Justin B. McClelland

Almost one week down in STL and I’ve got a lot to show for it. I’ve got my CraigsList game on full attack with more ads recruiting property scouts, ads for cash buyers, etc. The post and repost process is almost impossible to keep up with, I can’t wait until I can get the funds for a CL Autoposter.

Let’s see what else is new…well I’ve picked up a new scout out of Cali who is on the ball. Hopefully, he’ll keep up the pace that he has going now so we can get something closed together. Also, my assistant in Champaign is back from her vacation, we just caught up via phone today on some things and she’s ready to get things rolling.

Since my Mom still has dial-up at the house, I had to get an Air-card for the laptop. It’s a helluva lot better than dial-up but the speeds aren’t quite broadband-like. One drawback is that I have issues uploading videos. I made a video covering how I was able to shoot out 49 offers in an automated fashion using MS Excel, MS Word, and Adobe Acrobat. I’ll have to get that thing uploaded next time I’m on a better connection. Maybe this card will be better once Sprint goes to 4G in Saint Louis, for now it’s still 3G. The salesman at the sprint store said the area should be 4G within the next 6 months. And that same salesman had extra disproportionate skinny hands. He was a chubby dude, but his hands were anorexic…the thought of shaking his hand made my skin crawl. Thus, I made sure to make sure my hands were full during the checkout process. Anyway…I digress. I can’t let you all too deep into my mind…then you’ll find out how it works.

So Next Weeks’ Tasks:
1. Going for a 10 offer a day average
2. Get at least 10 REO offers in
3. Get my STL wholesale wordpress site and squeeze page live
4. Find someone to put my bandit signs up and take them down this weekend
5. Create an outline for all of my near future Internet Marketing projects.

That is all.

- Peace

Accountability, Real Estate 4G, Accountability, bandit signs, Monday, Sprint

Accountability Monday once again.  And I didn’t accomplish my goals.  This accountability stuff is embarrassing when you don’t get the job done, but I guess that’s the point!  I’m going to keep the same goals for next week as I had last week.  But, I’m going to make it 40 offers instead, I need to make-up for lost time.

1. Submit a total of 40 offers on properties. (NEW GOAL)

*Tangent*, it felt extremely strange typing the title of this post.  That’s the first time I wrote the date since the new year. 1/4/10….for some reason when I look at that, my mind thinks 1910, but anyway.

I’ve had a lot going on and have learned very much from this wholesale deal while in the trenches.  I’ve learned enough from this deal to write an ebook, I’m not kidding.  And the deal isn’t over with yet.  I don’t feel like delving into great detail right now because it’s 2am and I need to get up in 5 hours.  So I’ll give the cliff notes in chronological fashion.

1. Seller contacted me
2. I checked out the house
3. Made offer and put house under contract on spot
4. I found buyer
5. I assigned contract
6. I ordered title search
7. Beaucoup liens appeared on title
8. I checked out liens at County Recorders office
9. All seemed well as they were minimal liens, hundred here, thousand there (sum of which are less than contract sales price)
10. The last lien on title didn’t have an amount, I had to call the Department of Health and Family Services to obtain the dollar amount.
11. The DHFS lien is 65K!!!! The house isn’t worth half of that as-is!

So now my wholesale deal turns into a short-sale if I’m going to make this work.  I spoke with the rep at the DHFS and he said that I’d need to obtain an appraisal and the appraisal would help the DHFS determine how much they’d be willing to discount their lien for this sale to happen.  Considering that I negotiated the contract price to be a bit less than what an appraisal may come in at, this deal lies in the hands of one guy at the DHFS.  I already have an idea of what I will need to do to push this through, I won’t go into detail about it now, but I’m fairly confident it will get the job done.  I’ll report about it later.

So as of now this deal is officially on life support with the aid of an African-American heart monitor.

Business, Real Estate Department of Health, DHFS, Monday, Short

Last weeks’ goals:

1. Submit a total of 20 offers on MLS properties FAIL
2. Submit an offer on at least one REO property FAIL
3. Make at least one offer on a FSBO FAIL

I have flunked all of my tasks that I gave myself from last week.  However, I have been SOOO busy with trying to find a cash buyer for my wholesale deal and also the short-sale house, I haven’t given much time more offers.  I did put in one MLS offer though, far from 20 but at least I got that done.  It got rejected so oh well.

But excuses are tools of incompetence, so I don’t give them. I’m going to keep the same goals for next week and do what I can to get them accomplished, by all means.

Right now I’ve got three buyers that have expressed some interest in the wholesale deal.  But I’m so discontent right now, I need a buyer to sign on the dotted line and deposit some funds into escrow.  I’ll be able to chill out at that point (for about 5 minutes that is). So I’m still on a rampage to get this wrapped up.

On Sunday I was supposed to have a meeting with two prospective buyers.  One guy called and canceled his appointment after he drove by the property, the property needed more work than he desired.  The girl that I ranted about last post…..drum roll…..stood me up.  Big surprise!  Oh well, I spent some time after that scheduled appointment driving the neighborhood and looking for “For Rent” signs.  I got this idea from a recent post by Steph.  Due to the fact that the property is in a less desirable area, it made alot of sense to call those who were already renting in that area.  I made about 4 calls, and 2 of the landlords said that they would take a drive-by and let me know if they were further interested.

*Tangent* I don’t know why everyone in Champaign, IL acts like this property is in the hood, or that there really is a hood in Champaign.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t grow up in a rough neighborhood, I grew up in the suburbs of Saint Louis, MO.  And bad things happen everywhere, but there isn’t any area of Champaign that is just that bad.  So many potential buyers are like “Oh my God, that area is sooooo bad”.  And I’m like…we can take a trip to Chicago or Saint Louis and I’ll show you some rough neighborhoods. But I digress

For next week, I am going to meet those goals.  That makes a total of 22 offers.  Hopefully, I’ll have another deal (or more) under contract.  One for twenty-two isn’t a bad average is it?  I don’t think so.

- Peace Out

Real Estate Monday

A week has passed and I’ll review my one-week goals due today:

Tasks:
1. Make at least 10 offers on properties listed on MLS – FAIL
2. Brush up on REO literature so I can start making REO offers too – PASS
3. Distribute my new door hangers with brochures to select Urbana neighborhoods – FAIL
4. Find more cash-buyers (section 8 landlords, find past cash buyers in MLS, members of Central Illinois Apartment Association) – PASS
5. Put something together for a CraigsList nationwide cash-buyer campaign – FAIL

At first I thought this was a short list, but there are plenty of details that go into each task.  As far as the goals that I passed, I’ve been reviewing my REO Rockstar DVD’s every night.  That takes the place of any recreational TV watching (not like I did that anyway).  I’ve got a list of Section-8 landlords, landlord members of the Central Illinois Apartment Association, and still need to get some MLS cash buyers.  But I’ve got over 150 contacts so far that I may be able to add to my cash-buyer list.  I’ve got some emails, some mailing addresses.  I’m going to be professional with this task and send out a formal letter via USPS mail.  The text of the letter is as follows:

Dear LandlordName,

My name is Justin McClelland and I’m a fellow real estate investor here in Champaign County Illinois, and I’m the owner of Schwaps.  I’m writing in effort to introduce myself as I’d be honored to make your acquaintance.

I wholesale single-family residential properties, primarily located in the cities of Champaign and Urbana, to cash buyers for 65-75% of Before-Repair-Value.  Granted that you are a landlord here in town, I presume that you’d like to be made aware of such deals when they come about.

If you are interested in being notified of these deals please contact me via any of the following methods:

217-555-5555 – Office
217-555-5555 – Mobile
217-555-5555 – Fax

You may also travel to the Schwaps company website and submit your property buying specifications online.  You may go directly to the page:

www.schwaps.com/LandlordNameGoesHere

I have enclosed a couple of business cards that you may keep on file and pass along to your associates.  Thanks you for your time, and I look forward to working with you.
Sincerely,

Justin McClelland
Owner

If I may say so myself (which I may), I think this letter is pretty good.  And the call-to-action with the various contact methods is ideal, in my opinion.  If they just want to call, they can.  But if their intrigued by the URL with their name in it, they’ll be taken to the 404 page for the Schwaps company website, which is actually a wholesale buyer sign-up page. Pretty slick right? I mean, if you received a letter that had a website link with your name in it, you’d check it out, I’m sure….I know I would.  Shout out to fellow BiggerPockets blogger Ben Roberts for that ingenious idea!

As far as the tasks that I failed to complete, I’ll just keep those as tasks to have done by next Monday.  Only 3 tasks, but they should keep me busy when combined with the other tasks I have to complete.  I have 20 new leads to follow up on that I received over the weekend.  One of which is SMOKING hot, more details on that in the future.  And I have about 5 older leads that I need to follow up on.  In short, I have ALOT to do.  So in closing, I’ll summarize my tasks scheduled for completion by next Monday.

Tasks:
1. Make at least 10 offers on properties listed on MLS
2. Distribute my new door hangers with brochures to select Urbana neighborhoods
3. Put something together for a CraigsList nationwide cash-buyer campaign

- Peace Out

Real Estate Cash Buyer, MLS, Monday, REO