All Forum Posts by: Elisha Mcginley

@Adrienne Bryson where do you get your leads before even talking to the seller?  It sounds as if you already know the leads then you send letters to the sellers.  I was under the impression that I post things on sites like craigslist and send mailers and expect a small percentage of callers from those marketing strategies.

So, right now, I'm new to the game and I'm in the planning phase. I think it's a good idea to begin in wholesaling so I can get some good hands-on experience of the market and build a network. I've been doing a bit of research, and I have plenty more to do, but I have some inquiries I'm hoping someone can help me with. From my understanding, the basic process is: I. Meet a few serious buyers and ask them some questions to find out what they are specifically looking for, so I know what I'm looking for and who to call once I find it. II. Begin marketing to find the deals I am looking for in accordance with my buyers' criteria. • question: 1. When I get calls from sellers, how do I know which deals are worth looking into further and which are not worth my time? What specific information do I need to gather from the seller? 2. Should I get comps at this stage for ARV? 3. Should I contact a general contractor at this stage and have them accompany me to meet with the seller? III. Meet with the potential seller at the property in question and discuss their situation. •questions: 1. Should I crunch the numbers during our meeting and make an offer, or should I go home, crunch the numbers, gather data, then call them back with the offer? IV. Make the offer and negotiate with the seller. V. Sign the contract with seller. VI. Meet with buyer(s) with a complete report of the offer and negotiate. VII. Sign the contract with buyer. Any additional suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Brent Coombs well, it's all speculative. i'm trying to weigh my options, because i don't have many, at the moment, and i need to get my foot in the door somehow. i'm really glad i asked and got some advice. :)

hi everybody! so, i'm totally new to this game, but i've been reading, listening to podcasts, and researching in general, and i'm learning about helocs, and i think i would want to buy and hold property. someone at work told me i could take out a home equity line (i'm estimating $15-20k is what i have in my home's equity) to make a down payment on a secondary property, and i told him i didn't want to take that risk. he said that sometimes people take out home equity to buy a secondary property, then take equity out on the secondary property to pay back the first equity loan. does anyone know anything about this? i would assume that if i can get something low enough below market value, the equity will already be available, at least enough to cover the bulk of the original heloc. or, if i can get a small condo close to campus for a little more than double my equity, i may be able to get the loan payments low enough to recoup fairly quickly. a third option would be to spread the heloc out as down payments on more than one property. in any of these options, i think it would be a good idea to hold onto about 5k liquid for anything that might pop up. i have to start somewhere, but is this too risky?

i'm in lexington, and i would also be interested. i looked for an rei club online and found a few listed in ky, but two of the numbers were disconnected, and the third one was a bank.

i suppose, i should have added some keywords to my post... i'm a new investor in lexington, kentucky. i'm interested in house flipping, wholesaling, and owning rental properties, to begin. i'm open to learning everything i possibly can.

hi everybody, my name is elisha mcginley, and i'm a new member. i really don't know where to begin, so i suppose i'll tell you about who i am and what my goals are. i grew up very poor. i was homeless for the first time before i started elementary school, and have been homeless a few times since. my childhood was pretty unstable. when i was 17, i moved into my first apartment. i worked a grueling job for $4.15 an hour, 35 hours a week, and continued to go to high school, but i eventually dropped out with the realization that having a roof over my head and food to eat was the most imperative thing in my life. i'm not telling you this to pull your heart strings, but to express my gratitude: because of my experiences, i earned an insatiable desire to find a home... not just a house, but a real home. i also learned a lot about human nature and how much potential i had to succeed with a stacked deck in life. i began having health issues in my mid teens, which resulted in surgery and being told i couldn't have kids, but i proved that hypothesis wrong when i had my first son at 21. when i found out i was pregnant, i immediately got my ged, because i knew i couldn't provide for my son working at gas stations and fast food restaurants. when i was 24 i separated from my husband, decided to go to college for architecture(so i could build my own home), and fell in love with someone else. soon after my first year in school, i had my second son, and found myself single again. i still consider myself very lucky, because no matter my relationship with either dad, both of them are very devoted fathers, and we are all able to coparent in the best interest of my kids. however, architecture school demanded complete devotion, and being a mom was more important to me, so i left my dream behind. a year or two later, i went to school for auto cadd, with the hopes of staying in the field of architecture, but i added mechanical cadd to the mix, just to widen my scope. i worked full time during the day at a college text book store, and went to class four hours a night, four days a week, until i was laid off. i was half way through school when i landed my first professional job as an electrical drafter. i graduated with a 3.8 gpa and a great job that i loved. i bought a 5 bedroom house, and i was content to just keep plugging away, working hard and kicking butt. then, our contract with the military was awarded to another aeronautic company, and i was laid off again. it didn't stop me, though. i laid low and stayed broke for about a year until i landed my current job as a technical writer. my starting pay was $10,000 a year less than my previous job, but the economy wasn't the best, and i was just glad to be back in the saddle. i don't love my job as much as my last job, but it is a good job, it has its benefits, and i'm almost back to the income i had become accustomed to. i still consider myself blessed. hey, i have come from poverty to being a single mom(no child support, alimony, or even child tax credits- it's all me) with a 5 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood, a car that's paid off, an education that i paid off this year, and one credit card. i'd say that makes me pretty successful. but then, tragedy struck again. little more than a year ago, i began having health issues. i would randomly begin shaking and sweating and feeling dizzy and nauseated. my pulse would accelerate, and it was extremely uncomfortable. i went to the er and they told me i'd had a heart attack. after a month of wearing a heart monitor, i was relieved to hear i hadn't had a heart attack, but i have a mitral valve prolapse. but, it still didn't explain the weird attacks i was experiencing. after months of trying to figure out what was wrong with me, someone suggested i get tested to lyme, and what do you know- that's what it was. when i was first diagnosed, i was relieved. i was under the impression i only needed a round of antibiotics and *poof*, i would be magically cured. this was not the case. in fact, the treatment exacerbated my symptoms and presented new symptoms. that's when i learned about herxheimer reaction- "herxes". basically, lyme is a bacterial infection, and when the bacteria dies off, it released a mass amount of toxins that the(already compromised) immune system just can't process. think about cancer treatments- they aren't pleasant. without spending too much time on the subject, chronic lyme can not be cured, but it can be put into remission. it effects every organ and system in the body(my mitral valve prolapse is a symptom- yeah, symptom of lyme). it can even get in the spinal fluid and the bones. the range of symptoms is unbelievable. i thought i was going to die. i've never hurt so bad in my life. but, it woke me up. i had been willing to settle for plugging away as a technical writer, slowly paying my debts until retirement, but that scenario no longer works for me. nothing brings you back to reality quicker than realizing your own mortality. i'm not afraid to die, but i'm worried for the mess i could be leaving behind for my kids. i know something has to change. i'm still sick, but i had to stop the treatment to get back to work. i have become even more motivated to make a lasting change. i want to be able to afford the time and money needed to get into remission, but at the very worst, i want to be debt free before i kick it. and suddenly, a few days ago, it occurred to me that i could become a real estate investor with little or no money. what do you do when life gives you lyme? you make lyme aid! i'm telling you all this so that you can see that i am a genuine and relatable person. life's too short to pretend i'm a stuffy business person- i'm not. i also want to show you that i am motivated, smart, and resourceful. i have goals, but i need some help. i don't have time to waste, and i read once that Andrew Carnegie said that making good deals involves being up front and honest about what you want, so this is what i want: i want a mentor to help me to get some real experience in the field, and i want to find a reliable and fair network team. i also want someone to believe in me enough to invest in me so i can get started. what i'm willing to give: i am willing to negotiate a fair return on investments. i will share and support my network team just as much as they support me. and for a mentor, i will negotiate a fair trade(perhaps a percentage of my real estate profit for the first year) for the education. and... i will totally take some people on business dinners(and write them off on my taxes), you know, as a bonus. :) so, are any of you willing to invest in me?

i rent rooms out in my house, and once had a tenant who brought bed bugs in. i live in a 2 story, 5 bedroom house with a basement, and i successfully got rid of them with diatomaceous earth, but it was messy and time consuming. this is what we did: 1. got rid of some furniture that was infested(make sure to rip or spray paint so no one grabs infested items off the curb. 2. dusted the perimeter of each room with diatomaceous earth. so the bugs couldn't travel to different rooms(2 of the bedrooms had no signs of bugs). they can also get in the walls, so we removed all switch and outlet covers and puffed the dust into the walls, then we got some foam outlet/switch inserts(which also help with insulation) , covered those in diatomaceous earth, and installed them under all the switch/outlet covers. 3. beginning with the "safe" rooms that didn't have signs of bugs, we washed all bedding, clothes, curtains, etc.(pillows and stuffed animals can be put directly in the dryer on high heat). we took all the furniture apart that we could, and covered the entire room with diatomaceous earth(including taking dresser drawers out and getting every nook and cranny- being thorough is key), pulling all small items, picture frames, legos, toys, candlesticks, anything on the walls, in the closets, storage items- everything we didn't cover in de, in the center of the room and/or soaked in tubs of vinegar. we wrapped the legs of all furniture that couldn't be taken apart with saran wrap, and placed them in shallow bowls of vaseline(makeshift trap). when the bedding and fabric items came out of the dryer, we bagged them in garbage bags, and secured the bags with packing tape, making sure there were no cracks or tears, then put them in the center of the room. 4. we did that to each bedroom, the living room, dining room, and bathroom. in the kitchen, we puffed de behind the switch plates with the foam inserts, and under appliances that generate heat(heat=bedbug food). 5. we let it sit like that for two weeks, and when we were done, we cleaned thoroughly. we bought a good handheld steamer for everything that could be steamed. we cleaned one room at a time, starting with a vacuum, and wiping the de of hard surfaces. we left de in the nooks and crannies(by the way- they CAN live behind wallpaper, and even the tags sewn onto mattresses), and made sure that everything we put back from the center of the room was steamed, vacuumed, or wiped off thoroughly. we replaced every mattress and bought good covers for each of them, as a preventative measure. also as preventative measures, we left the de under appliances, we left the foam inserts behind the switch plates, and for a few weeks after, we left the vaseline traps in place. it was a huge headache, but we were successful, and afterward, the house was spotless. in the house you're working on, i'd say, it wouldn't be difficult, since it's not full of personal items. but diatomaceous earth only works if the bugs make physical contact with it. we used ourselves as bait, sleeping on air mattresses in the center of the living room, but it was not ideal, especially with a baby. another thing to consider is that breathing it in can be harmful to your lungs and dries your skin out(it also dried out my rugs and floor a little, but, i wanted to cover all my bases). be sure to get the food grade stuff, wear masks when puffing it around, and only puff small amounts(we used a condiment bottle- for mustard or ketchup). another way to lure them through the de is with heat and carbon dioxide(because we generate heat and carbon dioxide)- you could use candles, but be careful leaving them unattended if you are not staying at home through this process. i wish you the best of luck. bed bugs are no fun.