Flip This Wholesaler

Greetings, blogosphere!

Well, I had intended on posting this video last night as a Saturday Night Reader Mail, but then when I went to upload it to YouTube it was too long (13 minutes), so I had to go back and try to edit out 3 minutes of the video (YouTube’s time limit is 10 minutes), which didn’t work out so well. Then I decided to just re-record the whole thing, but I kept going over the time limit by like 20 seconds or so. This went on for about 2 hours, and at 2am I finally gave up and went to bed, where I had sweet dreams of what my life would be like if I wasn’t always fighting with technology. Or techmology, as Ali-G calls it.

Anyway….I started from scratch this afternoon, and managed to get ‘er done (with 15 seconds to spare- woohoo!)

In this video, I explain how to fill out (and when to use) the assignment contract as well as the option to purchase contract that I’m giving away up there in the right corner of my blog.

I hope you likey.

Got questions about the video?

Feel free to leave them below, and I’ll be happy to answer.

Over and out.

P.S.
I have something very exciting coming to blogosphere this October. You’re going to crap your pants when you see it. (In a good way, though).

Greetings!

It’s time once again for another fantastic book review by Mrs. Shae Bynes from GoodFaithInvesting.com!

Sorry I’m a little late getting it to you this month, but better late than never, eh?

This month, Shae will be reviewing No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs, by Dan Kennedy. (Side note: Could entrepreneur be any harder to spell? Geeze.)

For those who read the book- I hope you liked it!  I thought it was an excellent read, and considering the fact that my time management skills are in need of a major overhaul (thanks Facebook!), this was also a timely book choice for me.

Anywho, here’s what Shae had to say about it…..

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This month’s Flip This Book Club selection, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, was the first book I’ve read from successful entrepreneur and author Dan Kennedy. It’s clear why he brands his books “No B.S.” — the dude pulls no punches! There is quite a bit of no-nonsense practical advice in this book (along with the occasional rant), but I have to admit that I’m still scratching my head at how Kennedy has practically eliminated the use of cell phones and emails from his business life as methods of communication (he opts for faxes because he says people put more thought into the content of them).

Nevertheless, I want to first point out that there were several great nuggets of wisdom about time management and success in this book….words worth typing up and posting on your wall or somewhere else where you can see them and remind yourself regularly. Here are some of my favorites:

- Self-discipline is the magic power that makes you virtually unstoppable.
– Delegate or stagnate.
– No one who is good at making excuses is also good at making money. The skills are mutually exclusive.
– The more decisions you make and the faster you make them, the more productive you are.
– Good enough is good enough.

Kennedy talked about a technique he uses to focus and avoid majoring in minor matters: Identify and write down the three most important, most significant, most productive, most valuable things you can do to foster success in your particular enterprise. Then translate them into three actions you can take each and every day. He noted that even though some people may find writing down lists to be confining, he’s never known or met a successful entrepreneur who wasn’t a list maker.

To illustrate the importance and benefits of taking massive action, he shared a story about how a dentist with a struggling practice made a list of 300 things he needed to implement to turn things around. He simply did 10 items from the list each and every week for 30 weeks and without increasing marketing or advertising expenses he managed to QUADRUPLE his business! Pretty powerful.

We all know that sometimes we fail to hit our goals. When we do fail, some people will reset the same goal with a new deadline and others may create less aggressive goals, but Kennedy handles these situations a bit differently by creating a similar but bigger and more exciting goal with a new deadline. This way he’s able to stay motivated and focused rather than lower the bar or waste time with disappointment.

For the benefit of those who didn’t read the book, I thought I’d end with Kennedy’s excellent definition of productivity and 4 of the many time management techniques discussed in the book. I suspect you’ve heard some or all of these before but never hurts to remind yourself because we can all do better with our time management!

Definition of productivity: Productivity is the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals.

4 Time Management Techniques Really Worth Using

• 1. Tame the phone: Take few if any incoming calls. Return calls at your convenience. This is the #1 source of interruption and distraction for most people.

• 2. Block your time: Make inviolate appointments with yourself. Block out time to handle specific reoccurring aspects of your business. If you block time for important, high-value functions you perform, you prevent demands of others from moving these activities from number one to number ten on your list over and over again. This one technique has enabled Kennedy to write at least one book per year publish two monthly newsletters for 8 consecutive years.

• 3. Practice absolute punctuality: Being punctual gives you the right — the positioning — to expect and demand that others treat your time with respect. Kennedy feels so strongly about this one that as a general rule of thumb, he will use a person’s punctuality (or lack thereof) to determine whether he wants to do business with them.

• 4. Profit from “Odd-Lot” time: Turn driving time and waiting time into educational times to learn a foreign language, improve your memory, or essentially learn about any and every topic from experts. Take advantage of audiobooks and podcasts.

For those who read No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, what were some of your favorite tips or techniques? Have you mastered any time management techniques that have substantially increased your productivity?

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Thanks, Shae, for another outstanding review!

Looking forward to hearing what the rest of you guys thought about the book….

10-4, over and out.

P.S.
Next month’s book club choice is the legendary,  Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.  I’ve read this one several times before, but it’s such a fantastic read that I’m looking forward to going through it yet again.

P.P.S.
If you’re short on cash- you can get this book for free all over the internet- here’s a Google search with a bunch of different places to get it.  So now you have no excuse to not read it, and I expect to see you all here on August 16th @ 8pm to discuss!

P.P.P.S.
If you weren’t able to get in on the call I did last night with Joe McCall about wholesaling lease options, you can catch the replay here- it’ll be up until Sunday at midnight, so mosey on over ASAP to get your learn on!

Happy Monday Blogosphere!

So, I ended up meeting Ray yesterday to get a deposit and sign the contracts for the deal I wrote about in my last post. We met at Starbucks at 4pm and ended up sitting there shooting the breeze for almost 2 hours. (Note to self: drinking a venti Dark Cherry Mocha Frappuccino @ 4pm is not a good idea- I was up until 2am staring at my ceiling).

Ray’s a super cool dude.  He’s been buying properties in Tampa for the last 15 years, and owns 17 rentals free and clear right now. Nice.  He said he’s been patiently waiting for the right time to jump back in and start picking up more rentals, and he recently decided that now is the time.

The closing on this one is scheduled for the 30th of this month, but it’s an REO, so you never know if that will actually happen. I’m spilitting this one 50/50 with one of my wholesaling buddies, so we’ll each make 3k on it when all is said and done.  Not a windfall, but better than a sharp stick in the eye, eh?

So that’s the scoop on that….

In other news- I mentioned in a previous post that I’m hosting a live training call this Wednesday, July 14th @ 8pm, and I’ve finally got all the details for you about that!

My guest for this event is a fellow student of Steve Cook, and he’s been doing some serious butt-kicking up in St. Louis.  He’s wholesaling properties, but with a twist!  Instead of going after the same type of deals that everyone else and their Grandma is, he’s found a way to profit from the deals that most wholesalers and investors are leaving behind.

Aside from the fact that the market he is targeting is virtually untapped (no competition from other wholesalers/investors), his lead source for these deals costs zilch, and his risk in each deal is limited to only a few bucks (no large earnest money deposits required!).

To reserve your seat on the call (and also to watch the quick video that we recorded), just click on the box below and you’ll be taken to the signup page…

***Once you sign up, make sure to check your email for the confirmation link- you’ll have to click on that in order to secure your spot for the event!

See ya there on Wednesday!

P.S.
Flip This Book Club will be meeting here this Thursday @ 8pm (sorry- it’s a few days late!). Shae Bynes will be reviewing this month’s book- No BS Time Management for Entrepeneurs by Dan Kennedy.

Hi guys.

Well, I’m officially switched over to Hostgator as of earlier this afternoon- woohoo!  As it turns out, all that worrying I did about my blog getting broken was all for not.  I was having some issues with my comments yesterday and today, but everything seems to be back up and running now.  By the way, if you commented on one of my posts yesterday or today- they got swallowed up in cyberspace somehow.  Sorry about that.  It wasn’t me, it was the internets.

So anyway, I’m happy to have that done and over with.

Along with that good news, I got a call today from a guy who saw one my signs advertising a deal that I was working on with one of my wholesaler friends.  I originally had this deal sold a few weeks ago to a new buyer of mine that was referred to me by another buyer of mine who I have become good friends with over the last few months.

Normally I don’t believe anything anyone says about buying a deal until they actually cough up the deposit and sign on the dotted line, but since my other buyer/friend vouched for him, I just took his word for it. So anyway, I emailed this deal to him (the new guy) because I knew he had other rentals in the same neighborhood, and he emailed back shortly thereafter saying that he would take the deal.  Sweet.

He asked me to send the contracts over, which I did the next day (Monday).  Then I didn’t hear from him for a whole day, so I finally called and asked what was going on.  He said he was waiting on a quote from my title company to see how much the closing costs would be, since he was paying all of them.  A reasonable request, I guess.  

Once he got the quote from my title co, he had some other excuse about having to talk to his CPA about which entity to use to buy the property, or something like that.  To make a long story short, he strung me along for an entire week, and then disappeared off the face of the Earth.  This is my biggest pet peeve in real estate, btw- when people I’m doing a deal with stop answering calls instead of just growing a pair and telling me what’s going on.

So anyway, while this jerk-off was stringing me along, another guy who saw one of my signs called and said he wanted the house.  I told him it was already sold, but took his name and number and said I would call if anything changed with my other buyer.

So, once it became evident that jerk-off was not going to follow through, I called the other guy (Jay) to see if he was still interested. As luck would have it, the number I wrote down belonged to some lady named Jenny who had no idea who Jay was.  Awesome! (I found out today that I wrote down the wrong area code).

Long story short (too late), I got a call today from Jay, who happened to see another one of my signs for a different deal. He passed on that one, but still wants the other one that he initially called about, which is still available because another buyer bailed on the deal a few days ago.

Anywho, I’m supposed to meet up with Jay tomorrow to get his deposit and sign the contracts. I’ve had so many buyers flake out on me lately, though, that I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy did, too.

I guess I’ll find out tomorrow….

Alrighty, so now that I’ve prattled on for five years and you’re probably not even awake anymore, I still have a Reader Mail video for you to watch!

In this installment, I answer Armando’s question about estimating repairs on your wholesale deals.

Here ya go…

Later Alligators!

You know what’s awesome?

When you finish recording a video for your blog at 4pm and then spend 3.5 hours in technical difficulty hell before you finally get around to posting it.

You should try it sometime- it’s a real hoot!

My favorite part was when my site went down for an hour and a half (because Bluehost sucks the big one), and then when I went to check my email to get my username and password for my Bluehost account, some douchebag hacked into my Gmail account so I was locked out of that, too.

It was a real laugh riot.

I should have kicked Bluehost to the curb a long time ago, but I’ve convinced myself that my blog is somehow going to get broken or erased while being transferred over to another hosting company (because I am technologically cursed), so instead, I’ve been putting up with Bluehost’s horrible service for the last 2 months in hopes that the problem would fix itself.

It’s never a good sign when you have your hosting company on speed dial.

Seriously, I have them on speed dial.

Number 5.

As a matter of fact, while I was sitting around waiting for them to not fix my site again, I came up with a brand new Bluehost logo, along with a catchy little slogan….

I think I’m going to send it over to the head honchos of their advertising department to see if they find my handiwork as amusing as I do.

I bet not.

So, anyway, now that I have my blog back again, I can share with you the video I recorded earlier today wherein I explain how to fill out the purchase and sale agreement that I’m giving away up there at the top of my site.  I get a lot of emails from beginning wholesalers who are intimidated by the paperwork involved in a deal, so I thought it would be helpful to provide you with the necesssary contracts, and then record a few videos explaining how to fill them out.

So, here ya go…

If you need any clarification after watching the video, all you have to do is ask.

And that’s all I’ve got for today, folks.

Later Alligators!

P.S.
I’ll be putting out another video walking you through both the assignment contract and the option contract, so stay tuned…

P.P.S.
Mark your calendars for next Wednesday, July 14th @ 8pm. I’m hosting a webinar with a surprise guest that you won’t want to miss. (Details coming in the next day or two)