Investing Journals

I constantly run ads on Craig's List for Property Finders under Real Estate Help wanted and also under sales.

I used to split profits with them but now I offer them a flat $2,000 finders fee. I can't rely completely on BD's bcuz 99% will flake out. Most will never get started, some will send a few addresses and every once in a while I'll get one or 2 that will really put in the effort and send me hundreds of addresses. I try to explain to them, that 98% of these addresses I cant do a deal on, and that's why it's a numbers game.
I estimate maybe 30% of my deals come from Bird dogs.

I also do the direct mail, bandit signs, door knob hangers, networking etc.

Hey there DG Family. It's been awhile and I've gotta say I've truly missed being here and seeing all the amazing support and I hope everyone is doing wonderful. My family just had an amazing thing happen and that is my wife just quit her full time job to come on board with me as a Real Estate Investor. Why is this important you may ask?

So I wanted to start a new journal I started with Dean 5yrs ago and saw him on tv ordered his books & couple mo's later in late Dec 2010 I read them reread them & just barely now I understand now what he was saying, time to reread them again.j

I had quit my job in 2010 (big mistake:) to do RE & got on disability, struggled a few yrs making offers at first w/no buyers, no real educ yet but I got rockbottom bluperint in 2011 I believe or w/it 2012 cant remember.

Then joined insiders elite, learning every day, going to local reia's, then I got my 1st deal in Jan 2013 a bird dog deal I made $1,350 not a lot but it gave so much confidence.

My buddy Rich asked the other day what we were doing different. I thought of the obvious reasons,

I get help from my finders and I've developed friendships with other investors and I probably do a lot more marketing.

After deeper analysis, perhaps it's the xtra training I'm doing. I came from a very poor background. That's a tough hurdle to jump. I've always had feelings of inferiority. Making $600 a week doing construction was what I thought was as good as it wud ever get. One of my buddies once described me and my family as ditch bank okies. Probably a mean and hurtful thing to say but not to far from the truth.

Fortunately for me my job ended and I was forced to look for a different profession,. So in summery,

My bird dog Frank has sent me a lot of addresses in the last year & a half or so, but I cudnt make any deals happen with any, and he was getting frustrated despite my attempt to keep him motivated.

He had a job so I suggested he spend a few buks on bandit signs. He did, I think he purchased 50.
He decided to put them up in the nearby cow towns, rural areas.
One small town called him and he had to go take some down. After a few months he got a few calls and it was slow going, finally after 3 or 4 months we get the money call.

A lady with a 3/2 1,000 SF on 1 acre, it even has a mobile on it that's rented for $850 but tenants are moving out.

This lady's house had been trashed, tenants had been ther for 5 years and had animals and teenage kids.

I have recently been terminated from my Part-time (32hr/wk) job with a "Major Retailer" that I worked with for the past six years. It was an unexpected termination and I hoped that this job would help sustain me until I could find a full-time income in Real Estate (as Dean suggested in his books). I had been trying to get off the ground for the past few years but somehow this former job always seemed to gain priority. The income from this "JOB" was not enough for me to afford to maintain a car and its's other necessary expenses in the past few years. So, I rode a bicycle back and forth to work (a 40 minute ride). That is all I have been able to afford since a major accident a few years ago.

I was over at my little Country airport fixing up my hanger and listening to music while sucking on an energy drink when a fellow pilot came over to investigate my plane and the new guy, me haha. After some chit chat and talking airplanes Of course he noticed the I buy Houses signs on my vehicle and said he had some apartments to sell.
I met him there today, these apartments are actually in a big building built in 1911 with a couple of duplexes alongside.
I was expecting some dilapidated termite and roach infested complex because of the age and the area, but I was surprised, A real cute property with big shade trees and older landscaping with carports and courtyards and balconies. I even picked a bag of big ripe purple figs with the owner.

I just got back from driving to a Small town in New Mexico and purchased a plane, removed the wings, tied it all to my trailer and brought it back to California.
It was an expensive purchase but I paid cash. I gave him a $500 deposit 6 months ago and finally it all came together, got a camper shell for my truck, got a nice flat bed trailer, rented a hanger at the local country airport, I didn't have any more excuses not to go get it. So anyway.

I returned home a few days ago and today I got an email from John the 78 year old seller saying his church friends were telling him I was probably a drug dealer cuz I'm from Calif and paid in cash and wud be using the plane to smuggle drugs in from Mexico haha. This little town in NM has a population of 430 and I must of been the hot topic.

I've been reading books by Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie and Zig Zigler & others. One statement I read said a high percentage of his sales were after the client said no.

I admit, I've been too quick to say OK, call me if you change your mind.

Well, last week I got a call from a gentleman named Jeff, He says him and 2 brothers want to sell their diseased mothers house. I called him back with my offer, he agreed to my price and I emailed him my contract. Several days later I hadn't received the signed contract back.

Ok. So i have dropped everything