Justin B. McClelland

This week I did something that I really felt needed to be done. I went against the grain (as I often do) and went with my gut. Literally, as I pulled into the parking lot at work this past Monday, I decided that that day I was going to give my notice of resignation. During a normal bi-weekly meeting with my boss, I told her that I was giving 4 weeks notice of my resignation.

This is going against the grain because I don’t have much money saved-up and I don’t have much of a safety net at all. But, more importantly, I felt like this was the right decision because I feel like my job has been holding me back as much as it has supported me. In the REI world, I believe he/she that hustle’s most wins. So, I have been hustling for months and months, but I just haven’t been able to come up with anything. For instance, just when I’m getting somewhere and making progress at 3am, I would have to get some sleep because I would have to make work the next day. Or just when I may have a lead to check out, I would have to usually defer my meetings to weekends because of work. I still plan on reaching a 7-figure net-worth before the age of 30. And I know that I can’t do it while sacrificing 45 hours of my life every week to “the man”.

I should also mention, that the stress of that place is just unhealthy. I don’t have any kind of power/authority complex, so I have no problems taking orders. But it’s extremely hard to do, when the orders just make absolutely no sense at all. Stuff like, “Justin, I need for you to tell our customers that 1+1 = 11″. When your job depends on it, you just have to go with it. And when customer’s try and reason with you that the correct answer is “2″, you deep-down want to agree, but you can’t. But anyway, enough of that mess. Knowing that I won’t be employed there after March, feels like I’m getting a tumor removed or something (I hope to never experience what that feels like, by the way. I mean if I develop one, I do hope it is found, well…you know what I’m saying).

So, I’m going all-out. I’m ready for the adventure and the beginning of this new chapter of life. I’m about to hustle like you wouldn’t believe. I mean, if you thought I was a hustler before…you ain’t seen nothing yet. Steph Davis gave me the name “Mr. Hustle”, I like that. And I’m going to more than live-up to it.  Since I’ll have more time I’m going to give you more of the ups and the downs, it’s either sink or swim at this point.  So, just stay tuned and enjoy the ride.

P.S.
I’ve had a few people now ask me, “Do you make your videos primarily for theatrics?”

Seriously….seriously?  “Funny?” Am I here to amuse you?  Am I here to make you laugh?  HUH!!? Funny…funny how?  What do you mean I’m FUNNY?!?! What the %&@# is so FUNNY about me! (bonus points to who knows the movie reference).

Truth is.  I just do all of this stuff because I like to act.  I play the role of a struggling real estate investor on-screen…it really allows me to show my range.  I was all-in after I read the script in one-sitting. Here’s a clip of my latest work….pretty “theatric” stuff.

Random, Real Estate Hustling, Steph Davis

I’ve been working soooooooooo hard.  My goodness.  I know I said that I wasn’t going to blog about specific deals until after they close. So I’ll just say that I have two deals in the wings.  So hopefully I’ll post with more detail about those soon and very soon.

After they close, I’m getting the ***** up out Champaign.  I’ve got connects in Miami.  I think I’ll post-up there for a few weeks.  This has been the snowiest winter of my life and it’s downright depressing.  Literally, it has snowed every 9 days (on average) since the 1st of January.  This isn’t really normal for the midwest.  I mean, if I lived in Green Bay or somewhere I guess I couldn’t complain.  But dammit!

On top of that, I’m becoming more unemployable by the day.  I mean seriously, I’ve been bamboozled, run a muck, led a stray….go to college, get a degree….for what?  For this!?  Excuse me Missouri State, I want a refund!  Yes, I kept my receipts.  But seriously, the computing knowledge that I have is invaluable.  But, I need to be doing my own thing 24-7-365.

I have started receiving responses from my MLS Expired offer campaign.  So far, I’ve done nothing but piss people off.  Some people are weirdos and have an emotional investment in their house.  Who’d have thunk it?  I’ve got some red hot emails as proof.  I swear people wouldn’t take the time if they really knew how much of a shit I don’t give.  But, I digress.

I need a sabbatical like yesterday.  Maybe become a nomad…cosmopolitan…and all the good stuff in between.

And I’m feeling Kid Cudi right now.  One of the few artists that isn’t afraid to do his own thing.  And why isn’t this stuff legal?  I guess that’s a whole ‘nother story.

KiD CuDi “cudderisback” – Directed by Jason Goldwatch – DatNewCudi.com from DP on Vimeo.

Random Kid Cudi, Miami, sabatical

The week’s almost over and I need to get this accountability post in.  It’ll be a quick one.

Let’s see.

I was supposed to get 12 MLS offers out, distribute 50 brochures, and post 5 flyers.  Well, I got 29 MLS (expired) offers out, I only got about 30 brochures out and I was able to post 2 flyers.  So does that balance out to meeting my goals?  Nah…it doesn’t.  I think the trick is to not try and do all of this in one mission.  I think that’s where I’m getting caught-up.  From now on, I’ll just do what I can each day and pace myself, instead of deferring these tasks for completion all in one day.  Again, I’ll keep these goals constant for next week.  I need to add to this list…so I’ll think about what else I should be doing weekly.

There’s a helluvalot more that I could post about right now, but I’m going to save some of it for later.  Besides it may take 3 hours (that I can’t spare now) to write.  I mean I got some real entertaining shit.  The type of stuff that newbie’s quit real estate after going through.  But worry not.  I’ve never quit anything in life because of difficulty…sure ain’t about to start now (I mean who does that by the way? Quitters suck at life and always will because they habitually quit…but I digress).

But enough about that nonsense.  I’ve got big things on tap.  Let’s just say that March 12th should be a great day.

- I’m Out

P.S.
Champaign is just not ready for what I’m about to do!  The “Takeover” is near!  To clarify my point, check out this clip from the prestigious, illustrious, and all-time classic film “The Mack“.  Let me break it down for you.  Here is the analogy.  I’m “Goldie” (the pimp in the red with the shades on), the competition is “Pretty Tony”(the pimp in all black), and the motivated sellers is the uhm…”employee” (only girl in the scene).  And…….ACTION

Accountability, Random, Real Estate Accountability, Marketing and Advertising

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

More naysayers are lending their unsolicited opinions to me.  “Dat’s Ohkehy” (said in Scarface voice), this video sums-up how I feel about yall.

Random naysayer, Random

I’ve got a few things in the works that are looking pretty good, they might just “make romance explosion” all at the same time.  Like I mentioned before, the new theme is minimal blogging about the details until after they close.  So, I’ll just say that I may have three deals closing shortly.  We shall see…

I had the day off today from the 9-5 because I had to go to Springfield, IL to pay a stinking speeding ticket that I got on my way to Saint Louis for Thanksgiving.  This kind of sucked but ended up working out in my favor.  It sucked that I had to drive the 100 miles to Springfield.  However, I initially wanted to just pay the fine via mail and be done with it.  But, I was forced to show in court because I had two tickets during that one stop (insurance card was expired).  I tried mailing in my payment with a copy of the current insurance card….no dice.  And a lawyer wanted $400 to take care of it for me…aw hell naw!  So I did it myself.  This worked out in my favor because in person I was able to opt for the court-supervision to prevent the points on my driving record and I also had my request granted to pay the fine in April!  Almost 6 months after the ticket, I get to pay for it sans interest!  The time value of money is on my side with this one. Booyaw!

It’s been over a decade since I’ve been to traffic court, so I forgot the typical scene.  It was funny, because I noticed that all the people with money had their lawyers show up for them.  They stood in line and had their cases dealt with first and within the first 10 minutes, about 10 lawyers walked out the court room with their clients all taken care of.  All the broke mofo’s had to show up and do the talking for themselves, this includes me…but not for long.  Moral of the story, get money to have lawyers waste their precious time in court for you and also NEVER drive drunk.  You should’ve heard some of these cases!  Besides endangering the lives of others, don’t do it because those fines are out of this world!  The lame part is that some of those people that I saw present themselves in court, were repeat offenders!  I don’t get it.  Snatch their license away permanently and be done with it.  But I digress…back to real estate.

Speaking of lawyers, I’m almost thinking that I should’ve went to law school.  Between the $400/10 minute charge that I saw in action at court and the astronomical invoice that I just paid my real estate lawyer….that’s where it’s at!  That’s if you like studying case-law and law in general….ZZZZzzzzzz.  But, I meet with my real estate lawyer tomorrow to go over some things.  Besides the expense, I love the meetings we have.  I learn a lot and get much accomplished in the way of bettering my business and protecting my neck.

Oh! Accountability Day.  To update on that for this week:

1. Make one MLS offer each day direct to listing agent – FAIL, no excuses. However, I deferred this goal each day because I didn’t know what the best approach was to submit the offers.  Via fax, email, mail or what?  I put the goal aside and now it’s next week already.  I’m not calling each listing agent to see what they prefer, that’s just not efficient.  I’ll leave this goal for next week and figure out how to approach this.

2. Deliver 50 brochures to Urbana houses - Success. This wasn’t bad at all, I knocked these out between two appointments that I had last Sunday.  I think 50 is a good number to stick with consistently on a weekly basis.  The 200 that I did the first go-round was exhausting and too time-consuming.  Hard to do that myself, consistently.  A 50 quantity it is.

3. Deliver 5 flyers – FAIL. Keeping this goal for next week.

Still haven’t forgot about the 40 offers a week.  After I met with my lawyer tomorrow, I should have the tweaked contract that I need to complete my creation.

*Tangent*
I was in the gym today and noticed in the locker room, there were various advertisement posters with a valentines day theme that said, “Get your sweetheart a gym membership for Valentine’s Day”.  This sounds like a setup!  I can’t imagine how bad that would go over.  I don’t think a woman ever wants a gym membership as a gift from a man, especially on V-day.  You might as well say, “Hey baby, I want you to feel beautiful inside and out on our special Valentine’s Day.  Soooooo…….here’s a gym membership so you can work on that tautness….that your sister has”.

LOL, I crack myself up.  On that note, I’m out.

Accountability, Random, Real Estate Accountability, lawyers, Valentines Day

I just have a quick question for this post.  Hopefully someone out there can point me in the right direction.  I’d like to know if property blue prints are typically archived by each county.  It would make sense to me if that were the case, granted one has to obtain county approval for major alterations to a property’s exterior.

I’m curious to know this because having a property’s blue print available to me when advertising wholesale deals will be beneficial.  In addition to photos, a property floorplan will be included in my ads.  I’m set on using floorplanner.com for my plans too.

- Peace Out

Random blue print

This M6 is mine. I’ve already got my features and colors picked out.  I even looked into which dealership I’m going to buy it from.  Well actually, I’m going to buy it direct from the factory.  BMW has a program where you can go over to Germany and pick-up your car yourself and save 7% off the price of the car.  I couldn’t care less about that minimal discount, rather what I do care about is that I can get on the autobahn after I make the purchase and drive the s*** out of it!  This is fairly common for those who go to Germany to tour the BMW and pick-up their cars’ I read.  Afterward, I’d make arrangements to have my ride shipped back to the states (that may cost the 7% discount alone).

While I’m over in Europe to pick up my beamer and tour the factory, I’ll also backpack over there too.  I’ve always wanted to see what that experience was all about.  Backpack through France, Italy, UK, Amsterdam, etc.   All of this is going down in 2011.  I still have my 11/23/2010 7-figure goal in place, but the sabbatical is going to happen in early 2011, most likely in the Spring.

Welp, I’ve had a pretty productive Sunday.  I listed quite a few things on eBay that I needed to convert to cash and I also have my Cali cash-buyer campaign wrapped up.  I ran out of envelopes with about 30 more people to go (out of 200).  I’ll also need to pick-up some more stamps.  I’m confident about the conversion rate on this campaign.  These yellow-letters will not disappoint, I’m sure.

Not looking forward to the 9-5, which I have to be at in 3.5 hours.  My furlough has officially ended and I must say that time off was nice.  I’m damn near tempted to use a week of vacation within the next few weeks so I can keep this momentum going.  We’ll see, I’m bout to try to get in a few hours of sleep.

- Peace Out

Blog, Random BMW, eBay Marketplace

Another Friday evening filled with work. I just got home from the gym. I ran 5 miles and it felt like 15. I don’t know what that was all about, it was torture! I didn’t skip any meals or anything…maybe it’s because I haven’t ran long since the summer (5 isn’t really long though). Oh well….I got it in.

Once I got home I ate and watched the Lil Wayne documentary for the 4th time. That dude inspires me sooo much. He basically has a work addiction. He records like 1,000 songs per year (I’m not exaggerating). And this documentary about him, let’s you in on how things really go down. The puzzling aspect of Lil Wayne is that he pretty much stays high off of weed and syrup (codeine) and still accomplishes so much creative work daily.

This translates for me as inspiration. Don’t ask me why. But I figure, if Lil Wayne can be one of the elite rappers in the industry and constantly release song after song, then I can get to 7-figures in 11.5 months. Every spare moment, I must work. Just like he does. It’s as simple as that.

So I’m off to stuff some plastic door-hanger baggies with brochures, so I can post them in select neighborhoods in Urbana tomorrow morning.  If I could post these on doorknobs at night without getting shot, I would.

- I’m out

P.S.
Here is the Lil Wayne documentary that I’ve been watching. I’m pretty sure that it’s not supposed to be available on the web granted that iTunes is charging $15 for it. I’m not hosting it…..so free game (it will probably get pulled soon by the owner anyway).

Business, Marketing, Random, Real Estate brochures, Documentary, Lil Wayne

Today in my 9-5 jungle, the company layed-off 30 people.  I think I just barely avoided the cuts this time and aint no telling if/when round-two comes around.  It’s not like I already didn’t have a fire lit under me, but this just added some gasoline.  Aint shit safe, when your livelihood is dependent upon a company you don’t own/control.

The company I work for had already implemented a company-wide furlough for December.  These lay-offs were completely out of the blue.  I’m glad I’m not out of work yet, but am sad for those who are now unemployed.  I mean, everyone can’t be their own boss and get into real estate investing…some people are stellar employees versus employers.  Where are they to turn when many other companies in the area aren’t hiring?  Damn.  I’m now witnessing what I’ve been reading about for the past year regarding the economy.

Before today, I had already mentally constructed backup plans for if/when I get fired/layed-0ff.  First-off, I’m thankful that I don’t live beyond my means.  Although, I do dump alot of cash into my business, it’s an investment that I just haven’t realized any returns on as of yet.  I don’t have LCD TV’s, motorcycles, XBOX’s, gold teeth, or none of that extra stuff.  I’m single with no dependents, a 98 Pontiac Grand-Am (paid for), and a month-to-month apartment lease.  If I were to lose my job tomorrow, I would most likely expand my strategy to acquiring rentals on owner financing.  There are a plethora of landlords that are looking to sell their rentals.  I’m sure a deal could be found with one or more of them.  And I’m confident that I could creatively out market them and fill the vacancies.  Why aren’t I doing this now?  I don’t have the capital for a necessary cushion to allot for the operating expenses of rental units and to take losses from time to time.  But if I didn’t have a choice, the risk would be moot.  And plus, with 45 hours a week freed-up, I’m confident I would make things work out.  Network more, partner-up, use OPM, etcetera.

But, as of now, I’m still sticking with the original plan.  And that is to wholesale until I have some capital stored and then transition to buy-hold strategies.

I’m going to get in touch with the lady landlord tomorrow that I’ve been dealing with.  I’ve given it some thought and I’m going to tell her over the phone that we don’t have a deal unless she can come down another 10K.  She probably won’t like that at all.  Then I’m going to FedEx a contract that’s for 15K less than what we verbally agreed upon.  Sounds pointless, but who knows…she might just sign-it and call me.  Besides, if I’m going to strikeout, I’m going to Babe-Ruth-point to the left field wall and swing out of my cleats.  Why not?

- I’m out

Random, Real Estate Business and Economy, Employment, furlough, Real Estate