Dominic's Journal

Sounds like an awesome plan! That's great that your step dad is willing to partner up with you! I used to be very interested in computers and designing as well. My close friend and I were always talking of starting a design company online, but we both kinda lost interest in it after a little while. I am still interested enough to ask to see your portfolio though! haha. I'm pretty jealous of your job at the Sears tower. I can't wait to move to a big city one day. Of course that won't happen until I can become wealthy from real estate. And nothing less than a penthouse suite of course! hahaha. Glad to hear you're motivated and I'm sure you're going to succeed. Keep us updated.

Haha it is pretty nice up here almost above everyone in the world

I would never live downtown its too busy for me lol.

And for my portfolio, it isn't very impressive, most of the sites were done in 2003 without any fancy work using Frontpage, so they are kinda out dated (graphics wise) lol. I was thinking about redoing all of my clients sites for around $5-10,000 total. But I'm just not that creative anymore

I will keep you updated on my Real Estate adventure!

Congratulations on starting your journal and reading Dean's books. It is great you want to get involved in real estate at an early age. Most of us always feel we wish we would have started investing at an earlier age. Thus, you will probably be able to retire before you are 30! How cool is that! Keep up with your action plan and I look forward to reading about your progress and future real estate deals. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

I still feel that I should have started sooner , but I know I still have a huge advantage with my age being only 19.

Joe since you are from around here, do you have any suggestions on finding a Realtor?

I started making a list of local Realtors in a spreadsheet. And I plan on sitting down with my step dad this week. I also have already begun to build my buyers list.

I am keeping everything organized in one Excel Document. It seems to help out a bunch! I suggest this to other people.

In regards to a realtor, you may want to find a realtor that knows the local area (city and county) you want to invest in. A realtor with experience of the area can save you time and effort. Also, it is beneficial to see if you enjoy working with one over another. Through time you will find a realtor that work well with you. Also, at times you may even deal with the listing agent. Especially if it is someone familiar with short sales or the listing agent for an REO foreclosure. I hope this helps. Good luck with invetsing. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Thanks for sharing your story. You've got a great plan. Wishing you much success.

Lea
SPR Property Solutions, LLC

10/1/09:

Whoa its October already! The day started off with a cold and early morning with frost already on top of my car . I still have a few hours left at work trying to keep myself busy to pass the time faster.

Last night I read more of BARM and leanred how to determine what market my area is in. I haven't had the time to apply those skills yet, but I intend to later tonight before the call! I plan on finishing at least 2 more chapters tonight.

Its funny how many people have different opinions on getting into Real Estate. It seems the investors I work with are way more open to the ideas I throw at them, compared to my family or friends.

Cant wait to find a Realtor and hit the ground running!!!

10/2/09:

Didn't get to finish those 2 chapters last night I got caught up in moving a washer I just bought. Have about 1 hour left of work before I start my 1 hour commute back home and get ready for the weekend!!! This weekend I plan on going out to my step dads house to talk with him and see if he really wants to do this (I will start without him if not). After work I am going to call all 5 Realtors I have lined up on the list, and hopefully I have some luck. I am looking for someone that is aggressive, knows the local market, and is able to help me (a new investor) with any question I have. I WILL NOT stop until I find him/her. I feel that the key to a good start is a good Realtor.

I am on the path to finishing my goals for October! Hopefully I can finish these goals and even get MORE than expected done by the end!

JUST CALLED ALL THE REALTORS AND I FEEL GREAT! It feels awesome taking a step forward.. Although no one knows what Assigning means.

I ran into a problem though. The Realtor was asking me what the name under the Loan was going to be? She said she cant make an offer without me being approved for a loan. What is this about???

Here is the link to the topic: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/financing-and-credit/3132...

Dude realtors are a dime a dozen... if one doesn't work for you just pick up the phone and call another one... You'll find one good one in every thirty you try...also first rule of investing DON'T LOSE MONEY! Also as much as possible don't use your own money. Doing this will help you think a little different...

Wish you all the sucess!

Maulik

Congratulations Dominic on making that first move of creating your journal. You are on a role. Can't what to hear about that first deal. God Bless.

Sandra

Thank you Sandra and Maulik!

I have figured out that I will only need a Proof of Funds letter to make offers. This got rid of a huge mental block that Realtor put in front of me! I should be talking with her later tonight or tomorrow. If all else fails with her, I will start to move on to the next Realtor.

10/13/09

SuccessFest is well underway and continues to inspire me to get my feet wet. Although it has been EXTREMELY hard keeping my inspiration. I cannot explain it. I always do this: I get super excited about it and then something happens that distracts me from it, and it slowly fades away. But then the desire for change wakes me up and I get re-inspired. I am trying my butt off to keep myself in the game.

Last week I made steps forward looking for my Realtor. Although I haven't found one for me yet, I will still keep looking. I also will start putting my buyers list together after reading the recent newsletter. Help keep me on track guys and get ready for some amazing stories!

I will promise each and everyone of you this. Once I finish my first deal, big or small. My mental blocks will vanish. I can feel it. I learn by doing, once I've done it once, the second time is ten times easier, and the third is a hundred times easier.

Looking for Realtors has become almost a breeze, except I still get kind of nervous since almost none of them have had a positive attitude, which knocks me down temporarily.

10/14/09:

Today I woke earlier than normal and made breakfast before work. Even though I was extremely tired, it still felt good to be productive and save money compared to buying breakfast at McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts. I have started to create a list of all the positive people in my life, all the negative things in my life, and everything I am grateful for. Along with some realistic goals, a buyers list, to do list, and potential Realtors list.

I'm feelin' productive and it feels great! I am starting to re-read Profit from Real Estate RIGHT NOW! Taking in a chapter at a time and completing the action steps at the end. I am hoping this will launch me to get started quickly.

I have had $20.00 (for food/gas) to last me the last week after paying off all of my bills, at least I can pay my bills and I am grateful for that! I know some of you on here have to pick and choose which ones to pay, and I am sorry for that.

I am starting to think I need a new car because every time I fix my current car, something else breaks on it. I don't know if the mechanics are messing with me or its just that time to get a new one. LOL

So that is another huge motive for me.

Until next time,
Dominic

10/21/09:

Where does all the time go?? The weeks feel like minutes! I feel like I am falling behind on my schedule! I still need to try harder to find my Realtor.

I have recently found out how to look at property tax/sales info through my county's Tax Assessor's website. This tool is great, it shows you layouts of the houses, sale information, owner information, etc. I also went on Zillow.com last night and wrote down all the Recently Sold property info in a spreadsheet. Doing this I calculated a bunch of different types of data including price per square foot, average price for number of bedrooms, etc.

I am now going to look on Zillow.com and use my comps to see if they are a good deal.

Goals for tonight:
- Call/email Realtors
- Start pumping out my ads on Craigslist for Buyers
- Get some sleep!

Catching up on your journal today...you're doing good things! And I am thrilled to see that you are starting this at your age. How wonderful!

Don't let not having a real estate agent throw you off track. You don't actually have to have one yourself to do your investing so keep on moving forward as you search for the right one to work with. It may take some time but the right agent is out there and I do know that it does help to have a real estate agent on your team, but it shouldn't hold you back that you don't yet. I haven't found the right one yet myself, but I keep moving forward anyway. In fact, in my life I did have one deal that I made without a real estate agent on either end -- buyer & seller. We did it all ourselves, though I made sure I had an attorney. I personally wouldn't do any deal without an attorney looking over the paperwork.

Your online work, creation of a speadsheet, etc. sounds really good. Keep on moving forward and your first deal will happen!

All the best,
Nancy

Thanks for your kind words!

I have wrote my step dad an email since we live 20 miles away from each other. I will paste it in here because it shows a detailed action plan. Hope you guys enjoy!

Garry,

Thanks,
Dominic

Hopefully I can get some feedback from you guys on that email! And to all the newbies out there I hope I helped you with your action plan and/or taught you something!

Thanks guys for your continued support!

Looks like a good letter! Nice and detailed! Let us know how he responds.

11/4/09:

Thanks Luke! Still no response yet, I think my mom said they have been having problems with the internet out there.

On another note, last night I did a search on Realtors and started emailing EVERY SINGLE ONE on the list. There are about 200 in my local area and I got through 50 of them last night and plan to do more today! Some responses were what I wanted to hear. Some even said "I'm not the guy for you" which I appreciate the honesty so were both not wasting our time.

Here is what I wrote to them, I got most of it from another thread here on the forums. But I modified it to fit me. Sorry to whoever posted it! I couldn't find it again to give you credit for it!

Hello,

Thank you,
Dominic _. ___________

Sound good? Do you think I should modify it for the next set of emails?

Thanks in advance!

Brrr it's cold!

Okay so it's been over a month since I've written in this! I have been on the website a lot though. I guess I'm not the journal type, lol.

So some good things have happened since I last posted:

- I am signed up for a REIA Meeting for January 9th!
- I have bought my COA 1-800 number. (Still haven't set it up though, I am kinda paying for nothing right now and its bugging me. Any tips on what I could use it for right now? I have yet to get a Realtor, and I want one before I start. Should I build my buyers list in the mean time?)
- Let more people know what I plan on doing.
- Got my mom interested in partnering up in some of this.

And other than that, I've just been scraping along with my rent payments and eating as much mac and cheese as I can handle in one week haha.

Some things I plan on doing before the end of 2009:

- Think of a name for my LLC.
- Set up my 1-800 number.
- Start on the buyers list.
- Get some Bandit Signs.

If I don't get back to my journal by then, I wish everyone a happy holidays!

Okayyyyyyyy! SO... I'm back new and improved! Dominic 2.0

I know I haven't posted for almost a year, and have been registered for almost two years, but I promise I came back with good news! To name a few things:

- I now have a success partner (Makeba), you'll probably see her around the site coming here soon.
- We joined the success academy.
- We bought the Set for Life program.
- We registered an LLC (Virtue Investments LLC)
- We setup our 1-800 number to screen leads.
- We are currently building our buyers list (up to 6 so far, going slower than expected)
- We plan on attending EDGE '11.
- We have 3 websites (Core, Seller Squeeze Page, Buyer Squeeze Page)
- We are still in the process of getting a Realtor.
- We have business cards and bandit signs/flyers to attract buyers to our 1-800 number and website.

And so much more! The ball is really rolling and it feels great! The only problem is I am here up in Chicago, and Makeba is down in Kansas City. I'm also now making 50k/yr at my job (not bad for only being 20 eh?), but I'm working CRAZY midnight hours 8pm-6am every Sun-Thu. If you include the drive, its a 12 to 13 hour work day. On the bright side, I only monitor automatic trades mostly. So I can actually work on REI stuff at my job, but theres only so much you can do at 2am

So we are starting off a little slow. Makeba is doing all the dirty work down in Kansas City actually constructing deals and making calls. While I help plan, organize, setup, and attempt to fund (she doesn't like me paying more than her) the process. It's actually a great team we have put together since we can work around the clock. We plan on starting out with assignments to pay off a few things and build capital, then moving on to lease options once we can.

Well, that's all the news I can think of for now. I'm gonna go watch Disc 3 of EDGE '10. Disc 2 WAS AWESOME by the way.