See here’s the deal…I’m a very in-person type of person so I like actually dealing with folks and talking to them but more importantly the apartment buildings for sale from loopnet SUCK! And yes, I knew they would because they are on the internet, duh, but its just frustrating. Because of this we’re really trying to concentrate on our direct mail campaign for apartment buildings and now, as of yesterday, I’m going to add door knocking into the mix.

Kathy had to head to the airport (AGAIN) for work yesterday so after we ate lunch I went hunting for apartment buildings so I could find out if they were interested in selling. I was in a different area from where I live because we were filling out atm’s and after Kathy left I also went into a couple of businesses to see if we could place an atm there (I’ll post about that in a new post.)

But since I didn’t want to visit restaurants and stuff at lunch time, I went apartment hunting. The good news was, I wasn’t even nervous going into talk to folks. Most of the time I knew I’d run into a manager or someone like that but I know there are some owners that are really hands on and self-manage so I was hoping I may get lucky.

I must have went into about hmmmm anywhere from 7 to 10 apartment buildings yesterday. The first one no one was in the office. But I took their flyer that had info about the apartments on them plus it had the buildings main address. The idea there was to a) get to know the rents really well in the area and b) look up the apartment building address in public records and add the owner to our direct mail list.

The guy said “I think everyone’s always interested in selling, it’s just a matter of getting the right price.”

So I said “well how can I get in touch with the owner to determine what that right price is?”

He said “you get to the owner through me. I represent him and I’ll get in touch with him. The right price for him I know is somewhere between 3.5 million and 4 million.”

I said “Ok perfect. Now how many units are here?”

He said “60. Tell you what, fax me some information on your company and we’ll go from there, but you have the right price for now.”

I reconfirmed “Ok 60 units for 3.5 million to 4 million. Great. What’s your name and fax number?”

He gave it to me. Now, my new dilemma is ummm what the hell do I send him about my company? lmao

I think I’m going to ask Chris (Chrisbuysapartments) and see if he knows Oh and this place…has some definite deferred maintenance and is in a B/C areas I’d say. I’m not completely sure about my B and C areas. I know how to classify the A and D areas, but the B and C areas for some reason I think are a lil trickier.

I went to a few more places to see if I could find other apartment buildings for sale. No such luck. Talked to managers, etc. But believe me, those managers aren’t going to deter me. Because I don’t really believe them all of the time. a) I find it hard to believe that they know exactly what is going on in the owners life all the time and if they REALLY want to sell or not and b) I really don’t believe that they’ll tell me the truth because they may think if I buy the building I will get new management and they’ll be out of a job.

So every apartment building that I went into to see if it was for sale, when I dealt with a management person I just wrote down information and came back home to add the apartment building to my direct mail list for apartment buildings to buy.

Oh I did find a management company that actually owned a lot of apartment buildings. Mental note: don’t hire them to manage anything cuz they’d be my competition.

I found yesterday to be fun and exciting. Mostly because if I have to go to 10 places to find 1 apartment building for sale that NO ONE ELSE KNOWS ABOUT because it’s not listed with a commercial broker and it’s not up on loopnet or anywhere else, well I think it’s a strategy worth implementing, don’t you?

I didn’t get as much computer research work done when I got home because my computer battery/charger thingy just died. And my battery on computer needed to be charged. Was going to get a new one today but oddly enough it’s working today. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.

The next call we got, I had already gotten my wisdom teeth out so I was in no condition to answer the phone. So I let it go to voice mail. His voice mail message went a little something like this:

“Oh Carey. It sounds like you’re a woman, that’s good because if you were a man I would have been pretty angry. So you want to buy my property? Do you know anything about it? Do you know how much land it has? Anyway, you can call me back at this number.”

What the heck is going on with these folks? lol Does someone wanna tell me? I’ve always told other women that it’s an asset in this business (actually any type of sales related venture or in-person type of business, I think it’s a huge asset to being a woman.)

“My name is blah blah blah and you don’t know me because you sent the letter to this company name, which is the name of the company that holds some of my property. I don’t know if you’re looking for a single family home or what? But I have 2 apartment buildings and I’d be willing to talk to you about selling them but I’m not trying to give them away. Call me at this number or I will call you back this evening.”

Sooo that one was a little better, huh? Making some progress. I think I’m going to have to tweak my letters a wee bit. I’m using Dave Lindahl’s letters straight from his course, but I may have to say I want to buy your Apartment Building instead of just your Property! Wouldn’t ya’ll agree??

Anyway, I gave Kathy the bad news that she’s going to have to call these 2 folks back. She’s having a slight panic attack. Mostly because she doesn’t know what to say and I informed her but at least you can speak normally right now lol plus I told her that I don’t know what to say either. We just gotta follow the script from the book. I am must better on my toes than her, but oh well…..there’s gonna be times where she’s gonna have to make calls too and now is one of them.

I did look up everyone’s property information that called us though. They are mostly 2 to 6 units. Not all that exciting for us, but heck I’m still gonna call (or make Kathy call) because it’s practice.

Plus, get this. When Kathy was a little kid her father owned an apartment building but his wife at the time made him sell it. Anyway, we drove by there today and it’s for sale!!! I just looked up that info on the MLS too. We’re probably gonna check that out too.

So I’m super psyched about everything that’s moving along and I can’t wait to not look like a chipmunk anymore and to be able to eat properly, talk properly and not be in pain, because I got things to do!

We had to move our Cash Flow Game session from tonite til tomorrow nite because I’m just not quite feeling up to it yet. Kathy assures me that I should start to feel better tomorrow. We shall see?

Now, I’m about to pass out as I just took an oxycodone. I’m surprised I’m not so loopy and that I could actually make this post.

Over and out for now…….I’m off to la la land.

P.S. I almost forgot, we heard back from 2 commercial real estate brokers. We’re gonna meet one of them either on Monday or Tuesday and the other one we’re still waiting to hear from.