Action!

What actions have I taken? What actions do I still need to take?

Taken:

1. Replied to a bandit sign that said "Investor seeks apprentice". I in turn signed up for a seminar to see what this group of investors is about. How they work and what they would require. I will be attending this seminar in 1 weeks time.
2. I have already set up 2 driving routes for "driving for dollars" campaign in my area.
3. I already have business cards, flyers and door hangers. I had a mentor once before while I was in the house and I have left over materials. I ended up quiting 3 feet from gold because of my home situation.
4. I have written down my marketing plan and allocation of first proceeds from the business.
5. I have found at least 3 potential deals that I am ready to birddog up to my mentor
6. I have collected information on other possible mentors. I need to keep my options open to make sure that the mentor I accept meets my needs.

The one thing I am going to stress here is keeping my options open. I am not going to blindly accept an apprenticeship just for the sake of having a mentor. I have 2 other options, my old mentor and another bandit sign advertisement. I have yet a 4th option up my sleeve which is scrapping the mentor idea all together and qualifying for hard money and doing this on my own.

Here are the steps that I need to take in the coming weeks.

If apprentice option 1 is right for me:

1. Pony up my potential deals
2. Drive one route a week during lunch time for my "driving for dollars" campaign
3. Drive one route a weekend for my "driving for dollars" campaign
4. Write "We buy houses" or some other advertisement on my truck
5. Place adds on craigslist for we buy houses
6. create a website to help generate leads for "we buy houses"
7. Speak to 3 people a week about my business
8. Any other task that the mentor may feel is necessary

If apprentice option 1 is not right for me

• Follow through with other options using the same process.

If the final option needs to be exercised

1. Qualify with Hard money lenders

2. follow marketing plan in option 1

3. Create a buyers list using Craigslist, blog sites, websites, REI club

There is is! The start to closing enough deals to make 10k by Nov 2009.

Wish me luck, I will update next week some time.

Hubcap

Change in Direction

After all the chaos with the house it was decided that I would take things slower. I made a switch from real estate to stocks as my starting point in my investing business. I did this for two reasons. The first was the ability to use smaller amounts of money and the second was to practice my decision making and risk managment. I made a deal with myself, if I couldn't successfully trade stocks then I wasn't allowed to get back into real estate.
Here I am, ready to start investing for real, now is the time for me to get back into real estate and do it right. There is a lot more story here but as the title of this posts suggests I am changing direction in this blogg. Luckily I am only 3 posts in. Instead of telling my story I am just going to get right into tracking my current progress. If you want to know my story you can buy my book when it comes out. Since I am already in progress of writing the book it didn't make sense to write it again in a blogg.

The first step I need to take here is actually list out what my goals are.

So here they are:

1. To earn $10k from investing by November 30th 2009. The significance of this date is that my wife is now pregnant with our second child and it would help out with purchasing a viacord bank as well as paying off the other associated medical bills. The remaining funds will be allocated to creating an LLC and getting a larger marketing effort going.
2. Write my first book by April 19th 2011. I really have a passion for writing this should be the first of many books for me.
3. Create an investment business that generates 100k+/year by April 19th 2011
4. Retire from my "job" by April 19th 2013 so that I can spend more time writing and with my family

In my next post I will be to listing out what steps I have taken in an effort to accomplish these goals. I will be posting again within the next week.

Success is a state of mind.

Until next time!

Hubcap