Yo, so I’m checking in once again.  I have a few updates in this wacky world of Real Estate.  But first, I have to burn a few bridges first.  Yep that’s right…I said it.  I burn bridges…whomever said “one should never burn bridges because you don’t know when you’ll have to cross them” was a sissy.

So apparently, I’ve pissed off all of the Champaign County Realtors over the last two weeks due to the practice of blind offers.  I don’t see what the problem is.  Basically, if I know a property has been listed over 150-200 days…I’ll make an offer on it.  Most times this offer is substantially less than what the seller is asking.  BFD!  If there’s seller motivation, then cool, if not, then reject it…this shit isn’t that complicated.

However, a few Realtors that I’ve come across have found it very complicated.  They have balked at my offers and latched onto anything that they could logically object to.  The main question being, “Where did you find the Champaign County Realtor contract”?  My answer being “Google that sh!t”.  See, most Realtors in Champaign, object to any buyer, sans Realtor, using their MLS contract.  Apparently, it’s copy-written and only to be used by members of the Board of Realtors.  The real truth is that Realtors in Champaign object to any buyer, sans Realtor, using their MLS contract for offers substantially less than list price.  I was doing them a favor by completing the contract prior to offer submission.  I guarantee that if my “blind” offers where for 100% of list price, no Realtor would say a word.  They’d just collect their dual-agency commission check and STFU (Google that if necessary and get your acronym game up).

I’ve already psychoanalyzed these folks and came to this conclusion.  Realtors have the legal/ethical obligation to present ‘all’ offers to their client, the seller (in this case).  I took the same classes they did, so I know this.  Therefore, when a guy like me comes around and offers substantially less than the list price, the Realtor hates it!  The main reason being that their client, the seller, is looking at them in the face while they regurgitate my low number. They probably get cursed out. HA!  Sucks to be a Realtor!  I wouldn’t want to do that either.  One of the many reasons I’m not a Realtor.  The seller is going to blame the Realtor, not me, some guy they’ve never met.  But oh well, this comes with the territory and is part of what they signed-up for.  If they want to change their career path, Wal-Mart is always hiring for 3rd shift.

I talked to my lawyer about this issue and it was agreed that this town is just to small for my strategy in this regard.  Everyone knows too much about each other and it hinders business in some cases.  But it’s all good.  I’m still going to make it do what it do, in Champaign and beyond!

“I thought I told you that we won’t stop, I thought I told you that we won’t stop”

*Disclaimer*
All Realtors aren’t lame, just the ones that read this and take offense.

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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

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Real Estate, offers Contract, Google, Multiple Listing Service, Real estate broker, Wal-Mart