I just want to say I am sorry.

Have you read Dean's book Totally Fulfilled. If you have not this is a must read for you. It will help change the way that you look at everything in your life. I hope things look up for you here soon. Look at your new baby and do the REI for her. I do not know how old you are Lane but I am 49 and only have done 4 deals. You have a lot better chance of success than we do if you just regroup and go after it again with a new plan.

Congrats on the baby girl.

Steve.

We all have to do what we have to do...but don't give up! I joined the Success Academy in the summer of 2009, bought my first property to flip and didn't do a good job of evaluating the neighborhood. It flopped, although I finally got it rented.

I learned from the experience, bought a second property at the end of August 2010. It took way longer than I thought to rehab it, I spend more than my budget and it sat on the market for 5 months!

Last week I got it under contract....finally! I'm just writing to show how long it took me to study everything, go to monthly RE meetings, explore every avenue that I didn't understand, meet tons of people....all while working a full time job. It's not always instant success, but it can still happen for you. All my credit cards are totally maxed out and have been since I've been on this road, but it will finally pay off. Re-organizing your life and setting priorities doesn't mean giving up, OK?

It doesn't mean you are giving up because you have other priorities, that's called being a man and being responsible, be proud of yourself and love your family. there's always more time to make money and real estate's not going anywhere. However,like Steve said take a hard look at your little girl and ask yourself what kind of life you want to give her and what kind of example you want to be for her. Kids will do what we do, so if you want her to be successful then you need to be successful, don't give up on real estate just adjust.

Every time I've spoken to you I've gotten the impression you were doing great. That being said, it is GREAT that you are being transparent. REI is NOT easy, and failure happens A LOT! Whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE UP!

Start over again. Find another agent; only ask for vacant properties that have had a price reduction with your buyer's criteria. Revamp yourself and learn from your mistakes. Your mistakes are golden; as they are what teach you and give you the greatest knowledge. Look at it this way... you now know what doesn't work and know you need to tweak your methods. Thomas Edison failed over 10,000 times before getting it right in creating the light bulb.... and his perspective was ... I learned over 10,000 ways NOT to do something.... Its all in your perception; but, what you learned DOESN'T work is VALUABLE INFORMATION. You are that much closer to making a deal work!

You will learn MUCH more from your failures than any success you have. You are gaining wisdom and knowledge, and I guarantee if you look at failures NOT as failures, but as opportunities to learn, you will SUCCEED, there is no doubt about that.

There was a blog Dean did with his son Brody; and how he observed that a child of mere 2 years old will KEEP GETTING UP and trying again even after failing over and over and over again until they get it. Your children will do the same... and that is what we ALL need to do and have that determination of a child. Do not let fears bring you down and remember, if you can't tell yourself the last time you failed, you know you're not trying hard enough.

Keep your chin up and smile and look at your beautiful wife and children, and proclaim that you will fail until you 'invent the light bulb'... and you WILL CERTAINLY SUCCEED! You can do this Lane, you WILL do this Lane, and you WILL be a SUCCESS!!! Affirm it several times a day! {{hugs}}

You were always so inspiring and motivating that I thought you had already done lots of deals. Keep that enthusiasm and just remember your baby girl won't be a baby long. Maybe this is God's way of getting you to slow down and smell the roses. Like Mark1 said, real estate is not going anywhere. You can be a great daddy and just do real estate in your spare time for now. It will only take one deal to get you going again and then you'll be on a roll and you can take your wife and baby with you. I know how you feel though. I just started selling avon cosmetics to supplement my income, but it won't be long before I can let it go (when my first deal happens).. hang in there!

apology to the membership is admirable. The first step of success has to be an honest assessment of where you are today to know where you want to go tomorrow. You have made an observation that Bristol and your wife are the most important things to you right now and I sense you feel that you are letting them down. May you are, maybe you're not. Only time will tell. But your assessment is also pointing you in a direction that is telling you to take a "time out" with REI. Perhaps that is the best thing for you so you can come back with fresh eyes and a renewed spirit. I don't sense that you are a quitter, but a person that reviews their direction in life and isn't afraid to make hard choices. You just made one and you will be better for it in the future. I wish you best of luck with your new direction and I hope to see you back on DG.com stronger and wiser in the future.

With a new baby in the house and a second job right now, you are just flat out tired! When you get that tired it is very easy to get frustrated.

Just let your mind take a break right now until Bristol starts sleeping longer and you can get a little more rest and more used to the new schedule.

You will not quit because that is not "you". You and Chase just dove in so hard and fast and just believed it was all going to happen "yesterday" but the majority of the time that is not the reality. It will come. Just keep taking steps forward, even if they are baby steps. Don't worry, your life will settle down before long and you will be "Lane" again.

We are here for you. You will get through it and we are here when you need us. And even when you don't.

Karen

Its OK.

Take a break and do what you need to do for your family right now.

Come back later refreshed and go at it again.

Congrats on the princess Bristol.

Stay positive.

I know you've probably heard it before, but it's true. You're putting food on the table, and paying the bills, which makes your wife happy & relieves her stress. I know it may not seem like it does you any good or you wonder what you're gonna get outta all these stresses you have. If at first you don't succeed, try try try again. I'm in the same boat you are, except I'm not married (paying child support), have 1 full-time job, didn't join PMI, and lucky to have family and a place to sleep & eat.

Trust me, it will eventually get better. Don't forget the 7 levels deep exercise Dean went over with us, and don't forget the true reason why you're in this. You want a better future for yourself and your family. I want a better future for me one day, too. I realized I don't want to be a custodian the rest of my life, but to get there, I know there'll be many obstacles. Getting through this, will give you the strength to carry on and to keep going. Physically, it may look like your dreams are about to crash, but they won't if you stick to your dreams and goals.

Maybe you can focus on doing Lease Options? I hope these and all the other excellent comments on here help you. Like Karen said, we're here for you if you need a friend.

I feel you man, I went through the same exact emotions from putting all of my available energy, money, and time into REI only to feel exhausted and overwhelmed. You and I had our chats on Facebook a few times about the scenario of how I felt about when I quit working for Matt Larson. I didn't give up REI but I may have walked from one of the best opportunities I've had so far in my life.

It was a tough decision to make but I needed to do what was the best for my Family like you are. The best decision may not always feel as the if it is the right decision, but being a Man is about making Decisions with out knowing if it will be the best or the right one. You just take it day to day putting things in order the best as you see fit because the toughest decisions are our most important decisions to be made. Be Proud of yourself for doing more now to have the time with your family later.

Time for BRASS TACKS!

Burnt Out your Realtors?

So have I and now I know how to keep them Happy to work with me by not wasting their time, REPEAT, DON'T WASTE THEIR TIME. I began pulling the sold and pending listings of Single Family Homes every 20 Days to see exactly what homes are selling for. Categories make it easy by having my Agent send me 15 emails for the five towns in the Quad Cities. There are 3 separate emails I receive for each city to view in the last 90 Days what properties have sold and how long it took them to sell.

Email #1 Davenport A 0-20 DOM
Email #2 Davenport B 21-50 DOM
Email #3 Davenport C 51-90 DOM

Email #4 Moline A 0-20 DOM
etc.
etc.

I review what information I have received and can determine what type of property in what neighborhood is selling for what price and for how long. I learn what their original listing price was and see what they actually sold for to learn how important it is not to overprice a house from the beginning. I can find out where the hot spots are in the Quad Cities based on over the last 90 days what area has the most sold listings. This does take time but the information is invaluable. If your agent doesn't do this on their own to better serve their selling clients than they aren't an agent you would want to work with anyway.

To keep your Agent happy you need to know exactly what the FMV/ARV is in any neighborhood you choose to invest in. If you do the research on your own instead of asking your agent for comparable solds every time you drive by a property of interest they will get burned out from all of the little tasks your giving them to do for free.

When doing all the research so many items are variables that will affect how you look at properties. Don't compare an HUD foreclosure, beat up, nearly burnt down, turd of a house with a nice fixed up home. Each have different values for obvious reasons, only compare obvious reasons with obvious reasons.

Burnt out your buyers?

Take the time to meet them personally to view a property they currently rent or are Rehabbing to see with your own eyes what they are looking for. Call them back and find out exactly what their criteria and timeline is. Don't allow them to be generic with their criteria, if they say they want 10% Net Return on their investment you need to understand what 10% Net Return means to that Investor, not what it means in general to everyone else.

Find out what materials they use common to all of their properties to give you a more realistic number to determine Rehab Costs. Find out what they rent their units out for and look for similar properties that rent for that amount.

Don't know how to find out what FMR (Fair Market Rent) is? Call on your agent for all active and sold Residential Income Listings to see the Rent on the MLS Sheets and look on craigslist to view active listings.

I don't know if you already know this stuff from what the Success Academy as taught you, but I hope it helps. Keep it simple, only invest in small manageable areas that you can put a lot of Focus without having to work too hard at it. Make sure you understand all of the information your scouring over to be 100% positive your offer is spot on and that it will be a price that everyone wants to buy!

Dundee!

Thank you to all that have replied and encouraged me to keep on keeping on! The one thing I have going for me is the fact that I DO NOT QUIT! EVER. I just need a break, I feel run down and beat up. Its the end of the first quarter and I haven't scored any points yet. I know there are 3 more quarters left though! I will regroup and press on!

Don't you dare quit. I know exactly how you feel and I have been at this a whole lot longer than you have. I have not done a deal since starting and I sometimes feel it slipping away from me. I am dis-appointed that I did not make resources happen to go to the Edge 11 event. Its a slippery slope that we are sometimes on and if we should hit bottom, well it can not last at the bottom and the only way is up. Take a few days if you need to. Actually from time to time schedule some break time. Have a plan and make an outline. Do what you need to do to eventually get that deal that you are creating = due diligence. I will keep checking on you and watching because in so doing it will help me too. Take a deep breath and praise God for the blessings you have knowing that God never gives you more than you can handle. There is always someone worse off than you. I have no money to pay my utilities and am looking for a job (just over broke). Its just a bump in the road.