StacyKae's Journey

I am fairly new too. You should fill out your profile with a little bit of info about yourself. I use this a lot and I notice that people just starting probably don't know how important it is to fill it out. I am really, really impressed that you started a journal all ready and am really looking forward to seeing your progress. I too have nay sayers - really hard, especially if they are key people in your family. I have actually been hiding the fact that I am doing REI from the man I live with because he so vocally does not approve. I have made some decent money and hope to really get going by the end of this year so I can quit my job and go full time as a REI.

Looking forward to more posts from you - there is a lot of support here on this site for folks that have lack of support at home.

Let me know what you are thinking about starting with as a focus. I am not familiar with the course you talk about in your post. You can search this site and ask questions and PM people for good info. I signed up for the success academy which has online courses and access to coaches. I think there is amazing opportunities with cruising this site, links, blogs, etc.

Welcome

Judi

You have all the right plans and a good attitude. Keep coming here for encouragement and advise. Wishing you a wonderful journey.

Stacy Kae,

Good to see you here. We also purchased the SKW kit. Good for you to finish the manual. We listened to a couple of disks so far. Great to see you move ahead and overcome the negative influences. We joined a couple REI clubs and it's great to be with other investors. Best wishes to you and your new adventure.

Cheryl & Dave

Thank you for your wonderful support. I did go do my profile, so you can check it out.

My greatest "doom and gloomers" would be my husband, and my parents. Several of my friends would likely fall into this category where REI is concerned...I don't plan to tell any of them until I do have my first deal done and have some cash in hand to show for it.

In many ways I am lucky I do not have a job to quit. Necessity breeds drive and my needs are great. I have let fear hold me back these many years. Fear of being alone first kept in my bad marriage, then it was fear that I couldn't support my kids with out his income that held me back. The universe has seen fit to remove all but the lack of finances from my path-and Dean has shown me that lack of funds is no obstacle at all! I am so fired up I can almost burn the fear out of me...but not quite.

To start, since I have no cash at all (I have $35 in savings), I am looking at wholesaling or assigning contracts. I do need to get a place to live, however since I need an income to pay the liabilities owning a place, that will have to come a bit later. I would love to buy tax deeds, but with the properties here so over inflated I am not sure I can find one locally to even flip, let alone move into.

Anyway,I sure didn't mean to write a novel, . Good luck in your endeavors. The man will come around once he sees it works.

sincerely,

Stacy

There is some outstanding information in the SKW program. I am pleased with it so far. I have not yet listened to the disks, because I have been reading. That's on the ticket to start tomorrow. The instructions said to read the manual and then listen to the disks, so that is what I did.

REI clubs are on the ticket for tomorrow as well. I need investors to do this business so I need to get around them. I am excited to meet these people who understand this business and think as I do.

Thank you for your support,

STacy

I just thought I would let you all know where I am at. Maybe some of you know buyers out here. I am located in Whatcom County, up in the most NW corner of these continental states. right on the Canadian border. I am building my buyers list, any help would be appreciated.

I am also driving the neighborhoods looking for those "ugly houses". The first one I found has development plans in place. This house has sat empty for over a decade, (I have always felt an affinity for the place, though I am not sure why) there is a realtor involved now. So the price is certainly not cheap. Not overly expensive for the prime piece it is either. I would love to buy this property, fix the house up and sell it-but I think this is going to be one I just have to walk away from.

If anyone has any experience with this kind of situation, I would love to hear from you. I know I do not have to develop it, but the price figures all that prep into it from the sellers perspective.

Thanks.

yes I have been on a couple of tours with local real estate agents. It is amazing the differences in quality for the price you can find. I have a couple of questions....

!. I am wondering if I am too focused on the selling prices in my area?

With deals,and examples, in Dean's books the retail prices start so low (50K) that I feel like I shouldn't even be looking at the 250K-350K houses that are the standard lowish retail price in my area for 2&3 brm homes. A "motivated seller" here, has a retail price that falls below $250K.

I looked at an historical home in my town (built by the "richest man,in town), back when we were just a logging town. The price is $439,900-but the seller is to quote the RE agent, "bleeding money, about $2500, on this place each month". So he is very motivated to sell.

2. My question is this too big a price to begin with?

I have no cash of my own to put down. I was thinking there might be some kind of funding for historical preservation, does anyone know of a place for me to look for that? It certainly should be preserved since it was built in the 1800's.

Any help, ideas, or encouragement would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Stacy

I am so stoked. I know the help and education I get from the SA will bring me to a level of confidence and knowledge that I cannot fail in this endeavor. I will be making offers in no time!!!!

you could read this thread about SKW Tax Liens course; maybe you can have something to share.

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/tax-sales/77643/i-bought-...

I would recommend that you read DG's books thoroughly and attend any REI meetings in your area to get acquainted with other investors...

wishing you success,

Valerie

I had some things to say...though it wasn't good. But I did find SKW himself so that was interesting.

I have read the 2 of Dean's books that I have. I joined the academy today so I am going to get some very focused information beginning next week.

I have been looking at my local market, and have an agent who set me up with email listings-I never even asked him to. I called on an ugly house he had listed, I mentioned I am an investor and he just set it up for me. May have to talk to him again, being this helpful may mean he will be the perfect agent to work with...time will tell.

"Investors needed." Those serious rehab investors. I do not have any properties yet, but they will go on my buyers list.

Also I looked through the "homes wanted" section and contacted a few people who are looking for lease options. Just told them I am an investor who comes across many properties. Told them if their ads were not finding them the contacts they were looking for to contact me, maybe I could help them. If they do contact me I will ad them to my tenant buyers list. Work toward lease options, using hostile takeover techniques, taking over the mortgage payments, catching the owners up with the bank-using the down payment from my leasers, and their Rent to pay the mortgage payments to the bank. The nice part is these people all want to improve the property, the owners need out, the bank wants its money, so it truly would be win/win for all of us. That's the plan anyway.

So, we'll see how both the ad and contacts go. Tomorrow I have my first call with the Success Academy so I am moving forward. Missed the conference call on proactive building buyers list, thought that MST was the same as PDT...so I called in at 650 and heard the good byes for the buyer list call...THAT was frustrating...

are done. There are a couple action steps that will take time, but I am still very motivated and striving for my first offers.

Got some great ideas from the advisory line and the conference calls have been full of great lessons too. Dean's call tonight with Joe Jurek was fabulous. Almost info overload! but I am learning so much, and having such fun.

Not getting any one on my buyers list though...kind of frustrating. Most of the places I find are companies, rather than local investors, but it is early days yet.

If anyone knows any investors here in Washington state I would love to hook up.

I am making progress on my buyers list, and have put up some online classified ads. I am going camping for the week so will be back and running next Sunday. Have a list of Probate Attorneys to contact when I get back, and more agents to screen.

I have completed all the buyers list lessons in the Academy, and am putting as much into practice, of the action steps, as I can afford. The key for me is to "just keep swimming" as Dori sings in Little Nemo. No one in my family nor my group of friends believes I can do this...Sometimes it is very hard to maintain my excitement levels with all the negatives I live with. Even my kids don't want to hear about my plans anymore.

I keep plugging away at it.

Had a nice camping trip, aside from the rain. But I am back and ready to tackle those action steps from Buyers list lessons that I hadn't yet managed to start.

I will be starting lesson 2 sections this week as well. I will be hitting local open houses come the weekend, and contacting all the financial institutions for the REO contact person. And as always building my buyers lists.

I was shocked to find no less than 15 homes that are abandoned most without for sale signs. Some of them are in very rough shape and have likely been empty for a long time. But a few are only about 10 years old. That is almost new in housing standards. I am quite floored to find that many ugly houses here in my town.

I am not sure how to find the current owners...maybe tax records would work best? But I am going out to get pictures (my camera battery was dead today) so I can keep track of them.

I also spent a couple hours at the court house yesterday getting the probate list for the last month. Now I have to figure out how I go from the list to the case files so I can get the contact information to contact the executor and attorney to see about buying the property. Any ideas here would be helpful too. I don't think my county has this information on line. I know they said if the listings were newer than 2 weeks I couldn't find them in the computer system at the court house. So I am guessing that means hard copy looking for those at least.

Anyway I am still moving forward, and striving toward my goals.

of all of the abandoned properties in my town today. So I spent several hours on total view getting what information was available. Then for each one, went to my county tax assessor's site and tried to find owner's names. I had some small success. But in many cases the the address was the same as the now abandoned property. Or there was absolutely no tax record information on the county site. I am not sure where to go from there on either of those. I tried the yellow pages US site, for those owners names I had, but in some cases there were pages and pages of names that matched. How do I figure out where these people went???

I finally got a call on one of my ads. But he was more interested in putting me on HIS buyers list. I told him he could, as long as I can ad him to mine. While I really am not in a position to be a real buyer, since I am wholesaling now. I figure if he gets a great deal, maybe I can re-assign it in a couple weeks. If I get a good enough deal I may be able to use hard money for a month or 2 to find a new buyer. I feel like I am lying to him tho. Since I know I cannot actually buy anything outright.

Probates I still have to research. I will get on tomorrow and see if the records are available on line. And begin the next series of SA lessons.

Got done with lessons 5 and 6 in SA. Just outstanding information. I find that the more I study, the stronger my conviction. I have decided I must now take action by making an offer...Scary but I must get past the first offer.

I found a local property that is very well priced for what it is and for being in my area. it is an REO, they want 177,500...It has been on the market for over a year and the ad says it needs "kitchen replacement". I have no idea how much it costs to replace a kitchen, but I remember the lesson from Indiana Joe on how he got the bank to agree to some amazing deals. So, I am thinking about making an offer the way he did. Pointing out all of the expenses the bank's upkeep has cost them over the months on the market and such. See if they will take it once I have a look at it and see the extent of the repairs needed and such.

Zillow had its worth at 197000, totalview said 214,000 and cyberhomes had it for 184,000, so the value has some space. Funny though that the tax assessors office had nothing for the address though...I figure it is an offer and I have to get my first one done sometime. May as well jump.

Well, went and looked at the place mentioned above...It has been gutted. The owners who were foreclosed on took everything out of the kitchen. Most of the fittings for the bathrooms are gone, but the home appears sound. The outlets and light switches are all hanging out of the walls. With the upper deck needing repair as well, it certainly is not worth $177,500. But it certainly has some major potential. Just might be too big a bite to take for my first deal. Especially since I want it so much for myself...I know keep my own emotions out of it...hard when I don't have a place of my own. But if I could fix it up and sell it in a few months, this one could fund a few other deals. Can't hurt to try for it. Tho my realtor said the foreclosure is with Freddy Mac and in her words they aren't very good at accepting low ball offers.

Good thing tho is I found a realtor who is not at all worried about making very low offers.As she put it, "I'm not in this business to make friends." To verify I said, "so if I was to offer oh $35000 for this house (the one listed for $177500) you wouldn't have any issues making that low n offer?" She said she was fine with that.

SO, next week I am getting together with her to discuss the hot rental areas, and such within my local market. This could be a great partnership.

We looked at another home that same day, for 87000. It needs some work but doesn't look too bad and has a 1/4 acre lot. Went by it a couple days later and find that tarps had been put over the roof. Makes me wonder who didn't want me to know about the roof. The floor plan is quite odd, and feels like several additions have been added, but might with some work make a decent first home for someone. Have to think about it. I know I wouldn't choose to live there.

the secret to real estate investing is to just keep moving forward. Learn everything you can. Go to Open Houses to see what is out there. Network like crazy. Tell everyone you are a REI. Solve problems with homeowners and other investors. It pays off in the long run.

It was good to talk to you today.

You are doing great! Just keep studying and keep learning. Good for you for going to the courthouse and figuring things out. And finding a realtor.

Don't give up.

Keep posting like you are doing and more and more people will start coming to ck out your journal.

You go, Girl!

Karen

so, you can do it too! Make sure to go and find Carol's thread on here about 'joining her national team'. You can start by working with her and bird dogging and being her eyes and ears in your area.

I too, have a negative husband. He comes around at time now that I've shown I am GOING to do this and I AM doing this an I'm making money, but he can be overly critical of me. He especially hates that I help too many people, but this is a guy who thinks it a bad idea to donate money anywhere, so I try to let it go in one ear and out the other. It sounds like you are in a worse situation than me though. My most recent naysayer is my CPA. But it was actually my husband who burned him when he told us to run away from REI right now by telling him about the money I'm making doing these deals.

I look forward to reading your journey and watching as you get your first deal! ALl the best! It is CERTAIN we will SUCCEED!!

Now, that is the way to take action! If the house has been on the market over a year, your strategy of pointing out the holding costs is great! You will also want to point out all that it needs. Don't leave anything out. If you can have a contractor bid the price out to bring it up to 'desirable house' for an end buyer, include that with your offer too. Hey, you may even be able to try what I did and figure out what you want to offer on the property, then add $50K to the price and ask for $50K back at closing for repairs. Yes, I did that, and yes, it did work! Glad to see you out taking action! Way to get started!

It is CERTAIN we WILL SUCCEED!

Hi Stacy
I realized that I had not been back since my first post and you would be surprised at how many people are reading your journal as guests or logged in and just don't feel like posting. I think you have a wider audience than you think. Sounds like you are really getting to know your local market and it sounds very expensive compared to places you hear about that have houses for $5,000. Also, good for you actually looking inside that "good deal" that turned out to be gutted.

I think bird dogging or assigning are good ideas, I have not done either one yet, just flips to retail buyers so far. Is WA a state where you can do a double close? If so, then you could use transactional funding.

Keep it up and take a step every day.

Judi