The Urgent vs The Important: My Latest Attempt To Prioritize My Schedule

One of my latest struggles has been in dealing with the urgent versus the important. 

Urgent & Important Defined

It's probably important to define the difference between the "urgent" versus the "important". I define the "urgent" as tasks that requires immediate attention. Just because something is urgent does not mean it is important. A good example of something that is urgent but not necessarily important in my real estate investing business would be returning a phone call to an unverified tenant buyer. I define "important" as something critical that has the potential to move my business forward. Lately, my "urgent" tasks of talking to buyers about my current inventory has outweighed my "important" task of delivering offers to sellers.

The Month In Review - January 2015

One of my favorite quotes is, "You can not live in the past, only learn from it." This is such a powerful quote to me because it forces the reader to stop regretting the past and focus on the lessons one can gain from their experiences. So in the spirit of reflection, here's my short review of January 2015!

Why I Choose To NOT Focus On Revenues

I Hate Sales Jobs

I've had sales jobs before and hated them. The jobs were always an emotional rollercoaster. One minute you're feeling horrible because you haven't made a sale in a really long time. The next minute you feel fantastic because you've closed the biggest deal of your life. Then the next week, you're back in the same exact place.

Real Estate Investing Is A Sales Job

My efforts with real estate investing are sometimes very similar to how I felt in prior sales jobs. I would feel great when sellers finally agreed to my price and terms or when a the deals ultimately closed. Then I would end up feeling crappy because I hadn't closed a deal in a long time or a seller would call and leave a nasty message via voicemail, sometimes even cursing me out for even sending them something in the mail.

What I Do When I Can't Sell A Property

When A House Won't Sell...

I currently have a house that is a piece of crap. It is in horrible condition in a less than "aspirational" neighborhood. I've sent this property out to my buyer's list, marketed it online, posted it to online classified sites, syndicated it to other wholesalers, put out bandit signs and still haven't been able to sell it.

Get A Price Concession

Whenever I have this much difficulty selling a property like this, its usually because the price is too high. So I went back to the owner and got a pricing reduction and I think I've gotten the price as low as I think we're going to get it. I've even gotten him to agree to a structured purchase as well but the property still isn't selling. So what's a guy to do?

When Price Reductions Don't Work

I learned this little trick from Sean Terry via one of his podcasts last year. It's a pretty nifty tactic and while I only bring it out every now and again (because it can be a little time consuming and also has implicit costs associated with it), at the very least, it helps to get traffic to a property. What's this little tactic called?

What To Look For When Researching Comparable Sales

Example of Comparables Sold

Comparable sales are important in determining the value of the properties we analyze. There are a few points to keep in mind when looking for comparable sales which I've detailed below. You also normally want to find at least three comparable sales in the past six months otherwise it may be incredibly difficult to sell your property.

Size

The target homes you are looking for should be within 20% of the size of the house. For example, if the house you are evaluating is 1000 square feet, you should look for homes that are generally between 800 and 1200 square feet.

My Favorite Websites To Research Real Estate Related Values

Our team uses a number of websites to pull information that we use to construct offers. Here are the top five websites we use:

RedFin

RedFin is by far my favorite website to use to research property values. You can easily find everything from comparable sales,  current listings and filter down to the specific types of properties. The best way to use the website is to actually log in so that you can see neighborhood information and comparables sold. Many times, RedFin will also give you value estimate ranges from Zillow and Eppraisal.com.

RedFin Example

How I Did My First Real Estate Deal Ever

In today's post, I discuss how I did my first real estate deal ever. Included in this video are

• How I found the deal
• Meeting the Seller/Owner
• Getting the property under contract
• Marketing the property to buyers
• Negotiating with buyers
• Getting the deal across the finish line
• The HUGE mistakes (PLURAL) I made
• How much money I made on the deal

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I'm happy I've been able to share this with you! From this video you will see that you do not have to be perfect to get a deal done. I made gigantic mistakes in my first deal and still was able to get the deal across the finish line. I hope this video motivates you to help you to get your first deal done too!

Tell me in the comments below...

What are you going to do when you make your first check from real estate investing?

Which Is Better For Seller Meetings: Face-to-Face or Over The Phone?

Phone vs Face-to-Face

One of the biggest debates I constantly have with myself is whether I should meet face-to-face with sellers or whether I can just talk with them over the phone to do a deal? I've done deals both ways and personally, I haven't seen a huge difference in the outcome.

Gurus: You Should Meet Face To Face

Most of the gurus and people that have been doing deals forever will tell you that you should always meet with the motivated sellers face-to-face. They argue that when you meet with the sellers it's easier to build rapport and to get the deal done. In theory, I actually agree with them. Communication experts say about 70-80% of all communication is non-verbal. You're able to pick up on more of these non-verbal cues when you meet with the sellers face to face.

Do Motivated Sellers Actually Exist? [Marketing For Motivated Sellers]

Businesses create products or services that solve a problem for a specific set of people, their clients or customers. I view my customers as my end buyers (since customers are the people that pay you) and my product/service as quality real estate deals for them. In order to get these quality deals for my customers it usually helps to work with motivated sellers.

What Is A Motivated Seller?

I Buy & Sell Homes...Sort Of [How I Make Money In Real Estate]

I was on the phone with a friend a week ago who knew that I was a real estate investor but didn't really understand what it is I actually do. The simplest way for me to explain what it is that I do is that I buy and sell homes. The full picture though, is a little more nuanced.

I'm A Problem Solver

I actually don't view real estate investing as buying and selling homes. Just like any other business selling a product or service, I view my job as solving problems. In this case, the problems are property related. Sometimes the solution to the problem is me purchasing a property for cash. Sometimes, it's finding a tenant. Sometimes the solution is restructuring the mortgage for the existing owners. Sometimes, the solution is something vastly more complicated but customized to the situation.

Real Estate Investing: What Do You Want To Learn About?

Hello World!

I'm Marvin and I am a real estate investor based out of Atlanta, GA. I started investing in real estate in May 2014 and have done several deals since then. I currently average about two deals a month and plan to grow to eight (8) to ten (10) deals a month by the end of 2015 through additional marketing, automation and delegation.

Avoid My Mistakes 

I've decided to start this blog to document my adventures in starting and growing my real estate business. My main goal is to help you get started in real estate and help you to get deals done. I've learned a lot while in this business and while this has been a profitable experience so far for me, I've also lost money trying to get deals done too! I'll share with you my experiences to make sure you never lose money trying to get deals done.