Justin B. McClelland

I just put the finishing touches on my STL squeeze page and wrapped up it’s integration with AWeber.  Check it out below.  I’m at a coffee shop right now as I’m posting this at 3:27am…it’s refreshing to have the larger city amenities again.  Champaign shuts down at like 12am.  I’m such a night-owl, I’m almost nocturnal.

Anyway, I put this squeeze page together using a free squeeze page theme for WordPress.  It took me forever to find a good free one.  So you can find it at:

wordpresssqueezepage.com

Of course, you’ll have to sign-up and be ’squeezed’ for your info before they email you the theme.  While going through this whole ordeal, I realized how much time I used and also the level of technical know-how I had to recall to get this situated.  I wonder if some folks who don’t want to bother would pay (a very reasonable fee) for the entire setup of a squeeze page.  I mean a comprehensive setup including:

-domain name
-hosting
-wordpress installation
-wordpress squeeze-page theme configuration
-integration with email marketing software
-squeeze-page marketing copy

What do ya’ll think…would folks pay to have this done?  If so, I may have to serve this niche (and find a way to subcontract most of the work so I don’t create a tedious job for myself).  Let me know your thoughts in the comments please.

Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing, Marketing AWeber Communications, Squeeze page, WordPress

So this is my last weekend as a resident of Champaign and I’m en route to Saint Louis .  As I pack up the necessities, I am reminded that I keep way too much stuff around that isn’t necessary.  Thank God for CraigsList, as I was able to sell my couch, bed, and desk (never doing U-Haul ever again, plus when I move from STL I’m starting fresh with all new shit).  But during this sale process I practiced my negotiating skills on these buyers.  I emphasized in the CL post that I was a motivated buyer, I had in all caps MUST SELL NOW and etcetera.  But I didn’t list a price anywhere, I just told the people to reply with an offer.  My (queen) bed sold really quick for $60, funny thing is I only paid $100 for it back in college.  A forty dollar 7 year rental sounds pretty good right.  The item I was most surprised about was the couch, which I got $80 for.  The girl that bought it responded to my ad and said she’d pay $125 for it.  I was like WTF (had I listed a price I would’ve priced it at $40)!  So then I said, if she picked it up within a few hours that same day, I’d let it go for $100.  When she arrived we settled at $80.  This whole scenario just reminded me that a product is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.  I wish these real estate property sellers would realize this fact.  Too many people balk at my offers with the response, “You’re offering me less than what I paid for it”.  My mental response is “that is completely irrelevant, so let your house sit on the market for another 200 days, I couldn’t care less”.

So anyway, although I’m leaving town I’ve made some major strides in the last two weeks:

• I’ve found a way to revamp my (efficient) offer making process for MLS offers (video coming soon), although this new method is completely compliant, I’ll probably still piss-off some of the local Realtors but…I don’t really give a shit.
• I’ve also fully launched my Property Scout network, though I need to step-up the promotion of it.  CraigsList, I think may be the only way for recruitment.  However, I’m officially a registered employer via a local temp agency in town.  I think I’m going to see if I can work with them on this.  Perhaps, I should look into Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.  Why not?
• In return for some Mozenda Screen-Scraping, a guy out of the UK hooked me up with some web-hosting and a bomb-ass Real Estate WordPress theme.  The site is www.ChampaignDeals.com check it out and let me know what you think.  I still need to tweak it alot and complete it with some custom content.  But I’m thinking I can throw some wholesale deals on that site, get other local real estate professional to contribute to it…perhaps make it accessible only if one completes a squeeze page…etc.  I’m liking this barter thing…so if anyone else wants to trade services, get @ me.
• I also have a new partner in crime.  About a week ago, a young lady gave me a call out of the blue (why was that color selected for that saying anyway?…but I digress).  She is from Chicago and fairly new to the Champaign area and wants to get into Real Estate Investing.  She was asking me if there were any REI clubs, mentors in the area, etc.  I gave her some contacts of other investors that may want to mentor her, and also told her about my property scout program.  After a few days, we had a few more phone conversations and met in person.  This girl is on point!  I think she’s more of a hustler than me…which is saying a lot, if I don’t say so myself.  So since we’ve decided to team-up, she’s going to take over most of my marketing tasks.  And I’m going to tell her everything I know.  Which is actually a lot, contrary to popular belief, I just have ran into all kinds of bad-luck with closings…but anyway.  She told me that she has read tons of books on investing, as she speed reads (yes…speed reads. If that doesn’t say you’re sharp as a tack, I don’t know what does), but ‘doing’ is the best education of all.  So I think this is the start of something really good.

That about sums up the last 1.5-2 weeks.  Oh, I also have got some Internet Marketing stuff up my sleeve too.  As well as an eBook about the whole DIY yellow letter thing.  I get a lot of questions about this process, still.  In the ebook I’ll go into much further detail.  All of my wholesale flip situations haven’t changed status, still a bunch of BS holding those up.  So anyway, the kid has still been on his grind.  I hope yall didn’t think I gave up.  By the way, I’m bringing accountability-monday back.  I forgot why I stopped anyway…

- Peace Out

Accountability, Business, Internet Marketing Assembly Hall, CareerBuilder, Champaign, CraigsList, property scout, Real Estate, saint louis

This is a post that was inspired by Lawrence Roberts and a long string of blog comments on the BiggerPockets article I wrote back in September 2009.  A lot of people ran into snags when trying this out.  So, in the video below I just give a quick overview of how to create the ‘illusion’ of an embedded YouTube video in Craigslist.  I say illusion, because Craigslist restricts certain HTML tags, one of which is required for YouTube embedding.  So check it:

Entrepreneurship, How To, Internet Marketing BiggerPockets, CraigsList, embed, Facebook, YouTube

So I’ve spent the past few days finishing the details for my property scout program.  I’ve got a pretty good grasp on how I’m going to coordinate this thing all the way from recruitment to contract.  I’ve got a pretty unorthodox (my middle name in case you forgot) model, I my opinion.  And that is that I’m going to split half of my assignment fee with my property scout.  That’s right HALF.  If a scout brings me a qualified lead for a property that I end-up wholesaling, they get paid just as much as I do.  And after much brainstorming, I found a legitimate way to legally split these fees and be in accordance with the law.  Not that complex really, just involves the assignment of assignment contracts.

I’m going to be very “open-source” regarding this program and am very open to suggestions.  I’ve put together some training videos, some resources hosted on a Google Docs cloud, and have created a Facebook Fan Page for my scout program.  It took me days to think of a good platform to communicate with my scouts with, I didn’t want to be archaic and use emails.  So Facebook it is, can’t deny the power of this platform.  Plus, I found a way to create custom tabs on the Fan Page that allows for usage of your own HTML, this allows me to really customize the Fan Page to display the content I need it to.  The plugin is called FBML.  Pretty cool…so now I have a Fan Page with some custom tabs containing links to the Google Docs folders, Champaign county/Saint Louis City resources, and etcetera.

I think I’m going to make a transition regarding my approach to recruitment.  At first I was screening alot of scouts out that were recruited via CraigsList.  Mainly due the fact that I got burned-out on corresponding with lame-brains at my 9-5.  I don’t need those types in my life anymore.  So at first, I wanted to hone in only on top talent for scouts.  I was thinking Quality of Quantity.  However, I think this isn’t the best approach.  If you never finished High School, that doesn’t mean you don’t know a ton of people (some which may need to sell their house).  So I think the screening process is out.  Maybe I’ll have two-tiers of scouts….I don’t know.  Too many possibilities at this point.  It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with the scope of new ideas sometimes.  I don’t have to get it right, just get it started….that’s the quote people tell me.

So, check out my Fan Page when you get a chance.  Browse over the “How It Works” tab, look at a few videos, tell me what I’m missing.  You can let me know on this blog in the comments.  Fresh new eyes are needed…this whole working smart-thing has my brain fried….thanks in advance.  And by the way, gone ‘head and click the “Like” button while your there if you don’t mind.

Internet Marketing, Real Estate Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, Google Docs, Scout

Man…my accounts are so close to being in the minus it’s not even funny.  But I’ll tell you one thing…there is no way I’m ever going back to that 9-5 world.  This freedom thing is too good, even though I’m just a month and half in.  Just having a bit of a cash-flow problem that’s all.

Also, on another front.  I’m only half way through “The 4 hour work week” book and I’m already taking more control of my time.  I’m more quick to cut people short and get out.  For instance, a huge time leech that I’ve recognized thus far is that of property showings.  Typically, when I meet with potential sellers they want to go on and on about their life story and why they’re selling and then transition to prod about how long I’ve been doing this and how many houses I have and etcetera (some convo is relevant while the rest is just a useless pry on their behalf).  The trick I’ve learned from the 4-hour work week, is to say that you’re pressed for time, even if you’re really not (this isn’t a lie either way you look at it, who’s to say that you don’t have things to do, you may want to stare at the sun for the rest of your day, they don’t know that).  So today, I was able to look at a duplex in record time.  It only took about 10 minutes.  I could tell the owner wanted to hang around and chit-chat, but I told him that I had to skidaddle.  And I actually did have another appointment soon thereafter.  But it actually felt fantastic to cut out all of the bullshit conversation.  Seriously, why do people feel the need for this?  I’m actually going to do this more often.  No longer will anyone murder me by the minute.  I just got back from eating Sushi with my friend and the waiter was very long-winded.  If I wasn’t with company, I would’ve told him to beat-it.  I felt like he was practicing the rehearsal of his “specials” spiel.

Anywho.  I’m really digging Drake right now.  This video is so abnormal and really encapsulates the way I feel these days.

Internet Marketing, Marketing, Random, offers 4 hour work week, Cash flow, Conversation, tim ferris, Workweek

So I finally have my semi-automated system in place that will allow me to make 40+ offers per week.  Basically what I have is an Option-Contract and a Cover Sheet that are mailed out to the owners of properties that have been listed and since withdrawn from the MLS.  My Realtor was able to export an Excel file from the MLS that contains the expired property information that I desire.  This spreadsheet was then appended with county assessor information (last date sold, owner name, assessed value, and etcetera).  The Option-Contract and Cover Sheet have mail-merged values that include the property address, offer price, mailing address.  This mail-merge along with the custom Excel doc, makes me semi-automatic.  After all of the printing is said and done, I hand-address the envelopes.  I just sent out my first batch today.  Next week, it’s on and popping again.

However, next week I’m going to use my Tax Delinquent list and not the MLS expired list.  I have a Tax Delinquent list left over from the tax sale last October.  With the MLS expireds, there is way too much additional manual-work needed…it’s best to check if the property has since been relisted, if the property has been sold, and etcetera.  This extra work takes the automation right out of the equation.  This is still a task to pursue, but best in addition to something that’s close to automatic and always running in the background while I perform the tedious composition of some offers.  With some of the offers that I’m making, many will go straight to a waste-basket, I’m sure.  But I need to boost the amount of “hell naws” that I receive so I can accept more “yes please” replies.  We all know this is a numbers game.

And to the email naysayer #242 who wrote:

…I seen your 40 deal a week strategy. Thats almost impossible dude…

This is my formal response:

Please Believe That.

- I’m Out

Business, Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing, Random, Real Estate, Short Sale Microsoft Excel, offers, tax delinquent

So it’s late now and almost ‘tomorrow’.  I haven’t heard back from the seller that I met with on Monday.  However, originally I was worried about the discount not being steep enough in my offer.  After contacting two of my buyers, they expressed interest.  So that’s a positive sign.  I gave the seller a call today and left a message.  I’m not going to nag her, so I’ll just let her call back when she feels.  If she decides to do so.  I’ve got other things to focus on in the mean time.

I have Google Analytics installed to both, this wordpress blog and my Schwaps wordpress blog.  Google Analytics is something else.  It is so comprehensive, it’s easy to lose yourself amongst the abundance of statistics (in a good way).  I’m going to install the analytics to my Schwaps.com site as well so that I can start tracking my traffic.  This will be beneficial as I venture in increasing my cash-buyers’ list exponentially.  I am still a bit paranoid that I don’t have a larger list of cash buyers.  I’ve got a few online methods in mind and I’ll need a good way to track things.

In addition to Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools is great as well.  I’m using both at the moment and still learning a lot each day.

- Dueces

Internet Marketing, Real Estate Google, Google Analytics, Search Engines, Statistics, Twitter, WordPress

I’ve got an action packed 7 days approaching:

Tomorrow I meet with the lady I mentioned in my last post whose house I targeted with one of my direct mail letters.  My Realtor/Investor colleague and I took a look at the property last Friday.  Man was that thang tore-up.  It will need a new roof, new windows, new kitchen, a new whole bunch of stuff.  But the good thing is that this is the worst house on the street.  All of the neighboring houses look great.  I have some comps, a CMA, and an estimate of repairs to accompany my offer.  So this should take the shell-shock out of the offer.  I think she is expecting an offer close to retail minus just a few thousand in repairs…I hope not.

Tomorrow evening, I’m meeting with the Tax Lien investor who I created the screen-scrape for of the County Assessors’ website.  The scrape just referenced each property by parcel number and extracted the homeowner name, property address, mailing address, market value of land, market value of building.  He mainly wanted this done so that he’d know going into the tax sale which properties have a building attached.  In the past he had inadvertently purchased the tax liens on ponds and vacant land.  I even went a step further and computed some ratios for him in excel, a tax/value ratio.  The lower the ratio the better as in a small amount tax lien could possibly result in a high dollar property.  There’s also some other stuff that I hooked up too.  I think I’ll do a BiggerPockets.com post about Tax Lien research and such on Thursday.  The sale is this Wednesday morning and I’m going to check it out.  I’m interested to see how this goes down. I’ve heard of the fast pace of these things.  I’ll get some video footage if I can.

I now have 5 different classified ads out and because of my nifty tracking methods, I know which paper is yielding the best results thus far.  And that is the American Classifieds/Thrifty Nickel.  My phone is blowing up with people calling from this paper.  And I must say, I love the ad that I placed.  I took the idea from a Preston Ely ebook I purchased a while back.  The ad says:

I Buy Houses CA$H, Quick Close, All These Other Ads Are Jokes! Call Justin @ 217.123.1234

The bad thing is that alot of the people who are calling on this ad, have properties way out in the sticks.  I wasn’t expecting that.  I can’t spread myself all over central Illinois researching different areas and trying to become an expert in them, just not feasible.

I had this one guy who owns a rental in the boonies call me 7 times today.  That’s right SEVEN times.   He left a message the first time and couldn’t wait for me to get back in touch with him.  I was thinking I had a really motivated seller on my hands.  I call him back and this kid wants 3k less than full retail!?  I told him that he may be better suited for a Realtor (I don’t have time to waste), but then he started rebutting and says maybe we can work something out.  I really think that this guy is desperate but just doesn’t want to show his hand.  He kinda already did by calling me SEVEN times in an 8 hour time span.  We’ll see about this one.  I honestly couldn’t care less (for some reason very positive things happen for me when I don’t try too hard).

Next Monday, I’m going to the REBarCamp in Indianapolis.  This event is basically a conference where real estate professionals come together and exchange ideas and techniques for implementing web 2.0/3.0 into their business.  I see it as a marketing workshop.  Should be enlightening.

It’s 10:35pm and I’ve still got a gang of stuff to do before I call it a night.  I burn so much midnight oil, I should buy stock in this s**t. Peace Out

Internet Marketing, Marketing, Random, Real Estate, Tutorials, Uncategorized, Web Development american classifieds, Real Estate, rebarcamp, Tax lien

So it’s been over a week and the calls have drastically tapered off.  I had planned to give some exact call counts, but I kind of screwed that up when I was altering the settings for my Vonage account when setting up my Google Voice accounts (the counts got off).  So I’ll approximate.  After 1 week of the letters being in possession of homeowners, I received about 70 calls with about 12 of those being leads.  Out of the 12 leads about:

4 turned out to have their house listed on the MLS
2 I’ve played phone tag with
2 I’ve yet to call
1 Is in Pre-pre-foreclosure*
1 Plans on moving to ATL in February
2 Will most likely sell retail when ready

* The guy who is in pre-pre-foreclosure is disabled and is soon to be receiving disability checks.  He said he just caught his mortgage up from being 4 months late to 1 month late.  He said that he wants to sell because he doesn’t know how long the disability checks will last and needs to downgrade.  I’ll check back in with this guy in a month or so and see where his motivation is.

The guy who wants to move to Atlanta this winter may turn out to be gold as well.  He didn’t seem too motivated when I spoke with him, but this may change.  I’ll also check back in with this guy next month.

One of my letters hit the property of an investor in town that has over 60 properties.  He responded to the letter just to chat for a bit about investing.  We met in person last Friday and he’s looking to divest his portfolio and needs someone (me!) with a creative mind to market them.  He also invests in Tax Lien certificates and needs someone to perform some follow up with the liens that may soon convert to deeds.  So perhaps we can work out something there, we haven’t negotiated any particulars but I expressed my interest and we may meet later this week.

** One quick note about this guy. I don’t think I mentioned in an earlier post that I went to the County Recorders’ office one day and looked through the judgment books.  I wrote down the information of all the purchasers from the previous years’ tax sale (for buyer’s list building purposes).  I then Google’d each person to see what I’d learn (did I ever mention that I love Google, I could almost be a P.I.).  So when I met with this guy, I already knew a little about him.  But then again, I’m pretty sure he Google’d me before he called me because he mentioned my blog.  So that means he may read this…awkward…

Another letter made its’ way to a Real Estate broker who was a former investor and she called to chat about investing, what she’s doing Real Estate wise and her consulting business.  This lady was cool as a fan.  She was very wise and said that I’m free to call her whenever with questions.

So besides the leads there were many positives to overcome the negativity from early last week.  Sometimes I post my frustrations and speak of slacking and what not, but that’s all part of the experience.  The purpose of this blog is to document it all.  So don’t think that I’m going to give up or get depressed by these suckers who waste their time hating.  I would never lie to you and I honestly think half of what people say is funny.  Now the other half can meet me in the octogan…but I digress.  The point is I’m going to blog about it ALL…give it to you straight, no chaser.

Since I’ve launched my Yellow Letter campaign, I’ve also launched some other marketing.  I’ve got a Sunday classified ad that is going to go in the Champaign News-Gazette, the Savoy Star, and Accent.  I’ve also got an ad that is going to run in the American Classifieds.  And my Yellow Pages Ad prints and should be delivered in November.  I’m going to follow-up to my mailing list in about 6 weeks with a postcard.  I’m also thinking about buying a list from YellowLettersComplete.com, perhaps the pre-foreclosure list.  And the Bandit Signs will go in effect again very soon.  I ordered some more.  This time instead of buyers, I’m going to target sellers.  And I’m going to place them out on Friday and pull them on Sunday.  All of the Realtors do this.  I just needed to cross the line so I knew where it was the first time.  I shouldn’t get any heat for this.  If I do, I have an arguable case.  I also am going to ramp-up my CraigsList activity.  So as you can tell, I’m grinding…but still have a ways to go.

Yesterday, there was a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar in town.  You know the seminar that gets people amped up about Real Estate investing, and claims that they’ll teach all of the ropes for $500 3-day seminar.  Once you get to that seminar you learn that to really learn all of the ropes, you need to pay $30,000.  I mean, I’m not saying this is a bad deal but DAMN!  At least that’s what the attendees usually say as they leave the hotel banquet room.  I’ve been there done that and so I spontaneously thought of a way to capitalize.  I made up some flyers at the last minute that were aimed towards finding someone to birddog/partner with.  The flyer was folded into a 3-part brochure and in a nut-shell it said

Interested in starting out in Real Estate but can’t afford the training? Call Me! I’m a house-flipper that is looking for partners to work with in Champaign-Urbana.  No experience necessary.

I put those flyers on about 40 cars in the parking lot outside of the entrance to the seminar.  I was scared to death, I didn’t want to get caught and fined.  I almost didn’t do it.  But I did it anyway.  It’s time to start making things happen.  I really don’t care anymore about the rules.  I ask myself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”.  And if the answer doesn’t involve an arrest or bodily harm, then I’m doing it.  So anyway, I did all that and didn’t get one stankin call!  Oh well.  Maybe next time.

Welp, that’s all for now.  I need to kick out a BiggerPockets article for tomorrow.  I think I’ll focus on the features and uses of Google Voice for investors.  Writers’ block, here I come! Peace out.

- Justin

Internet Marketing, Marketing, Real Estate, Tutorials CraigsList, Google, Marketing, Real Estate, Real estate broker, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Vonage

I stamped all of my letters today and sent them out.  Turns out I only had 800 letters and not 900 like I had thought.  Don’t know where the math went wrong on that one.  Or perhaps I skipped printing 100 when I was printing them out.  Damn, I’m craving sushi and king crab legs right now.  That has absolutely nothing to do with this post, I just thought I’d add in that fun fact.  I dropped the mail off a few hours ago, so the letters should go out on Monday morning and they will probably show up in peoples mailboxes as early as Tuesday.  This should be very interesting to see what type of results I receive.  I’ve got my Realtor ready to go with my call lead sheet and calls will be forwarded to his cell.  I think I’ll hold off on the second assistant for now.  It’s too late to try and find someone and build a rapport in time for them to take my calls.  It’s hard to find someone who’s not flakey so, I’ll stick with who I know for now.  I’ll definitely keep you all posted on the results on this campaign, how many calls received, how many leads, etcetera.  It’s always hard for me to end a sentence with an abbreviation, thus “etcetera” was spelled out.  And I could cook eggs on the exhaust vent of this laptop, seriously it’s that hot.  Those were two more fun facts for you.  I’m rarely a serious individual and here’s the video to prove it.  And I’ll post another like it soon but with Benjamins.  Peace out.

Internet Marketing, Marketing, Random, Real Estate Lead sheet, Mail, Realtor, Sushi, Yellow Letter