A Tale of How This Real Estate Biz Got Started

Ok, now that we're past the formalities of me getting some of my creative muse out, let's talk Turkey... Real Estate turkey.

After I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad in 1998 I knew that I would eventually get into the real estate business. A number of the insurance guys I knew were also real estate investors and it seemed like a good fit to mix both avenues to make money & keep things interesting.

In 2006 I moved to VA from CA after finishing my MBA. I thought my job was cool and liked the area (12 mins from from the beach!) But within 3 months the regional officer got laid off, I thought that there would never be a better time to get something on the back burner. I looked at teaching part-time for the local Jr College, but my schedule for work involved so much overnight travel that I couldn't make the commitment. So I started combing the internet for real estate investing & flipping homes ( and watching every home flipper show on cable that I could get.) I stumbled upon the chat board at the best website for real estate investors, www.flippinghomes.com and was able to learn and make acquaintances without spending tons of money on courses. I read and listened to audio downloads and filled my drive time with Real Estate education.

In Jan 2007, my direct supervisor got laid off and I had another shiver go through me and knew somewhere inside that my time with the company was limited. (I had no idea how limited...)

I knew that one of the agents in my territory was an active investor and we struck up something of a partnership with me knocking doors on the foreclosure leads that he was mailing every week.

I knocked doors for about 3 months in the evening after work and was able to help a good number of people, but we didn't end up buying any properties. There were just too many people that were right up against the loan to value on their homes...

I eventually decided to quit door-knocking and decided to join my mentor in the direct mail business. I/we mailed to foreclosures in the area and had a decent number of responses, but again it seemed that the 'up to my neck in debt/no equity' deals were the only people calling us. I tried phoning forclosures, but calling people that didn't want to be called was worse than trying to find people that didn't want to be found. I was searching for something else - my real estate 'thing.'

I listened to one of flippinghomes.com's saturday workshops on probates and decided to add probates (inherited property) to my list of mailings and saw the number of response calls go way up. And, as foreclosure responses tailed off, my probates continued to respond at about the same rate... ergo- drop the FC, keep the probate.

Late summer '07 I got laid off as the company merged the VA & Mid-Atlantic territories and I became redundant. I was encouraged to 'return to the field' (sales,) which is corporate speak for 'get out.' I found a job pretty quickly, but continued to work on my little real estate investing machine in the evenings and weekends.

That's where I'm at today. I have partnered with a local friend of mine that is a Realtor who goes to the probate office each week and collects the new probates (for free!). I enter the info into a spreadsheet and mail my letters. After 30 days I send her the list of names and she can mail to them as often as she likes at that point. It's a great little partnership since my new job isn't as flexible and I can't get to the probate office myself.

I mailed 90 probates last week and have another 30 going out this week. I generally get 5-6 calls per hundred letters and I have one offer out there (not returning my calls,) which is likely a dead deal...

I'm working on a business plan and adding more to the business, but need to get some of the kinks worked out of my organization and call tracking system. I'm using a paper system right now (post-it notes & 4x6 cards) and it's failing me. In order to grow, I'll need to replace that with something more predictable. I'm looking online for some free resources and also have some software that I have used in insurance for tracking clients/prospects that would work well too. I'm open to suggestions...