Just wanted to remind everyone that Friday, August 14th is the day I’m going to be closing the doors on the contest to rename my blog. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment suggesting a great sounding domain name. If I go with your entry I will give you Steve Cook’s Flipping Homes Profit Machine Intensive DVD course. There are over 20 DVDs in this set of awesome content. Go to this post, Contest: Rename My …
Must See Posts: Women, 1000 Houses, Target Markets and More
Here are some of the great posts I’ve read over the past few weeks from around the blogosphere. Patrick Riddle over at MustKnowInvesting.com is running down the top 8 women in real estate investing and is currently featuring Steph Davis (no wonder why she just restyled her hair). Along with Steph, another P-Rid girl, Shae Bynes just posted up a killer book review that you can see down below. It may just be my first 400 page book I’ve ever …
Question: Using BiggerPockets.com
One of the best REI resources out there is BiggerPockets.com. Unfortunately I don’t really know this from experience . I’ve heard quiet a investors, that I respect, give high praise to the site. I have dabbled on the site over the last couple years, but have never really sunk my teeth into and really figured it all out. Well here is my question for experienced users of the site… Question: How do you use the site effectively and what …
Probate Monday: First on the List!
Hey everyone! This is another addition of probate Monday where I review the happenings that went on last week with my probate investing. I got 105 letters in the mail on Friday and wasn’t expecting any calls until at least today. To my amazement I got three calls the very next day, one at noon! The first call was the best one of the bunch. It was a very sweet older lady who asked me if I was only interested …
Book Review: Tribes by Seth Godin
I’m back on track with my 1 book a month goal. It helped that I read the book Tribes because it was a very quick read at only 150 pages. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book but I’ve heard people rave about most of Seth’s books like Purple Cow so I figured why not. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin This book is all about leading groups of people that Seth refers …
Contest: Rename My Blog and Win a $400 Prize!
I think it’s time to change the mojo of my blog and come up with a more positive name. In the past I’ve been hesitant to change the name because I wanted it to become a brand in a way. A place for struggling investors to go and get support and see how I over came my struggles and made it to the promise land. My friends Shae, Jason and now Kelly have been on me for over a year …
Probate Monday: Sending Out Mailers Using SI Lead Manager
It’s the beginning of the month, so that means I’ve got some mail to send out. Not only that, but I’ve gotten SI Lead Manager to the point where I can use it pretty well with all my mailings. This being the case I thought it be a perfect chance to create a quick video on how I’d about mail merging my probate lead list with my probate letter of choice and then printing it out. http://www.viddler.com/explore/Scostell/videos/2/
MLS Offer Week: Contacted Agent
Sorry for the long delay in my MLS Offer Week series. I was all set to call up the agent last week and make my offer, but I wanted to go over my comps with my investor friend Bruce. Finding the right comps is key in coming up with your starting point in coming up with an offer. The comps will give you concrete evidence of what the property is potentially worth after being fixed up, also known as After …
MLS Offer Week: The Offer is Going Out Too…
After examining all the contestants, the property that stuck out most to me was 74-76 Mills St in Morristown. Here is a link to the MLS listing for the house and the comps MLS Listing for House and Comps Here is some more information I found out about the house Additional House Information from the Tax Records Owner’s Information Owner’s Name RAMSEY, POLLY/JOSEPH JR Owner’s Street 74-76 MILLS ST Owner’s City,State MORRISTOWN, NJ Owner’s Zip Code 07960 Bank Code 00000 …
Crazy Wildwood Days
For those following along with my MLS Offer Week, I apologize for not posting in a few days. I went on vacation last Saturday and I don’t like to broadcast that fact until I get back because you never know who is lurking out there. I went down to the New Jersey shore on my family’s yearly vacation. Normally my wife and I stay down there an entire 7 days, but this year it was cut short because we had …
MLS Offer Week: MAO
Today I went through the comps on each of the 13 properties and narrowed them down to the best 3 or 4. I didn’t really have a method to my madness, I just generally looked at the style of house (colonial, cape code, ranch,etc..) and also looked at the pictures to see condition. Once I found the 3 (or 4) best comps I… Averaged out their Sale Price to get the ARV for my prospective offer house. Multiplied that value …
MLS Offer Week: Pulling Comps
Today I went through all 13 properties I pulled yesterday that met my criteria and pulled up the comps for each on the MLS. Search For Comps: To search for my comps I’m searching by town, exact Beds and Baths (I expand my search if I don’t get a good return) and I’m looking 6 months back. I’m also looking at the Under Contract and Solds over that period of time. Search Results Since I am searching by entire town …
13 Houses Identified
This is just a quick post so you all can follow my goals for this week. I’m currently on Finding houses off the MLS to make an offer on. My Criteria Start Home 3 beds 2 baths $275k to $350k Handyman special type home Towns: Dover, Boonton, Jefferson Twp, Mine Hill, Florham Park, Madison, Parsippany I put my criteria to the mls and it returned 24 results of which I whittled it down to 13. The 13 Houses Questions I …
Probate Monday: Some weeks just don’t go your way
Last week was one of those highly unproductive weeks, probably the least I’ve accomplished in quite some time, maybe my body just needed. For those people who work a full time job and then come home and do all your Rei tasks after 6pm you’ve probably had similar weeks. I was just beat! I couldn’t concentrate and ended up taking naps when I got home from work on most nights and went to bed early as well. So here is …
6 Steps to Building a Quick Buyers List Through the MLS
At a real estate meeting last week a local real estate investor, Jon Zorrer, gave us all a great tip on how to build a buyers list through the MLS. Step #1: Get MLS Access For new Investors this part is going to be a challenge. I had a tough myself and ended up just getting my license. Many experienced investors tell you to get MLS access like you can pick it up at the corner grocery store. They forget …