Good thing I’m back on track with my thinking. Working a 40 hour work week for someone else for 2 weeks now sure has a way of bringing out your thinking cap!

Guys and gals I have to tell you that I am more psyched than ever before now. I think I got this “work” pattern down at BMW, my body is now accustomed to getting up early even on my days off and I totally feel better “emotionally” knowing that the bills will get paid. Add to all of that that I do not like working a “normal” job and I’ve got huge motivation written all over me.

I haven’t been this excited since I wrote my freedom post. It’s on like donkey kong now!

Who’s got anymore ideas that I’ve been missing? The last post I made a few days ago Esi and Al made some great comments…..does anyone else have any more thoughts on finding motivated apartment building owners?

Why try to reinvent the wheel right? I mean seriously all of the commercial folks are saying that a wave of commercial foreclosures are going to be coming………..how about getting to them before they reach foreclosure?

I think the 2 ways I mentioned above are good as well as probate deals, but the big time consuming problem that I’m thinking will arise is the fact that I’ll probably have to sift through 99.9% of single family deals to find the apartment building owner deals. Wouldn’t you agree?

I wonder if there is a way to get by that? Are there any other techniques that you commercial guys and gals use to find motivated apartment building owners?

I’ve been doing direct mail, but I’m really just sending out a mass mailing to apartment owners…I’m sure my results would sky rocket if I was sending out a mass mailing to MOTIVATED APARTMENT BUILDING OWNERS!

Soooooo fess up (please) how are YOU finding motivated apartment building owners? (Btw, going to check out some reo’s this weekend that I found on the MLS…there’s another technique. An oldie, but always a goodie!)

Realistically, I think we could offer 1.1 Mil, but I think I’m more comfortable with the MAO of $1,050,000. So I countered back at $1,015,000 and told him to let me know what the seller says.

Also, had a conference call with a broker team yesterday to go over a property we saw with them. They are asking 1.6 Mil and realistically our MAO is about 1, 375,000 ish….they paid 1.4 Mil for it 2 years ago….they weren’t having it. But the broker team is super duper nice. I wish they would get us some more properties because I’d love to see them make a commission because they are so helpful, the broker I mentioned first is kind of a jerk (for now.)

I’m heading to the courthouse to see if I can somehow fanagle (how do you spell that?) a list of evictions that were awarded to landlords and they will become my new “direct mail list.” I think I really want to find MOTIVATED landlords that own apartment buildings….I know they are out there. So far only the small guys are calling me back…..I want the bigger complexes to call me too!

I went to Toastmasters again last nite and it was a lot of fun. I made the decision to join the next time I go and surprisingly enough Kathy told me she was going to join too! Which is really strange because she is scared crazy of public speaking and told me she doesn’t even want to get up at Tmasters. But I think she had a lot of fun there the last time I took her there so hopefully she’s coming around!

The job hunt is not going so well. Which may be a good thing? I dunno. I mean I need money BAD but I’m really not so fond of a “job” per se. I probably wouldn’t even be thinking of finding a job if I didn’t switch gears into commercial real estate. I could have definitely made a decent living from wholesaling, but switching gears into commercial real estate is like completely starting over. I mean that’s ok because passive income is where my passion is, but it is harder and taking a whole lot longer than I anticipated.

Ohhh I’ve also been working on my Gay Marriage website. I look at my adsense stats and my traffic and I see I’d be making a ton more money if I just got my traffic back up to where it used to be when I use to work on it all of the time. Plus, if I had more traffic, I could also solicit more business from attorneys and other types of companies to advertise on the site. I have a few now, but nothing major yet. So my goal is to work on that some more in the evening and get it back up in the ranks where it use to be and then start sending out emails and calling folks to advertise. I think it could be a realllll money maker if I put just a little bit of effort into it everyday (perhaps that could be my 9 to 5 job after it gets rolling while I concentrate on commercial real estate.

One more thing: we have an appointment tomorrow to meet with another potential ATM site. I made the decision to pull the machine from the newer chinese buffet place. They don’t leave the machine on all of the time after me telling them repeatedly to do so, so I told them we’re pulling it. I wonder how the small business loan environment is? Because the only think that stops us from buying up a bunch of machines and just pounding the pavements and putting them in tons of locations is money. I’d say realistically we’d need about 20 to 25 machines out there working for us to live just fine, while we concentrate on commercial real estate (well I’d be just fine, that’d still below what Kathy makes.)

So, we would need 14 to 19 more machines then…and that equals about $42,000 to $57,000. Hmmmmmm. Something to think about. Obviously, there isn’t much money coming in when you’re out developing business, of course. But after they are all placed there is. Something to think about. I don’t think our LLC has been around long enough tho. I remember last time I got LOC for my business I had to be in business for at least a year. We’ve only been doing this since July of 2009. Something to think about.

I’m being a tad bit impatient though because I really don’t want to have to get a j-o-b! Know what I mean? I will though if I have to…I mean if it’s necessary to help take care of my family while I do the apartment thing on the side then it’s ok. That’s not the worse position to be in (it may seem like it because I’m not your “normal” type of job person…..but it would only be temporary.)

You might say “well why don’t you wholesale while working on apartments?” And I’d say that’s a fine idea, but realistically to be successful at wholesaling you’re busting your ass and networking and marketing and doing all of the things that I honestly, want to spend my time doing with apartment buildings.

Sometimes I have that conversation with my self and it makes sense and other times it doesn’t. But the big key is, just because you have a deal under contract when wholesaling does NOT mean you’re necessarily going to bring money in (deal could fall through for a number of reasons, etc.) And if that happens, well that doesn’t do the whole family bank account much good

Trust me, I am not dissing wholesaling in any way shape or form. I made some decent money as a wholesaler but I also remember that to make that decent money I worked my ass off. Not that I’m afraid to work my ass off anymore but I want it to be focused on apartment buildings. The goal: to accumulate enough apartment buildings that throw off enough passive income for me to live off of and for Kathy to live off of and quit her full-time gig (Remember my F R E E D O M post? That’s what it’s all about. ) Passive income does not happen from wholesaling.

If anyone sees a flaw in my thinking please let me know. My debt, folks, is really pissing me off and really determining all of the moves I make. I don’t know if you remember, but I “borrowed” enough money to live off of for 3 months in hopes that we’d get an apartment deal by then……..well I’m tired of paying nearly the minimum on my debt and I’m tired of being broke all of the time. I know a j-o-b is not my end goal, but I think I may be considering it a stepping stone to at least allow me to put a crap-load more money towards paying off my debt while I work towards my passive income goals.

Btw, yes the atm’s are kicking it, even the new one….but still, doesn’t throw off quite enough for me to live off of completely yet.

That’s the bad news, but now for the good news. I’ve been a networking fool lately. At toastmasters, whenever I meet folks and definitely at that tradeshow I went to last week. I think I may have found myself a new private money lender at the tradeshow (we’ll see,) I found an awesome contact who referred me to a property manager and the property manager was fantabulous and she referred me to 2 commercial brokers and told me she’d keep me informed of any properties that she hears coming on the market.

A lady at karate last week saw my WE BUY HOUSES lettering on the back of my car and asked for my card. She called me last night. We spoke. They owe more than their house is worth….I told her I could probably make her an offer and do a shortsale but she’d walk away with nada. She understood and said she’d talk to me in the future when they saved enough money to move out. In the meantime, she tells me about a 12 unit apartment complex near us that she’d like to move back into because the rent was dirt cheap. She tells me that the landlord tried to sell the complex before but the deal fell through. The owner since moved into a retirement community. Of course, I talked to her about that complex and she said she’d get the info for the owner (since her mom still rents from her) and give it to me so I can call her, plus she’d pass my info along to the owner as well. Fingers crossed!

Toastmasters meeting tonite again and I’m bringing Kathy with me aka dragging her kicking and screaming with me! Afterwards, we’re going to drive by 2 properties; a 6 unit and a 12 unit that aren’t far from there. If we have some interest in the neighborhood, which I’m sure we will, we’ll make appointments with the brokers and put in LOI’s.

Friday, we have a 3:30pm appointment at Starbucks with a broker I met at the tradeshow. He knows of a 45 unit property that will be coming on the market sometime soon in our area. And I know, I don’t drink coffee…lol but I like Starbucks’ banana nut bread and their strawberry banana smoothies. Yum.

Saturday, I still have to confirm, but may be seeing a 4 unit property. Monday have an appointment to see a 2 unit property. These are all smaller than I’m really interested, but I don’t think it hurts to practice. These gave from my mailings.

Just got another fax back form from my mailings of a lady that has a 10 unit. We’ve been playing phone tag tho. Sent out 255 pieces, 9 came back undeliverable and we got 5 responses so far; 3 by phone and 2 by fax back form. Just over 2% response rate. Not as good as the last piece we did.

Tomorrow we are going to a Chamber of Commerce mixer to see what we can make happen. It’s $10 for non-members. We still don’t know which chamber to join yet. So we’re just going to the free events and any of the cheaper events for non-members.

And today, I’m going to have Kathy call our next potential private money lenders to set up a lunch appointment with them tomorrow or Friday (those were the folks who were excited to do real estate deals with us but went on vacation.)

Soooo things are definitely moving along, but I don’t foresee an apartment deal by next month, so that’s why I mention the j-o-b thang.

Over and out for now.

P.S. If you haven’t check it out yet, do me a favor and check out my shorter private money pitch and tell me what ya think!

Bob and his wife Coleen are pretty intelligent people and definitely financially informed, so they asked a ton of great questions. Questions that other potential private money investors would ask me as well. I think I handled the questions well and Coleen and Bob said I handled them well also. They also make several really good suggestions for my presentation and gave some really valid reasons for them. I believe I’ll be taking most of their suggestions and incorporating them into my presentation.

Overall, it took them a few days but then Coleen called me back and asked me a few more questions and then finally said they would fill out and send in our Accredited Investor Form. So we have our first official private money lenders that are waiting to see deals.

Kathy and I met with a guy who responded to our most recent direct mail campaign. He has 2 four units available in Maryland. We actually liked both buildings and he and his wife want $400,000 for both buildings. We are interested and they were giving us first shot at making an offer before they listed their property with a broker. They gave us 4 days to think it over….however, we asked for them to send us their expenses and they never did. I finally called them and spoke to the wife. She said she’d mail them to me.

So we’ll get those and go over things. I told them to go ahead and list the property but make sure they put us as an excluded buyer in the contract with the broker.

We shall see. I got a couple more posts for you coming up….1 with a video of my short private money presentation and 1 with some details on my day yesterday at the Apartment Association of Great Philadelphia’s Convention and Education Seminar.

Well Kathy and I were in Boston, Massachusetts last week for a Private Money Lender seminar. We spent all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with Dave Lindahl for his Private Money/Syndication Bootcamp. (It was $2997 for those who are wondering.)

Anyway, with the bootcamp we got his private money course in hard format prior to going to the bootcamp. I had read it before getting there and we got new, different materials when we arrived. I’ve been to many real estate seminars before and as always, one of the best parts about the seminars is the networking with like-minded folks. It’s just awesome.

Overall, I really liked the Private Money/Syndication Bootcamp. At the end we had a strategy session with one of Dave’s coaches (of course they try to sell you the coaching program i.e. $8,000 to $10,000) but we don’t have those funds at this time but the coach spent an hour with us (it was only suppose to be 20 minutes) and gave us a great deal of information and action steps to take.

Kathy and I have been talking about the need for a coach/mentor and we’re thinking of going with a gentleman that was referred to us by someone who I met recently from Scott’s Struggling Investor blog. I plan on giving this fella call and chatting with him a few times to see if he’ll be a good fit for us.

I’m super psyched to hit up some private money lenders….or folks that I feel have the potential for being private money lenders for us. We are still practicing our pitches (I practiced mine while laying in bed last nite, while driving home last nite, while in the shower this morning and while driving to my mom’s this afternoon!) I also practiced it on some lady in a New Jersey Turnpike Service Area bathroom lol I did awful by the way….but better to screw up with her then someone I really don’t want to screw up with, right?

I said to Kathy, “I just practiced on that lady.” She said “I know, I heard you.” I said, “I sucked.” Kathy said “I know, but that’s ok.” lol

We got a lot going on right now. 2nd direct mail campaign is out, already getting calls (no fax backs yet tho) and we’ve got a whole lot of action items to tend to and that verbal offer I made?? Remember?? Well the broker told me that he’s trying to get the seller to see reality and thinks he could get him to my price within 3 to 4 weeks. Yikes I say! Not because I’m scared (well maybe a touch) but because we actually saw the property #1 (which it’s in a C area and is a C property with lots of deferred maintenance) but #2 because I messed up when I was figuring out the numbers and the offer should have been way less You live and ya learn right?

Luckily, I called ChrisBuysApartments and asked him what to tell the broker so I don’t sound like a complete idiot. Thanks Chris!

Moving right along…a lot to do and oh yeah, Kathy’s away this entire week and I have the kids. And Joe…oh my gosh, has shit to do all this week…baseball then karate then baseball then karate. I swear the only day he doesn’t have something is Monday. Oh and to top it all off he has a religion project due for school lol Definitely my strong suit, right? (For those that know me, know that’s sarcasm!)

Dave Lindahl uses this tactic in his direct mail campaigns and he claims he increases his direct mail response rate by 50% in doing so. It’s worth a try, right?

I’ll keep you updated on my success that I have with the fax back form. Remember, I’m using it in my recent direct mail campaign.

Don’t forget….please keep me updated on any successes that you may have by using this form. I’d love to hear about them!

Well yesterday I got another call! So that’s 12 calls from 255 pieces of direct mail. It’s a little less than a 4.75% response rate. This direct mail batch I’ve added the Fax Back Page to it to see if I can double the response rate. You know how folks like to email/text/fax rather then talk to someone? Well then can do that with this fax back page (I’m going to post it today for you guys to use in your next campaign if you want to.)

So I text my neighbor and ask her where the rest are? She’s like “what rest? that’s all I got” Confused even more I am now….so I go to my mailing list and see that it’s 261…so I text my neighbor again, “that’s really weird, we have 261 names on our mailing list, I don’t know why you would have only gotten 133.” She insists that’s all she got, she was like trust me, I ain’t gonna throw that extra money away.

Now I guess I’ll go through our list and see what didn’t show up and print them out. Although maybe I won’t……I’ll tell you why when I post about our strategy session that Kathy and I had the other day.

P.S. If you know how to fix my UAW plug-in problem on my other sites, pleaseeeee let me know. It’s driving me nuts. Click here to read the post and see why I’m so po’d.

I’m certainly glad I was on Kathy’s insurance at that time….now I’m officially on my insurance, which isn’t as good as Kathy’s work insurance, but it’s a whole lot cheaper.

Anyway, back to our direct mail response rate. We’re STILL getting calls from our direct mail piece that we sent out in January. We have just under a 4% direct mail response rate on that last batch of letters to buy apartment buildings.

Basically, it’s a form that let’s them fill out their information instead of calling me directly. You know how some folks don’t like to talk on the phone? I figured it was a great idea because of that simple fact. So now they can either call me directly or fax me their info. I’ll keep you posted on my results.

I’ll post the form itself just in case you guys want to “steal” it from me and use it in your next direct mail campaign. But there is a catch….if you use it and it works, please come back and tell us about it. Fair enough?

Anywho, while checking out Loopnet last night I came up with an awesome idea to build my direct mail list to buy apartment buildings.

But another thing that they have is Rental Comparisons. So what they do is they have the subject property (the apartment building for sale) listed with it’s unit mix, square footage, occupancy and rents. Then they show a bunch of other apartment buildings around the subject property with their unit mix, square footage, occupancy and rents too. I’ve been reading this information for a few months now but last night it dawned on me…ya know an “aha” moment lol that I should add those comps to my mailing list! I mean they give me the property, the address and their occupancy. I figure the ones with lower occupancies should go at the top of my direct mail list to buy apartment buildings, wouldn’t you agree?

P.S. My adsense is on my nerves. It keeps showing ummm I don’t want to say the word to give it more reason to show more of those ads but don’t they know that the majority of this blog is about real estate and investing and not ummm d e n t a l work! Am I the only one whose noticed that? It’s driving me crazy lol Maybe I should just make a post that just says real estate, real estate investing, apartment buildings, commercial real estate investing, etc.