Business Cards My business cards came yesterday and overall I’m fairly happy with them. Actually having them in my hand apparently turned on the “smart switch” in my head and I realized a few things I should have done differently. Instead of putting “Company Manager” I should have put “Wholesaler”. Also I should have been consistent with the word “Home” and “House”, use one or the other not both. The quality of the cards are ok, nothing spectacular but should …

The next question I’d like to answer is who should I market to? I’ve been getting some good advice from the forums, such as… Centers of Influence (lawyers, Real Estate Agents, Brokers, Bankers…) Landlords Expired Listings On my trip to virginia I started reading a pretty good book by Dan Kennedy called “Ultimate Marketing Plan.” It has already given me some ideas on how to market. It’s a really good book and I recommend it. You can get it from …

My wife’s sister had a baby girl this past wednesday, 6lbs 9ounces and a head full of hair! So my wife and I are going to drive down to Northern Virginia and meet Maggie for the first time. I’m excited to see her, but 5 hour car rides aren’t my idea of fun. It’s all about family though! It’s to bad my sister-in-law couldn’t wait a week to have her baby or it would have put me in a perfect …

I finally just sat down and put together a business card and ordered them from Vista Prints. They have good prices and are always running promotions. 500 cards for $8 isn’t bad at all! I then added a glossy finish and adjusted some of the template photos so my total came out to $38. My goal with these business cards was to hand them out to other investors, mortgage brokers, Realtors and other people in the industry. They have all …

My Sunday open house tour continued this week as I visited 6 more houses in my surrounding areas (Whippany, Cedar Knolls, Morristown, Morris Plains, Morris Township). I have actually started seeing the same Realtors/Agents which is a good thing as they begin to get to know me. If they know me, and what I’m looking for then they are more likely to start thinking about me when a listing that fits my criteria comes up. Sometimes I feel bad for …

Yesterday I got a chance to actually go to an REIA meeting. It was the first one I’ve been to all summer, and I’m not exactly sure why. It was good, but it reminded me that the reason why you should go is not for the pitch fests but to network with the other investors. From my experience there aren’t a lot of successful investors at these meetings, mostly people just starting out. The real investors usually show up at …

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to post my usual Monday entry. I was busy all day with work at my JOB and then doing more work for my brother when I got home. This past Sunday I was able to hit 7 open houses! I’m definitely getting more comfortable talking with realtors/agents. I can tell, because I’m spending more time in the houses. This is good because you get to talking about the market and can then get a …

I recently found out that my friend’s father is a Real Estate investor, I think I knew this growing up but forgot some where along the way. So Hank, my friend, sent me his father’s contact information. Now the ball is in my court. I’m gonna contact him and see if we can meet up, but what do I ask?? I posed this question on the flipping homes messages boards…. As a beginner, what should I ask a seasoned investor …

I added my first buyer to my list on sunday and he definitely is a serious buyer! I went to an open house that was new construction. As my wife and i were talking to the realtor we found out she was the wife of the builder who built the house. We started talking as we walked through the place and she was telling me all the houses her husband has built and is currently building. As we were talking …

I’ve mentioned in the past how I have been taking my dog, Jack, out for walks around the different neighborhoods in my area in an effort to learn the streets and get to know the area as best as possible. In some lower level neighborhoods it might be easier to spot vacant houses because the grass is not cut or there are news papers piling up in the driveway, basically you look for un kept houses. In the town I …

I was reading up on Fadi’s website about marketing and he mentioned a few names who are synonymous with the topic. Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert. I looked them both up on google and found a great site from Gary Halbert. Gary use to write a very popular newsletter about marketing that you could of signed up for for a fee, but before he passed away made those news letters available to everyone. Here is the site… Gary Halbert’s News …

One of the hardest parts about learning and continuing to move forward into Real Estate Investing is staying motivated. I’ve posted about this before but it continues to rear it’s ugly head. One way I’m finding that helps is surrounding yourself with like minded people. This is tough when you are first starting out because most people you know will have your typical 9-5 JOB and don’t know how to invest in Real Estate. If you are reading this you …

I’m constantly debating with myself whether I should just bite the bullet and buy a list of leads from one of these guys Info USA USA Data Melissa Data I got one quote from a company and they quoted me $0.24 per lead with a minimum of 3000 leads. For the math challenged that is $720. I’ve also heard that there are local companies that put out these lists, but I haven’t found any yet or really know where to …

Went to look at 2 open houses over labor day weekend. There wasn’t much going on as to be expected, but I was hoping for more. The first house was on a main street in Morris Township, was built in 1918 and had hardwood floors through out. It was a nice place, the floors were very creaky upstairs and in the finished attic(sp??). They were asking 475k and since it was the first house I’ve looked at in Morris Township …

Yesterday was a normal day for me since I started learning about real estate investing. I did my usual reading of the posts on… ReiClub and ReiPlace …forums. I do this every day and it’s amazing how much free and valuable information you can get! Visit those sites daily if you want to learn. I usually work on my website while I’m at my JOB but needed to do some actually JOB related duties so I figured I’d just work …