Lisa's First Success Journal!!

Welcome to the DG family Lisa. We hope your first deal comes soon.

Steve and Veronica.

My first journal post was long, I know. Sorry! I'll make this one shorter

Today is Friday and I had planned on having my first lesson completed. Well, things don't always turn out as we'd like and I didn't finish it. But, I'm not discouraged. I had to get a new printer and then I had to clean off my hard drive and install Windows 7. This took a long time! I did start reading PFRERN though!

I'm supposed to visit my daughter in California this weekend so I probably won't get to it until Monday. Oh well!

I like this journal stuff...it keeps me focused.

Welcome Lisa

I have to say you have come to a great place here; there are so many knowledgeable people that are willing to, and want to help you along the way. You will soon see why it is referred to as the DG family.

Nice job on joining the Success Academy it is the best thing you will ever do. Don't be afraid to call the coaches, I have actually just restarted with the Success Academy. I had many issues that knocked me way off track as I was trying to get started about a year ago. The coaching staff is great! I have called them many times in the same day with questions and they have never made me feel rushed or like I am asking a stupid question. So be sure to use them they are great!

Just want to say hello, welcome and provide encouragement.

We are new to the DG family as well and haven't made our first deal yet.

We got two of the books one week ago and have already been to an auction and will go to an investment group meeting next week.

Stay focused and you will succeed.

Jim and Alice

I appreciate your comments and want to thank you for your encouragement Steve and Veronica, Mark, and Jim and Alice

Funny, I'm a huge procrastinator but today I buckled down to finish my lessons and what happens? The Education Center goes down!! Ugh! lol. Well, that's not going to stop me. I'll go finish reading PFRERN!

BTW: today my nephew got married in Texas and I couldn't make it because I couldn't afford it I told myself, "This is never going to happen to me again!!"

Hugs to you all

Dear Jesus,
Please bless Lisa give her wisdom, Hope, And Your favor.
In Jesus Name

PJ

Wow, what a nice message to get today. Thank you for your prayer I sure can use it!

P.S. I pray the Lord bless you and your family as well!

I'm now on my second lesson in the RESA. I should be further along, but I got into reading Tammy's entire journal last night! lol. I think I'm kinda avoiding it because I started on a lesson where I'm supposed to have already known a lot about RE, but I'm GREEN! There are so many things (everything) I don't know and I've got a HUGE list of acronyms that I have no idea what they mean (yet). The activities in the workbook assume that I have already gone through some of the other lessons and that I have my "business plan", "investment strategy", and "marketing plan" all in place (I do NOT), so I can't do those yet. It's hard to move on to another lesson when I haven't finished a previous one. So, I am stymied...

Anyway, I'm also supposed to have placed my first "ghost ad", but have no idea what to say as I don't know what my plan is yet... I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm lost at this point. I don't want to sound negative but I'm a perfectionist and it's hard to go on to something else when I haven't finished the previous thing, you know?

Has anyone else started somewhere other than the beginning of the RESA? If so, what did you do and how did you handle it? Thanks for any responses I get!

I'm going to sleep on this and start fresh tomorrow and see if I can wing it. Maybe I'll read some more of the book before I sleep to try and get some clarification on these things! HAH! I'm gonna look back on this and laugh at myself

Today I decided to just read some more to get answers to my questions; things I need to know before I can complete even the first lesson. The first "action item" I am suppose to do at the end of the first lesson says to "review my investment strategy and marketing plan and write out answers to the following questions", which I have no idea about because I don't have one yet! lol. I hesitate to call the coaching team again (I've already called them twice about this) because they just tell me to ignore what I should have already known and done and do the things in the lessons they gave me. Well, these lessons build upon previous lessons so I can't see how to do that! Yes, I'm frustrated

Sigh, yes, I know. One day I will look back on this and laugh at myself.

P.S. I was looking for some definitions of acronyms today and came across Rina's glossary!! Thanks, Rina!! Sure beats doing a search on every one

It's Sunday night (ok, it's Monday morning ), and I'm still up. I have huge butterflies in my stomach because tomorrow is Monday and I KNOW I will have to do something here! lol! I haven't written in a few days so I thought I should make a post in my journal. I've been reading SOOooo many posts on this website! I can't believe how many. I'm trying to find the courage to *do* something, anything, but I don't know what yet. I really do have a lot of time on my hands so there really is no excuse *not* to do anything. Oh, I did send out about 35 invitations to this site! We'll see who is smart and gets it!

I guess I'll lie down and read some more of PFRERN before I go to sleep. I haven't finished it yet, then on to BARM next! I know, I need to get moving on my Success Academy lessons. I guess I need to call them when I wake up later. I have gotten stuck and need some help. OK! Next time I write I will have done SOMETHING!

Lisa,
I am also just starting - I have not spoken to anyone at the RESA yet, but I am sure I will today. I hope to have do my first deal by the end of the year!

We can do this!

Stuart

you are doing just fine. don't stress yourself out about what you don't know. it will all come together. each step you take, the next step will show up with the information you need. don't feel bad about calling the Success Academy. that's what you're paying for. use them as much as you need/want to. it sounds to me like you really need to read Your Town Your Real Estate Profits because it really outlines students and their deals. the book you are reading right now should too. once you read about the various exit strategies, then you can decide what will work best for you. everyone, including my coaches, have told me to do wholesaling/assignments, but i don't want to. i told my coach where my heart really is and it's on lease/options, so that is what i'm working on and she sent me the lessons on that, which were great. i also have studied and continue to study everything i can get my hands on concerning L/O's. you will pick this up and you will "get it". it just takes a little time. if you have some questions, go to my journal and i'll help you out. there are many others on here who will too. be patient and kind with yourself and it will come.

Thank you pdq, (love your nick ) I needed the encouragement. I am very excited about this opportunity and I know it will work itself out and I'll get it eventually. I'll check out your journal

I've been approached by a couple of people on here who want me to do bird dogging for them and I suppose I should start out that way to get my feet wet. I'm gravitating to assignments, would also like to try probates because they seem to be less represented overall. So, I guess I need to focus on one thing to try at first but it's skeery! lol x)~

Thanks for your note

I swear, I cannot pull myself away from this website! I'm on information OVERLOAD and I cannot stop thinking I just signed on to Dean's Set For Life system and I'm PUMPED!! LOL! Ok, whew, I need to settle down and focus, focus, FOCUS! I can feel it.... It's going to be GREAT!! Deep breaths... deep breaths... DEEP BREATHS!! lol. Ok, time to go READ!

More tomorrow...

I haven't posted here in like 3 days Well, I made a contact today with another real estate investor and she's part of a networked group of professionals and she invited me to a meeting tomorrow!!! Wish me luck! Boy, I have butterflies in my tummy :)~ I'll post after this meeting about what I learned and stuff.

I haven't been back to my Education Center (RESA) cuz I'm discouraged about it. I really don't want to be tied down to that at this time and I wonder if I can get out of it in some way... I know I've read on different threads where people were sort of taking over other people's training or something. I think I'm going to check into that cuz I am in the red! Last month and this month!! (so far) Wish me luck!!

Oh, and thanks to everyone who reads this :)~

(((hugs to all my DG'er friends )))

Lisa,

Hey I read or skimmed through your posts here. Sounds like you are doing the right things with arming yourself in a several pronged manner with the books and other resources offered by Dean's company.

I to have a similar story with school, so I understand your postion. I had 2 bachelors degrees and was going to Seattle to work on and finish a masters (yes 3rd degree) in Occupational Therapy. Well for one reason or another it didn't work out for me after one month, everything went wrong and I was in over my head and I knew it. Well that degree was supposed to be the key to a bright future and better days. But then I started looking at it and it was going to cost me around 250,000 dollars to pay for school and living expenses while I was there over 3 years. That was on top of the 40,000 in loans I already had out from the undergrads.

When I came home and thought about going back over the course of that year the loans were coming due and I was employed, kinda sorta. Well I couldn't handle the payments, truck payment and so on. It was so terrible.... Then like you I saw Dean on one night and went to the book store and bought BARM. I did join the success academy later but have left that idle for some time now. I have 4 deals done and manage a property as well. So since the first deal this summer I now have 4 houses, a total of 10 rental units, went from $0 a month business income to $4,300 a month gross and am never going to return to school as an option for a job or career. This REI stuff works and works well. Better than any degree will ever work for me.

So good luck on your adventures, you can do it. Just learn all you can and go do it! The only reason why a person can't do this is because they end up not DOING it, its sooooo possible for anyone to do it but only if you take action and it sounds like you have already got a great handle on that.

Let me know how you are doing by PM or just by keeping up the posting,

Jeff (FOMAC)

Hey, thanks for your story and your comments I appreciate them very much. Wow, you DO sound a lot like me. I have over 200 credits/units of school, should have over two BA's or BS's, but really cannot see myself finishing in the very near future because I seriously want to do this, too, and I will! Do you have a journal I could follow? If not, you should start one so I can follow you haha. Take care!

I decided to post this in here because I didn't want to bog down the forums with a new thread. If I don't hear anything from anyone, I will tomorrow though haha. Ok, here's the story:

I'm have two houses I'm interested in:

One is in a gorgeous city in Arizona, and another is in California. The AZ one is BEAUTIFUL!! I was there in July when my family were here visiting, and we happened to drive by it and I said STOP! I want to go in and see it (it was an open house). I swear, I was so absolutely enamored with this house! I walked around like I knew what I was doing, but boy was I intimidated LOL. This was before I *ever* even considered investing. I mean, I was like, no way am I ever going to be able to own a house like this haha. Maybe that was a prophetic experience?? Anyway, this house was listed at $850k back then, and the Realtor told me it wasn't worth more than $750k!! lol he just came out and told me this. Well, I just happened to find the flier for it today so I went online and looked it up. It's still listed with the same Realtor, only now it's going for $819k! I wonder what I should do about it. I've got to do *something* or I'll kick myself! This is a house I'd like to buy and rent because I'd like to move into it some day. I have no money, bad credit, and ZERO experience so I know it's a long shot... but where there's a will, there's a way, no?

The other house is in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, and is going to a Short Sale on the 15th of this month. These people are friends of mine so I called her about it and am waiting to hear back from her (I had to leave a voice mail). I'm not sure what I'm going to say, cuz I'm not sure what I can do for her. I'm still so green, ya know? Anyway, it's supposed to be going to Short Sale for $1.4 million, but it's average estimate is around $800-900k (FMV I think) on the various websites. I don't understand this because I thought SS's were offered for LOWER $$, right?

If anyone can offer any assistance with these, I'd be very grateful. I'd be willing to share any profits!

Lisa,

I could be wrong, but I think the FMV has gone down since they purchased the house, so the are under water with their mortgage. They probably owe more than the $1.4 Mil. Short sales I think are the answer for the bank when owners are behind/can't catch up on payments and are going (?) into foreclosure or would without the short sale.

Thank Rina on this one!
http://www.deangraziosi.com/node/3208

It's been over a week since I posted in my journal. But, no worries! My daughter has been here (AZ) visiting from California for a couple of weeks so I've been indisposed. But: I will be gung hoeing it this next week!!! I must do something or I fear I shall burst I'm not worried, nope. I've been learning an awful lot in these last few weeks that I've known about Dean and his schtuff! It's going to happen for me, there is NO doubt in my mind. And, I don't just say these things! So, I'll be posting regularly again because I feel better when I do. It keeps me accountable to myself, if no one else, right! So, it's after 6am and I haven't been to bed yet I know, I know, I need my beauty sleep!! And I really do feel like crap unless I get at least 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep! I can't help it, it's what I'm made of. Sigh. My daughter has a dentist appointment at 2 pm today so it looks like I'll only get about 6 hours of sleep this day! Don't tell anyone, but I'm gonna come home and take a nap! But, shhhh! After I wake up I'm gonna contact Elena and hook up with her today if possible! That will be my first step and I'm excited about it!!!!! Ok, now I'm just babbling cuz I guess I'm loopy and need to go to sleep. So, g'night all and have a great day.

I was so bummed when I found out the SFL system was SOLD OUT!!! I should have gotten this instead of signing up to the RE Academy!! But, nobody told me about it and I didn't find out until it was too late :(' That would have helped me SO MUCH more than the Academy that I had to back out of. Sighs. OH WELL. Live and move on.

It's been more than five days since I last posted Well, my daughter has been here for the last few weeks and it's really difficult to do stuff when she's here! Honest! lol.

Well, I tried to back out of the Success Academy because I was just NOT feeling it and well, they wouldn't let me! Something about the 3 day contract cancellation thingy. So, I guess I have to stick it out. They did offer to defer my payments for a couple of months, and they cut them in half, and they lowered the interest rate for me (it was 18%!!). So, that does help I really would like the help, but seriously, I cannot stand listening to a lot of it. NO OFFENSE to anyone () I seriously will have to buckle down and listen to what is being said, not how it's being said and hopefully I'll be able to get something out of it. Also, hopefully when I finally speak to a coach and we stop playing phone tag, they can set me up in a lesson that actually makes sense to me!

I really need a major attitude adjustment for this to work for me! Positive, NOT negative Yes, I know.

P.S. I know I will probably be laughing about this in a few months, so why not act as if it's already happened, right??

NOTE: 2/13/11 I just realized (after all these months) that this was a double post. Not sure how *that* happened, so I deleted the text in this one

/me does some kind of Egyptian type dance to make it more interesting

You you may look into getting yourself a digital voice recorder. This was recommended to me when I joined a coaching program. I purchased one that was made by Olympus. It is sufficient to put your phone on speaker and use the recorder, but another thing you can do (which was also suggested to me) is purchase a little earbud that can plug into your recorder. It has an output speaker on the earbud so that when you have the earbud in your ear and the phone to your head, you hear the conversation but it is also recorded. I did purchase this, but am unsure I actually used it because I found it more useful to have my hands fret o be able to take notes and work with the computer at the same time that they coached me. You may get more out of your sessions; I think I did. And if I feel there was something I missed, I could go over the recording and formulate specific questions about the material.

For positivity, I was writing something here, but I decided to post it as a thread (which probably very few people will notice, but oh well!). Check it out. http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/everything-else/62948/sta...

You're my favorite cheer leader!! Yes, that's a great idea! I'm gonna get a recorder as soon as I get my next check. I didn't know you could do that..?

Yay, I'm working today. I really do feel good about all of this. I can't wait for my first deal. My brother, who lives in Tappahannock, VA, just put his house on contract with a Realtor to sell the other day. I just found out yesterday. He's planning on selling this beautiful house that he and his wife built some years ago and move to South Carolina. I'm hoping to help him somehow! I have to call him today... I'll be keeping it posted!

smurfy wrote:

You're my favorite cheer leader!!

Glad I can help!

What a great first deal that would be!! I'll send out the good vibes for you on that one!

Also, great to hear you are working today and feeling good. Remember that there may be days where the negative creeps in, but do anything you can that makes you feel positive to get the good feelings back so you can KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

It's been over TWO MONTHS since I've written in here My soooo, so bad! Well, where do I start? A lot of things have gone on since I last wrote. I'm thinking this will be the last post I make in here until next year, so I'm going to fill you all in on what's been going on in my life.

First I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and Happy New Year. This next year, 2011, will be an AMAZING year for us all, I can feel it!

I know I've learned far too much on this website and with the RE related things I've been exposed to over the last three months for MY life to ever be the same again. It's funny, I've been telling everyone I know that I am a real estate investor. Most people just look at me and go, "uh huh". Not in a bad way, just in that kind of blank, "sure you are, if you say so", kinda vibe. They don't see it yet. Most don't believe it or they think it's just a phase I'm going through. I'll show them. I will never give up on this. I've never felt more sure about anything else in my life (except Jesus).

So, I just got home from being with my family for Christmas. I feel very fortunate because this year I am able to have most of my family here. My son and daughter-in-law were here, and we were at my sister's house. Her, my brother-in-law, my mom, and my dad were all there today. My daughter was in San Diego with her dad, but that's ok because I had her here with me for Thanksgiving and I will see her in a couple of weeks or so. So, my point is, family is what's most important in life. And, although we had and have had plenty, we all have that "unknown" hanging over our heads. My folks are worried about money. My sister is worried about money. My daughter is worried about money. My son and daughter-in-law are worried a out money. I am vaguely concerned, but I have HUGE HOPE for this year.

So, as I sit here listening to Yellowcard's (my son's band) new cd, I have this warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. I'm excited! They sound really good and I think this one's gonna be a hit. I'm fortunate that I get to preview it before the general public, what a blessing! Hopefully this cd will be his vehicle to financial stability in his and his wife's life. Secondly, I'm going to do really well in RE this year. I've found a partner who lives in Utah, and we are going to invest together! I'm very excited because she added me to her SFL and I can now see the HUGE value in this group of programs. It's just mind boggling. I'm still learning about all the power wrapped up in the system! So, God willing, nothing can hold us back!

Well, that's all for now. I don't have any deals as of yet, but there ARE prospects and I have more clear direction than I've had before. I will keep you all updated when new things arise. Thanks for reading!

I didn't even realize you had a journal. I've read your whole journal and want to give you an encouraging nudge. Whatever you do, KEEP AT IT. Giving up will never be an option in this game. I love your attitude that this will work for you. There is a course in RESA called RE Basics, and then there is another one that is also pretty basic. The way mine's set up it was the first 2 courses at least. But, the best way to learn is to not just do the classes, which you should continue EVEN IF you don't understand everything, because it will click eventually. Remember, you have the coaches to call as often as you want to ask ANY question you want; NO question is dumb!!! AND, start taking action.

Start looking at CL daily and calling sellers and buyers to get experience and build your buyer's list.

BTW, what came of the short sale in RPV? Is it still on the market?

You can do this, and you WILL! It is CERTAIN you will SUCCEED!

Also, make it an effort to get on here everyday and do an update however small. Like you said, it keeps you accountable and will keep you pressing on.

You can PM me and I can give you my sheet I use when interviewing sellers. It helps to guide you with questions to ask as well as actions to take for certain situations that come up from conversations. Once you actually DO your first deal, all the stuff you're worried about not knowing, you'll know because you've had to deal with them. So, get a deal, make sure you have contingencies for inspection and/or partner approval, and make it happen. RESA will look over all your contracts and help you fill them out if you need them to. You have that benefit and may as well use it!

BTW, they didn't even offer me a financing plan. Wish they would have. I've got to get 3 more deals closed by early February to get my $7500 back. I've got 2 under contract and need 1 more to get it back. I WILL be doing it, one way or another! All the best to you!

~Tammy

Hi Lisa I just thought I would stop by to see how you were doing. Looks like things are looking a little better for you this year. So keep your head up and keep moving forward. I'll be watching to see how you are making out.