lkward13's journal

Well today wasn't the greatest day so far but it did have some brightness. I didn't hear back about my offers. I'm sure I will soon though.

About 1 I went to meet with a real estate agent to speak about representing me. She was very knowledgeable and gave me some good advice.Let me tell you, her office was not the easiest to find either lol. Unfortunately, she seemed against beginning by assigning contracts. So I may use her in the future but not until I can afford to do something besides assigning. All in all it was a good meeting and I did gain some business cards of an inspector, mortgage broker, and an insurance broker.

I am moving into a new townhouse tomorrow that a couple friends and I are renting together that is close to my school. So I had to get some electric and cable stuff.

Then from the point of returning home I got those ridiculous emails that I posted in the Everything Else subject.

At 8 tonight I had my first day of training camp for my hockey team. I play for the University of Central Oklahoma. I had a blast doing it, but man can first days back be tough.

On to another bright day tomorrow!

Well I haven't been on the last few days much at all because I was in the process of moving into my new place and training camp was this weekend. It all went really well and now I am safely back into the groove of things. I still haven't heard back on those offers, but tomorrow after my second day of class I will sit down and find a few more to e-mail some offers to. I can't wait!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Find some houses on craig's list or zillow and e-mail the realtors
E-mail prospective agents to represent me
Organize my room haha

Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish my first two goals because my goals for the day kinda changed mid day. I had two classes this morning, they were okay. Not nearly as exciting as real estate investing can be. Today I spoke to a seller that is selling 3 lots for 79,500 that has 3 duplexes on it. I spoke to him about owner financing and he is willing to do it with a 10% down payment. This could be a pretty good opportunity to get some decent cash flow. I am going to look into it.

I also emailed the realtor about my two offers that I put in last week and he said that all he had gotten was an email about them but has not discussed the offers over the phone with the seller. He asked for my patience which I am more than willing to give so it wasn't a big deal.

On craigslist and zillow noticed a few more ads that I will look into tomorrow.

Hockey practice went really well today and I should be earning lots of playing time this year.

Good day today! Tomorrow should be better!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Run the numbers on the owner financing and call coaches about it.
Try to find financing for the 10% down payment
Continue to look for more deals everywhere
IF there is time, talk to a few agents.

Thanks for taking the time to share your journal activities with us. It is great to create a plan and then work the plan! It sounds like things are moving along for you. Every item you do today will pay dividends for tomorrow. So keep working the to do list and good things will start to happen. Good luck with real estate investing. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Thanks for the positive reinforcement!

Haven't written in a good while, but that's okay.

The last week I have pretty much been running and re-running numbers on a possible cash flow property where the owner is willing to owner finance. I spoke to my girlfriend's father who is a contractor and has invested in real estate before about it. He is willing to calculate a few things with me and go look at the property to see what is needed. This last week has been crazy with practice every day and the first week of school.

I hope to be posting on a more regular basis from her on out.

Objectives for tomorrow:

Look for more properties
Learn a lesson from the success academy
Call on a few of the properties I find

I completed all of my objectives today! Nothing magical, but I did finish them. I went over my lesson on mobile homes and it seems like they could be a really good investment if you do it right (just like everything else lol). I called on some properties and mostly didn't find anything I was interested in besides 4 different houses in a package in a city nearby. I will be looking at more information on them tomorrow hopefully. Practice went great today and I got to hang out with some friends afterwords and had a great time. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, but it might be a long day.

Objectives for tomorrow:

Keep looking
Search for a realtor
Setup a couple of showings for houses.

Hi Luke,
Are you still using the coaches from the academy? I am at the point where I am trying to decide if the academy is right for me. Please give me your opinion.

Yep I use the coaches at least a minimum of twice a week. The information they provide is priceless. They answer every question with so much knowledge it is unbelievable. It is well worth the investment in my opinion.

Well it has been almost a week since I have posted in my journal but that's okay. I still haven't had any luck with finding a realtor to work with even though I did have meetings with a couple last week. They seemed nice and all, but in the end, just not for me. Saturday I did go look at a rental property that is only a few blocks away from a local private college. It is currently rented out and the owner is willing to finance. I don't think it is anywhere near the price the owner is asking though. Of course, the attraction to the property is that it is currently rented and is near a college. I'm sure that is what the owner is thinking too. Also, another property I may look at is a bank owned duplex that the builder ran out of money on. It is about half complete, and my girlfriend's father is wanting me to go 75/25 or 50/50 with him on this deal. It would definitely be a great investment because it is near my university and in a great area. More to come!

Objectives tomorrow:
Get through class in the morning, easy enough
Finish my speech for a presentation tomorrow night
Go to practice
Get as much real estate stuff done as possible with the time I have

Today was a great day! I slept in til about noon and got some much needed sleep. Soon after waking up I found out by accident that a home I had been looking at that had been foreclosed on finally hit the market for 39,900. Comps show that it can be worth about 95-100k. Then I went to practice and had a great practice/workout. I was pretty excited about that. A few hours ago my e-mail began working again and I was able to check my personal e-mail for the first time in about 3 days. 62 e-mails later I had 2 from real estate agents that would be interested in working with me. One of them sent me mostly information on the kind of investments they make, but did ask how he would be able to assist me as a realtor. The second seemed great, he loved my ad on craig's list (thanks Dean lol) and how honest it was. He is also an investor himself. So I e-mailed him back with what I am particularly looking for. Hopefully I hear back from him tomorrow! Gotta study for a bit and then go to bed! Good day!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Find more properties
Call on foreclosure that is going for $39,900
Hopefully I will hear back on the agent

You have a very detailed journey that makes it easy to track your daily activities. You have surely put plans into action. Thanks for sharing with us and I look forward to your next post where you present an offer. This is your time to move forward, take that chance while you have it. We wish you all success in your real estate career. I cannot wait to see what happens with the $39,900 property. You have a whole family behind you. May God open the windows of heaven and pour you out a bless on this one. God Bless.

Sandra

Thanks for the positive comments! They are greatly appreciated!

Today I had two classes and in one of them I had a test. The test went pretty well and I should be getting at least a B on it. Could be better, but not bad. After that I spent a few hours on real estate stuff. I called the listing agent for the foreclosure home and they said that it would need about 15,000 worth of work. Not too bad seeing as it is way under market value. I went through a new property list that another agent sent me. Some decent homes, but nothing that caught my eye. I'll have to take another look at it again sometime soon. I didn't hear anything back from the agent that I replied to yesterday, but maybe I will tomorrow. A property that I had some interest in about a month ago reduced the price and I spent quite a bit of time running numbers on it because it brings in a monthly income of $2500! I've always been told that if the deal is good enough then finding the money is the easy part so hopefully I calculated all of the numbers correctly. We'll have to wait and see what I can do. Quiz in the morning so I'm off to bed!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Do well on quiz I studied for
Contact some people about rental property and possibly look at foreclosure
Go to work tomorrow night, maybe I'll take my laptop and do stuff when I'm not busy.

I definately agree that the journal is really good. I know I'll keep watching it.

Take care my man and good luck with all the REI stuff!

Robert thanks for the words of encouragement and compliment on my journal! I really appreciate you taking the time to read it!

This weekend was a pretty damn good weekend. I didn't spend too much time on real estate besides a couple e-mails here and there, but I did accomplish quite a bit. It was extremely busy. I had 2 practices and an inter-squad scrimmage this weekend.

On top of that I worked Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning. Work was slow all three days and I basically just hung out with my co workers. The best part is, I work at the ice rink haha. The rink is a home away from home for me. I go up there when I'm bored, I have practice there, I work there, and I have come to generate many great relationships from that place. After all, I have been skating there since I was 5.

Friday was also a good day. I didn't do quite as well on that quiz as I had hoped, but you can't win them all I guess and it is still early in the semester.

As far as real estate goes, on Friday I did some great things. Nothing spectacular, but for me it was a great learning day. I spent all after noon after class learning about how appraisers calculate the values of homes. Especially commercial or income properties to be exact. I learned exactly how to calculate a capitalization rate. I told a couple of people what I did that afternoon and they looked at me like I was crazy. Of course, when I start making money they'll probably ask me how. Jokes on them . Well that is all for today! Good night DG!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Do well on another quiz
Find some time to do anything real estate related (every little bit helps)
Work and practice tomorrow night

Today was a great day! Tuesday was not so great, but it was mostly just too jam packed and I didn't have a great practice. Can't be perfect everyday can we?

Today I did some things real estate related, but not a ton. I came in contact with another realtor that may be willing to work with me. She said she works with investors and would be more than willing to listen to what I have to say. Also, she said that when I mentioned creative financing she knew of a lender that she could recommend (of course she does lol). I'm not sure she knew exactly what I meant by creative financing, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and explain what I would like to do. Worst comes to Worst I still get a nice list of properties from my area to look at.

I called one of the coaches today and we discussed how appraisers use income value, replacement value, and comparable sales value to determine the price of a property. He also gave me some good tips to use when calling banks to ask about lending. I meant to call the banks today to ask what kind of programs/packages they had for investors or if they would lend based on appraised value versus sale price. Unfortunately, that fell through because I ended up taking a much needed nap before my practice this afternoon and the banks were closed by the time I got out. Life goes on, and I will for sure do it tomorrow.

Also today I e-mailed a few more realtors about properties I found on zillow. My main accomplishment for the day is pretty small, but my favorite of the day. I called and set up an appointment to go look at a rental property that is already in a cash flow position. I even talked my friend into going with me just for fun. I am pretty excited about it and can't wait to get down there to see what the property is like because I am highly interested in.

Hockey went great today, helped some friends with some computer problems, did some homework, and made a little time for progress in my future career! Not too shabby!

I'd like to end my journal today with a quote that my friend's father said today that kinda stuck with my. "It's easy to get rich, you just have to know how to do it." This is kind of obvious because if everyone knew how to do it then they would be rich, but I definitely feel like I am learning the ropes and the "how" to become wealthy. It is an amazing feeling and the ride can only get more thrilling from here.

Objectives for tomorrow:
School and workout
Call as many banks as I can
Call that realtor
Look at the property I am excited about
Maybe do a lesson from the academy if there's time
Oh and fantasy football draft haha

P.S.- sorry for so much detail if anyone actually reads this. I just like to keep track of what I do every day and figured it would be better for me to discuss something besides just business all the time.

It's been a few days, but I will give a short recap.

Thursday my friend and I went to look at the property I am highly interested in. The place was in great condition and had been completely remodeled like the owner said. He explained why they were selling and why they had initially bought the property. After that I took the rest of the day to complete my fantasy football draft lol and it went well. Late late Thursday night I sent an e-mail to the owner saying I could offer him $143,500.

Fast forward to Saturday and the owner said that he couldn't accept my offer because they would like to at least get my offer because they would like to get at least 165,000. He also said he'd keep my email in case something happened. So now my girlfriend's father and I are trying to come up with some creative ways to get this cash flowing property. Today I called a hard money lender I may use and tomorrow I need to call a mortgage broker if I can.

I keep forgetting to call that agent, but I will get around to it. Hockey went all right today, and our first games are this weekend so I am pretty excited about that.

Objectives for tomorrow:
Do well on my test
Call a mortgage broker
Think of some more creative financing ideas
Make more contact with the owner
Find more deals

Everything has been going pretty well the last couple of days. Been really busy trying to get all of my school work done and hockey practice. I did really well on my business test on Tuesday and my quiz today. I have another test in humanities tomorrow that I have been studying for all day.

As far as real estate goes I decided to stick with my previous offer of $143,500 and hopefully they'll come back to me in a month or so. If not, oh well, life goes on. I have called on quite a few properties the last day. I am just now getting in a comfort zone where I don't mind calling and talking to owners instead of emailing. Nowadays if there is e-mail or a phone number I always dial it right away. There is a property right near my school that I may be interested in seeing sometime next week. I am for sure going to setup a meeting to see a property on the other side of town that is another rental.

I called quite a few banks for the first time to see what kind of rates I could get on refinancing in case I do come across a property I can refinance right away. The few mortgage brokers I called have yet to call me back, but maybe they will soon. Even though I haven't made too much progress this past week I feel like my confidence and comfort levels have risen a bunch. Like Dean's last blog talked about, small steps mean a lot.

I will try to do some real estate stuff tomorrow after my test, but our home opener is tomorrow night so I may just take the day off and relax. I'm looking forward to it! Hope everything is going well for everyone else!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Dominate my test
Relax/find properties
Start a paper
Play first game of the season

Hey bud... Yep, the confidence is definately really starting to show, so, atleast in my experience, it should make things easier and easier!

Good luck with the game & the test. God, I remember those days!! Believe it or not, I wish I culd be back in those days, so enjoy it while it lasts!

Have a good weekend...

Thanks for the comments again! This weekend was great!

I'm pretty sure I dominated my test on Friday morning, but I will find out what I got in the morning. Hockey went really well, but bad this weekend haha. It went bad from a team perspective, but individually I did play really well. Some might say, well you should be a team player. I completely agree, but those that play sports also know it is a competition each week within the team to fight for a spot in the lineup. I played great and will keep my spot in the lineup!

A real estate agent in the area sent me a list of homes in the area that are willing to accept owner financing. I briefly went over the list, and there are some great properties on it. I will probably ask the agent to refine the list to properties that are turnkey or have been rented out already. I drove by a property near my school yesterday that is for sale, I believe they are asking too much for the property in my opinion. However, the land is in a great spot, only two blocks away from my university. I am going to talk to the owner and see what their reasons for selling are. Tomorrow will be stressful with class and my paper, but I'll find some room for real estate before hockey.

Objectives for tomorrow:
Start/Finish paper haha
Drive by some properties
Call on some properties
Work hard at hockey

Hey bud...

Definately check into the house near the campus for sure. I think it would be a great rental opp based on the location. I know that the houses that are near ASU generally rent out for ton so even if you have to offer a little more than expected to the seller, think about the increased cash flow potential that may make the deal more than worth the while.

Have a good week...

In addition to the cash flow that Bomber was talking about, the value of properties near colleges, stays consistantly high, so the FUTURE value when its time to sell, is where you are going to make the most money. I'm looking at a couple campuse properties too. Where are you playing hockey? I saw in your profile you are from OK, didn't see that as a big hockey state. Good luck with your properties and the season.

Cathy

Thanks for the advice! I ended up actually driving by 4 or 5 properties today near campus. One is actually under market value which surprised me. I am going to keep digging on it. The other properties are decent as well, I'll need to dedicate some time to running numbers and drawing some plans.

Cathy I play at the University of Central Oklahoma, it is serious hockey, but it is just club. The league we are in is probably the equivalent of NCAA Div 3.
Hope everything is going great for you guys!

Man has it been a crazy two weeks with school. I don't think I have had to study as much my entire life as I have these past two weeks. Haha or maybe I should have studied this much and this is just what being studious is like. Never the less my gpa is still doing great lol. Finally after today I don't have anything to do for school until at least Monday or Tuesday of next week.

On to real estate. For the last few days I have mostly just been driving around looking at properties near my school since I know they would be a great source of income and would stay rented easily. I have also been checking foreclosure listings and called on some FSBO's. I'm loving it! Haven't made too much progress, but it's exciting every time knowing that it could be a potential deal. Recently I have found joy in the fact that on income properties I am able to run the numbers efficiently enough that I know whether or not a deal might make sense before I even call the agent or owner. I'm going to drive by a couple properties near a smaller university in downtown OKC tomorrow and hopefully I can setup a time to walk through them soon. I want to make at least 5 offers by next week.

I feel I have learned a lot in the last few months and it is time to start getting serious about making offers instead of just a few every now and then. I am nervous, but extremely fired up to get going. As long as I cover myself with ways to get out of a deal if things fall through I should be good to go. And maybe on some FSBO's I can start assigning. I really need to find an agent to make some offers for me so I can make more. It seems tedious to have to do it all myself, but for the time being it will have to do. Reading a few other people's journals inspired me to start taking even more action.

Tomorrow is going to be great. After class I have about 6 hours between school and my game that I can concentrate on real estate stuff. I am also going to start reading another real estate book by Gary Keller, the founder of Keller Williams. I hope to have it done in the next few weeks. Should be an easy enough read since I know a decent enough amount of real estate to understand it, I just need to find the time. Good day to everyone!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Relax and read the Keller book
Call on more properties
Drive by some properties
Possibly make offers
Have a good game

This weekend was great! Friday pretty much went as planned, minus a few RE things. I still called on some properties and practiced running numbers on them just for fun. I didn't make any offers, but I still got some good practice in talking to owners/agents. I did have a good game on Friday and Saturday night. We won both of them.

Before my game on Saturday I had to work. Fortunately, we were absolutely dead and I pretty much just sat around talking to people all day long. It was awesome. I also got about 100 pages read of my new book so I'm about a fourth of the way through.

Yesterday I went through a list of properties an agent had sent to me. There were some decent ones on the list. I sent him back an email asking for more information on 4 SFRs and 1 MFR. He hasn't replied back yet, but maybe he will by the end of the day. I also went to a concert last night at my University. It was brutal to say the least. Although I did still manage to have a good time with my friends.

Today I am going to keep the search for more properties, study for a test I have tomorrow, and go to work/and practice tonight. I may post more later.

Objectives for tomorrow:
Dominate my test
Read as much as I can
Have dinner with my parents
Hockey

Not too shabby of a day if i must say. As it turns out, my test I studied for last night is on Thursday instead. Gives me a little more time to study if I so choose haha. I didn't get much done for real estate today except a little light reading and looking at the listings.

That agent hasn't gotten back to me on the list of properties I asked about yet, but if he doesn't by mid day tomorrow I will probably give him a call. Because even if I don't make 5 offers this week I want to make a couple good ones.

So far the properties around my school have been pretty over priced with the exception of one. I am going to try to look into that one a little more. The person selling it is another investor, I'm not quite sure if he is assigning the contract or not, but I don't believe so.

Hockey went great today! We had a scrimmage at the end of practice and I played great. I felt like today was one of my best practices so far this year.

I don't know how much RE stuff I will get done tomorrow, but I am at least getting to go golfing and play hockey. Good luck to everyone this week!

Objectives for tomorrow:
Not embarrass myself at golf lol
Read some, maybe call that agent
Have another great practice.

Today was awesome!

I had two agents e-mail me back wanting to meet with me and discuss my investing a little more. They are also both going to send me some comps on a duplex I am looking at. I haven't gotten to reply to their e-mails yet because my internet is being weird, but I will for sure do it tonight. That way I can get my information tomorrow and possibly begin a relationship with a new agent.

I got 80 more pages read in my Keller book and today I learned all about a financial wealth building model. I can't wait to get this book done because it is great! My girlfriend's father told me last night that he had a friend take this book, follow the model, and 7 years later (or this year) is now a millionaire. That motivated me quite a bit!

Test went well today and I pretty much just hung out with my friend's all day besides the few hours that I went to work. I've got a game tomorrow night, but I'll do some RE stuff in the after noon.

Objectives for tomorrow:
Read as much as possible
Contact agents
Good game

Hey bud....

Sounds & looks lik everything is going really well. I'm glad to see your able to balance everything out. Just don't throw kids in the middle of it (especially triplets) becuase that makes everything you just did about 3 times as difficult.

I'm sure you will want kids down the road, but definately ,make sure you are ready for them... Take it from me.... With the four girls, 3 of which being the same age, it's tough!!

Take care and I wish you a great weekend! Make a point to get out to an NFL game this season. Remember what Dean said. You have to give yourself, or treat yourself to something special for your accomplishments. I think a NFL football game would be the perfect choice!

Late...

I can imagine how it would be difficult to have kids at my age. Don't plan on it anytime soon. I probably wont be able to make it to an NFL game unless I can go sometime over Christmas break. Maybe I'll try that. Thanks for reading Robert!

The last two days have been decently productive. Another local investor has been kind enough to let me know how he gets his list of Pre-Foreclosures that he uses to wholesale from. He also re-informed me of their buying criteria. Still no word from any of the agents I spoke with.

I called the listing agent on the foreclosure I am interested in. I am planning on making an offer, I just need to figure out how much it would cost to repair it and the rents it could produce. I think if I make an offer I am going to try to ask that the first payment be 60 days after closing. That way I can try to get some tenants in there before hand. The agent said that they have had a little interest in the property, but that it had been on the market for over a month. Which isn't too long, but still a decent sign that they might be motivated. After all they are a bank. My problem here would be financing I think. I've got to try to think something up to take hold of this property.

Hockey was great this weekend! We won both of our games against Robert Morris. We go out of town on Thursday for four days so I've got to try to get as much real estate stuff done before then. On top of all my school work! I can do it though.

Objectives for tomorrow:
Finish my speech for Tuesday
Read and research real estate

I was able to catch up on your journal today. I just enjoy the entire thing. I see that you are not only an investor, but also a scholar, keep it up. It seems as if you have the positive feedback that will channel you to the success you seek. I have no doubt you will achieve yours goals. You are on the move and is not letting up. When you lease expect it someone will call with a great offer you will not be able to refuse. May all your real estate dreams come through, God Bless.

Sandra