Relentless forward motion
It’s Friday folks and I’m happy to say that my taxes are complete! Woo hoo!
So here’s the update I meant to give the other day:
My short sale with Mr. Anti-Technology man is looking pretty bleak. A few weeks ago, we had a great call between our super duper negotiator and the realtor who has the listing and it looked as though things just might work out, but she then decided (or someone above her decided) that we couldn’t use our own negotiator. To me, that practically kills the deal. Their short sale negotiating company is not interested in doing anything to help us and will not represent us nearly as well as our own negotiator would. We made an offer on the property anyway and never heard back from the realtor regarding Mr. Anti-Technology man’s response. For all we know, its already under contract with someone else and my hubby called the realtor again yesterday to check in on things.
In the meantime, we’re getting laser targeted for our short sale marketing. We have our leads ready as of today and once our marketing materials are done, they will be dropped off at the homes. Trying something different! Who is going to ignore the package right at their doorstep? When it comes to marketing, I’m all for experimentation until we find something that is working brilliantly. We’re focusing on two key neighborhoods (one is hot for rentals, the other is hot for both rentals and retail buyers) and there’s plenty of pre-foreclosure activity in both of these neighborhoods so it won’t be time consuming to drop these off. The neighborhoods are easily accessible for us and I suspect it will take about 1 hour to drop these letters off. If it becomes time consuming, we’ll pay my hubby’s brother to do it for us instead. We’ll only do this for ones that are owner-occupied. We’ll mail letters to those that are non owner-occupied.
What’s great is that these are neighborhoods that we personally want to own additional rental properties in, so if the deal is one we want to hold on for ourselves, we’re good to go. We’ll also have the option of selling to another investor or even a retail buyer.
I’ll keep you posted!
By the way, we haven’t given up on identifying realtors to partner with to make our lead generation sweatless (and free!), but while that’s not happening as quickly as we’d like we are still taking steps forward by doing marketing. My pal Julie has challenged me to just walk into the office of a realtor I want to partner with (instead of calling as I have been doing), so I’m accepting that challenge. My one solidified realtor partner hasn’t brought me any leads yet but I continue to follow up with her.
We just have to keep taking steps forward…it’s what Frank McKinney calls “relentless forward motion.” More to come! Have a great weekend!
Related posts:
- Picking up the phone pays off!
- It’s a small world after all…
- An interesting turn of events
- Short sale progress!
- A busy week it’s been!
Category: Dealing w/ homeowners, Short Sale Investing, Working with realtors
Hey Shae!
Hope all is going well.
You commented that you were going to partner with Realtors. What sort of partnership would you have with them, and what would be the split? Interested to hear your thoughts here.
Regards,
Neil.
Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..Business Life Story Part Two
Looking forward to your Realtor meeting. You should get it on video so we can all see you in action.
Stephani´s last blog ..Get Off Your But! Flip This Book Club, March Edition
Hey Neil! I’m looking to work with realtors who get plenty of short sale listings. If they will give me the heads up prior to promoting the listing, we’ll make an offer on it and go ahead and get our negotiator working on it. The realtor benefits because of a quick sale and greater commissions from the two transactions. So I don’t mean partnership in the formal sense of the word…no splits.
Steph, that ain’t happenin’…but that doesn’t mean its not a good idea. LOL!
AWESOME!!! Love that not only are you accepting my challenge but you’re also publicly announcing that you’re going to do it. Can’t wait to hear the results.
As for video taping it … I hear you!! We recorded a video series last year where we recorded everything we did from start to finish as we bought 2 properties in a market we’d never invested in. Our plan was to video EVERYTHING but when it came time to bring the camera to our realtor meetings we didn’t feel good about it. We were worried about jeopardizing our relationship by introducing the video (and our newsletter/blog for that matter!). We also worried that if something went wrong with the realtor we wouldn’t be able to disclose and explain that if the identity of our realtor was known to all!!
Good luck Shae!!
Hey Julie, yep…I’m going to do it! As far as video taping, you nailed it. My concern is jeopardizing relationships or making things awkward for people. When we were doing our rehab, there were definitely some moments that I wished I had my flip cam on me
Now I keep my flip in my purse just in case!
The ‘Flip’ is truly amazing!
I need to upgrade mine as it takes about 85 hours to download to YouTube!
(Okay, I am exaggerating that it takes 85 hours. More like 1 hour, and sometimes more for a 7 minute video. Is that normal?)
Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..Business Life Story Part Two
Don’t feel bad, Neil- mine takes 185. It’s painful…
Stephani´s last blog ..Get Off Your But! Flip This Book Club, March Edition
Steph,
I thought that I was the only one feeling the pain!
I think my last video took me 1 hour and 15 min. Grrr.
Shae,
Thanks for explaining your relationship with your Realtor with
regards to the short sales.
US real estate is mad cool.
Regards,
Neil.
Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..Business Life Story Part Two
Good to hear the update on things, Shae. It’s great that you are open to trying different approaches. It kind of reminds me when I was going out chasing pre-foreclosures. I’d show up at the doorstep asking if this were the home for auction as I wanted to check it out. A lot of people didn’t even know or they were in denial, I had to show them the announcement in the paper.
It would be interesting to hear about your experiences finding a Realtor to work with – I think a lot of investors have had their challenges in this area. And I agree, with Steph – it would be great to video tape your adventures finding a Realtor, Michael Moore style!
Hey Rachel, yep…we’re fine with trying different things and once we find what works best for us, we’ll just focus on a couple things. The bottom line is that we will continue marketing…whatever the method may be
I’m finding a road block with recruiting realtors who already have short sale listings. That road block is the lawyers. In NJ, most people have lawyers who are selling there house as it has to go through attorney review before the contract is binding. Well every realtor I’ve talked to gave me the big Negatory when I mentioned that Nick would want to do all the negotiating himself.
Is there away around this? or am I going to have to look for short sales another way?
Scott Costello´s last blog ..Probate Monday: Inching Closer and Closer
Very interesting. Sorry that things did not work out on the one deal. But, that is how is goes sometimes. The best thing is that you do not get down about the situation. Keep moving forward!
As for video recording, I am attempting to video record several aspects of our business. I am running into the same situation, some folks do not want our conversations recorded. But all-in-all, I have had a very pleasent response.
Heep up the great work!
I have to say that I read this post like 173 times to find out where you talked about video taping Shae! lmao Ok stop laughing now…I was just so confused…I’m like why is James talking about video taping??? Shae didn’t even talk about that in the post…..wait let me re-read it.
Ok so I finally read ALLLL of the comments and now I get it
(Sometimes I’m a lil slow but I swear I really am quite intelligent lol)
Anyway, I have a Flip too….it is pretty slow when putting it on Youtube…I don’t know that it takes as long as Steph’s takes…..I mean 185 hours..that’s long. lol
Carey_PA´s last blog ..Fax Back Form for Direct Mail Campaign
Hey Scotty, that’s interesting…you may want to talk to some other investors in NJ to see if their successfully doing short sales.
Hey James, yep, that’s how it goes! We’re still moving! I look forward to seeing your video footage — I love that stuff!
Carey, that is so hilarious! Steph started all the video comments. I love my Flip. One day I’ll have to get the HD version but mine is doing the job pretty well! I’m going to have to do another video sometime soon. Haven’t done one since Christmas!
Carey,
I too feel your pain with the ‘flip’.
I think they need to invent some sort of ‘fast flip’.
I love recording videos, but the downloading part is just so painful…
Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..Business Life Story Part Four
Good for you Shae
I’d probably threaten to pull my offer on them if they won’t let you negotiate. That’s crazy. lol Your negotiator is looking out for the best interest of your money. I can almost guarantee that their negotiator, would curl up to the bank in a heartbeat. lol
As for the video, maybe you can where one of those spy shirt button cameras.
J. Lamar Ferren´s last blog ..Part 1: J. Lamar Ferren vs. The Hijacker
You DEFINITELY need a spy cam!!!
Stephani´s last blog ..Crapping My Pants. Almost.
Hey Shae,
I can’t seem to find your e-mail address on your site. I would like to e-mail you offline. Drop me a line at neil@firstrentalproperty.com.
Neil.
ps: Happy St. Patty’s Day Everyone!!!
Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..Business Life Story Part Four
Hey J. Lamar, yeah that deal is pretty much dead to me. She hasn’t even called us back so we’re moving on.
I’ll get back to you guys on the spy cam. LOL!
Neil, just sent you an email.
Shae,
I will say I am impressed at your networking skills. Take a look at the caliber of folks replying to your post. Its a very cool thing. Have a great day.
Jason
Hi Jason, I must say that I am really thankful for all the awesome relationships I’ve developed over the past 18 months — in the blogosphere as well as here locally. Very little compares to the opportunity to surround yourself with positive, like-minded people. Have an awesome rest of the week!
Well Shae, if you’re going to move on, then I think you should tell them that and let them know why… It will give you more posture and they may reconsider and take you more serious.
SPY CAM! SPY CAM! SPY CAM! lol
j/k
J Lamar, I agree with you….in fact, I FINALLY heard back from the realtor today via email so I will be letting her know for future reference. Have a great weekend!
Oh…and as far as the spy cam is concerned, YOU FIRST!
Oh wow that sounds like a challenge
As soon as I do, you’ll be the first to see it. Then I expect you and your husband to follow suit. lol But we can’t let Steph off the hook 
Count me in!
After you and Shae do it first, that is.