single deal out of it (yet). We had several fall through for odd reasons... found some things on title research.. had a guy shoot up with a dirty needle and almost die... got threatened a few times lol. 

All in all, we did gain a lot of experience, but without a deal, it's a motivation killer. We recently had our money guy go on hold due to the purchase of a million dollar property so that hurts as well moving forward. 

We also have a website that's generating some traffic, and we have Adwords set up as well. These leads have proven to be motivated but they're few and far between for our location in Metro Detroit, Michigan (not the city of Detroit). No deals there either.

We also make offers weekly on bank owned properties, but haven't been able to get one under contract there.

I'm a firm believer that there's always a way. There's people out there making big money right now, so timing is no excuse. What are we missing? 

What's working or not working for you guys? Misery loves company so if you're having a bad go of it, feel free to vent as well! 

[Marcus Auerbach]

@Ryan York chances are you have been tripping over deals. It's very easy to do for an experienced investor and even moreso if you are looking for the first one. Deals rarely look like you want them to look or they should look in the textbook. There is always something wrong and that will give you an excuse to move on an look for another one. 

The cure for this is to focus in on one traget area and a specific type of project. If you are all over the map it's hard to recognice a deal right in front of you. That's by the way probably the reason why I find deal on MLS, while everyone seems to think MLS is dry and off market is the way to go - I just spend enought time on MLS looking at my target areas, which is only a part of Milwaukee and the surrounding suburbs, no more than 50.000 people.

Issue number two is that most deals are not deals yet when you find them. They are just an opportunity that could potentially become a deal. A distressed probate home in rough shape for 200k is not a deal in my tartget area. But over time they may reduce the asking price to 180k. Still not a deal, but if I can negotiate them down to 160k it might be a deal. The opportunity is the raw material if you will and through negotiations and create a deal. You find opportinities by looking for problems.

Like Dolf De Roos said in one of his books: "The deal of a life time comes along about twice every week." From reading your post I believe you have just too much going on: narrow down your focus and dig deeper. Here is another good one: "When you dig for oil you can drill 100 holes 3 feet deep or you can drill 3 holes 100 feet deep." Find 3 spots and then dig very deep! Good luck!