Making strides and getting closer to my first deal.

I got to catch you all up on what’s been happening since I last wrote on this blog. There’s been a lot of development in my world though I haven’t closed a deal and still count down to the day I make a dime in this business.

So let’s start where I left off…..

I made a business plan, I attempted to tackle an absentee owner property and my daughter pooped on the deal – literally – and I found a broker to mentor me. Sound about right?

Well a lot has changed since then so let me clear a few things from the last post first.

1. I built a list of leads of about 75 potential sellers made up of a mixture of absentee and owner occupied homeowners. I sent a handwritten yellow letter campaign to all of them. I wrote the letters from templates I got online, stuffed the envelopes and placed the stamps myself. What I didn’t do was actually lick the envelopes. There is a show I saw ( I think it was Seinfield) where someone died from licking envelopes and I didn’t want my wife and daughter finding me that way so I bought the peel and stick envelopes at Wal-Mart. No bites but I’ll send a second campaign November 1st. I’m banking on the third to bring about some results. In the meantime I’m going to add to the list but more on that later.
2. The broker I met went dark on me after trading a few emails and so I am checking him off the list as an unreliable source. I think I’ve sent him 2 text messages and 3 or 4 emails and I have yet to hear from him.
3. I also turned down two potential deals because I stuck to my criteria. One was a manufactured home outside of my farm area. The second was in the same county and was a three bedroom one bath house. Both had highly motivated sellers that inherited their homes through deaths in the family. They experienced horrible tenants that didn’t pay rent and destroyed their homes. But because I am new and I didn’t want to take on something that didn’t have a definite exit strategy for (I know no one that invests in that county and I don’t know the market at all) I walked away. It was so hard to. I want so badly to close that first deal but I also don’t want to set myself up for failure. Lesson here is to be patient. Stick to your criteria and the only gamble in this business is the unknown so make sure that those mysterious variables are few and far in between and you’ll be okay. At least I believe that to be true.

So that should cover the catching up, now to the developments. Don’t worry; I won’t put them in bullet points.

I came across a wholesaler from out of state. We connected a long time ago when I reached out to him for help with creating a buyers list. I think I saw him offer help to someone else and thought that it was something I could use in this business. I know there are a lot of opinions of not needing to worry about a buyers list as long as you have deals but my thinking was that if he’d help me out in one area I could get him to help me in others after he saw my motivation.

Turns out this investor is actually looking to break into my area and though I only expected him to show me how to create a buyers list we began talking about him showing me all types of wholesale tricks and methods. In short, I believe I found myself a long-distance mentor. We’ve done a lot of talking and though we haven’t made any major moves yet, I have faith that this guy is going to follow through. If nothing else but for the fact that I offered to split any and all money I make under him 50/50. As of today we have played a lot of phone tag but he also just came back from a two week vacation and has been playing catch up in his own business. More on this development as we move forward.

For now he has given me some great ideas and homework. Part of that is going to the probate court and getting myself a few pages of current probate cases that came out in the last thirty days. I’m going to leave work on my lunch break today and get that list in hand and mail it myself. I also created an account on Podio so that I can systematize my lead generating and mailing. I need to get myself a voice message service to screen my calls. I’ll do that after writing this.

In the mean time, I have finally gotten myself a decent amount of money to feed a direct marketing campaign. I’m going to research all of the different prices for mailing letters and create a budget for a three month direct marketing campaign. My plan is to purchase one thousand leads from Listsource.com and hit them either in groups or as a whole, depending on what my money allows me to do. I just need that one deal to bring me that $5,000.00 deal and I’ll cram that right back into another campaign…after I take a little out to buy my wife something nice.

So that’s what I got going on right now. I’m also going to write an “Elevator Pitch” because I recently went to a REIA meeting and got tongue tied when I was asked what I did. I’m also going to buy myself a printer and download a handwriting font to speed up the process for myself. I read a lot of opinions in the forums that handwriting the envelopes and putting stamps on them gets a better response so I’ll probably do that instead of paying for a direct marketing service for now. This should especially help me keep costs down until I get that first deal closed.

That’s all I got for now. I did want to say that everything they say on BP about participating and reaching out to other investors is true. You’ll meet plenty of people that want to help and it happens without much effort from you. Just be honest about where you are, ask a lot of questions and you’ll get what you’re looking for. I’m not where I want to be yet but considering I really just committed to this process less than a month ago, I feel like I am so much closer to my goals than I thought I would be. I do only have two and a half months to close three deals and purchase one investment property but I think I’ll hit those goals. Maybe not before December 31st but definitely before we get a few months into 2017.

I’m stoked, I’m excited, and I am anxious to make things happen.