Justin B. McClelland

It’s almost time to start my accountability posts again.  I said that I wouldn’t do so until I got my direct mail campaign launched.  As soon as I find one, preferably two, good phone receptionists and create a script for them, and create a lead sheet for them to complete, I’ll be good to go.  From the naked eye, it looks like I’m procrastinating on this marketing launch but I’m really not.  One of my freelance checks just came in, so now I have the capital to fund the postage for all 900 pieces of mail and it should also cover some of the labor paychecks.  I just need to make sure that I’m utilizing technology to work most efficiently to my advantage.  I think I’ll check into using Google docs for my assistants.  That way, I think I can share a document so that it is writable among multiple users.  They can enter in leads that way.  Or maybe I’ll just create a simple orphan webpage for them to use that has a form for them to submit the information.  I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with this yet.  I need to decide immediately!  Time to get going!

Also, I just reminded myself by typing that first paragraph that I need to get some of my other marketing up and going to.  I was holding off on some things due to the fact that I’d need a phone receptionist (I never want anyone to call and reach a machine, there’s a good chance they won’t leave a message).  And I didn’t want to get a phone receptionist until there was a justifiable amount of incoming calls.  The direct mail campaign alone justifys the phone receptionist and the additional advertising responses will be covered.  The other marketing includes; what I’ve included here in this document that was created back on June 17th of this year.  So that I have somewhat of a strategic approach for my advertisement tracking, I will purchase some virtual numbers through Vonage.  I already have a Vonage account that I use for my office business line.  With additional virtual numbers assigned to specific advertisement mediums, I will be able to track who responded to what and what generates a better response rate and etcetera.

Today, I just mailed out 6 letters to properties located outside of SW Champaign that I found when “biking for dollars“.  One of the properties that I found (the one that looked abandoned) is tax delinquent.  I found this out after running a search on it at the County Assessor website.  When I was at the property, I spoke to the neighbor’s about it.  They said that the guy hasn’t lived there for at least two years and they don’t know where he’s gone.  The bad thing is that the mailing address for the property is the same as the physical address.  So unless his mail is forwarded somewhere, the piece of mail I sent isn’t going to get to him.  I’ll wait a week or two and then get a Skip-Trace on the guy.  By the way, is there anyone reading this that knows of a good Skip-Trace software?  I know I can hire someone to Skip-Trace, but I’d rather do this myself if I can find a comprehensive and affordable software to work with.  Also, while I’m thinking about it who knows of where Divorce data is stored per county?  I’m looking for names and dates of divorce cases, I know this has got to be public somewhere on the web, suggestions?

And speaking of tax delinquency, the Champaign tax sale is coming up at the end of October.  I failed to do so last year, but this year I’m going to go and round up some property buyers.  I did some research today at the County Clerks office on the tax lien sales of 2008.  I looked in this big-ass book called the “judgement book”, it was basically a ledger that showed the property address, the property owner, the date they did/didn’t pay their real estate taxes, and if they didn’t WHO did.  That lame office closes at 4:30pm every weekday and I got off of work at 4 so I didn’t have much time, but I was able to record a few names of individuals and companies.  I don’t have any contact information on them but I plan to do some digging (you’d be surprised what I can find about any one person on the internet, maybe I should become a Skip-Tracer).  I bet some of them will be good wholesale buyer candidates.

Also, I’m currently doing some research regarding municipal code violators.  Specific municipal codes that are violated would indicate to me that the property owner may be in distress.  Like say, if a fallen tree laid unattended for too long (maybe can’t afford removal and perhaps the mortgage too…pre-foreclosure), or if a property’s grass and shrubs are overgrown (maybe the property is vacant…absentee landlord, probate, etc.).

Got some other stuff going on, but I need to get back to work so I’ll report more later.

- Justin

Marketing, Real Estate Advertising, Business, Google Docs, Mail, Real Estate, skiptrace, Tax, Vonage

Not too much to talk about tonight. I’m actually still recovering from the all-nighter from two nights ago. I can’t pull all nighter’s like I used to. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old. Or maybe it’s because when I have them I usually have to spend 8 hours at the 9-to-5, the next day versus a few hours at school. Yeah, I’m going with the latter.  I ain’t old yet, although my left knee creeks at the gym.

Peep my latest contribution to Biggerpockets.com, I’ve linked it below.  In the post I write about my experience with Floorplanner.com and how you can incorporate using it into your real estate business.

It’s amazing how powerful the web and social media is. I speak of one of the many ways; I was on Facebook yesterday and one of the posts in my Newsfeed had a YouTube clip about from the movie Boiler Room. As a matter of fact, I’ll find the clip…one sec…

Here it is:

After watching this four-minute clip on Tuesday, I went out and bought the DVD on Wednesday. I bet Time-Warner appreciates that.

Welp, it’s actually time to pop it in, grab me another Keystone and chill. Peace Out.

- Justin

Blog, Business, Tutorials biggerpockets.com, Blog, Boiler Room, DVD, Facebook, Floorplanner.com, Real Estate, Social media, YouTube

I ran into a bit of a cash-flow problem so as of now, the yellow-letters sit in a box still on my living room floor.  Waiting on one of my checks to come through so I can part with the $400 in postage needed to send them out.  I should nickname my bank account LIFO.

I checked out some properties last Sunday.  I rode my bike throughout Southeast Champaign and scouted FSBO signs, lousy out-of-place properties in nice neighborhoods and vacant properties.  I was surprised to only come up with 6 after about 3 hours of riding.  However, I unfortunately did spend alot of time doubling back on same streets most of the time.  For some reason it’s easier to loose your bearings when on a bike versus a car.

The two offers I put in last Friday got rejected.  One owner fooled me.  I got notification that I received a fax via text message since I have Vonage.  I figured there was going to be a positive fax waiting for me, because if the seller wasn’t willing to negotiate, why would he waste the time?  I checked out the fax and it was the seller thanking me for my offer and he mentioned he had already passed on an offer that was higher.  So oh well.  On to the next one…

I’m wrapping up the quote for the web project I’ve been speaking of lately.  Hopefully, it will get accepted.  If not, oh well I have two more projects on deck.

I’m more-so nonchalant about things now than I ever have been.  If one thing doesn’t work out, oh well…eff it.  There’s always something else.  When one door closes, another opens.  Things always work themselves out when you work hard enough and pray about it.

Welp. I have 4.75 hours before I need to be at the 9 to 5.  No sleep planned for the night (big surprise right).  Got work to do.

- Justin

Real Estate Bank account, bike, Cash flow, fsbo, offers, Vonage

I met with the broker today to discuss the possibilities about his new website.  The meeting went fairly well overall.  However, it seemed to lack focus, we were all over the place with our meeting topics.  I like structure and agenda, I’m organized like that.  So when we were discussing things at random, I felt like we were wasting effort that would be better spent focused.  But despite that fact, I think we were able to gain an understanding of each other.  He basically wants a website that has all of the bells and whistles a site that the largest Champaign Property Management company should have.  And I think I was able to successfully convey that I could provide that for him.  I didn’t sleep last-night as the hours were spent drafting a plan for his new website complete with new ideas, comparisons of the competition, etc. Now, I just need to submit a formal bid to get the gig.  I need that gig for mo’ marketing money!

I’m starting to doubt my original plan concerning diversification.  Because I don’t think any of my non-related real estate ventures have even close to the ROI that real estate wholesaling does.  I may be focusing too much of my time in other areas.  However, I need marketing money so that I can focus on real estate.  Kind of a catch-22 I guess.

After the meeting I slept from 10am to 3pm (some of the best sleep I ever had), I had a meeting with my assistant at 3:30pm at the library to pick-up my yellow letters.  On a side-note, what’s with assistants and tardiness!?  We clearly discussed in an email last night that we were to meet at 3:30pm today, apparently somehow she interpreted that as 4:00pm.  But even if she did, she was late for that too as she showed at about 4:15pm!  Stee-rike ONE!

Image via Wikipedia

Hopefully, it was just a mixup on her part.  But if it happens again…”on to the next one”.

I got the letters now, there all stuffed and hand-addressed and ready to go.  All I need to do is buy the stamps for them and send them off.  And wait for the flood of calls.  In a box of 900 letters, surely there is at least 10k floating around in there somewhere.

- Justin

Marketing, Real Estate, Web Development Business, Marketing, Real Estate, Services, website

I just realized that I seem to always fail to keep my word when I mention posting again the next day or whenever.  Yesterday flew-by.  I did blog, but yesterday it was to BiggerPockets.com.  Contributing posts to that site is so taxing, I’ve only been doing it for three weeks.  It feels like it takes me all week to thing of a good post to create.  I try to be as unique and original as possible while focusing on a small niche of Real Estate/Technology applications. Uhm…not sure if that just made sense. 

Yesterday evening, I met with a young guy who is just getting started in real estate (I say that like I’m some kind of vet).  Anyway, he responded to one of my CraigsList ads and I liked the tone of his email.  He seems like a very aggressive, ambitious, and out-of-the-box thinking individual.  We chopped it up (slang for conversed, lol) for a couple of hours at the library about how we may work together in the future on some things.  He has alot of trades that may come in handy for sure.  He also gave me an idea about future usage of bandit signs….and I’ll just leave it at that because the feds are watching.  I’m telling you this guy thinks outside-the-box.

As of a few hours ago, I submitted two offers.  One was for a commerical property, I think I blogged about maybe a month ago and the other was for a residential property I think I also mentioned around the same time.  We’ll see how that goes.  Also, my offer-machine just got out the shop, it needed a coil,  so next week offers will made at a 10 fold increase at the least.

I’ve have got to start ‘making’ more time for my daily workouts.  Fitness is a huge priority to me in my life and I’ve have been neglecting it for the past month or so.  I’ve been working so hard, the gym has been out of sight, out of mind.  And the messed-up part is that my appetite has increased!  That’s recipe for disaster, “eat more, burn less”…I’m not trying to qualify to be on “BiggestLoser”, I need to check myself.  Just don’t leave me alone with any type of donuts, cake, cookies, ice cream, or gummy bears…and I’ll be fine.

I meet tomorrow with a local Broker who wants to discuss the possibilities of having my team develop his new website.  Hopefully, he will like the ideas I have for him and I’ll get the project.  It will be the first project for the new IT team I put together.  I’ve invested alot already in this client in hopes of getting the job (and I mean monetary investment, you don’t even want to know how much, I’ll let you know after I get the project).  He’s also an investor so if I can be a one-stop-shop solution that would be all-to-the-good.

By the way, just thinking about the issue I last blogged about still pisses me the **** off.  Some people! 

That situation reminds me of a guy on twitter who tweets all of the hilarious things his Dad says, check him out at @shitmydadsays.  If my Dad were still here, there would be some serious competition with this tweeter, if I did the same.  My Dad was a trip! One of his quotes that he embedded in me at an early age was, “Boy, don’t trust NOBODY but your Mother…and went shit comes up short…you better look at her too”.

Peace out, I’m going to the gym. 

- Justin

Entrepreneurship, Real Estate bandit signs, BiggerPockets, biggerpockets.com, broker, commercial property, gym, website, workout

I received some news today that upset me a bit and to be quite honest, it kinda effed up my whole day.  Basically, without going into too much detail, I performed a service for a client, a service that I don’t typically offer.  I told him this and specifically stated, “you can pay me what you feel is fair”.  I left the ball in his court.  The next time I saw him, he told me to “invoice” him.  Now, I interpreted that as a counter to my original statement that subliminally meant, “just invoice me as I don’t want to overbid on the project”.  So that’s what I did.  Then today, I hear from a mutual acquaintance that the client feels that I price-gouged him.  The mutual acquaintance then gave me a mini-lecture about building relationships and networking, saying that I shouldn’t have charged so much.

Now I’m a humble and nonchalant individual by nature, I get that from my Mother.  However, I do have a “I don’t give a shit” type-A side that I get from my late father.  You see, my father was an entrepreneur as well, he owned multiple businesses.  He was a Pharmacist and owned two pharmacies as well as other real estate in

Saint Louis, Missouri (my hometown).  Many times, I am way too nice and deep-down I know that trait doesn’t mix well with business.  I’ve been trying to pave a new path in that respect, but it’s not working out well.  It seems that the aggressor/shark always is the victor in business.

So, I give that background information, to say…”I officially, am going to change the way I conduct my business”.  I can be a grade-A asshole when I want to be.  Just ask some of my friends.  I just don’t enjoy being “that guy”.  You may never expect that of me by the way I portray myself in my YouTube videos and the way I blog.

So back to the subject at hand.  When I heard this “price-gouge” reaction through the grape-vine, it kind of set me back.  The truth is, I don’t want to hear it, because I gave this guy the chance to pay me whatever he felt.  Then he had the nerve to not tell me, but a mutual acquaintance that I “gouged” him!?  What a puss!  He could have said spoke-up like and effing man when I gave him the invoice!  When I first heard the news, I was ready to give this guy his money back  and just say “fuck it” because I’m a person who prides himself on honesty and integrity.  Bad-blood is just not worth it.  I would never take advantage of anyone, nor do I want to be perceived as someone who would.

I had a good talk with my good friend Kandace and she set me straight.  She is a soon to be attorney and is very good at providing arguments in or against my favor, whatever the situation.  After speaking with her, I just don’t see where I went wrong with this arrangement.  I think, I was just way too informal at the beginning when discussing the costs and that’s were I went wrong.  So I’ll chalk it up to a learning experience. Never again!

I’m posting some pics below, just to show you what I was accustomed growing up.  And you should see that I’m destined for greatness!

The BMW 80-something 528 and a Porsche 911 ‘76 owned by my Dad.

2 German automobiles in front of our 4/2.5/2 house in a nice Saint Louis suburb.

I love this pic of my Dad in front of his 911, I think this was shortly after he bought it brand-new in ‘76. I was born in 1980, by the way.

This is me, I think I’m about 5 years old in this pic.  I can hear my Dad now saying, “stay away from my car boy, I paid big-money for that shit!”  A verbatim quote.  And I don’t exaggerate.  My Dad always kept it real!

My Dad’s friend, my Dad, and I at a Clark Terry Jazz concert.  My Father had much class.

My sisters, Mom, Dad, and I before my college graduation in 2004.  He passed away in 2005.

These pics remind me that life is short, do whatever you like and how you like it.  Eff what other people think/say!  I can’t wait until I can take a pic in front of the classic, Porsche 1976 911, that I inherited, and my 2010 Porsche or whatever sports-car.  When I do that, I’ll post a comparison pic with the same exact-same pose my Dad had and I’ll know that “I’ve arrived”.

- Justin

P.S.

I’ll blog tomorrow in a non-rant like fashion.  I do have alot of things going on to update y’all on.  Peace and hair-grease.

Random, Real Estate Automobile, BMW, Business, Entrepreneur, Kids and Teens, Porsche, St. Louis Missouri, United States

I’ve been up since 9am and it is now almost 5pm.  I haven’t left the bed for anything but to eat breakfast and lunch.  Sounds pretty lazy, right?  I know it does, however I have my laptop here with me.  I love this thing, it goes everywhere I do.  Since I behind a desk behind a computer for 40 hours a week at my 9 to 5, I refuse to do so otherwise.  If someone where to see me when I claim to be working, they would dispute the fact.  I mean, I’ll be laying on the couch with this thing, in the bed, on the floor, it’s the best!  I have desktop computer, but rarely use it for everyday computing.  I actually only use it to run some automated web 2.0 stuff, that I’ll post about some other time.

Anyway, I spent 7 hours yesterday sitting outside at the Coffee shop.  And I don’t even drink Coffee.  I don’t get the big craze over coffee by the way.  It’s bitter, hot and just plain nasty.  But, on the other hand I love beer, and I’m

sure some people have similar thoughts about it.  They’re both acquired tastes’ I guess.  But back to the point.  I spent alot of time at the coffee shop and did some research on two properties that I think I’m going to go ahead and put offers in on.  I know a requirement to successful investing is the abundance of submitted offers.  So I need to step my game up, in this aspect.  All the research performed yesterday on my farm area has given me a better understanding of what property values are in certain areas.  And I have got to go on another tangent before I leave this topic!  But coffee shops…people.  Why didn’t anyone tell me about the eclectic customers these places attract.  And I’m not talking about your local Starbucks, I think the franchises are neutral.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, next time you want to get some work done outside of the house, go to your locally owned coffee shop.  You know the one where the girl behind the register has those plug earrings and her coworker has a tattoo sleeve.  Then just people watch and eavesdrop every few moments you break from reading or typing.  You’ll see.  Diversity is good but DAYUM!  And to think I thought I was liberal.  Maybe I’m not by just by comparison.  Nevermind me if all of this makes no sense.

Back to Real Estate.  I feel pressured to perform weekly on my BiggerPockets.com guest-contributor post.  Therefore, I brainstorm everyday about what to contribute.  I have a great idea for next week, it perhaps will need to be a two-part post.  But it will concern the usage of Yahoo Pipes for real estate leads.  Yahoo Pipes can be used with Twitter, it can also be used with CraigsList.  I’ll save the details for the post.  So be sure to check it out.  Also, aside from little ole’ me, there are some fantastic contributors on that blog.  I suggest that you add it to your RSS feed reader, I learn at least two new tidbits from that blog every week.

I just had a text exchange with the Mahomet property owner, who I provided with the internet marketing service (CraigsList, Twitter, Cars.com, YouTube, etc.).  He said that he is getting far more calls about his BMW that he has for sale over his house.  So, although Mahomet, Illinois isn’t necesarily a city that people across the nation know about, please help me broadcast to more people about his property for sale.  This place is awesome!  If you Tweet (which you should be anyway), please retweet one of my tweets about it (I am user “@schwaps“) or just tweet this link: http://bit.ly/qx0VZ

I thank you in advance.

If you checked out the link, you’ll see the illusion of the embedded YouTube video on CraigsList!  If one more person asks me for a marketing video, I’m definitely going to find some UofI students to subcontract the work to, perhaps film students.  They shouldn’t cost much and the end product should be better and it will take alot less of my time and effort.

Welp, that’s it for now.  I’m going to watch some TV online and then pump out a few offers.  I’ll keep yall posted.

- Justin

P.S.
If you have a self-hosted WordPress Blog, you need to get the Zemanta Plug-In.  I discovered this while guest-blogging on Josh’s site.  This plugin does all of the work for you when it comes to tagging and finding appropriate imagery to spruce up your post.  Highly recommend it.

Random, Real Estate On the Web, Real Estate, RSS, Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo Pipes, YouTube, Zemanta

As I mentioned a this morning, I planned to create a quick tutorial on Windows Movie Maker.  Since, I was bored and didn’t have enough time to work on my offers, I threw it together this morning.  It is an extremely quick run-through, but I hope at least one person finds it helpful.  I actually learned something, I actually like the wipe-away transition, I may start using it.

The tutorial was made up of some random footage that I took with my Flip Mino HD.  I didn’t preview the whole clip prior to publishing it, I have to admit I was cracking up after hearing some of my in-car footage.  Anyway, here is the tutorial:

Okay, so I lied.  I realized the video was already 13 minutes long, so I didn’t feel the need to comeback and continue the video.  So I posted the end result to YouTube as well so here it is:

Tutorials Business, Flip Mino, Flip Mino HD, Tutorial, Windows Movie Maker

I finished the 1007 Beaver Creek video at around 3:00am.  Since I have to be in at work at 7, I figured what is the point in sleeping.  So here I am.  I’ve been trying to perfect some settings on my Wordpress blog this evening, huge time drain.  As you may have noticed, I switched the theme.  I only did that because the old one had a column of info that I could not manipulate.

I received a comment asking for a reference for materials that explain how to use Windows Movie Maker.

I didn’t have a suggestion, but I thought to myself, “I could do that”.  I use it enough to have a good working-knowledge of the software.  I’m still amazed by what you can do with this free software.  It does have it’s limitations and one-day I’ll upgrade to something more snazzy.  But for now, it works just fine.

Here is the video of the 1007 Beaver Creek property.  This place is NICE!  It’s one of those houses that someone would walk-in and want to buy it with the furniture included.  This guy has the place layed out real nice, which reminds me, I need to ask who he used for an interior designer.  I’m going to have to use whomever he used in the future for my place:

- Justin

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Entrepreneurship, Real Estate Illinois, Mahomet, Video, Video editing, Windows Movie Maker, WordPress, YouTube

Things are really going to explode in a big way for my business soon.  I say that because I have been making major progress in many facets.  Last July when I was at the Short Sales Riches seminar in Las Vegas, I learned some cool tips on short selling and birddogging short sale leads.  But, the most valuable tip I learned was from Colin Andrews Egbert when he was informing the crowd about his REI Web 2.0 program.  That tip was that:

“exposure on the web will catapult your business”

Although the ticket to that seminar was included in my REO Rockstar course by Preston Ely, that one tip was worth the price of admission.  And speaking of Preston Ely, I learned from him that you should:

“give 80% before asking for 20%”

Those two nuggets (with honey mustard) of knowledge have already proven worth their weight in gold.  Since I’ve taken heed to those pearls of wisdom, things have started to happen for me.  I won’t go into detail about what I have brewing now, but remember that I said all of this.  And actually I’ll reference this post when I write about how I was able to pull a deal together.

On another front, the deadline for my assistant to complete my yellow letters is 9/19, so I have a while before I’ll have wholesale leads flooding in.  This timing will workout great because right now, I don’t have the $400 for postage anyway.  I’ve got all of my money tied-up and have no cash-flow until I receive payment for two of the video gigs and a freelance website gig.  Still no word on the City of Champaign web bid, by the way.

Before the end of the night, I’m going to shoot for writing-up a few offers and finishing the 1007 Beaver Creek video.  I’ll leave you with my latest contribution to the Bigger Pockets blog.  I put a lot of detail into this one, I came up with the idea just a few days ago when listing the BMW/Beaver Creek client’s property on CraigsList.  Necessity remains the mother of invention.  I can’t lie, this is a pretty good post.  I’m surprised it’s not redundant.  I surely can’t be the first person to write about it this resolution.  But I Google’d all over and didn’t find anything.  So anyway, check it out:

- Justin

Entrepreneurship, Real Estate Bigger Pockets, BMW, City of Champaign, Colin Egbert, Las Vegas, Preston Ely, Wholesale