New investor with a plan, comments please.

Hi guys!

This is my first time posting here, I have been reading (here and everywhere) for months upon months and I finally decided, I want to be do this, I want to succeed, so I’m going to stop reading and thinking and start doing something. I’ve read a few courses, but they were complete crap except for the Motivated Seller Magnet, which I just finished. That course reinforced what I already knew, that MARKETING is the key to this business, and gave me some really good ideas. Anyway, I have a plan and I’m making progress on it, so I’d certainly appreciate any comments.

1. FUNDING THE DEALS: I do have good credit, but not much cash saved up. I have already approached a few hard money lenders and been approved, but after reading on here, I have decided to write up a business plan and approach some traditional lenders too.

2. FINDING THE DEALS: The “big” town near me has 30,000 people, so I’m not living in a big city type area at all. I feel that I could find a great deal anywhere in the county, just depends on the circumstances. So, to start I have been direct mailing to professionals that could give me referrals (attorneys, realtors, etc.). I have also taken out a classified ad in the local (county-wide) paper. There are 4 other investors in the paper, and they all say “WE BUY HOUSES (555) 555-5555” or “$ CASH FOR HOUSES $ (555) 555-5555”. I need to stand out so mine says something along the line of “Would you like your house to be SOLD this time next month? It can be. We buy houses. Call now XXX-XXX-XXXX”. I think this is more effective and talks to the seller more. Next, I ordered bandit signs which have not arrived yet but I will be putting them in heavy-traffic intersections around town. I am also doing direct mail to FSBOs, bankruptcy’s, divorces, and am trying to get expired listings but not having much luck with that. I also have business cards ordered which will serve as miniature flyers that myself and several other people will be distributing everywhere we go. Last, I am going to have a flyer distribution service take some of my flyers door to door in certain neighborhoods in the city, I think. I haven’t decided exactly what would be best to target with the flyers.

3. DOING THE DEAL: I’m open to doing any types of deals at this point just to get experience under my belt. I am not planning to hold on to anything long-term (rentals) yet though. Some may say it’s good to start building equity right away but I just don’t think it’s a good idea to do that right now.

So, any comments, advice, suggestions, whatever from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Be honest; hurt my feelings; I don’t care. I want to cover all angles of this business the best I can so if you have something to say, please say it.

Thanks!
Ian

I’m no expert, so this is strictly my own opinion from my own experience. When I started in REI, not that long ago, I tried a bit of a shotgun approach like you’re describing. Not the whole bandit sign, direct mail stuff, but an ad in the paper and calling FSBOs. What I figured out is even when I found potential motivated sellers, b/c I was trying to learn all the different investing methods at once, it was hard to pull the trigger on any of them. Sellers would ask me questions that I just couldn’t answer. So then I decided to focus (in my case rehabbing) so I could learn one thing well. Once I have that down, I’ll work on more. But what I’ve found is that learning one thing well makes all the other avenues of investing make more sense. In other words, you don’t have to learn one technique at a time, but learn one well, then branch into others at the same time.

I completely agree with that. I too am a beginning investor just starting out. I’ve read and read and read for months and now finally decided to plunge in. My take is that you should concentrate in learning one aspect of real estate investing. As you get proficient…then you can move to other areas. A “jack of all trades” will always advance you in life…however will fall short to someone who is a master of one of those trades. Why not master each area that interests you one at a time?

Hello, I must agree with both of the previous postings about your direction in RE.
But, my question is, why have you ruled out the possibility of creative financing by going with just a HML and now limiting yourself to traditional financing? Private money investors are an avenue not many people consider. I know that they’re hard to find. But they offer great financing and great flexability.

Because I don’t feel that I’m qualified to convince someone else to let me invest their money on my very first deal. I would prefer to use private money 100% so I can just buy a property without having to go through all of the bank / HML requirements, but I know that’s not feasible nor would I want to do that when I have no experience.

Hello, It is your option to not want to use private money. But your missing out on the opportunity of their benefits.

Like I just said, I would like to use private money but not until I complete a few deals.