You ever have a long list of stuff to do and you know what’s a top priority, however you start with the stuff you feel like doing?  That’s what I face all of the time.  On one hand, at least you’re getting stuff done…but on the other hand, priorities are priorities for a reason.

Anyway, since I’ve been making to do lists every night before sleep, I’ve doubled my production.  Nothing like seeing your list with all check-marks on it, right.  Even though I get my lists accomplished now, I still struggle with doing the stuff I don’t feel like doing at the time I need to do it.  I’m getting better at it though.

Like right now, I’m on my way out the door to get some boxes from Wal-Mart (you know how they stock shelves in the middle of the night).  If I don’t leave to go get them now, I won’t be able to put any signs out this weekend.  Trick off this task and I waste a week of advertising.  Also, as a side note, I’ve got an idea about these signs that I’m not sure has been done before.  I may post about this later.

I made a post to BiggerPockets for the first time in a long time.  The article is about using a software called ShortKeys.  It’s awesome for automating some repetitive keystrokes, check it out.

And my new found recreation is adding to my compilation of hot verses.  I spit hot fire…at least more so than Dylan.  Volume 2 of my mixtape just hit the streets, I got the hood going crazy….I’m so focused…that’s what’s up…real talk….check my swag…I’m so ill….okay, I just ran out of Hip-Hop buzz terms but you get where I’m coming from.

And speaking of the hood…remember when I was venting about some people would claim that Champaign had it’s “rough” areas…and I was like, there’s no such thing in Champaign?  Well anyway, yesterday I went to the hood for real.  A lady called me telling about two properties that she practically wanted to give away.  So I went to check them out…they were in Washington Park, IL….what I learned later to be the worst part of East St. Louis, IL.  I knew it was going to be bad, but damn!  Even my Mom tried to pull rank on me and tell me not to go.  I assured her that I wasn’t going to get shot in the day-time (not that I knew that for sure, it’s just what I told her).  These properties where in bad shape, but for practically free, I may be able to find someone to buy them.  It’s a long-shot though…this neighborhood is that bad.  The owner accepted my verbal offer of $500 each and it would be an option-contract (yes…$500).  Even with this negotiated, I’m not going to put too much time into this.  I’m learning as I go what to put the most effort into…this stuff will just sit on the back burner from the get-go.  And I guess your Mom always knows best…I don’t watch the news (intentionally) but I walked in on this story on the news this morning.  This happened less than 100 yards from the houses I looked at and less than 6 hours after I left from there.  Crazy stuff.

Anywho, on a positive note. Check out this hot flame:

J-Suave Mixtape v2

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/justinmcclelland.com/p=785 0 http://www.justinmcclelland.com/index.php/2010/02/40-option-contracts-a-week/ http://www.justinmcclelland.com/index.php/2010/02/40-option-contracts-a-week/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:45:03 +0000 Justin McClelland http://www.justinmcclelland.com/?p=623

Another week has passed and I spent about 15 hours working on my offer-making machine.  Good news; I’ve got it done and it’s ready to kick-out offers (on expired MLS listings).  Bad news; the Option-Contract that I was planning to enclose as part of my offer is garbage.

Originally, I was thinking of just mailing a short letter with a complete standard MLS contract.  Then I had a change of heart and felt the Keep-It-Simple-Stupid principle would be best.  So, I’m opting to send a short letter with an option-contract, perhaps the simplified approach will be better.  I had found this very simple Option-Contract on a forum about two weeks ago and I made some tweaks to it to fit my preferences.  I setup the mail-merge with it and my cover letter, I was feeling like the best thing that ever happened to real estate.  The best that ever did it.  So my gut told me just to shoot over the option-contract to my lawyer just to cover my bases…and I’m glad I did.  I received an email response that was about 5 paragraphs long, the cliff-notes basically explaining that the document was trash.  So…I’ll be stalled on the 40 offers until I get my shiny new option contract back from my lawyer.

The beautiful thing is that I have about 500 expireds to choose from.  I could just pace the offers at 40 each week or maybe just push out more per week to make up for lost time.  This has been a weekly goal for about a month now.

Once I have my new option-contract, perhaps I’ll post in detail of how I created this automated system I now have.  Surely at least one person may learn from it or get an idea for something better.

P.S.
I’m going to step-up my fitness regimen a bit.  I was looking at a measurement that I made back in January of 2009, and back then I had a weight of 210 lbs and percent body fat of 19%.  I then measured myself again about a week ago and now have a weight of 200 lbs and a percent body fat of 17.2%.  Not much of a change.  However, I haven’t really been pushing that hard with workouts.  It’s kind of hard to do so when you’re not specifically training for something.  Very hard.  I can’t wait until I have time for triathlons and such.

- Peace Out