Over the past few weeks I've made a concerted effort to try and talk with people in the Real Estate business instead of just reading posts and material on Investing. In doing so I can feel myself moving to the next step, at least mentally.

Last Friday I stopped by my friend's Parents house to say hello because I haven't seen them in a few months. His mom is an appraiser and runs her own business. What I didn't know is that she is also a broker and would be happy to hold my license (for a fee, but that is only fair) if I were to ever get it. I'm definitely leaning that way because I am already getting impatient with waiting on Realtors to send me listings. To keep myself sane I'm gonna have to be able to do that myself. Mrs Z, also said that I could come by her office anytime I wanted and use the MLS there. YES!

The one thing that does come with talking to people is the ney-saying. I'm learning to block all that out, but I wish my wife wasn't there to hear it sometimes. The last thing I need is for my wife to get REALLY scared about investing.

As for the rest of the weekend goes I didn't get much accomplished because of my brothers Engagement dinner on Saturday and my friends Carl and Tracy's wedding on Sunday. Both were a lot of fun, and it was great to be around family and friends all weekend celebrating. I'm truly happy for both couples!

Those obligations meant I only managed to go to two open houses this weekend, both actually condos. Surprising though there were very few open houses this weekend and none close by.


Rent Control Crap!

The more I learn about the rent control in Morristown, the less I'm wanting to invest there. It really puts a cap on potential earnings for landlords. This is the law in Motown

Morristown has Rent Control. Landlords are not allowed to raise rent
without first contacting the Rent Leveling Office, then on approval giving
tenant 60 days notice.

Barbara "The Realtor"

Barbara sent me four listings last friday that I took a look at this weekend. This was my take on them.

Parsippany Rd Homes (2 for $500k)

I am not a fan of the location. That is a very busy part of Parsippany rd with Rt 10 being right there, the post office and Billy's Red Room. One question I have, and maybe you know, how hard is it to combine two lots? In any event I'll pass on this, as all the homes I've seen that are in similar locations sit on the market for a long time and I can't take that chance right now.

18 Harrison St and 18 Cutler St

These multi's where ok, definately in need of some work which isn't a bad thing. I heard over the weekend that Morristown is rent controlled (surprised I didn't know this before, I guess I just never asked). So I have to do some research on that to see what the extent of the rent control is and how it would affect a future landlord.


Now, for anyone reading this would you make offers on any of these?

I don't have much to report today except I got my Generic Proof of Funds letter from Coastal Funding.




I also got my first legit response from one of my Craigslist Ads, all be it not from my buyers Ad but from my Realtor Ad I posted. Doreen seems a bit to busy to help out so I decided to hunt out some more realtor's to have in my back pocket just in case. Hopefully this one is more responsive.

Another weekend full of someone else's wedding stuff coming up...ugh, so sick of weddings!!

Last weekend went by in a blur! Not to mention I caught a cold and was sniffling, sneezing and coughing all weekend.



I did manage to get some things done amidst my DayQuil/NyQuil malaise I was in.

Money, Money, Money....Potential Money

I contacted Coastal Funding to try and get a generic proof of funds letter. I hear the turn around is about 48 hours, so hopefully I will get it by tomorrow. Doreen sent me the brokers information so I'm going to call him over lunch today and see what he can do for me. I'm also going to contact the broker who's a vendor member of my REIA group to see what programs they have. I still have to find the time to go see the local banks I've found, I wish banks stayed open later!!!

Other Things...

Bruce, the investor I met at the last GSREIA meeting mentioned another REIA group that seems to be less "Pitch" and more "Teach" called the Metro REIA. I did some research and it meets every 3rd monday of the month. I'm gonna go to the November 17th meeting to see how they are.

Metropolitan Real Estate Investors Association

I am also going to go talk with my friends Mom who is an appraiser. Maybe she can help me out with getting MLS access some how. Maybe I can be her "apprentice" :)

I also managed to go to 5 more open houses on Sunday. There was one house that could have some motivation as the kids have all grown and moved out so the parents bought a house down in the Carolinas. The Mrs has already moved down south, while the Husband stayed up north to try and sell the place. Family separation could make for a motivated seller. The house is on a major road which breaks one of my guidelines as being to risky right now for me. I'm seeing way to many houses on major roads just sitting there.

Anyway, have a good week!

OPEN HOUSE COUNT: 42

Yesterday ended up being a fairly productive day in terms of moving forward in my investing career.


Realtor

I called up Doreen and we talked for about 30 minutes. She sounds like she knows somethings about investing, she's done a short sale for a client and has in the past attempted to rehab and flip a condo. Hopefully her experiences will be helpful and not a detriment. She is going to give me the contact information for a mortgage broker that can provide me with a mortgage commitment. Now I'm not exactly sure how much of a commitment I can get, but I guess we'll see.

REIA Meeting

This was a very interesting meeting. As I mentioned in my last entry that there was a guest speaker, Terry Hale, who was going to be pitching his Commercial Real Estate Investing courses and bootcamp. The meeting was PACKED! All of the successful, big time investors where there as well. This guy was very believable and if I wasn't concentrating on wholesaling residential property right now, I'd definitely consider buying his course.

For most of the other "GURUS" that have come and pitched there products at these meetings my BS meter would go crazy, but for this guy it only had a few blips here and there. He sounded legit and I swear i heard his name before while watching the Apprentice a few years ago. I'll have to look that up. Anyhow, he had some good ideas and gave some really good tips on what to look for and how to turn properties into profit by being creative.

Two thumbs up for Terry Hale

Networking

At the meeting last night I met Bruce_NJ, from the flipping_homes forums. He had mentioned he was going to the meeting so we took advantage and met up. He is a real nice guy and knows what he is doing. After the meeting we talked for a bit and he shared some of his experiences with a few of his most recent deals. A good learning experience. I will say, that the more investors I talk to the more I realize they are all just like me, an average person. That thought gives me a lot of confidence in moving forward.

Networking Again

The other day I got a message from another Investor (Paul) through my "The Creative Investor" account, which I had just signed up for a few weeks ago. In the few emails that we've trading back and forth, Paul has already motivated me by asking me pointed questions like...

• Are you getting your phone ringing?
  
• Have you made any offers?
  
• What are you doing to move forward?
  
• What is your 90 day plan?
  

These questions really puts the "Analysis by Paralysis" investor on the spot. Its sort of like when you just graduated college and don't have a job yet and everyone keeps asking you..."So what kind of job did you get?" That question gets very embarrassing to answer after 6 months of "just looking" for a job and it motivates!!

Another tremendous thing that Paul did was he offered to help wean me off my analysis paralysis, he offered to get me a buyer and walk me through any deal I find and need help with. That includes using his contracts, attorneys, and title agencies if needed.


Things are moving forward and I'll be writing about my first successful deal very soon, I can feel it!

I was suppose to speak with Doreen (Realtor) last night regarding what we could do for each other, but she ended up getting stuck in an appointment till 9:30. I'll be giving her a call sometime before my REIA meeting tonight.

Tonight's REIA general meeting is going to have a guest speaker, Terry Hale "the Commercial Real Estate Expert." Never heard of the guy, but I haven't heard of many of the national gurus. The GSREIA seems to be really pushing this meeting so maybe this will be a good one and I'll learn something.

DAMN IT!!! I just remembered I forgot to bring my business cards so i could hand them out at the meeting tonight. I'd never make it home in time to pick them up. Note to self: Leave a box of business cards in my car.


Later...

haha...I'm just practicing my marketing headlines, did I intrigue you guys?

On my way to achieving my goal this month of sending out 10 offers, I've run into an initial road block.



Now it's not a big road block but it made me realize that I need to have Leads coming in!!! How do I submit offers on properties that I don't have knowledge of? Stupid me! I also realized I need the following...

1. A Realtor to Submit offers to REO's or any listed property
   
2. Get Pre Approved/Qualified
   
3. Create my sales letter to send out to my leads
   

I'm working on #1....I've got two potential Realtors that seem interested in working with me. Jay, the agent I met on my open house tour and Doreen the Realtor who was involved when I bought my condo last year.

#2...I've got a few potential sources.

• Coastal Funding
  
• One of the local banks in my previous post
  
• Some mortgage brokers that Doreen and Jay have used (I like the first two options better)
  

#3...I'm working on it while Reading Dan Kennedy's "Ultimate Sales Letter"



I hate that feeling of spinning my wheels and not getting any where. That over whelmed feeling you get when you come up to something new and you are not sure how to proceed because you could go in 100 different directions. I always tell myself to just pick one way and go with it, the rest will follow. I usually follow my advice, but until I decide which way to go...odgida sets in!!

Have a good week!

P.S. Open house Count: 37

Over at Flipping Homes they pretty much preach that if you want to get lending these days it's best to go with a small local bank, those community banks that you've never heard of. Well now is the time to start learning where they are. The reason is that they....

1. Keep there loans in house, which means they don't have to follow the big boys guide lines when it comes to lending.
   
2. They are more flexible because of keeping the loans in house.
   
3. They are more likely to give you a loan based on a good relationship and quality of the deal, then strictly your debt to income ratio (don't hold me to that one though)
   

I did a little hunting last night and came up with about a dozen local banks, at least I think they are local because I haven't heard of them before. Over the next two weekends i'm going to try and walk into a few and talk to them about what programs they have for investors. I'm going to follow Steve Cook's advice on this audio clip...

Dealing with Small Local Banks



Follow up on my last post about Realtor's...

I've been trading emails with the realtor I met last weekend and I'm going to try and give him a call this weekend in between all my cousin's wedding activities (Rehearsal dinner tonight, ceremony and reception tomorrow and then brunch on sunday morning). Jay, the Realtor, seems like a nice guy and open to helping me out so hopefully he's a good investors' realtor


have a good weekend!!