So I’ve completed my tour of door-to-door knocking in Champaign…for now.  I hit up 33 homes in 3 days.  I got to most of the pre-foreclosure list today (Saturday), as the previous two days…I limited myself to the after-work hours to door-knock.  Which was typically between 5pm and 8pm.  I don’t know if that’s the correct logic…as most homeowners in distress may not be working anyway.

But so far, I’ve got some interesting results to share…however I’m going to wait until the dust settles a bit before I share the results with my Exclusive Members.  There are just a few more procedures that I have to complete.  Then, I’ll share it all…including my new Brass-Balls tactic.

So I’ve been winning small-battles lately.  Today I got over the fear of approaching homeowners when they’re outside in their yard.  Most homeowners, overall, aren’t as pissed as I thought they’d be.  I think a part of it has something to do with wearing a shirt and tie versus appearing like “Joe the Plumber”.  One guy today thought I was from his bank.  Most ebooks and Courses will tell you to dress-down.  However, most of those authors don’t have to overcome the fact of being a random black-guy, unannounced on someones door-step…just keeping it real…as always.

I was asked on Facebook what eBook I used as a guide for this door-knocking.  Here’s the link to Jason Lucchesi’s blog, I watched the video in the link of him and Nathan Jurewicz and I believe the opt-in link for the eBook and PowerPoint I used is disclosed in that video.

A positive I noticed today is that while doing all of that damn driving from house to house…you are by default “Driving for Dollars” too.  I was able to take down quite a few addresses of houses that caught my eye.

- I’m out, got work to do

P.S.
I figured out a new trick. When working and you don’t feel like doing anymore, take a break from what you’re doing but still do something that is constructive.  Like in a few minutes, I’m going to get signed up with TubeMogul…tedious stuff…there are like 25 different syndicate sites to sign-up for…all individually.

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

I’ve door-knocked for short-sales for two days now.  And honestly after getting that first one out of the way…it isn’t that bad (ok, ok, you got me…I couldn’t keep a straight face while even typing that…it still sucks…but it just sucks a little bit less now).  But I now have a better feel for the approach on these things after some practice.

For the homeowners’ that actually answered the door when I showed up, all of them said that they were in the middle of working a loan-mod.  Now that I know that loan-mod’s aren’t always approved, I now know I should inquire what the plan is in the instance that the loan-mod fell through.

I can’t lie…I’m getting good at this mayne!  However, call me weird…but I still feel odd approaching the homeowner if I see them outside of their house doing yardwork….or better yet, if I see like 4 cars in the driveway it feel awkward.  Can you imagine entertaining company and I show up?!  LOL.

So, I was chatting with a wholesaler in Saint Louis about a month ago…and he spilled the beans on a technique that he uses to get in touch with homeowners that are hard to track down.  It takes someone with brass-balls to pull this off…and I’m that dude…I’m past the point-of-no-return!  So as of yesterday, I decided to implement that technique myself.  I’m going to do it for the folks on my foreclosure list that weren’t home or just plain don’t answer the door (yes, some folks make it obvious that they’re not going to answer the door, while you can tell they’re at home).  I’m going to keep it under-wraps here publicly…but if you sign-up for access to my Exclusive Content, I’ll share it within the next few days.  And I tell you what…I’ll even throw-in the script that I’ve been using on these door-knocking short-sale adventures.  So sign-up for the free goods.

Thus far, I haven’t had any horror stories associated with door-knocking.  But this episode was the worst thus-far:

Door-Knocking Audio

This guy, literally didn’t look me in the eye at all when he came to the door.  I think he was more nervous than I ever was.  Oh well.  Hopefully he responds to the follow-up letter I send.

Just in case you didn’t see yet (on facebook) how nervous I was before my very first door-knocking episode, you can check it out here:

On a positive note, I have a short-sale going right now in Champaign.  This lady fell on hard times and has already moved away.  So the property is vacant.  I thought about doing a home-tender arrangement, but it may not be necessary.  Because the property was listed for only 3 days and I have a buyer in place already!  The following is an email from my Realtor:

Justin,

Wow, this one was much more popular than I expected.  This is the most and fastest activity I have had on a listing all year.

C’mon son…all year!  I’m almost kicking myself because I think I priced it too low.  However, I priced it to find a cash buyer in less than 30 days and…I did.  So no need to be greedy.  All I need now is for the bank to play ball.  If they do…awesome.  If they don’t hopefully…this door-knocking will get me some more.  So it’s all to the G-mo.

- Peace Out

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

So I’ve been doing my short-saling lately in effort to get more short-sales underway.  The more the better, as I don’t think anyone has a 100% success rate with these.  So yesterday, I decided to follow-up with a short-sale prospect from last winter.

This lady back in December was gung-ho about moving forward with the short-sale and then when it came time to sign the contracts she stopped answering my calls.  Then when I finally got in touch with her by about February, she said that she wanted to hold-off because she felt like she was going to get current with her payments.  Since she had gone through cycles of getting behind a few months and catching up, I didn’t doubt her (too much).

So I talked with her yesterday and asked her how everything was going, because I had spontaneously remembered that the bank was scheduled to foreclose in late summer, but I didn’t have the exact date.  When we start talking I ask her how she had been and everything…and asked if she got her house situation taken care of.  She told me that she didn’t and she ended up losing it…she got foreclosed-on about two weeks ago.  She then said, “I should’ve called you“.  This case was unfortunate.  I mean…I used to blow her phone UP…It was obvious that she was screening my calls.  I just imagined her eating a bag of Doritos on the couch with a jug of Kool-Aid…watching Maury…the phone would ring…she leans over and looks at the caller-id…she’d yell to her kids “LET IT RING!”.  I guess you can’t help someone if they don’t want to be helped.

And for the future, if I find someone in that situation again, I should probably add a contract addendum that states the homeowner can nullify the contract if the mortgage is brought current.  That way, I can still get the contract and move forward.  Oh well, I learned from it, and now I know for next time.

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I just got off the phone with Wells Fargo and I must say that I’m kind of surprised at the quick pace of this short-sale.  I submitted the package in full just one week ago.  So, I called in today to confirm their receipt of my authorization-to-release information letter…and these tricks said, “we don’t have one on file”.  So, I was like…here we go.  I told them I sent it in twice (to the dedicated fax number for authorization-to-release info docs).  The call-center guy goes on to say, “I see the one you sent, but the print is to light…you need to submit it again and make sure it’s darker…I can give you the number to the short-sale department, but you’ll need to re-fax and check back after 48 hours.

Then I remembered that I also included the authorization letter in my short-sale packet fax.  So, I call up the short-sale department and they received it just fine.  I was like…I’ll be damned.  I’m going to start doing that from now on.  Just send it to both departments.  So, I’m speaking with the call-center gal in the short-sale department and she tells me that they received the SS package and that at this time they don’t need anything else from me.  “WOW” I thought to myself.  She then went on to tell me that the BPO should be ordered within the next 7 days.  “WOW” again.  Maybe the third time is a charm…we’ll see.  Or maybe the first two Short-sale’s would’ve moved just as fast had I submitted (more than) everything they required from the first Fax.  That’s probably the real answer.  A BPO in two weeks versus a BPO in like eight weeks last time is lighting fast.  I now need to rush to find a BPO agent…and I still need to find a Home-Tender for the place.  Has anyone ever used a Home-Tender?  Or been one themselves.  A Home-Tender being someone to occupy the house during the Short-Sale.  Gives it a better lived-in look for showings and reduces vandalism and such.  There wouldn’t be a lease involved, but you can also charge a Home-Tender for their stay and make a few bucks on the side.

On a different note, the lady who’s houses I got under (option) contract for $500…has been harassing me as of two days ago.  She left me a few voicemails saying “I’m unprofessional”…”she’s starting to get pissed off”…etcetera etcetera.  She’s mad because I haven’t been calling her every few days to give her a progress report or something.  The option was for 60 days and this is only like the 45th day.  I mean I could’ve communicated with her more, but I wasn’t obligated to.  Besides, I found that you can’t GIVE those houses away.

1) They’re in the hood
2) They need way too much work
3) They’re tax delinquent
4) The taxes in that neighborhood are sky high

So, of course I didn’t know all of these facts before I put the option on them.  But isn’t that what options are for?  Plus, Lawrence (my mentor) told me to get them listed.  Trying to find an agent that worked that area was ridiculously difficult.  Then when I did find one, all of the back taxes, plus the (reduced) commission, plus the house, etc. was too much for anyone to want to buy.  So long story-short…I mailed the lady her keys back yesterday.  And I sent a nice little letter explaining to her why I was doing so.  It was very professional letter.  But really….my feelings were…”good luck getting rid of those pieces of shit…your best bet is to let them go to tax sale.”  Besides, I don’t have time for disgruntled people.  Those folks get cut out of my life real quick.

I’m going to head to Champaign in the next few days and I’m going to do something that I’ve hesitated to do for a long time.  And it’s something that most people are scared to do as well.  But, I hear it is HIGHLY effective.  Don’t worry, I’ll let you know how it goes…and I’ll have video too.

Peace Out

P.S.
Operation “Train for Chicago Monster“, isn’t going so well.  I’ve been running, but I haven’t been eating right.  I need to get on that.  I’m also supposed to be strength training…haven’t done any of that.  But, I’ma get on it.  I’m also going to get some ab straps.  I highly suggest these things if you’re trying to work your core.  Hurts like a bitch, but  I used these religiously at the gym last winter…and I was something like an action-figure… not so much the case anymore.  I’ll get it back…

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• Short Sale Tip # 6: Controlling The BPO (realestateradiousa.com)

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

I skipped WTF Wednesday this week and I have got some short-sale stuff to talk about tonight.  But before I begin, did you know that they shot the 3rd season of Jersey Shore already?  I mean really?!  Really (said with SNL sarcasm).  MTV…Really!? The 2nd season was shot in Miami and the 3rd season is back in Jersey.  I mean aren’t they going to run out of stuff to do?  Sounds like a classic case of deja vu.  Anyway, don’t get me wrong…that show is soooo entertaining.  Fake tans, hair gel, hook-ups, and fist fights.  I mean does it get any more entertaining than that?  It’s almost ashamed to say I’m a fan of that show.  But, to know that a lot of Italian-American’s despise that show…makes me grin a little bit inside to be honest.  Because, now they know first-hand how a lot of black folks feel about a lot of shows on BET and UPN.  Embarrassing ain’t it?

But anywho, back to making money.  So, I just submitted the 34 page fax for the short-sale package that I picked up a few days ago.  I’m starting to really understand this whole short-sale game, I should since this is the 3rd go-round.  Also, this homeowner is much more cooperative than the other two, which is a huge plus.  It wasn’t like pulling teeth when asking for information and documentation.  This house is mortgaged by Wells Fargo.  I called them up and asked what they required.  They said:

-Financial Worksheet (signed with loan #)

- Hardship Letter

- Copies of paycheck stubs (last 30 days)

- If unemployed – copies of benefits

- copy of 2009 Tax Returns

- Copy of listing agreement

- Copy of Purchase Agreement

- Copy of Pre-lim HUD

- Copy of POF

This house is in Champaign and the owner is moving to Ohio.  And she’s moving out in less than two weeks.  Since this house will be vacant during the entire short-sale period, I’m going to take a new approach so that it’s less likely to get vandalized like last time.  This new approach is to use a Home Tender, this would be someone that would occupy the place and keep it up, they would pay a fee to stay there on a week to week basis, however the arrangement would not be a landlord/tenant relationship.  They would be contractually obligated to furnish the property and keep it clean, grass cut, etc.  I was even thinking that I myself could be that Home Tender, but I’m thinking I’d rather find someone else.  Not feeling the idea of paying utilities, cutting grass, and living in Champaign again…especially after being back in STL…it’s like night and day.

So, today while finishing up my short-sale package, the last thing that I needed to do was to complete the preliminary HUD-1.  The last time I paid my lawyer to complete it.  Or rather his assistant did it.  Either way I figure it cost about $50.  So today, my broke-ass needed a way to get it done for the low-low.  I thought about doing it myself, but if you’ve seen one of those HUD-1′s before, you’d know it’s confusing as hell.  If you do them all the time, piece of cake.  But if you don’t…that thing might as well be Calculus.  No, but seriously it’s more like an accounting ledger…and I hate accounting…credit this….debit that.  For the birds I tell you!  So I remember being on John Michailidis’ blog (I think he’s been chilling off the grid for a moment now) and seeing an ad for DIY HUD-1 software.  So I go to the site, which is called EasyHud.com and the software which was normally $27/month, was free!  Don’t know what the deal was…and not sure if it will be free indefinitely…but it surely is free right now.  So check it out.  I got my HUD-1 done in like 5 minutes.

Side note: I just happened to check out the blog of the owner of EasyHud.com and he posted this video about short-sales and bankruptcies, a Q and A with an attorney out of Indiana.  Since I’ve run across this subject with one of my past deals gone wrong, I felt it was appropriate to share here, as bankruptcies and short-sales together are quite a confusing duo:

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

Lately, I’ve been spending more and more time behind this computer.  It’s a necessary evil I guess.  Now that I’ve added Lease/Option Wholesaling to my bag of trix, I’ve been very busy.  I’ve just revised my property blog to work hand in hand with Aweber.  That sounds very simple, but setting up Aweber with WordPress can be very tedious.  Especially when you’re segregating subscribers into multiple lists…pain in the @ss if you ask me.

So it’s 1:26am and I’m at the coffee shop again.  I wish there was another 24 hour spot to go to in St. Louis, because I’d go to it.  When school is back in session, I probably start going to the Washington University library…last I checked that was 24-7.  There are some straight-up weirdo’s that come to this place.  Add that with the fact that this is one of the last cities to ban indoor smoking.  I think I just second-handed the equivalent of a full pack of Marlboro Lights tonight.

I still have more work to do with my Lease/Option situation though.  I’ve got some good leads off of CraigsList.  CraigsList is kind of a big-deal.  As far as generating a continuous stream of leads, CraigsList alone can get you that.  You just have to stay on top of it.  Which is what I’m struggling to do.  I think if I focus on CraigsList and bandit signs for now, I’ll have more than enough leads.  Which brings me to my next update.  Just picked up a new short-sale.  This lady called me from a sign that I posted over 3 months ago.  I need to put some more of them out…damn I hate putting those signs out!  To anyone else who does this, do your legs get sore from hopping in and out of the car 100 times in one night.  Damn near feels like I went to the gym after I put signs out.  Anyway…gotta do it.  You may be wondering, what kind of sign stays posted since Spring, I’ll let you in on that secret soon.  Sign-up for my exclusive content.

Lastly, I just wanted to share my satisfaction with my new 4G air-card that I got for my laptop.  It’s by Clear.

I switched from my Spring 3G/4G aircard about 2 weeks ago after they tried to stick me up.  Apparently there is a 5 gig limit for Sprints aircard and each megabyte afterwards is like 5 cents. Anyway, they think I owe them $1,200!  I’ve already talked them down quite a bit, but this looks like it will take some time to get straightened out.  So I canceled the contract and jumped ship.  With Clear, there is no contract, no limit and it’s all 4G speed.  Haven’t had a problem yet.  The guys at the wireless shop tell me that Sprint actually leases their 4G network from Clear.  That was completely random.  In a nutshell, Clear is the sh!t.

I’m outtie

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

Here we go with volume 5 of this WTF! Wednesday series.  I swear I am running into every possible road block ever conceived in this Real Estate game.  So check this shit out.  I received word last week that the two Champaign properties, which were held-up due to a bankruptcy, were clear to close from my Realtor.  Apparently, bankruptcies take forever and a day to resolve, as these properties were put under contract in February.  So I start making calls and getting things ready for the closing of one of them.

Everything was going smoothly, I went to follow-up with the bank that held the note on the two properties.  The reason being that their original approval letter was vague due to the fact that it didn’t specify what the payoff amount was.  As a matter of fact, I’ll give you exactly what this letter said:

February 18, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

Please allow this letter to serve as notification of approval for the [Jon and Jane Doe], to sell property located at [1234 Main Street] and [4321 Main Street] both located in Champaign.  Should you have any questions, please contact me at [217-222-2222].

Sincerely,

[Deez Nuts]
Assistant Vice President

So, as you see, this letter is completely vague.  So I made a call to the bank, to request a more specific letter per my lawyers instruction.  See email chain:

—Message Reply—

Justin,

They need to specify the amount of money they agree to receive in exchange for releasing their mortgage on the subject property (i.e., a specific payoff amount).

—Original Message—

[Lawyer],

I guess it’s time to revisit the (vague) bank approval letter.  We spoke months ago about this and you said that once the time came I’d need a more detailed letter.  If you tell me what is specifically needed in the approval letter, I can contact the bank and request what I need.

So I give the bank a call and get connected to the Assistant Vice President that drafted the original letter.  I proceed to request that I need a more specific approval letter.  He then proceeds to tell me that the sellers no longer own the properties and that they deeded them both back to the bank.  And there is no way that he was going to sell for the 30K price I had each under contract for! (and dude kinda copped an attitude)

I was completely baffled by that statement, I thought everything was going smoothly and now this.  First thing I always do in these situations is play “devils advocate”.  So after the phone conversation, I begin to brainstorm how this “deed in lieu” could legally have been done.  These are the points I’m able to come-up with:

• Bankruptcy actions supersede any previous contracts
• Contracts were expired

Those are the only pro-bank arguments that I can think of.  Now onto what matters, the pro-Justin arguments.  Here are my arguments:

• I was able and willing to close (in March) before contracts expired
• I had the required 3rd party bank-approval (in February) before contracts expired
• I made numerous efforts to update contracts with seller (once in April and in May)

As I write this, I’m still waiting to hear back from my lawyer on this issue.  But, the realistic part of my brain is thinking that pro-bank bullet point #1 is what may be true.  Perhaps, bankruptcy actions overrule in this matter.  The emotional side of my brain is thinking “F#&K You, Pay Me” (cool points to who can name the movie with that quote).  But anywho, this is a stellar example of why I must increase my lead quantity and concurrent deals in the works.  When you’re counting on one deal, it’s almost guaranteed to fall through.

Even if there was some illegal foul-up on behalf of the bank or the seller, it would most likely cost more time and money to correct.  And if it involves court-action, I can forget about it.  These aren’t marginal deals, but court costs aren’t feasible.

I’m curious to hear if anyone else has experienced something similar, or if you have any expertise on the matter.  Please provide your input in the comments.

- Justin

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

Last week I had to pull out of 3 properties that I had under contract. I knew going into these that they were marginal in nature, I was expecting to make a 2K spread on each one. The reason that they were so marginal was that the owners owed too much to the bank on each house. All three properties had the same owner and were in Foreclosure, however the lender wouldn’t consider a short-sale. The properties were owned by a husband and wife…soon to be ex-husband and ex-wife and the bank felt that the husband’s income at his 9-5 was too high to qualify them for a short-sale. This divorce/foreclosure situation is A LOT more messy than I’m explaining, so I’m just giving the core details.

So I felt like I’d take a stab and them and see if I could move them. I had some interest from the cash-buyer roster that I have in Champaign. But not quite the same response that I had with earlier properties. In the end, after about 6 weeks I pulled the plug, with no contracts assigned. This cancellation was after one contract extension already. I felt it was best to cut my losses (marketing dollars, effort, time, etc.) and focus on other deals. Sadly, they’ll probably get foreclosed on, the bank will buy the property back at auction, list it high with an REO agent and eventually accept a very low offer (perhaps it will be mine). I guess that’s how it goes sometimes….

The moral of this story for me was to never take on marginal deals when your gut is telling you you’re buying too high and so they’re priced too high wholesale. This would’ve been a different story had I had a buyer lined-up that was willing to pay the price I was asking. In that case, 6K for just a few hours of work isn’t bad. But in my case, even if these deals did go through, it would’ve been a total of 6K for hours and hours and hours spent….too much like a job.

No more ‘marginal’ deals for me. Not worth it.

- Peace

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

So I will maxin and relaxin yesterday and cooking up some heart-attack food (fried chicken and french fries) before the super-bowl and I get a call from the owners of the “wholesale deal from hell” (that’s its’ new name).  I said I wasn’t going to blog about it anymore but…..I lied.  The sellers called to arrange a meeting so that perhaps something could be worked out.  Just as a refresher, this deal is the one where I negotiated a short-sale as their 10K property was upside-down by 60K dollars.  After the short-sale was negotiated, the liens were reduced to the sum of 9K, which took all of the sellers’ proceeds.  I spoke with other local investors about this and one resolution is to write-up a bill-of-sale for the personal property inside the of the house in the amount of what’s negotiated between the seller and buyer.  So for instance, a bill of sale could be written for 9K for the personal property in the house, as that was the original agreed sale price of the house.

Apparently, this is a common practice in this unique situation.  However, it sounds fraudulent as hell to me.  I mean, if not, then why wouldn’t ALL short-sale investors do this to compensate pre-foreclosure sellers.  Maybe they do…do they?  My buyer that the contract was assigned to is willing to shell-out another 7K, if I shell-out 2K.  It’s not a problem for me, but I’m going to run this by my lawyer first.

Welp, off to the 9-5

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale

It’s been a while since my last post and a lot has gone down.  I’m going to change my Accountability Mondays to Accountability Tuesdays.  Mondays are just way too busy for me.

So to address the “40 offer/week” goal that I’ve had for the past 4 weeks.  I still haven’t reached it.  HOWEVER, next week it should be reached.  This is quite a lofty goal that is definitely obtainable, but not easily however.  I’ve almost perfected the process that I have in place to efficiently make these offers.  I definitely could’ve made the 40 offers in a manual fashion, but that’s just not my style.  I HATE to work HARD and NOT SMART.  That’s just plain dumb!  I’m sure you’ve heard the Abe Lincoln quote:

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

I couldn’t agree more.  Spend the first four hours sharpening the axe and you could probably chop down 3 additional trees with the last two hours that you have to work.

I spoke once before about the system I’m creating for my offers to expired MLS listings.  I got hung-up for about a total of 8 hours on an Excel spreadsheet that would recognize my VLOOKUP function (if you’re an Excel pro, get at me, I’ll pay you).  I think there’s a bug in Excel that’s preventing me from doing what I want, so I’m transitioning towards the use of a SQL database.  I’ll then be able to write some queries that will spit out my data to a spreadsheet and then, I’ll get my mail-merge on.  *The geeks that are reading this, know what I’m talking about.*  If you don’t know, I suggest finding someone who does so you can work smart too.  So anyway, I say all of that to say, “I haven’t reached my 40 offer goal yet, keeping the same goal for next Tuesday”. Broken record I know.  But if you’re meeting ALL of your goals everytime, their not set HIGH enough.  There, I just made myself feel better.

Onward an upward. So on a positive note, I’ve progressed quite a bit in other facets of my business.  I’ve acquired an additional Realtor to include in my inner-circle.  This is actually a big-deal, because she is a Realtor that has numerous ties to investors in California.  I mentioned a while ago, my efforts to obtain cash-buyers that invested in a new condo construction near the U of I campus.  Well, this Realtor actually sold about half of the units in the complex and still corresponds with many of the out of state investors she sold to.  Her and her brokerage has a working relationship with the Marshall Reddick Real Estate Network in California.  We met on Saturday and discussed ways that we can work together in the future.  Basically, if she can bring me a cash buyer from her network, we’ll split deals down the center.  This is good.

Also, I met with one of the sellers from the everlasting wholesale deal #1.  I could tell that he was beginning to avoid my phone calls, so I got him to agree to a meeting with me.  Preparing for this meeting took an entire Saturday morning and the meeting went down Monday evening.  It turns out, he was just severely confused about the entire situation.  Confusion leads to frustration and  speculation.  Not good.  I explained all of the details with his liens and all of the options that he (doesn’t) have with this property.  I inundated him with information and had an answer to each of his rebuttals.  Following the meeting, I could see the defeat in his face.  He now really realizes he’s not going to see any money from this deal because it’s essentially a short-sale.  I meet with his Sister Wednesday night.  Once I explain everything to her, I should be able to speed this thang up and avoid any possibilities of legal action (specific performance suits, i.e. more time sans check).  By the way, I feel like a Realtor with all of this hand-holding.  It SUCKS to be one of them! I’m not holding your hand, I don’t know you like that!  In the future, I’m going to avoid these types of small, complex deals like people with halitosis (you thought I was going to say the plague, right).

And lastly, I met with the distressed landlord who wants to short-sale his rental.  I picked up 90% of the paperwork today and will return on Thursday to get the rest.  This guy is the epitome of a distressed seller.  And since he is an investor, I barely had to explain anything to him.  He pretty much knows how it works and is educated about what a foreclosure can do to his FICO.  His main motivation is to preserve his credit.  I wish all sellers could be like this.  Hopefully, I can get many more short-sales in the pipeline.  This is the second short-sale lead that I “stumbled upon”.  I can’t wait to start marketing to pre-foreclosures with a REAL effort.

And lastly (for real this time), I had my second meeting with a future business partner for a Tax Lien investing company.  I’ll reiterate that the Tax Lien/Tax Deed investing game is supremely slept-on.  Most investors who invest in these most likely don’t tell anyone and keep it a secret.  But, I don’t care, I’m going to start sharing it all.  After watching a fellow Champaign investor write a check for $560,000 at last years lien sale, I know this is something worth exploiting.  Me and my biz partner are going to create money out of air.  The plan is to borrow money and invest the borrowed money into Tax Liens.  We’ll profit the spread between the cost of the money borrowed and the net proceeds from the lien penalties whether redeemed or foreclosed.  Simple as that!

- Peace Out

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Driving for Dollars, Short Sale brass balls, door knocking, driving for dollars, Short Sale