All Forum Posts by: Shvonne C.

I'd tell my self NOT to buy the late night infomercial course (I guess I'd have to tell my husband that LOL). I'd tell myself to go to the library and to spend that money my husband didn't spend on books and education you learn about from people who are actually in the field.  I'd tell myself don't give up just because you didn't understand the first time.

Then I'd go back further and tell myself to back away from the college credit card offers. You'll need good credit when you graduate for your career in real estate investing.

Welcome @Account Closed

Sounds like you are on your way to bigger and better things.  I'm curious, you mentioned creative financing. What type of creative financing deals have you done? Mind sharing?

@Charlie Colasante keep us abreast of how this turns out. Since I'm in CT also I'd love to know.

@Michael Noto is your lawyer in Southington?

Nice job! Not too shabby for what some hours of work overall.

I agree with what @Jeff Stephens said about sorting your lists.  While I have never done a 400 mailing before, I have done upwards of 200 or so.  My husband and I do the letters ourselves.  We organize the list by the letters we want to go out first (time sensitive, most interesting, etc..) that way we can get those out the door asap.

Another thing that works well for my husband and I is prewriting.  We have lots of envelopes that already have the return address written out and yellow letters that just have the address area blank (we'll do them at random times during the week).  Cuts down a lot of the work when we get ready to do a mailing.

Eventually once we get far enough into our real estate investing, we will NOT be doing this as our time will at that point be worth far more.  Then we can really be like @Jeff Stephens and pay someone else to do it :)

One my initial challenges was not thinking I knew enough to start. So I put myself in a situation to get out there. I signed up for a Bigger Pockets and REIA meeting and told someone. Didn't want to seem like a flake so I went. At the event I told people I was starting marketing that month. Again, NO FLAKING so I started driving for dollars. I haven't slowed down since.

I know some people say have everything lined up before you start (buyers list, lawyers contractors, etc...) I'm wholesaling right now and had none of that when I started. While I've been marketing I've been networking to build that team. It's a different way but I don't feel like I'm disadvantaged. My buyers list isn't huge but I have enough other wholesalers on there that I'm extending to their networks. If I have to pay a referral fee the first few deals as I continue to build I feel it's a small price to pay out of my money than paying $0 out of $0 because I'm doing nothing.

My last challenge was finding a good lawyer and one that is familiar with wholesaling in CT.  All the other team members weren't too bad. You have to be prepared to pay a good contractor to come look at your property to give you an estimate (that's if you are straight with them upfront and they know you are wholesaling and won't be hiring them for the job) otherwise you could mislead them to get a free estimate and that could come back to bite you.

Ohh, this is my real last challenge. When I first started gathering info to market, I thought I had to know EVERYTHING upfront about each property before I mailed a letter. I wasted hours looking up ARVs, bedrooms, baths, all kind of info on properties that I might never speak to someone about. Now, I just get the basics off the GIS and if I get a call back, I screen the seller then do research.

@Marisa Dickson I went to one of those in NYC. It was framed as a Meetup group and a "free" real estate workshop. Then when I got there a fast talking guy gave a presentation about strength in numbers and how you can start investing using your IRA, etc... He also spoke about how they are getting together and doing big deals all over the US (strength in numbers) and how they go on trips together and such. It was all sounding nice until I saw those dollar signs! There was a follow-up webinar the next day that I attended because it was based on showing us how we could pay for our education without using our own money (I'll admit I was intrigued by that). However, it was the same fast talking guy (that turned me off) who pretty much again talked mostly about selling Renatus and how after selling I could make money from my commissions to pay for the education or use a bunch of other methods.

If it walks like MLM, talks like MLM then it's probably MLM (AFLAC!! lol).  After explaining how I can get regular checks bringing other people and having them sign up I was out!

You have to pay for a certain level of education just to get access to certain things, I'm fine.  If I have 10k then I can invest that into real estate and use the MANY free and cheaper resources available in the world.

I will say as a side note, I met one woman (not the initial person who invited me and who would have been my assigned mentor) who was VERY STRAIGHT WITH ME.  Her words were in line with some of what @scott stelzer was saying.  You can focus on whatever you want to do. 

Bottom line for me, I had already started marketing, making connections and taking action on my own.  I had been learning for about 6 months before then.  I didn't feel giving them $2-15k would have benefited me in the slightest.

@Dev Horn this is a great list!  Do you mind if I PM you for that info?

One questions I have about getting buyers into the property is, do you screen potential end buyers when they call/email?  Are their specific questions you ask them before deciding to go meet them at the property? 

In Bridgeport, CT to be exact.

I have a property that I am looking at Tuesday that is a 2 family that was converted to a 4 family illegally. The current owner says her father did it a long time ago, she doesn't know when.  Since I haven't seen it yet I don't know the real condition of the property or the changes. I plan to make a trip to the permit department this week pending the visit Tuesday. My questions are:

• Has anyone had any experience with something like this and how did it turn out?
• Does anyone have experience in Bridgeport or Connecticut in general with this?
• I'm wondering how time consuming getting this approved to be a 4 family would be in a best and worse case scenario?
• How costly could it be to get this approved in a best and worse case scenario?

Thanks for any info!

@Luis Saez I found some general wholesaling contracts online and in the BP file area.  I could send you some if you'd like.  However, no matter what contract you get I think the best course of action is to find an investor friendly lawyer that can review them to make sure they are protecting you.  Then for each individual deal you can add addendums as needed for things (i.e. dumpster removal before closing, something being fixed, or any additional contingencies).  

I'm in the process of having my contracts reviewed to make sure they look okay since I merged a few into two (and I am my NO means a lawyer).

You can could possibly find a lawyer at a CTREIA event or just by looking here on BP.