Justin B. McClelland

I have numerous projects that are concurrent to the main task at hand; completing both the Business and Marketing plan for Schwaps.

One project is that of Personal Credit repair and has been a work in progress for the past year. Also, the project of establishing Business Credit has been a work in progress for about 3 months. I’ll solely write about my personal credit experience had thus far.

While a high personal credit score isn’t absolutely necessary to invest in real estate, it sure helps and will make things a lot easier and cheaper. In the spring of 2007, my Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion scores were 582, 572, and 563 respectively. But, it was spring of 2008 that I began to investigate the reports held with each credit bureau, correct mistakes and dispute errors. I also, periodically, contacted each of my 11 revolving credit accounts and negotiated lower Annual Percentage Rates (APR) and/or a higher balance. It was surprising at times how simple it was to have a request honored. This solidifies the adage, “The answer is always ‘No’ if you don’t ask”.

So, by lowering my APRs, I pay less interest and all else being equal, more of my monthly payment is applied to the principle. By increasing my balances and not utilizing the extra credit available, the ratio of used credit to available credit decreases, thus a credit score increase. These are only two of the many methods used to optimize personal credit.

Due to the tedious nature of personal credit repair, I enlisted the help of, “My EZ Credit Repair”. With their service, they corresponded with each of the three bureaus on my behalf for a fee. Their service was found invaluable as they cleared-up errors while I was able to further focus on other tasks.

So, after a year of mistake corrections, positive payment history, and balance increases, my Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion scores are 689,669, and 709 respectively. While those scores are still far from ideal, they are a vast improvement from two years ago.

I recently read that to obtain prime terms for loans, the required median score has increased from approximately 720 to 740, as a result of the lending ‘crunch’. It is speculated via my subscription to Bank of America – Privacy Assist – Credit Analyzer, that once the 25K of debts are satisfied, my median score will increase to 780 so stay tuned.

I will post again next quarter, with a comprehensive score update.

- Justin

Entrepreneurship

Today, February 2, 2009, marks yet another Groundhog Day. While many focus on this day as the beginning of spring or the beginning to a six week wait until spring, I couldn’t help but focus on how I’ve been brainstorming, researching, and preparing for the past year.

It was approximately one year ago that, armed with a fresh education and unstoppable drive, I started Schwaps. Though, sometimes I feel like I have an analysis paralysis and a year is more than enough time to get the ball moving and start investing in properties. However, I then reassure myself that the majority of businesses fail within the first 5 years. And more times than not, those businesses fail to abide by the 6 P’s, “Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. I refuse to become a statistic. If I fail, it’s not going to be because I didn’t prepare adequately. And plus, I’m not going to fail.

As I posted earlier before, the company business plan is near completion and now I’m working on the marketing plan. I originally thought that the marketing plan for the company wouldn’t be near as extensive as the business plan. However, according to the books I referred to on the matter (I’ll post about which book I used later), the marketing plan is just as important as the business plan and about as extensive. I learned this after I thought that the marketing plan would only take me a day or two to compose. Another low-blow to my time-line that was; however, there is no half-assing allowed, therefore if the marketing plan takes three months or more to finish, so be it. If amassing a 7-figure net-worth was going to be easy, I wouldn’t want to.

- Justin

Entrepreneurship, Real Estate