As with anything in life, it gets easier with repetition. So here is a way to get better at your nemesis. Start talking to random folks you run into during the day. Here’s how you open. Find a quality you like about them (hair, shirt, tone of voice, anything, make it genuine), then tell the person. Start with a question, and then let them chat. People love to talk about themselves. Give them an opportunity.

These opportunities are everywhere. In line at the fast food joint, at the bank, a new coworker, that relative who’s name evades you. Just start the conversation, and get them to talk. Compliments are my favorite way because they are unexpected and open folks up. Just remmeber to get them to do the talking and show genuine interest in what they want to talk about.

This will help you long term when talking to sellers and finding out their needs. It will help you learn how to open sellers up. It will also help you to overcome that fear of talking to people. Whats the harm in a little conversation while waiting for a Starbucks? Remember opportunities to grow happen all day everyday, don’t let them go to waste.

On another very positive note. I want to give a shout out to Josh Dorkin at Bigger Pockets. He has created the largest real estate forum on the web. Nearly 50k members. Not only is the largest, but it is hands down the best way to stay on top of the ever changing real estate market. The information freely given by its members far outweighs its weight in gold.

Recently Josh just put this blog on the top 20 real estate blog list. Its the who’s who of real estate bloggers. I was truly stunned at the mention. This is the Grammy of real estate blog recognitions. I’m am very honored and humbled to mentioned next to the likes of Shae at Good Faith Investing, Scott at Struggling Investor, Jason at 123Flip, Tom at Tom Tarrant, Rachel at Adventures in Mobile Homes, JP at REI Tips and many others. I can’t even compare to the quality of these blogs. I read them almost daily. You should too.

Again thanks for the honor and keep up the good work Josh.

I leave you with this quote “To believe in yourself and to follow your dreams, to have goals in life and a drive to succeed, and to surround yourself with the things and the people that make you happy – this is success!” Sasha Azevedo

I have been doing my coaching items whenever I can fit them in. Life simply took hold and did not give me any free time what so ever.

With the help from my folks and brother-in-law I completely redid the landscaping on our yard. Its almost done. Bought 2 dozen plants and 3 tons of mulch. Added a new brick border wall up front, removed those three bushes, removed several trash cans of trash and rose bushes, had the front step mudjacked, added solar landscape lights, put in a 3×8 foot vegetable garden, built a temporary fence to keep the dog out, seeded and edged the lawn. Phew. To be honest though, I loved every bit of it. Still have a dozen plants to put into the ground, but its great.

My fiancés folks had their 50th wedding anniversary last weekend. That was very cool. Think about it. How many times in your life do you get to see a 50th anniversary. 3 maybe four times at most.

The next day I completed a bucket list item.

As far as real estate goes. I have dropped probate for now. I will be focusing on REO’s and abandoned houses. My goal is to make 5 offers per week.

My Realtor and I spend 6 hours one evening going over the MLS and offer contracts. I learned a ton of information. He’s a very good guy. He even asked if I want to be on his radio show. How cool is that. I have worked a deal with him to get a form of MLS access. All the same info on a time limited bases. Its a very good thing. Now I just need to squeeze out 5 minutes to make it happen.

Everything is starting to happen. I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines. Its time to take action. I love how busy I am at the moment. It means I’m living life to the fullest and not letting a moment slip by.

I got a motivated call this week. Unfortunately they want FMV on property thats out in the middle of BFC. The other deals are in progress, but no real progress has been made this week. I’ll update when I know more. Small update right now. I really can’t think of anything else to add.

I have received a few more negative calls. I’m not taking them to well. Its interesting how some folks are very eager to talk to me and others would rather rip my head off. I’m beginning to wonder if probate is the right avenue for me. I keep telling myself I am there to help the seller and many sellers need help in this situation. To be honest though, I think I would be one of th angry callers if I got one of those letters. I have talked it over with my fiancé and I will also talk to my mastermind group for input. What kills me also is lack of focus. This was one item I was really focusing on, if I stop, I will be taking a step back if I stop. A lot to ponder.

On a positive note, I will be making a bid on an short sale listing in the next few days. I’ll update on that one later. I need to sit done with my buyers agent and spell out my criteria for him, and have him do the same for me. He’s been very helpful thus far, but I may be outgrowing one agent. Random thoughts, but I wanted to post an update.

Some of our more successful members gave input on the struggles they have faced. Imagine 40% vacancy on 400 apartment units in Phoenix or negative cashflow of 12k per month, or having a bed and breakfast where the city want to put a homeless shelter right next door. The problems don’t change, only the zeros involved.

The reason I love this group, I didn’t hear one complaint from those folks. All they had were solutions and ways to fix their problems. Every single one of them found solutions. Imagine 35 folks all brainstorming together and working together to help each others business. There is true synergy in the air at these events, and it doesn’t take a guru to get there. Keep like minded positive successful folks in your midst and you will be a positive successful person.

So many ideas flow from this event, the key is focus. Stay on topic, but use that energy and innovation to assist your business. I’m doing just that. I made many new contacts and reacquainted with old friends. Very cool stuff. If you ever have a chance to go to a similar event, or even host a local one, I strongly urge you too.

Go out and create that energy, only positive will come of it.

On a side note, I may have a property under contract in a few days. I’ll fill you all in later, as for now, I need to get back to stuffing envelopes. 50 letters and 26 postcards going out tomorrow.

My own home.

-I contacted a buyers agent.  Found a house (3/1) in an older neighborhood.  I picked up the house for 90k with a VA loan.  Current market value is 125k. 

-Minor repairs throughout.  Replaced the locks.  Bringing the lawn back to life.  It looks pretty good actually.

-Security system.

-Replaced the original furnace circa 1954.

-New gate.  Slightly fancier then surrounding gates, but it goes well for a cottage feel.

Plans:

The house could be resold without additional work, but there are some things I would still like to do.

-Replace the windows 3k?

-looking into French doors when I replace one of the back windows. 1k?

-move washer to utility room 1k?

-refinish cabinets 1k?

-add dishwasher $300?

-remove dead trees from back yard $500?

-foundation work 3-5k?

-back patio. 1.5k?

-mud jack the front patio. $500?

-front and back minor landscaping 1k?

total = 10-15k

The biggest items are the foundation, cabinets and windows.  Everything else can either be dropped or minimized.

Rentals

-This year I started acquiring rentals. I now have 3.

-4 houses in 9 months exceeded my wildest expectations this year.

-picked all the houses up with very little down.  Purchased each with hard money and did an immediate refi.  Since the properties were purchased below 80% current market value my cost consisted of little more then closing costs.  Although Fannie Mae pulled some quick changes and raised my costs slightly 5% for each house is not to bad at all.

Plans:

-Hold the houses for at least one year.  Sell one or more for cash and either use that towards my self storage goal or use it to purchase more houses.  Either way is fine by me.

Flips

-Soon I will begin working on financing to flip properties.

-I’ll go into my flip criteria in another post.

Blog

-The blog initially started out covering the fixes on my own house, now it will cover just about any business venture I pursue.  Since this is my open journal, I want to look back and see my accomplishments.

Ok so the last two are future oriented only, but that ok.  I’d rather look to the future, because its very hard to move forward when looking behind you.

So what does it mean to live and flip?

It means exactly that. I’m going to live in a house while I flip it. I see the eyes rolling, “Isn’t that what everyone does?” No, no it isn’t. Let me lay out the plan.

1. I will find a house that is significantly below market value and below my budget.

2. I will work on the house over the next two years while the market improves.

3. Sell, rinse and repeat.

Simple plan really. As always the devil is in the details and hence the purpose of this blog. I want to learn from my mistakes, brag about my accomplishments, and maybe just maybe teach a few things along the way.

So how about it, wanna come along for the ride?