Back Against the Wall

Great attitude! Keep plugging and don't stop and something will eventually fall into place for you.

There are countless ways you can just go to the search bar and type in buyers list. They even have one post that lists 80 ways to find buyers. But I have found the most success placing ghost adds on craigslist. Basically just saying you have a property for 50 or 60% below FMV and then when people call you tell them you sold it and get their criteria. Hope that helps a little.

Thanks for the encouragement, hopefully I'll land a deal soon

Hey Michael I guess I lost touch with ya through email.Did you say you were in Michigan.I finally got my first deal done this morning and have a connect that has hundreds of properties nationwide that are reo's without having the typical bank hassles

I just wanted to thank you for laying it out so clearly for all those who would like to be in the Academy but for one reason or another can't. When you put your questions on here and tell us what answers the coaches gives you is really helpful. We all have had those questions at one time or another and to see what the train coaches say is such a great help to all of us. Thank you for sharing so candidly what you're doing in such detail. I know you will succeed because you're so willing to pass on what you're learning! Keep us posted on your progress, it won't be long until you have your first deal. ;D

I haven't posted anything in a while but boy have I been busy....theres so much.... Where should I start ???????????

Well I've been writing FSBO's online and I thought I had a deal. I contacted one guy about his home and when he said he was flexible on the price I told him I would contact my agent to run some comps and get back to him. I was emailing so many owners that I forgot to contact him back. About a week later he emailed me asking if I talked to my realtor. First thing that popped in my head was MOTIVATED SELLER!!. So I emailed Derrick telling him I had a potential deal and I needed some comps and I even emailed Jewel saying the same thing. But they were taking too long to contact me so I went on totalview and it said the property was worth about 90k and the guy was asking $75k. After doing some more talking back and forth the guy told me to make a offer. I didn't want to offend him with a low offer so I said that I didn't work in the area his home was located but I knew some people who did and they usually purchased at 50% of FMV so they would probably offer him somewhere around 45k since I THOUGHT the home was worth 90k.

The next morning I woke up and looked at my phone ( my email is connected to my phone) and it was a email from him and it read " okay sounds good" I almost lost my mind !! But I think I also had a email from Derrick saying it was worth 35-40k. I say THINK because it was in the morning and I fell back asleep and when I woke up I couldn't find the email from Derrick. So I don't know if I was dreaming or deleted by accident or what lol. But I googled some agencies just to try to get someone to get me some comps and I ended up meeting what seems to be a pretty good agent. She gave me her cell number and told me to contact her whenever I needed anything. she asked what area I was interested in and told me she would look for some homes that I might be interested in and told me she would call me back. She called back about a hour later with my search, and she told me the tax value on the home I asked for is 65k. She said it had been on the market for over a year ( which explains why the guy is probably motivated) She even pointed out some homes that she thought were priced good and said we could go visit them tomorrow if I wanted. She seems pretty hungry so I'm going to stay in contact with her.

I emailed the guy back asking how much he owes on the home but he hasn't gotten back to me. 45k isn't bad for a home worth 65k but I would need to get it lower in order to flip it. I'll try and get it for what he owes if its under 45k if not... who knows...

Im in NC... I'll email you to touch basis and CONGRATSSSS!!!!!

Your very welcome ! Whenever I have a question I get help so its only right that I give back..and thanks for the encouraging words

Me and Jewel got into a little dispute via email and she's no longer working with me...

I emailed Jewel saying I had a POTENTIAL deal and all I needed was some comps so that I could see if the numbers worked. She emails me back asking for the guys contact information and saying I needed a proof of funds letter and sign the agreement... all this stuff. I'm like Jewel all I need is the comps if the numbers work then we'll get into all that but it doesn't make sense to do all that and then its not even a deal. She responded saying there was a order in which things need to be done and I was trying to skip steps. She said I needed to be able to get the money before I started looking at deals not the other way around and she said if I couldn't follow these steps then she wouldn't be able to work with me. So I said fine and told her I had private funds so the money wasn't the issue but I told her it was okay if she didn't want to work with me. I understand where she was coming from to a extend but it would have taken her a couple of seconds to get comps and I felt she was making a big deal out of it. Maybe I'm wrong but thats just the way I felt. But anyways we parted ways... she was lazy anyway LOL

I don't think I have told you guys but I changed my attack from trying assign homes to bird dogging. I know its less money but I feel its easier because I don't have to worry about closing or visiting the property or anything else. If I can do a couple of these I can buy a car so and start assigning because I'll be able to visit properties easier. With that being said I found a guy who has a team that purchases Bulk REO's and resells them all over the country. So its basically like buying a REO without the bank! He has a couple in North Carolina and when I told him I knew some investors who might be interested he told me he would pay me $500 or 3% whichever was higher. (Most of the homes are cheap) $500 isn't really a lot of money but its $500 more than im making now so I can't complain I'll take anything. So I said okay and tried to find a buyer. I learned a valuable lesson that you need a bunch of buyers because I emailed about 7 people from my buyers list who had matching criteria and none of them emailed me back. I don't know if its because its outside Charlotte or what. So I went to Craigslist and placed a bunch of adds and I got about 5 interested buyers 3 of which I talked to today.

Details of the home :

Asking price : 14,500
ARV - About 60,000
Repairs - Unknown

I saw pictures of the home and it seems to be in pretty good shape. I know nothing about repairs but I would say no more than 10 or 15k which leaves about 30,000 in equity.

The lady who contacted me about the property is looking for a primary residence and she was trying to get me to give her the address but I refused until the contract was signed. I thought I emailed her the info before but I had the wrong address so I sent the pictures again. I told her if she is still interested then I'll send over the contract.

The 2nd guy happened to use to live in Mass and we talked for a little while and he told me he had a buyer who was interested in the property and that he was ready to move fast but the pictures I sent were too small, and to send them again. So I spent forever trying to figure out how to make them bigger without them being blurry. I made a post asking for help and a DG member was nice enough to try and enlarge them for me. I sent him the pics and he tried to make them bigger and sent them back to me. I don't know if it worked but I forwarded them back to the guy and hopefully he contacts me back tomorrow.

The third guy asked me if I had the home under contract and when I told him no he asked for the address and I told him that I wanted to be professional and get the contract signed before I gave it to him. He said he needed to run the numbers before he agreed to anything and that the business was based on trust and I needed to make it easy for investors to work with me and making him sign a contract was making it difficult. He said he had to trust people when he first started. I told him the contract only applied if he purchased the property and he told me to send it over. After I sent it he said the contract looked innocent but he wouldn't sign it because it was one-sided, protecting me. I told him it protected both of us because all I was responsible for was providing the lead and nothing else and if he didn't like what he saw he could simply walk away. We talked a little more I told him I would think about giving him the lead and then coming up with a price after and If I decided to I would contact him.

If the two other buyers don't purchase then I will give him the lead. Even if he does try and go around me I will still at least get paid the $500 from the the guy who owns the home. $500 is better than nothing.

when they said you will offend some people with your low offers boy were they right ! Here's a email I just got from a guy I emailed....

"FYI my house was appraised at $112,000 so you are unable to read comps and for your price estimate Kiss My *ss! You f*cking morons assume anyone selling on the east side are desperate well for your information the odds are I am in better financial shape then you."

I started to reply back but I thought to myself "This guy obviously has some issues" so I just kept emailing more owners. Moral of the story is things like this happen don't get discouraged..

you are a mover and a shaker. your deal is right around the corner!

yeah thats why a lot of real estate agents hate putting in low offers and working with real estate investors....they simply know most offers will get turned down and since the agent gets paid by commision and not an hourly wage they dont want to waste their time...what i started doing to get around this problem a little is try to convince the real estate agent to consider going in on the real estate investing part...for example you find a house with a fmv for 200k and you want to put in a low ball offer of 160k and the agent is turning his nose up at putting in that offer because he knows it will have a good chance of being turned down...if you can convince the agent that you could quickly flip the house for 190k and THEN split the extra 30k in profit of the reselling of the house 50/50 with the agent(off the books of course) the agent would make not only their commision of the original 160k low offer but also another 15k on top when the house resells....this would be more money they would make than simply trying to make a commision of off putting in a orignal higher offer of say 190k for example on a 200k home....theres always a few agents out there struggling and would welcome this opportunity...nobody makes it to the top without stepping on a few shoes or craking a few eggs shells along the way...im sure even dean would agree with this.

Thanks for the encouragement I appreciate it...

I agree with you and I never thought about making them a cut of the deal that would definitely some motivation for them.... thanks for the tip

Just added a new task of trying to meet at least one new person in the real estate business each day... Its not all about what you know but who you know... I have 10 people on my list to call for tomorrow... its 3 oclock in the morning and I just finished looking at luxury homes online... its a lot of motivation ...I'm going to have a mansion one day !!!!

Im one step closer to a deal it all started this morning .......

I wake up to a email from Scott (the guy I am trying to birddog properties for) telling me about a property he just bought yesterday with a anticipated sale price of around 17,000. He doesn't have any pictures or the lock box combination yet he said I would be the first to see it. He sent me the tax value for the home and its 54,000 ! I checked totalview and it said its worth 55,000 so I'm guessing that number is about right but I still have to get some comps. I thought "depending on repairs it could be a pretty good deal".

My only problem was getting a way to view the property. So i decided to call a fellow DG'er i met on the site, in Charlotte, told her about it and agreed to split the profits if it turns out to be a deal. She agreed and we went to go see the house !

This was my first time ever going to view a property so I was excited even though I was just looking at it Lol We couldn't view the inside because he doesn't have the lock box combination yet but we could see a good amount through the windows. I don't know much about repairs but it looks to be in pretty good shape. It needs painting through out the place and some trees need to be cut in front of the house but besides that everything looked pretty good from what I could see. my partner also knows a contractor so she's going to bring him to look at it to estimate repair costs and then we're going to try and get it under contract !!!!!!!

Just do things the right way and please oh please do not listen to people who are talking about stepping on toes and crapping on thers to make it; those are the first to go and when the tough times come, have no idea on how to adjust to karma

Do things the right way. You don't have to take money out of other peoples pockets to make it last in this business. You're on the right path.

Michael you are truly blazing forward to your victory. I love reading your post. I truly understand your decision to bird dog I think it is a good way to learn on the go and make a little money on the side and at the same time you will be building your buyer/seller list.

I'm a hungry Real Estate Agent in Las Vegas!! Do you have anyone interested in this area?

I'm still learning the ropes. I plan on attending the Success University within the next few months. I'm pretty disappointed that I was unable to sign up because they are holding the Wholesale Course out here this month....

But I'm still going to keep chugging!!

Let's keep in touch!

Sorry no I don't know anyone in Vegas but stay hungry and keep us updated on your progress.

Its been a while since I posted but I have been working very hard trying to get my first deal done...

I haven't had ANY luck with the FSBO's. I haven't been keeping count but my guess is that I have emailed somewhere around 500 owners the past couple of weeks and only got a response from TWO. I thought that it might be something wrong with my email address or something because I wasn't hearing from anyone and then I changed the email simply asking if the home was still available instead of making a low ball offer and almost all of them responded.

So I called the Success Academy and told them about it and they said that a number of students had luck calling the for rent ads asking if they were interested in selling or had any properties that they needed to sell and that I might have some success with it also. I found about 10 ads on craigslist and emailed them and found another site which brought up 147 single family houses for rent. I'm going to email half of them and call the other half and see if I have any success. Whatever it takes !!!

Aside from the lack of responses I have met a couple of other wholesalers who are willing to partner if I find homes for their buyers. So I have plenty of buyers in place, the final piece is the sellers. Until next time.....

Hello Michael!!!! My name is Eric C. Hopson and I live in Chicago,IL. The craziest thing happen to me in November 2009. I lost everything except for my health and my mother!!!! I lost my job,car and health care. Exactly one week later, My mother has a stroke. I am thankful that she is doing a lot better now!!!! Now when you say your back is up against the wall I know the feeling!!!!!!! Well when all of this was going on I just looked at it as an opportunity to pursue real estate full time!!!!! You did the right thing by investing in this course because from my understanding real estate has produce more millionaires than any other business. I am new to this business just like you. I will begin my career with wholesaling/assigning properties. Michael the only thing I can tell you is... keep it pushing.....YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ordered Dean's "Your town Your profit on 7/4/10. I have gotten the basic concept of assigning/wholesaling properties just from interacting with others on this website and I realize that is the best way for me to build my capital for future flips and holds. I placed an ad on craigslist and I had a guy respond to my add. He is a cash buyer and he is looking to buy up to 25 properties!!!! So stay on your grind....Amazing things will happen for you!!!

Mike,

I must say I am totally respecting your grind. However, you making these offers, it seems by your writing, in your introductry email was extremely counter-productive. What you do if you haven't already is inquire whether or not the property is still available. Remember they don't know you so them getting that e-mail and offer is the same as you getting an email from 'Vivian'. Now for insulting them, now they'll remember you but not for reasons you'd want.

1. Send an email inquiring if property is available. If you've sent to them already, send another without acknowledging you previously sent. Ask and then mention that you would like to speak with them if possible

2. If they are avaialble and they are willing to speak, introduce yourself and let them know you are looking to purchase homes in the area and noticed theirs.
-Ask them what they want for it even if its written down. They might have changed their minds. If they mention a higher price, mention you think you remembered they priced at X. If they mention a lower price, tell them ok.

-Ask how flexible they are with price, how soon they were looking to move, and what price would they give with a cash buyer. Let them answer. Counter that you can possibly get the house bought in under 30 days so are they willing to give 'concessions' on the price. Say that word. Anytime you say 'cash', make sure the word 'concessions' is not far behind.

-Thank them for their time, again mention your name in full, and let them know you'll be contactign them within a week for an update. Call them in a week to give them an update. If you have nothing, nada, zilch, zero, you tell them you are researching and you mentioned the house to other investors who are also researching the area and such. "I told you i'd call and I am a man of my word".

-The moment you hang up the phone, you notify your buyers, no address, what you have on the horizon and you'll give them more details in a few days. They'll be foaming at the mouth(MY DEAL BEFORE BUYERS THEORY YET AGAIN AT WORK)

-Call the owner again and mention that you have other investors interested but would like to know if you can sell it for them and then mention the assignment aspect of it. I personally would not do it the first time you speak. Getting them on personal terms has always worked for me; not so much that it would be harder for them to say no, but they'll give you more the benefit of the doubt. Mention that if possible you'd like to see the house and it would be nice to meet as well.

-Once or if you meet, inspect the house, and ask
1. How old is the roof
2. How old is the elctrical
3. Are there any violations, small or large on the house
4. This isn't considered a flood zone correct???
Keep the first set of questions small. Right then he'll know you're the real deal and will be more confortable with you. While inspecting mention to him that you want to explain again the assignment option of selling his home but you want to first inspect the home. Near guarantee he'll say "ok no problem"

You can tweak it to your abilities, but personal interaction is a good way to also bring in referrals. Look a person in the eyes and if they're comfortable with you, best beleive they'll tell others about you.

Hope it helps.

Thanks for the encouragement and welcome to the DG family !!!

Yes that does help a lot .... Thanks !!!

I received some responses from my email...

Most of the responses I got back were from management companies who must not have read my email because they were telling me what I had to do in order put in application for a apartment. I also received a couple voice mails from management companies who were doing the same thing.

I did however get a call from a woman who has a lease to own property that she said she wants to sell but offered the lease to own property because the market is slow. She called me early in the morning and when I returned her call she didn't answer so I left a message. Hopefully she calls back tomorrow and this turns into a deal.... my fingers are crossed.

I also inquired about a wholesale property that was on craigslist. Comes to find out it was listed with a agent who also is a wholesaler. He told me if I could find a buyer he would pay me a consultant fee. I haven't talked to him much but I'm going to ask him if he wouldnt mind being my agent. This could be a great opportunity because he could be both a agent and partner...

Until next time...

Made some new contacts....

The first guy had a ad on craigslist stating he was going into divorce and needed to sell. I called and told him what I was doing and come to find out he has over 80 properties some in other states that he's trying to sell !! None of his properties are listed with any agents which is good news. He also said once he's done selling all his properties and his divorce is final he will begin buying again. So I am now in the process of trying to help him sell his first property to a buyer who pays a bird dog fee.

I called about a lease to own property and spoke to the agent it was listed with. Comes to find out he works for a asset company that gives him lots of properties that are priced for investors because they only want cash for their properties. He told me he's going to send me his listing tomorrow when he gets to his office.

I feel my first deal getting closer and closer !!!

way to go!!

Hi DG Family,
I'm from Jersey and I've been wondering whatever happened to those "I will buy you house", "We Buy Houses", We Buy Forclosures" etc. signs.I don't see those signs posted anymore. Do you know what changed or is there something new out there? Also, everytime I speak to a realtor about looking at a property they always want to know if I'm pre-qualified and do I have a "Proof of Funds Letter" before they'll to show the property.I was just wondering. I'm very new at this. Right now I'm reading "Your Town Your Real Estate Profits" for the second time while taking important notes.