I Am Proud To Have Accomplished

Scott Costello All, Blog 1 Comment

It was time for another master mind meeting this past weekend and as always it was very helpful. The assignment leading up to the meeting was a very easy one.  We had to answer a few questions on a worksheet and then we would all go over it during the meeting.  In the past I found it very hard to be critiqued by other people.  I knew it was good for me, but my natural instinct to justify myself always …

Who’s Afraid To Make An Offer?

Scott Costello All, Blog 5 Comments

I’ve recently gotten off track with my Probate Monday posts, but the recent lead I’ve been working is a probate lead so I give you Probate Monday On Friday… After figuring out the repair costs for the Tall Timber house I had one last thing to do and that was actually call Jim (the owner) up and make the offer.   I haven’t made to many offers in the past so there are still some nerves, but I was pretty …

Repair Cost Summary

Scott Costello All, Blog, Probate Investing 9 Comments

This weekend was a productive weekend as I went out to visit the Tall Timber house with Lance (a fellow student of Jon Zorrer’s).  Lance is pretty good with spotting what needs to be repaired and together we came up with a repair cost for this house.  With our estimates, it turned out it was going to cost more then my initial guesstimate of 50,000 k.  Here is the break down of the figures… Repair Item Cost Estimate Paint 9 …

I Need Your Help!

Scott Costello All, Blog 4 Comments

There’s a cool contest going on RIGHT NOW that I’m participating in called “Battle of the REI Blogs” …  Here’s the skinny on it … the top real estate investing bloggers have been assembled to compete to see who’s blog is #1 in the eyes of our subscribers. So, it’s StrugglingInvestor.com vs. 11 other real estate investing blogs. My good buddy, Patrick Riddle, is hosting the contest over on his blog and has some great prizes that he’s giving away… …

Wow! That’s a Low Price

Scott Costello All, Blog 2 Comments

No I’m not talking about a house.  Have you ever seen that annoying Staples commercial where the guy continually looks at the sales price of a product and yells out WOW…THAT’S A LOW PRICE!? I dislike that commercial because it’s so stupid, but it is a good lesson in marketing. Last night at my bi-weekly real estate investors meeting we had a Speed Networking night where we all got 3 minutes to chat with someone across the table.  When the …

So How Did The Offer Go?

Scott Costello All, Blog 4 Comments

It has been great to hear all the support and encouragement from every one over the past few days to get my offer in.  I am definitely getting more confident when talking to sellers and with the possibility of an offer actually getting excepted.  When I met with the seller last Thursday I told him I would call him back on Monday (today) with an offer and if it was in the ball park we could setup another appointment so …

The Run Down House In A Nice Area

Scott Costello All, Blog 13 Comments

Just a couple of quick updates… Seller House Visit I might the a seller at their house last night to look around and talk things over with him.  The house is in a very desirable area of Morris Township and the street it is located on his also a very nice suburban neighborhood.  It’s been vacant since March and needs a lot of work.  The siding needs to be replace and probably the roof, but I’m no expert there so …

Real Estate Investor Supply Box

Scott Costello All, Blog 3 Comments

Since I work a full time job on the side, I am always searching for free time to use on real estate investing.  Sometimes an hour will come free during my lunch time or a previous engagement will be canceled giving me some extra time.  I love it when this happens, but the down side is I’m not always prepared. In talking with Jon on our accountability call this past Monday, he mentioned using a “Real Estate Box” that he …

In Need of a Little Help

Scott Costello All, Blog 3 Comments

How was everyone’s weekend?  Mine was fairly good, went to go see Rock of Ages on Broadway which was a really good show and if you like 80’s music I highly recommend it.  This was a birthday gift I gave my wife back in August.  Coincidentally, my other gift to her, a hot air balloon ride, was also scheduled for this weekend.  We were scheduled to take flight at 6:45am to catch the sign rise, so we woke up before …

Insider REO Secrets

Scott Costello All, Blog 5 Comments

Last night I went to Jon’s rei meeting and he had a great speaker. Actually it was the first ever speaker at the meetings, but that is mainly because the group just got started up this year. Jon brought in an REO broker to explain to all of us how that game works. Pretty much all the information that he gave has been relayed to me before by reading Steph Davis’ Blog about Flipping Reo Properties and from her eBook …

Simple Way To Get A Better Response From Your Probate Letters

Scott Costello All, Blog, Probate Investing 34 Comments

I just got finished watching a webinar given by Vena Jones-Cox about Marketing.  Over all it was very informative and gave me some good reminders about how to properly market to sellers.  I don’t want to rehash the entire lesson, but I do want to touch on some key points that I’m going to incorporate into my next mailing. How Can I Help You? You’ve probably heard this before and so have I, but for some reason I’ve forgotten this …

A Call From My September Mailing At Last

Scott Costello All, Blog, Probate Investing 5 Comments

With every call I get I know I’m getting closer and closer to my first deal.  I had pretty much given up on getting any immediate calls from my September mailing.  I usually get a quick 3 to 4 calls and then a few trickle in during the following weeks.  All you can do is just make sure you send out the follow up right? I’m not setting up anything big, just throwing out an example for those people who …

Real Estate Mastermind Meetings are a Must

Scott Costello All, Blog 10 Comments

I’ve always heard other successful investors like Steph Davis, David Alexander, Steve Cook and many others credit much of their successes to master mind meetings.  For those that aren’t quite sure what a Master Mind group is, it’s a handful of like minded individuals who meet every so often to talk about their business, share ideas and hold each other accountable. As part of the coaching program I’m in there is a mastermind meeting with Jon and the other students …

Finding Buyers The Obvious Way

Scott Costello All, Blog 3 Comments

Every week my coach and I are going to be identifying some action items I must complete before our next accountability call the following Monday.  This method really works well for me as I’ve been trying to do the same thing for myself since a started.  The only problem was that the person holding me accountable was myself.  Now I’m pretty good at following through with what I say I’m going to do, but it’s so very easy to put …

Probate Monday: Using the Money Else Where?

Scott Costello All, Blog, Probate Investing 11 Comments

I’ve yet to receive any calls from my latest probate mailing which is a bit discouraging.  I’ve always gotten a few but for some reason this time I’ve gotten the big ZERO!   I know I’ll eventually get a deal if I keep at it, but I’m closing in on a year and haven’t gotten much.  I’m as stubborn as the next guy, but sometimes it’s worth switching things up a bit and heading into a new strategy.  I’ve been doing …