Blueprint for new CREI'ers!

Are you broke, or just “conservative”? Do you feel like you’re looking endlessly for your first deal, yet nothing you need is in tact? For instance, you are looking to make a deal happen, your strategies are all figured out, yet you have one important thing missing … money. I mean “no money” in every sense of the word – bad credit, no savings account, no cash, no job. Here are a few things outlined to concentrate on to get and keep your CREI career moving, without costing a dime. I’ve employed these tactics myself and can vouch for their success. Success meaning they’ll put you in front of deals, however, only YOU can recognize that it’s there and make something of it. I went quite a while before I found a deal to start on, and with only my drive to get started, have I started to see deals falling in my lap weekly now. From no deals for 4 or 5 months, to 4 actual deals in one week is how the following things worked for me – and all without spending anything beyond 1 ad in the weekly city paper 1 time for $14 (never renewed it a second time) and the price of stamps and internet access. J



TCI

· Knowledge – read the forums like they’re going out of style. Be able to visit them for a few hours each day and you will notice that the “grayed out” links you’ve already visited. Read until your focused area is all grayed out and stay current. You don’t have to post, just read. Read articles the same way.

· Tips & Strategies – Post questions for feedback to tackle issues that seem to be barriers to your deals or ideas and see what others think. Don’t discriminate on post numbers because some “newbies” on the site might just be new to THIS site and are actually very versed and experienced in their areas of concentration. Search articles, forums and free stuff areas too for more tips and strategies.

· Lender Tab – no matter who thinks these work or not, find some lenders in your state and call them. Even if they aren’t willing to work with you, at least you’re getting more of an idea of what lenders ACTUALLY want! Invaluable info, take it and get creative again and start to meet their criteria thru whatever means you have.

· Realty Section – you just might find a steal in here or something that you can find a way to make a nice penny on – it’s worth a try.

· Tools – Cool little free tools like mortgage calculators are killer for crunching numbers and finding an offering price on the fly – as you’re on the phone with a seller. There are a few tools there for your disposal and they aren’t there because you’ll never need them. Use everything you have that is free to you, first!



Google.com

· Recorders Offices – find your local county’s recorder’s office online. Possibly they even have the info accessible for free online. If so, you may save yourself mucho court house time.

· Foreclosures Listings – almost every county that I know of posts foreclosure listings online and if you know how to find the right deals here, you can easily get at them with a letter or a knock on the door. Beware of the latter tho.

· FSBO Sites – not many actually “free” ones but there are some, just look, look and keep looking. I usually find a new one on about the 40th page of a google search, usually after all of the foreign language sites it returns. LOL.

· REO Sites – these are out there too, but must be searched thru pages to find. Keep you eye fixed and you will start to see them show up for free.

· Real Estate Agents – search for agents and you’ll start to see the ones who mention that they like to work with investors. Call them and tell them your true story (investor) and explain to them how you could work with them as a repeat buyer if you can see their personal listings – either way get one or more on your team. Some will take your info and print out trends to mail to you daily/weekly that may fit your criteria.

· Bulletin Boards – I can’t say enough about these free tools on the web. They cost you nothing and you get a fairly regular customer base. It’s sometimes a very targeted audience (small demographic) but you never know who is lending their eyes and ears to your ad. Use these frequently and have a chance to get creative with your ads without losing money in the process, like via periodicals and newspapers.



Personality

· Sharp – remember names of contacts, amounts of offers, addresses and info on properties. I read (aloud) my info files daily and I wrote them own in my spreadsheet – this covers the 3 methods to retain the most info (reading, writing, hearing). Practice makes perfect and following this will help your retention and show you as a sharp individual to others, which is very important.

· Organized – keeping info organized in a spreadsheet (excel) keeps ideas fresh. Makes worksheets for each facet of your info – leads, investors, offers, team members, etc. This is extremely timely in the beginning but well worth it’s time for the future.

· Persistence – you must stay on top of your own deals, people will not help you buy their home, most times. You must call and ask repeatedly if they got your offer, what they liked/disliked about it, what they’d want to see happen, etc…

· Polite – never get mad at someone who is unhappy with you on the phone, for whatever reason. You never know what is driving someone’s mood at any given time. Steer clear and be understanding and remain even keel. Results will prove this is the best way.

· Diversity – be able to mimic who you’re speaking with. Adrenaline junkie to the 74 year old widowed wife who needs as much an open ear as anything. Can’t be closed-minded in this biz. Be open to speak with the single mother yelling at her kids as much as the successful businessperson who thinks they know more than you and treat them equally.

· Availability – try to never say ‘no’ when getting started. “Can you come see it today? Sure!” When someone wants to hear what you have to offer, be ready on the spot to answer. If they email you, respond promptly, even if to say “I’m very busy but will get to you by the end of the day”. Just don’t have them in limbo long, ever.



Hopefully some of these tactics and approaches will help you secure yourself a few deals and increase your learning curve. At least they could provide a benchmark for a system that you can build on to create one that is more suited to your area of focus. Good luck, go make money!!