Jack and Michelle, New to the Game GET SOME!!

Congrats on joining! I wish you both the greatest of success!

Jeannie, NC

Talk to my realtor buddy today and he has me birddogging for a 3/2 in the $125K range around 80cents on the dollar. He also told me about NACA, this is a non profit that helps people get financing for houses and he has a contact and is going to try to set up a meeting for me. They have people waiting to find houses that are already approved. I am just about done with my Marketing class but he called me and also another buddy I go to church with called and he is going to help my wife and I with our non profit Thur night so I can go to the investors group meeting. This guy is also looking for side work, he does flooring, tile and wood, and has been doing it for years, he wants to help out with houses. He also told me about another brother from church that I know needs money, but didn't realize he is great at painting and does it sometimes on the side for money. Building the lists!!

SEMPER FI
GET SOME

Good job on getting started. This will be a great adventure for you. A REI club is a wonderful place to network. Let us know what you get out of it. Keep us posted on your success!!

Jeremy

Off real estate here but I use to valet park Bruce's car up in NJ back in the day when I lived up there. I guess that was about 23-24 years ago. Still have a $5 signed by him in my top drawer. Clarence use to come in a good bit also. It was cool to experience when your a 18-19 year old kid. He would come into the place with jeans, cowboy boots, but have a jacket on, when everyone else had to be dressed to impress. He'd hang outside and talk to me for a few minutes shooting the breeze, it was cool. THANKS for the encouragement, I'll keep you posted.

Jack,

Best of luck to you and Michelle! Sounds like you've hit the ground running! Where do you live?

Vincent

We are in Concord, NC, just outside Charlotte. I grew up in NJ, central on the shore, a place called Atlantic Highlands. Came down south in 87 when I joined the Marine Corps and never went back. Haven't shoveled any snow since!! HA HA Hows the marker up in NJ? I wouldn't mind taking a look later on since thats where I am from and I still have family up there.

God bless ya'! Are you still in the Marines, Jack? I have a cousin in IL in the Marines. We got hammered with 16" of snow right before Christmas and it's been pretty cold ever since Christmas Day. The market seems to be rebounding here in Hamilton Township. A good friend of my parents has been a real estate agent since '94 and he writes articles on the real estate market for our township paper. He's been tracking the numbers and it looks like our area is on the rebound. Hopefully it will last. I think the tax credit has really helped everything.

Vincent

Jack just wanted to say welcome to the family. There are some great people that contribute information and advise on this site. I am also new to the team and look forward to watching you and your wife do sone great things.

LawrenceM
PA

Welcome to the DG wbesite. Congratulations for reading Dean's books and being part of the DG website. The website is packed with information and inspiration. One of the keys to success is to network, network, network. Try to find other in your area through real estate invetsment clubs. Learn an ask a lot of questions. The more you learn the better prepared you will be. Good luck with real estate investing. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Got the first class done yesterday, plan on having the second one done today. We have our name picked and checked with the state for approval and working on the paperwork for our LLC but have a few questions about that. I saw where people have issues getting loans for properties with an LLC and Matt told them to get properties and move them into a land trust and put an umbrella policy of $2 million on it. Do I need to research that one out more. I hope to have my business cards ordered today, for pick up tomorrow before the real estate investors meeting tomorrow night. My buddy who is a GC and I are supposed to go check a property today thats selling for 43 cents on the dollar. It turns out that he is great friends with the real estate company that is running this one and this RE company is the top one in this area for foreclosures. He is setting a meeting up for us soon!! I called my cousin down at the shore here in NC and have him looking into some properties down there also and will try to work some deals with him there.

Nope, not in anymore, spent my five in and got out. Hows Monmouth County doing as far as RE? I am from Atlantic Highlands and my parents and brother still live there.

My buddy and I went and checked out the house and its sweet but looks like it needs about $30K in repairs(kitchen and 2 bathrooms completely redone, hardwoods throughout the house being redone, and then just some sheetrock and painting for the most part inside, then some cement work outside as far as the porch, walkway, and retaining wall). He is a general contractor and knows how to do alot of the stuff and knows how to get supplies cheaper then normal people, so the work being done will be bigger as far as value, just not in what it cost us. Its listed with a realtor(foreclosure) for $44,900 but has been on the market for 117 days. It last sold in 06 for $125K and its tax value was updated in 06 for $122k. The realtor selling the house turns out to be good friends with my buddy who I am going to go into this one with, so we are thinking we can get a nice deal on it. We need to pull comps but I haven't recieved my stuff from the Success Academy that does that. How long does it take to get your stuff once you sign up? This house is right across the street from a high school that is in good shape and looks well maintained, as well as the houses right around it. Does this sound like a good deal to get into?

Jack,

Not really sure what Monmouth County is doing right now, I'll have to sniff around and see what I can find.

Vincent

Just got in from the REIA meeting tonight. Had a blast. Very small crowd so we got to ask more questions and the person running it asked us newbies what we were looking for. When I first got there I started talking to this one guy, and he told me he just comes once in a blue moon, he just does windows. But after talking with him some more I found out that he is with "Tony". WELL, Tony was the most informed real estate guy there from what I could tell. He knew the people running the show there and knew the lawyers that are big in the city and all. It turns out that he has been flipping houses and doing other things in RE for years in the city and now helps out the newbies. I plan on calling Tony tomorrow. The guest speaker was a CEO of a Property Management Company, CEO of a RE investment Company, CEO of a construction company, and CEO of a non profit that gives housing to the elderly and handicapped. He is mid 40's and has been in the business for about 20 years and has built one incredible company. His Property Management just made top 50. After the meeting I went to talk to him and mentioned that Michelle and I have a non profit and in fact I was missing our first event ever in 2 years to be at this meeting. So we talked about that and he gave me his assistants card for the non profit. We then started talking about RE and he then pulled out his personal business card and told me to call him anytime I have questions and he will be happy to help me out. This group seemed real knowledgeable and ready to help with any questions. They also had a mortgage broker there to talk about special financing for rehabs, some great info and ways to get the mortgage and rehab cost, no money down, interest only for 9 months. I talked with a couple other newbies to the group, one sounded like he had read Dean's books and took the same courses I am, the other guy has flipped a couple houses and rents a couple.

I finished the 2nd class yesterday and read alot more blogs on the forum to find out how people are doing with their RE adventures. Also talked to my buddy who is a realtor and he says its time to pull the trigger and quit thinking so much. OH, one thing the woman that was running the REIA meeting said that really made me feel at ease is, "you can't know everything, thats why you need to have a great POWER TEAM", now where have we all heard that one?! I have a realtor now, calling 2 more that I know, to talk to them about all this, this weekend, I have 1 GC, and 1 GC/Inspector/Appraiser. I contacted 2 people that had ads saying they need birddogs to help them find properties because they want to invest now. Hope to hear back from them tomorrow. I plan on talking to Tony about mentoring me through a flip or two and plan on talking to the mortgage brokers that spoke tonight, tomorrow also. Life is good, hitting the rack, my beautiful wife is patiently waiting for me to get this blog done.

I called a buddy of mine a few minutes ago that moved about 2 hours from here a couple years ago. He got his GC license and has rehab 10 houses. He is under on a piece of property down at the shore, and told the bank he wanted to give it back. He bought it for $120K and said lots not as nice as his are selling for $50-%60k now. I told him to ask him bank about a short sale for $50k and maybe we'd buy it. He also told me he'd help me with any projects I have and we are now going to look in his area also and maybe we'll just finance one for him to do and make 50%. He also told me where they are selling $300-400K condos at the shore for $120K, so he is getting me that info also. I called a property manager that has some rentals near the college that I talked to years ago and he is calling me back at lunch. Gotta head to the chiroprator and to cruise a neighborhood or two. Talk at you all later.

I called a buddy of mine a few minutes ago that moved about 2 hours from here a couple years ago. He got his GC license and has rehab 10 houses. He is under on a piece of property down at the shore, and told the bank he wanted to give it back. He bought it for $120K and said lots not as nice as his are selling for $50-%60k now. I told him to ask him bank about a short sale for $50k and maybe we'd buy it. He also told me he'd help me with any projects I have and we are now going to look in his area also and maybe we'll just finance one for him to do and make 50%. He also told me where they are selling $300-400K condos at the shore for $120K, so he is getting me that info also. I called a property manager that has some rentals near the college that I talked to years ago and he is calling me back at lunch. Gotta head to the chiroprator and to cruise a neighborhood or two. Talk at you all later.

The package came and I loaded it all up and started playing with it. We pulled up 10 foreclosure properties this morning and went out to look at them all. We ended up getting to 5 of them but found several others to look at while we were driving from one to the other. There was one that said it hit the list within the past week and it already had someone in it rehabbing it. Not sure how it got into it that fast from it hitting the foreclosures supposively Jan 11th. Question about PROPTREND, when a property has an estimated value, where do they come up with that and is that something we need to cut in half when putting in offers? Also, why does this program show us foreclosures from years ago if they were purchased years ago? I know of one that was across the street from my old house, I met the new people that bought the foreclosure, but it still shows up on this software list. I have been putting ghost ads on craigslist for the past week and have not gotten any responses, there are so many ones out there for Charlotte, NC area. And the signs are all over the city, I feel like there might be a whole lot of competition out here. I got in touch with a property manager that owns a few apartments that I know, he bought a condo near the University from a tax auction 6 months ago and has it for sale now, so we are going to go check it out tomorrow after church. We feel that we are not organized at all, so we plan on spending a couple hours tomorrow getting paperwork set up around the home office and it neat and tiddy so we can really focus. I work out of the house 3-4 days a week, plus we run a non profit out of the house, and have this and a fitness side business that we are working on, In fact I am headed to Scottsdale on Thursday to do a workout bootcamp with Tony Horton, the creator of P90, P90X, P90X+, and others. Anyone one in Scottsdale care to hook up for a meal maybe Thur night or Friday day? Gotta run, early rising for church.

Congrats on all that you've accomplished so far! Sounds like you and your wife are very active, and a very "giving" couple. That's awesome! (I love the picture, by the way).
That's great how your contacts, your team, are falling into place for you. Nice reward for your efforts. It's great to have a good network of people!

Well, just thought I'd stop in and say hi, and congrats again on making the decision to put REI to work for you and in joining the Success Academy!

God bless!

Rina

I'm fairly new also. Hope to learn from you as we go through this journey together.

I just got caught up on your journal and wanted to say welcome to the DG family. You are moving right along and getting lots accomplished. I wish you & Michelle much success!

About Proptrend I could be wrong so someone please correct me if I am but I believe the info on Proptrend comes from your cities records so if they haven't updated a property it won't be updated on proptrend.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

I, too, am a newbie and I am very exited about this journey.

Wishing you the best in 2010.

Its late Sunday night and Michelle and I just got done with our third training class, Assigning of Contracts, and it went along with whats talked about in the books. She hasn't read anything yet so she was mixed up, and it being so late and her being tired didn't help. I need to go back to do the Marketing Overview one again, I need to get moving on my lists. I have some great contacts so far and really need to get some time with them to see where they might be able to help. Michelle and I checked out a condo after church today, its a 3 br 2 ba in a well rented area. We know the owner, he bought it at a tax auction, he also has another 10 or so other rentals. He wants $47,500 but said he is willing to talk. I looked it up and he paid $37,500 and paid $795 in taxes. He says we should be able to get $650 a month rent. When you add in $120 in dues and taxes($75) and insurance($25), there is going to be around $200 positive a month if we finance $38000. I don't think we are going to look into having rentals unless there is a great cash flow coming from it, not that I would complain about making $200 off of a small amount out of pocket(down payment) but I think we are going to concentrate on Assignments and Bird Dogs like most. Any advice on doing this deal for positive cash flow?

This is going to be a short RE week for me, I will be slammed at work Tues and Wed and flying to Arizona Thur for a workout bootcamp with Tony Horton(P90X) for the long weekend, coming back late Sun night. Anyone in the Pheonix/Scottsdale area want to hook up for a meal? Can you imagine if Dean was to answer yes to that and meet me there?! OK, back to reality, we also purchased the new book but need to get through the ones I already have. Time to hit the rack, LATER

Jack,

How did you know the properties were foreclosures?

Vincent

I bought into the Success Academy and there is a software that has the info for foreclosures and pre-foreclosures. Did you join the Academy?

It was a crazy two days at work, flat slammed. The bank that is taking over my bank had their people fly in and we spent 2 days with them loaded up in an conference room. Had some time yesterday and read a little of BAREM and got online to look at some forums. We also had our hour and a half conference call with the TAX Club, not going forward with that right now. And here I am today but need to pack, heading to Arizona tomorrow for a 3 day Tony Horton(P90X) bootcamp! That might not seem too exciting to you all, but it fires me up. This guy is a stud and I have done his programs and they rock, and I am a coach and run workouts for others, now I get to go workout with him for the weekend. That means very little RE time, I'll do some reading on the flights and maybe check the forums some, but this weekends focus is kicking butt and taking names, GET SOME!! I hope Dean's new book comes in tomorrow AM before I head out, would love to have it for my 4+ hours on the plane. My RE agent buddy wants me to start birddogging or assigning for him with preforeclosures before they show up. He says 3 bedroon, 2 baths selling around $100K are selling like hotcakes and if we can get them for 50-60 cents on the dollar and turn them over at 80-90 cents, he will work them all day long. I will be cranking on that next week along with trying to build my buyers and sellers list.

Just thought I would stop by and follow your progress. Welcome to the DG family, Jack and Michelle. It is always great when new members come on board. God Bless.

Sandra

What a wild weekend and flat out busy with fitness stuff. It was a great seminar/workout with Tony Horton but I missed being able to keep up and learn new things here with DG. Michelle found a possible foreclosure on the way to dropping the kids off this morning so we are going to research it throughout the day and hopefully take a ride past later on. Its in a HOT spot in the area and if there is anyway to pick this one up cheap, its a jump now deal I would think. Also picked a couple more from PROPTREND that showed up lately.

In this seminar this weekend with Tony Horton, he said alot of things like Dean does, get the negative people out of your life, don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done. If you have a dream, go after it! Here is something funny, I had a real estate lawyer in Scottsdale tell me this weekend that its not something to get into right now, WHAT?! I asked him if he ever heard of Dean, nope, well he needs to get to reading!! Anyway, let me get to work so I can go out and check on houses later. Have a great day!

I'm excited, found a house that is up for auction and the bid to upset is $26,500. Its just under 1400 square feet, 3 bedroom/ 2 bath. The tax value is $90,000. I checked it out on totalview and the value there says $78,200. I have a call into the lawyer and hope to hear back from him today. Michelle and I will be going by it tonight to check it out, hope the lawyer has a way for us to go in and check it out. If we can't go inside and check things out, is this a run away as fast as you can deal? We are not the handiest people but can do minor things. We went by 2 foreclosure properties last night, there was a truck in the driveway of one and the family was out in the driveway getting things out of the car at the other one, so no way to really get out and take a look. Any advice on talking with the owners about these?

I had contacted 2 different condo owners last week about their condos they had for sale right near the University. 1 was bought at a tax auction for $37,500, its a 3 bedroom 2 bath and he wants $47,500 for it(said he could come down) and it needs a good cleaning and some paint. The other was a couple that has had the condo for over 20 years and wants to get rid of it now. They paid $47,500 back in 1986 for it. They want $39,500 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo with new paint and carpet. Both have a washer, dryer, and fridge staying. There are two another condos selling in the same complex right now, one for $38,000 with a realtor and another one selling for $58,000 with a realtor. The tax values of all are around $55,000. Both of them called me back after I talked to them about their properties last week. They both want out, sounds like a good time for me! My thought is to offer $35,000 for the 2 and maybe flip them or hold them with a $150-$200 a month profit. Checking them out tonight!!

Checked out the tax foreclosure house and it was a little dark so we are going back tomorrow at lunchtime. It looks like a killer deal and we got to talk to a neighbor and she was great. THe neighborhood is well kept and it seems like a go to buy. I searched some forums about in some states you have to wait a certain time period before the house is yours and then checked NC and it seems there is no period, once you win the bid, its yours. So we plan on seeing it in the day light again tomorrow and then putting in a big if it seems right, then it will be another 10 days to see if someone upsets our bid. We checked out the one condo and there was a police officer in the parking lot so I talked to him and he said its not a great area and alot of section 8's are in there. So I was thinking about seeing how low she would go on the price and just doing another section 8 there, what do you think? My realtor buddy is saying its not a great place to be also, but are any section 8 places great? I heard in the RE meeting the other day that thats a good investment, your going to get paid, no chasing down rent money. Thoughts?!