All Forum Posts by: Ana G.

Thanks for the shout out @Ed B. Since you asked so nicely, here's an update

Last October when I had my biggest month and made $60k, I realized this was my time to ramp up and go after the success that I'd only heard about on podcasts. So I made my decision and went IN. I got infusionsoft and started to systematize. It took me 2 months, too many VA's, and complete isolation but I did it. I had the follow ups totally automatic, the tasks, the process, everything. I mean that CRM was a BEAST and it only took that last final piece of the puzzle to realize I just spent $5k on va's&add ons&customizations even though will now be paying $500/mo to keep it running. But so what? I NEEDED it if I was gonna compete with the big guys. Btw, 5 months later I switched to Zoho & Zapier - no add ons needed. Still, I'll always think of that expensive a** CRM as one of my greatest masterpieces.

Anyway, ive finished my crm so now it's time for me to get back in the business so I immediately mail out 25,000 zips in December and get INUNDATED with calls. Ended up getting like a 6% response rate. It's all I could have ever asked for and more, right? Well it didnt matter either way cos I think I answered/responded to maybe 1/10th of them. Unbelievably overwhelming, like anxiety. It just took everything I had not to cry over the fact that i just spent $8,000 on a SUCCESSFUL mailing only to see it all going down the drain right before my eyes and i was just standing there letting it happen. Thankfully out of desperation I hired an experienced assistant on the spot full time for $15/hr. She was the answer to my real estate prayers. She followed the script, took the calls, made the offers, got the contracts signed, made the follow up calls, responded to the emails, set the appointments, literally EVERYTHING. I was convinced she was the best decision I ever made. 

To be honest I think I worked less than 10 hours a week just calculating ARV's, making decisions etc behind the scenes while my rockstar assistant took over my place in the same Florida market that I was supposed to dominate. So i figured i might as well shift my focus to my website in the meantime and hired an seo guy to do all the heavy lifting for $5/hr while i directed. Almost immediately the site started bringing us 4-5 organic leads a day and from there i was seriously hooked on this website/seo thing. I wanted MORE free leads. And I wanted them NOW. So I thought to myself duh what better way to speed up the process than Google Adwords? I researched and built landing pages while my seo guy handled the seo for the 50 states i targeted on my site. From there, it wasnt long before we started overflowing with leads and my rockstar assistant was getting us the signed contracts. Now, i dont gamble but this adwords thing turned into an obsession. Click the button and watch the real-time analytics light up. I realize now that i was addicted and spending dumb amounts of money on it but who cares. I have some money here and we're closing deals so there's nothing to worry about. I'm happy and my team is killing it. Unfortunately it didnt stay that way for too long.

We sent out our next mailing to 20k names and this time all at once. I sent out yellow letters with the handwritten address and live stamp, or at least thats what i thought we were sending. When i got my "yellow letter" in the mail, i was horrified to see that it was the super fake looking handwriting font with the barcode on it in a white envelope and the white "handwritten" letter inside didnt make it better. I ended up getting 12 calls and 2 deals. One of them bailed out of nowhere and never sent back the contract but i really didnt care cos the other guy was a homerun. $35K wholesale fee - already sold it to my whale and i havent even gotten the contract back from the seller but i already knew this was in the bag. I blasted it to my list the day before i was supposed to pick up his signed copy cos i wanted to see if i can get more than 35k (which btw i never blast out cos i always just sell my deals to 1 guy). Anyway, the seller ends up in the hospital the next day and we reschedule for monday. No big deal, right? He's excited as hell. Monday comes and he breaks the news to me. Turns out, some *********** wholesaler on my list decided to list my deal 'for sale by owner' on zillow, and over the entire weekend while the seller is trying to rest and recover, he gets hounded with people knocking on his door asking about the house for sale at much more than he thought he was getting. He sold it to one of the big guys for 10k more than i offered him. And the genius zillow wholesaler never even answered any of his calls live ... he sent everyone to a voicemail.

So to make this long story short, my rockstar assistant burns out and quits on me which turns out was perfect timing cos a month later i ran out of money and lost everything i had built, one by one, in a matter of weeks. The car, the website, the phone numbers, the CRM's, the deals i had under contract ... everything. When it was all said and done, my assistant made us a "whopping" $40k in 4.5 months while i spent the entire amount, along with the other $60k, being focused on the wrong thing. I let myself get comfortable and used to this idea that even though i wasnt contributing, just sitting back relaxed on the sidelines, overworking my employees, diminishing my hunger for success, lackadaisically directing the traffic, i thought somehow magically i would still come out on top. I knew better.

Thankfully theres a happy ending to the story. Two of the deals i had under contract ended up needing to go through probate and the closings were delayed, so I have $21k closing in the next couple of weeks that i will be using to start over .. the right way this time.

So my humble advice to everyone:

1. Start with a DETAILED plan, a DETAILED budget, a DETAILED blueprint that leads you to your goal. Write it down, and stick to it like your life depends on it. Tweak it after/while you take action and discover new data with your own eyes.

2. Save like 40% of what you make. Liquid, like in a safe or something where you dont see it. Use the rest of the money to keep you hungry and creative and motivated to keep going after what you're really after.

3. Get a mentor.They're smarter than you in a lot of ways. They keep you focused. If i had one, i'm pretty sure things would have turned out differently. I'm looking for one now.

4. Discipline.

 I've never used realeflow but it looks pretty smooth from the website. I had my assistant taking the calls live and returning missed calls and that went very well until she had to leave us. I have a long voicemail in the meantime and it really made me notice how many people call us instead of fill out a form on our site. My result was like 5% OR LESS would leave a voicemail so I definitely recommend live answering your calls or calling back LITERALLY within 60 seconds of hangup. My lead capture websites from investor carrot have been essential to maintaining the consistent lead flow in our business. My recommendation is to just put one up and let it sit there to marinate and age until you can dedicate the necessary attention it would need to rank on page 1 or until you can hire an seo guy to take care of it but trust me it's so worth it. Get a website up, get something up, and start building your brand so you can dominate your market.

@Jason Mayberry

Good stuff, keep up the momentum!

Hey Aroldo no prob, im glad I was able to help you out! Yep- Search the Public Notices for Notice to Creditors. Im not an expert on other markets but in FL, you have to send out a notice in the newspaper to the public advertising the current probate proceedings of an estate so that any current creditors can make a claim and get their money back from the estate. You can also use your county's online public records site but I like this way better because the site will have the complete list of ads/notices from every single newspaper in your state that you can refine by keyword and date. Here's an example: http://floridapublicnotices.com/ , keyword NOTICE TO CREDITORS , dated the last 30 days. Now you just go down the list cross referencing with tax records to verify the real estate then add the Heirs and Personal Rep to your mailing list and send them a letter. Do this every month adding the new leads and mailing them consistently for at least 1year before you even dare consider removing them from your rotation because you WILL net a higher wholesale fee than if it was a regular motivated seller deal but these people need to be able to trust you first. If you can't mail them consistently, automate it with lob.

@Rachel Atim Public records are actually pretty easy to navigate. My advice is to go into the online public records for your market and start from the top of the list and just go down into each record and google every little word/phrase that you don't understand. Do this for every record and eventually you'll be a pro. 

Or, just go to http://ny.mypublicnotices.com/PublicNotice.asp and search your target keyword (ex eviction, probate, foreclosure, etc) for the last 30 days then manually add each record to your excel spreadsheet, remembering to double check and verify the address and current owner, and then mail each prospect a yellow letter. Use google & bigger pockets forums to search the meanings of certain phrases you don't understand yet. Personally, I have these public notice search results automatically emailed to me once per week for my market here in florida. Works like a charm for virtual investors.

Looking for buyers and wholesalers in Charleston West Virginia to team up with. If you're looking for a deal or could use some extra JV money or even if you simply want to get your feet wet in the wholesaling industry, give me a call or text me before the lead gets cold!

Ana 786-278-7317

 You can say 24-48 hours but it doesn't usually take me more than a few hours to calculate an offer. Since it is a numbers game, you need to make sure you're not spending all your time viewing a ton of properties you won't end up buying so I personally like to ask detailed questions about the condition "what kind of repairs does the property need that a future lender or buyer will ask to be fixed?" and then if you agree on the numbers and find that it's not what the seller claimed, you adjust the contract because at the end of the day you're dealing with a motivated seller. I almost never had to do that though because I'm pretty conservative on my numbers.

@Charles Kao

No prob! 

@Wayne Brooks That was exactly my thought. I can stay safe if I allow only conventional or cash plus resell for no more than 20%. Thanks!

Hey Guys,

I'm under contract to buy a house for $143k via subject to. I will then immediately list it on the MLS and resell to an owner occupant for $175k (conventional or cash only). I give my closing agent the green light to close and she gives me a shocked/confused response. "You do know that if you buy this on subject to and try to resell 20 days later, the chain of title is going to stop the deal from going through..." UMMMM what's chain of title??

It's a good deal and SUPER easy to sell, but should I be closing on this another way instead of subject-to? I've never done a creative finance deal before so I'm super nervous about it and a part of me wants to let the deal go, but then how else am I going to expand my knowledge of real estate and deal-making. What would you do?