All Forum Posts by: Brian P.

Part of a investors job is to learn the territory for many reasons. First is to find out where you should spend time and money and secondly and even more important is where you should not spend any time and money. 

That said, an investor should be driving for dollars any time they are going somewhere, your there already on the street why not take a few seconds longer and check out the real estate. I would be willing to bet the average investor has driven by a potential deal once a week and never knew it. It should become a habit and be sure not to forget paying attention to your driving, running over one of the neighborhood kids will not be a good thing.

Ricardo 

Feel free, one thing I also did with these cards was to carry a jar of rubber cement and and put a dab on one side and posted them places, eg by gas pumps when I was getting gas. 

I found showing the $500 reward side worked pretty good over time. I always tipped well and you can be sure I left my card with the tip. I would often make a note on the card saying great service and some custom comment like I hope we get you next time we come in, etc.

Stay away from ghost ads, anytime we had a wholesaler using one we put them on the blacklist that was maintained by the wholesalers and rehab people in my market area. Dishonest at the front door was the quickest way to being classified a scam artist and not to be trusted. We didn't care that some guru told you to do it and it was a good way to find business. This list was also kept by the local REIA so your chance of membership was nil.

Rufus

The basics, finding sellers first is right. Others say no find the buyer first then you know where you should look for sellers. Stick with finding sellers first because you are not likely the only one presenting deals to that buyer so unless he can act when you find your deal you will still need to find a buyer so actually you are right back at finding the seller first. Also you will be limiting yourself if you just look in a small area some investor prefers.

My choice was if there was no seller then there was no need for a buyer and I found the sellers first, Of course you should and must build a buyers list at the same time and the activities of finding sellers will lead to finding buyers , it takes two to tango, a buyer and a seller, and I want to know each.

Now one thing that was brought up was getting a copy of the state real estate laws put out by the department of real estate. That was the first thing I used to suggest to new investor wannabes. Second was to start a binder, finding sellers, third was to start another binder finding buyers. Fourth was to learn the territory, start by finding the middle of the market and then go to open houses and talk to the agents, log on to the mls and see what things are listed for, call the listing agent and be honest, say you are learning the area as a new investor, how much above the comps did this seller list and they did list above the comps unless they were that one in a thousand. Do you have a couple of actual comps in that area that I could drive by and see what something actually sold for. Especially do this around a prospective sellers property, one of your leads. Learn this segment first and then start learning the level just below it next. Now that doesn't mean just prospect in that area, I mean just learn the territory in that order. 

I wasn't licensed back then so the helpful agents got the leads that were good listing prospects but not good for me as an investor. And I got leads from them for buyers that couldn't get in without some creative financing, or lease options, etc. and they didn't want to really work with them.

I was investing since my 16th birthday but didn't start hitting NOD's until my 21st when I could legally contract at that time on the spot without my older brother being there. I was Joe Cool, went to the door and said I hear bank of whatever is planning to take over your house and throw you out, what are you planning on doing about it? Smooth, really smooth. but It did open up the conversation channel. And it worked for me so I kept it until I developed a little nicer approach. But the nicer approach wasn't as effective so I modified my original a little bit.

First time I did my original approach the guy got totally upset and I said look don't get upset with me, I'm not the one trying to take your house away, I don't work for whatever bank, I am here to try and help you with them and not let them win if I can. Are you interested in taking a few minutes to hear how I might be able to help you do that? 

First thing to do is to make sure he is even who he said he is. In my area we had a lot of guys using a friends or relatives license for awhile. The real license holder would get a under the table payment. I used to ask for a photo ID right off the bat and half the time they weren't who they said they were. A few had taken the trouble of getting a fake drivers license. 

Oh, they had some good stories and the real license holder knew nothing about it of course. I used to love telling them I would be taking a photo of them along with their thumb print on the photo and the contract for my files along with copies of their license and ID. Surprising how many suddenly didn't think they could fit me in at the moment because of their very heavy work load at the present time, maybe later.

Good place to start is the note professor, Tom Henderson. Go to hpnotes.com and start reading. 

Well my first major mistake turned into a pot of gold, but at the moment it happened it looked like lights out. My brother and I were flying by the seat of our pants and doing well when a set of flats we had just bought went up in flames due to a smoking tenant.

As we watched the fireman finish up I said to my brother I guess we are finally going to get something for all those insurance premiums, who did you get to insure it? He looked at me and said I thought you did that. Our lesson was to finally develop a complete checklist to use, and it saved tons for us over the years especially in the due diligence phase.

How did it turn into a pot of gold, well after it burned we checked the zoning and found out it had be rezoned years before to light industrial and the business behind the property needed to expand. We bought it for $12,000 and our plans were to make some changes and sell it for $17,500. Instead the business behind us paid us $50,000 cash for the lot, as is, if we would close in 3 days, this was a result of me hitting owners of adjacent properties the next Monday. 

When I went in to see them I had no clue as to what to ask. We were hoping to just get most of our money back some how. The owner said how much do you want? I don't know why but I just blurted out firmly $62,500 I actually meant to say $12,500. He stared at me then played with some numbers and then made the above offer and said take it or leave it.  Well after a long time I said OK we will take it, I guess he thought I was really debating it, truth was I was still stunned and speechless.

I didn't like burnouts in general because there is just too much chance for the unexpected. I figured the owner got the insurance money and I made really low ball offers and if they took it fine. Finally I met two contractors, one like to buy burnouts and live-in sort of and rehab and sell after two years for the tax free exemption on the profit.

The other said if if looked like he could make 30% on the deal give him a call. Between the two of them I sold most of the burnouts I got.

OK you have a nice first name and you spell it right. So because of that I"m going to suggest you pretend you don't have that money right now and start reading and reading and reading this site and find a niche that appeals to you.  If you just want to invest the 10k there are plenty of investors willing to borrow it at a rate much higher then the banks are giving. But I"m thinking of you finding something you can learn that can be done into your retirement. It almost sounds like your a trucker, if that is true then that's great, your cab can become your classroom. Start your engine and open your mind.