From reading other people's blogs, I've found that I get a lot out of reading about what others have learned from past deals. The lead that I talked about in the last few posts fell to the grave. The investor I gave the lead to gave the owners a "fair Cash Offer" that I later found out insulted them. When we tried to call them back they wanted nothing to do with us and thought we were all in cahoots. Any way I did learn some things that I would like to share..

1. As a newbie investor, just setup an appointment to go see the house whether it's a deal or not.
   
   I say this because it's great practice dealing with people. You can see how their situation affects them personally which is a great learning opportunity. You learn how to deal with them, what you can say to put them at ease and what not to say. I think I did pretty well when I went out to their house. I had them walk me through the place and let them talk. My one problem was that you could tell they were attached to the house, the home they grew up in. They shared a lot of memories with me.
   They wanted to sell the place, but you could tell it wasn't going to be easy for them...which probably means they weren't going to "let it go" for cheap. At least not yet.
   
   
2. When Bird Dogging, only deal with 1 or 2 investors.
   
   You don't want to be passing your leads off to different people. Work with one or two people only. This gives you the opportunity to really learn what they are looking for and how they operate. You build trust! When I passed the lead to someone I've never met I had no idea what this guy payed, what he was looking for or how he'd handle the owners. I'll never know what would have happened if I passed the lead to 1 of my 2 trusted partners, but I do know that it is not a deal now!
   
   
3. Be more patient
   
   I was so worried about getting the owners their offer quickly, that I didn't wait long enough for my trusted investors to get back to me. I waited less then 24 hours before I was sending out emails looking for someone else to take the lead. This hurt me I believe.
   
   
4. I can do this!
   
   Even though the deal didn't happen, I've gotten a lot more confidence in myself and my ability to handle new leads that come in. This lead forced me to talk to other investors and learn how some of them take action. All in all I'm taking away very many positives from this "failed" lead.
   
   

I hope this post helps out someone who is just starting out!

Later..