I think I will spend the majority of the day performing some edits to my company website (www.schwaps.com). I had an idea a while back, that would allow me to recruit a large network of property scouts (birddogs). The idea is to recruit property scouts as if I was hiring them as a full-time employee. I?ll list a newspaper help-wanted ad, flyer public places, use internet job boards, etcetera; the property scouts will not be employees of mine rather they will be independent contractors that will be paid at closing. I?ll pay each property scout $700 per property that they refer that I close on. So that they?re not confused with unlicensed Real Estate practice, they?ll have an option in the contract that will be assigned for their fee.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
Entrepreneurship, Investing, Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts, REO
I was able to get a lot done over this three-day weekend. I’ve sent out so many emails, people are starting to reply to them and I have already forgotten what message they are replying to. The bulk of my emails where sent to: REO Agents, Property Appraisers, REIA club presidents. I mastered the art of mail-merge using Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook, it’s a beautiful thing. This allowed me to send hundreds of emails within a matter of clicks.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
Entrepreneurship, Investing, Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts, REO
I headed to the courthouse this morning to experience my first Sherrif’s sale. I wasn’t attending to bid on any properties, rather I wanted to experience the process.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
Entrepreneurship, Investing, Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts, REO
This past Sunday I traveled to Chicago to attend a REIA meeting. Unfortunately there are not REIA clubs in Champaign-Urbana so the clubs in Chicago, Indy, Peoria, and St. Louis, will have to suffice. The primary purpose of attending the meeting was so I could rent a booth and solicit club members to sign-up for a notification list of wholesale properties in Champaign.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
After purchasing the REO Rockstar course, I signed-up for the trial of the mastermind program. After just one night of review of the resources made available to the mastermind members, I?ve realized that it is ?gold?. The first month is at no cost and each month?s fee is $100 thereafter. This is something that I will have to subscribe to. I learned one tactic that is worth hundreds of dollars alone, which is: when you have a specific property to wholesale, make an Excel document of all the phone numbers of landlords, investors, and other possible buyers. There are online services which allow you to make a pre-recorded message that is sent to all the contacts on your list per automated phone call. In the pre-recorded message, details of the property can be disclosed as well as your phone and email; interested parties would then contact you directly! I can?t say that I would?ve never thought of this, but this strategy is pure genius! A complete hands-off approach to having interested buyers contact you, and its? purely automated so therefore you are maximizing your time. I just learned of this after a few minutes of reading, so there are sure to be other tidbits I can pick up that are just as good or better.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
As of last night, I made an impulse decision to not only wholesale real estate owned by owner-occupants and landlords, but also to wholesale property’s that are Real Estate Owned (repossessed by the bank). I went ahead and splurged on a coaching program called, “REO Rockstar” by Preston Ely. As broke as I am right now, the $1K price tag has me hurt right now. It may be a while before I can buy fresh produce and steaks again. But what the hell, it’s only money right? Right. Plus, he has an arrangement that as soon as you flip your first REO property and send him a testimonial video about it, he refunds your $1K! I can’t lose! Due to the record setting foreclosure statistics, I had to add REO wholesaling to my arsenal. One of the two coaches for this program, flips approximately 20 REO properties per month. Most wholesalers average $4K or more per flip, so let’s do the math, I’ll say even if he only made $1K per flip, that still amounts to $20K/month or $240K/year. I’ll take $240K/year. But really that guy is more like doing a couple M’s per year. The program lasts 90 days, so by July 1, 2009, I should have some news to report about some REO flips in the pipeline.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
After reading over various other blogs of Real Estate wholesalers, I have a pretty good idea of what most are doing in regards to marketing. Many others are doing (or at least blogging about) 25% of what I plan on doing in terms of advertising. The plan I have in store is about extensive enough to be considered “Guerrilla Marketing”.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
Below is a chart of my advertising costs for my initial launch.? I project the launch to take place by July 1, 2009 as still I await my tax refund and I’m accounting for the turn-around time to receive all materials.? I hate that I keep delaying the official launch.? But it’s, what I feel, to be the right decision.? I need every aspect of my business to meet my high standards before I get into the full swing of things.? The cliche of, “you never get a second chance to make a good first impression”, applies to business as well.? I refuse to be one of those small-business owners that present themselves in an unprofessional manner.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts
I had a little too much fun last weekend at a Fraternity reunion and I slacked off a bit. Going out of town too often disturbs my rhythm and focus, so being gone for 4 weekends of the past 7 threw a kink in my game. I’ll be stationed in good ‘ole Champaign for the next few months so I’m good.
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Pre-August-2011 Blog Posts