All Forum Posts by: Jeff NA

Just about to return this to the library, and wanted to write a review on it.

Absolutely amazing book. I took this book out to try and see if I could pick up a tip or two before trying to write direct mail, and I'm returning it and going straight to the bookstore to buy my own copy. The book is full of information on writing copy, the importance of headlines, the common mistakes of copywriters (often by trying to be too cute instead of writing to generate sales, even if that means being bland), and how to approach the various ways of advertising (direct mail, web, print, etc). While it focuses on writing copy, I took much more from it, including the psychology of consumers (that it's not necessarily what people need, it's what they perceive they need), and came away full of new ideas that I had never considered on marketing.

Price on the book is $17.00, and even at twice that cost I would consider it a must have for anyone that is marketing to buyers or sellers. There are a few chapters that most investors will never use, mostly on how to find a job as a copywriter, but of the 15 chapters, I'd consider at least 8 to be essential reading. Good stuff.

Jeff

After reading David's Frustrations thread a few weeks back, I've been thinking about wholesaling, and seem to have found even more discouragement. I think this can all be washed away if someone can tell me that they have been doing wholesales recently. Because otherwise I'd rather focus my energy somewhere else that might be more productive.

So, what I want to know is, have you done any wholesale deals recently? If so, where at, and how many in the past year? I just need some solid proof that it's still getting done and that I'm not wasting my energy chasing after a mirage.

Well, I guess the issue is why are new investors discouraged from trying this strategy? What is the difficulty compared to a normal wholesale? Is it just a matter of finding the money to close on the short sale, and then being able to sell instead of assign to the end buyer? If so, then it would seem that the only problem is that the beginner trying this better make darn sure that he has a deal, but that doesn't seem like a problem to me because the hard money lenders that I've spoken to have said that they analyze the deal themselves, and wouldn't lend in the first place if they don't like it.

Is it just a matter of seasoning? Because I was only planning on wholesaling to end buyers using hard or private money anyway, so I don't see the issue there. The seasoning issue becomes their problem, and I'd imagine they would know how to deal with it.

Basically, what is it that I should be aware of that can make doing it so difficult that it's been suggested that a beginner should think twice?

Crosswind, I would certainly be interested in hearing anything you have to say about it, and it seems that others would be also.

I'm just trying to get started in this entire thing myself, and I can certainly understand why the more experienced folk would discourage the unexperienced from using this strategy, but my concern is what happens if I market to motivated sellers, and I get a call that is a perfect candidate for this? Then what? Either let the deal pass, or learn quickly and carefully. Speaking only for myself, I'd have a hard time letting any potential deal pass, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how desperate I am to get my first deal out of the way. So, with that being said, I'd appreciate any info I can get.

Jeff

Dave, I'm right there with you. After more than a year of reading this site, listening to podcasts, and reading every book I could get my hands on, I can't seem to find a motivated seller to save my life. Frustrating beyond belief.

A quick note on Wordpress.

While I am a big fan of the platform, and I'm using it to build my website since you can adapt it to be a CMS (content management system), it isn't as simple as Wordpress or most other people make it out to be. The installation on your web server does require some web savvy, and if you'd like to tweak the design so that you don't look like every other person using the same free theme, you're certainly going to have to know how to read php and make changes (or hire someone to do it).

Wordpress is an incredibly powerful platform, and I'm glad I choose it, but the claim that you don't need to know any html or php at all is a bit ridiculous. Some hosts supposedly have one click installs, but I can tell you from experience that Yahoo's does not work. On that note, if you are looking for a host for your site, while Yahoo is certainly reliable, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. As soon as my 3 month contract is up, I'm moving my site to Blue Host.

With all that being said, the good news is that WP is incredibly popular, and any problem you may be having with it can almost always be solved with a Google search.

Originally posted by BonnieS:

Go to college. You will not regret getting a college education, but you WILL regret NOT getting one!!!!!

Speak for yourself. At 30 years old, I've never regretted, not for a single second, not finishing college and dropping out almost immediately. I look at my friends that went, and I think that I can honestly say that it was a total waste of time and especially money for about 90% of them. Many of them hold drama degrees, or Women's Studies, or some other nonsense piece of paper. Seems none of them have much luck getting the sort of job that they envisioned, which makes it quite difficult to pay back $50,000, or much MUCH more for some of my friends.

Of course there are beneficial aspects to higher education, especially the networking. But compared to the graduates I know, I've seen much more of the country, met many more people, and have had many more experiences in the real world than they have. And the entire time I was getting paid, instead of going into debt. Now that they're out of school, very few of them are making more money than I am. The one close friend that I can think of that is making more money is the most miserable person I know. Of course, that is all relative to me.

Look at yourself, and your own goals, and go from there. But don't let someone else make an absolute statement like you WILL regret it. Maybe. But maybe not.

I'm also a member of NWREIA. I enjoy the meetings. Because of the amount of traveling I do for my j-o-b, I haven't been able to make it to a general meeting at all. I've only been a member since this past summer, but the other meetings throughout the month are enjoyable. The general meeting is held somewhere close to the Convention Center in Portland, and a number of other meetings are held at the Baja Fresh in Tigard, near the Washington Square mall.

Why not start a local BP group? When I'm not traveling, I'm always free to spend my time trying to ditch the dependence on the job, and I'd be more than happy to meet for coffee and chat real estate. I should say in advance though, I have zero experience, and just looking to get started with wholesaling.

Sajid, I believe forum rules prevent me from posting a link to the show. I'm sure this rule benefits everyone that uses the forums. But if you take the information from my previous post, I'm sure you can find the info on your own.

Brandon. . .wholesaling out of area and living in Truckee sounds like a good gig.

Tim. . .I just listened to a podcast with Larry Goins, and he has a course that is all about buying and selling out of state without ever seeing the property. His course is $800-1000 or so, but the podcast was free and wonderful and certainly worth the hour of my time. Pretty witty guy, and I believe that of all the people selling courses, he seems to be well regarded on message boards like this one.

Anyway, if you have itunes, search for the podcast Get Real Real Estate, and get the show from 4/30/08.