It’s been 5 months since I quit the J-O-B and I’m still breaking some of the habits that I had when I did when I was employed. The main habit being, not picking up the phone to talk to people (habit was formed by being restricted to actual j-o-b related activities while at work).
So, I was talking to a wholesaler in Saint Louis not too long ago and he was telling me that he usually drives for dollars frequently and when he finds a property that looks distressed or vacant he does a 411 search and gives them a call. And to perform 411 searches for free he switched wireless carriers (otherwise it’s $1.79 per call…at least it’s that way with Sprint). He has his phone service through Cricket Wireless just for this free feature.
Just as I was thinking to myself…”I’m going to get me one of those phones…cuz I want to do that too”. I came to my senses and did Google search for “Free 411″ and I came across the website Free411.com. I should’ve been using this site MONTHS AGO! One hour before I decided to make this post, I used the process explained in the video below to add two buyers to my roster and I have two appointments set for them to view a property that I have under contract. I think Free411.com is the way to go…direct-mail is expensive and far ineffective when compared to this.
I thought everyone already knew about this tool, but I guess not…there are only a handful of products that I fully endorse…and this is one of them. Bandit signs are one of the most effective ways of generating leads in any business. Real Estate is no exception.
Use the Sign Stapler, you can post your signs to any telephone pole in seconds. No ladders, no nails, no hammers. Most folks put signs in the ground with steaks. That’s a great option too, however you can expect at least 25% of your signs to be in various dumpsters within 48 hours. When you post your signs to telephone poles, while not as conspicuous as those in the ground, they’ll stay posted about 15x longer. It’s a trade-off…so it’s best to use a combination of both in-ground and on-pole.
I have one of these things and it’s pretty awesome. Check out this demo I put together for yall:
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.
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:
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.
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.
So I’m in Champaign, IL today cruising the streets looking at properties…checking what’s changed within the last few months, etc. So I’m in the so-called hood…and I see a guy with a buzz-saw and a trailer in the front-yard. A clear indicator that this was a rehab. The old-me was like, “keep driving, I’m hungry and I want some Jimmy Johns”. The new-me, was like, “yo punk-ass needs to stop this car…and quit acting like you ain’t trying to get this money”.
So I gets out the car. I gather my business portfolio, which contains business cards, notebook, pen, etc. I mentally rehearse what my opening line is going to be as I cross the lawn…
Him: What do you need Me: Hi, my name is Justin and… Him: The property is already rented Me: Uhm, I don’t want to rent your house, I’m an investor (do I look like I want to rent your piece of shit, you ass). I just wanted to introduce myself Him: Oh Ok. Me: Are you looking to buy more of these soon? Him: Yeah…if the price is right. Do you have a card? Me: Yes. Here you go. Was this one bank-owned? Him: I bought it at the sheriff sale Me: Ok. Is this a two-bedroom? Him: Yeah. Well I’ve got to get back to work now Me: Ok. Nice meeting you. (mental note: look-up what he payed for it)
So this was the dynamic of a spontaneous meeting with an investor, who was working on a property today. While I understand that this guy was a one-man-show and was busy with a full gut rehab, he really couldn’t care less about what I had to say. I coulda said, “Yo, Kim Kardashian is on the next street over washing cars in a string-bikini with a Sonicare toothbrush…and they’re giving away free kettle-popped popcorn, beer, and iPods for the first 5 spectators”. He probably still would’ve acted the same way. Oh well…go figure. While this interaction was a turn-off…I know that there are plenty other interactions that won’t be.
Moral of the story: Keep it moving. Stay Hustlin’
- I’m out
P.S.
I’ve been blogging since November 2008! Damn! I just realized this when I looked at my archives listing in the side-bar. Time flies
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…
Back to another week of the grind. I’m getting a slow start…feeling zapped of energy…can’t focus. Anywho, I went to the Wendy Patton full-day event on Saturday. It was pretty good…what I was awake for. I was that guy that I normally make fun of…like, “look at this lame who can’t stay awake…he’s going to fall out of that chair!” The truth is, I have a hard time sitting in one place for 8 hours without getting drowsy. Add to that, the fact that I stayed up all-night working the night before…and you’ve got a tragedy. But actually, I did pretty good. Just got drowsy towards the end after the lunch break.
The stuff Wendy went over was pretty cool and fairly simple. Her rule of thumb is, “if there is equity – Sandwich Option, if there isn’t equity – Wholesale Option”. Although sandwich lease options are way more lucrative than wholesale lease options, I’m not going to add that to the mix quite yet. Just going to stick to the wholesale of purchase contracts and lease with option-to-purchase contracts. There are a ton of people with no equity.
So after the seminar Saturday, I caught-up with my good friend that I’ve known since the 7th grade, he’s in town for a couple weeks. Anyway, we went out with some other friends from High School….and, let’s just say we went a little too hard in the paint. To be perfectly honest, that night reminded me of the movie “The Hangover” minus the tiger and the baby. Ridiculously eventful. I’m too old to be partying like that.
Anyway, I couldn’t get anything done on Sunday. Especially granted the fact that I got in at 5am. So as I lounged on Sunday, I caught up on some episodes of Boondocks online. And I think I saw what’s now my favorite episode. For you other fans out there, this episode was the one where Riley started hitting the streets selling candy bars for a charity that didn’t exist so to pocket the money. Below is my favorite part of that episode. That show cracks me up.
Today was a pretty productive day. One thing I’m realizing, is in this business, you almost have to be prepared to be on the phone a lot. The pattern I found is the more time I spend on the phone with homeowners, lenders, etc., the more productive the day is. For the longest, I was trying to get most work done via email…as I could communicate faster that way, do it on my own time, and I didn’t have to play phone tag. Welp, that shit doesn’t get you anywhere. People still like to build relationships and talk to you, they want to hear your voice, most times even meet you in person. It makes them feel at ease. None of these are personal preferences of mine…but again, I’m not the average bear. Sidenote* me just typing bear makes me want to drink a beer right now. I know, I know, you don’t get it. It’s not a joke or anything just a random correlation I have between the two words.
So, I spoke to hella people today. Called up a bunch of people that I’ve been emailing on CraigsList. I have verbal agreements on two more Lease/Option deals. Just need to get contracts drawn up and executed.
Spoke with a couple local banks in Champaign, in search for a bank that has a loan product that doesn’t require seasoning and can do a double-close. I’ve got one in St. Louis lined-up, but it’s a credit union. I’ll need to identify and call some credit unions in Champaign. Finding such loan products will allow me to flip short-sales to folks that aren’t cash-buyers.
Also today, I went to an investor meeting for the South Side Investment Club in St. Louis and they brought in Wendy Patton as a guest speaker. I’ve heard all about Wendy Patton and when I think Lease/Options, her name pops in my head. So since, I’ve added wholesale lease-options to the mix, I figured I’d go and possibly get some free info….It never fails what you gain by going to these things. I got a bunch of good tips about lease options (finding them, finding buyers, working with Realtors, etc) and found a title company that can do simultaneous closings and double closings, so that’s a plus. Joe McCall was at this same meeting, turns out he was/is a student of Wendy’s. She’s having an all-day seminar this Saturday, that I going to check out. Especially since it’s only $30 per pair. Me and the guy (new wholesaler I met) I sat next to in the meeting split it. And yeah, that’s another plus, I met yet another wholesaler at this meeting. Should get some good, useable information from this meeting. Wendy said one of her students wholesales lease-options in Chicago from India. Does like 30K/month in profit. On his website, she said he has over 100 properties. I need to find out what the address of that site is, now that I think of it.
Lastly, I blogged last October about using Mozenda to screen-scrape CraigsList. I said I was going to do it and then, some wise-guy left this comment…truthfully it kind of scared me away at the time: (click image to go to actual post)
The guy who left that comment, turned out to either own, or have a major hand in some technology company that develops MLS software. So you could say he was a bit biased (which most “whistle-blowers” are. I.E. if you haven’t had a Realtor threaten to report you to your state’s department of regulation because they don’t understand that “wholesaling” isn’t illegal…you will) the more technology grows and software advances, the less powerful the MLS is…then he’ll be making Big Mac’s at your nearest McDonald’s…I’m sure that’s what inspired his comment. Anyway, after checking into it…scraping CraigsList is INDEED against their terms-of-service. But the true question is….drum roll please…..”who really gives a shit?” You take a risk with bandit signs…I’m going to take a risk with screen-scraping. It’s just that simple. I actually spoke with Joe McCall about a month ago and he told me that his coaching students get access to his personal CraigsList screen-scrapers! So, if he’s doing it…how many other big-money gurus are doing it? Funny thing is almost EVERYONE breaks the rules, whether it’s a big or small rule. I don’t care what anyone tells you! Ever wonder how some short-sale investors get crazy ridiculous low BPO’s?! I’m just sayin’. I don’t endorse illegal behavior, I’m just saying sometimes you have to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. This post was way longer than I planned…I’m OUT!
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:
Operation “Train for 
