Thursday, January 24, 2008

2 Calls!

Totally depressing day today. I got word yesterday that the other candidate for this job in CA is already living in the territory and working with clients there... Seems like a total no-brainer that they'd pick him. But... they are taking their time to decide. (The voice in my head says that they've made a time-sensitive offer to the guy and if he declines...) My recuiter gets back in town on Monday and promised to get me the final word at that time. Grrr... Hate to wait. I hate the weight too, but that's another post topic :).

So, on the plus side, I impressed them so much that I'm still in the running for this job even with the no brainer candidate. But, on the neg side I have waited a week & a half in neutral thinking that this thing was going to be my ticket to ride...

I applied for 8 jobs today. Just combing the heck out of the job boards and stretching the limits of my work history in my cover letters. Home health care sales manager, Red Bull brand manager, Telefloral sales manager... everything that was even close got hit with my shotgun blast today. It was tough.

I got home & it was still tough. I stared off into space during dinner & went up to my office & heard my cell phone buzzing...

Probate #1! Cunningham Dr property. His mother died over a year ago and he held onto my letter until now. How cool. I talked through my info sheet, got the lowdown on why and when they needed to sell, fished for financing flexibility and gave him some key points to talk to the other heirs about over the weekend. No competition on this one. Hasn't talked to anyone else & doesn't want to have to. Would prefer to close in 10 days... I love this guy already. We are set to meet on Tuesday next week & he is going to show me through the house.

Probate #2 is in response to the most recent mailing that went out on Tuesday... 1/45 makes a 2% response rate already! boom. We're playing phone tag with voicemail, but it is good to know those letters are getting opened!

One thing that I came to realize during my conversation with the Cunningham Dr owner was I am getting my phone dialog down pretty well now. I determined the flow of the conversation, I directed with questions and got the info I needed to secure an appointment. Developed rapport and prepped him for our next meeting. IT FELT GREAT!!!!! What a rush. Even if this one doesn't go through, I still feel like it was something of a breakthrough for me. Now I just need to do that about 20 times a week.

I have another 30 probates to enter over the weekend and then after another day of collecting next week I should have all of 2007 entered & mailed. I'm thinking of doing an executor specific mailing once I get them all done. Maybe do that every quarter. After all, once the info is in there I should plan on following up until they either buy/sell or die right?

2 calls...

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Recession forecast from a cab ride in NY? Fuggeddaboutit!

Recession? I got the following email from one of my job boards that I check daily. Mark has an interesting premise where he is attempting to judge the economic forecast by the spending habits of the 'money people.' I thought you might enjoy.
-Taylor

A foreboding Monday morning Scott!

It was about 5 o’clock in midtown Manhattan and I was desperately looking for a taxi to get to a meeting in Greenwich Village when signs of the impending recession landed on my head the way the coming of the robins announces the spring.

Four–thirty p.m. is changeover time in Manhattan. All the taxis light their “off duty” signals and head for the home garage, which makes it difficult to get anywhere in a hurry at the end of the day.

So I was relieved when the driver of one black Town Car – so prevalent in New York streets and “Sex in the City” re–runs – pulled up and rolled down his window.

I’m used to negotiating with these guys. This was probably a $15 ride in a yellow cab, but the black cars will usually ask for $35.

I figured I’d offer $20 and haggle my way to $25.

So I was shocked when he offered “Bank and West Fourth? Twenty bucks.”

“That’s pretty odd,” I thought. But then I got in.

Drivers like to chat. It’s a staple of conventional wisdom and Hollywood movies that the musings of the wizened, world–weary driver are worth more than all the high–priced consultants and fancy lawyers you can hire.

“Tough year, man, so far…” he said over his shoulder.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah, none of them big firms are hiring us. It’s dead. That’s why I’m doing street hails.”

And that’s when it hit me, folks: the recession is really coming. When the financial services and law firms are announcing write–downs and lay–offs and, horror of horrors, they start to economize on expenses, that’s when the crimp has really hit the fan belt.

Cheapo town cars on the streets of Gotham mean one thing for you, Readers: the economy is really slowing up, and it’s time for you to take action.


Talking to myself...

Still no news on the job front. I was supposed to hear today, but I'm thinking that I won't hear until Wed or Thursday.

I've gotten a new burst of energy in the last few days. I noticed that I was getting more and more scatterbrained as I waited to hear about this job in CA. My routine had gotten reduced to clicking back and forth between job searching sites, real estate sites/blogs and repeatedly checking my email for leads. I'd get the kids out the door for school (much thanks to my lovely bride for patience as I tend to just get in the way of the process) and then log onto the web and start clicking.

It wasn't productive. When I realized what I was doing I did a little self-assessment. Maybe when you get in a rut/funk it would help you too (which is why it is worth it for me to share...)

I said to myself, "Self, in a couple of months you'll be at a new job. You are likely to look back on this time (1 or 2 months without work) and wish you would have done things differently."

I was right of course. I would undoubtedly look back on my unshaved, unshowered, pajama-clad web-cruising as a waste of perfectly good time.

So my self then asked,
"What are the things that you would want to have done with this time to make you look back and think good thoughts about what you did?"

No surprise as to the answer, but it was good therapy to listen to myself.
1. Workout every day. (Duh. With no work schedule constraints could potentially work out at anytime of the day.) So it's scheduled. Every day. I'm sore to the touch, but sticking to the plan.
2. Eat clean. My lovely bride is good at helping me with this, but I do tend to self-sabotage with cookie dough binges on Sundays after church...
3. Work the Real Estate like a monkey chasing a coin. I am doing something every day to move my RE dream forward. (In fact, I have talked to 1 new seller and did 3 follow up drive-by's today already.)
4. Work the job boards/recruiter follow up's every day. Since the postings don't change much from hour to hour, I check in the morning and evening and call it good. I'm on top of it, but not getting carpal tunnel syndrome from my job search.

We all would like to look back on the last 30 days and be proud of what we did. Right? Ask yourself what you'd like to look back on and get busy doing.

Thanks to MLK day yesterday my probates got mailed a day later than planned, but I suppose one day isn't going to kill any deals. Over the weekend my lovely bride and I signed, folded, stamped and stuffed 106 more probate letters. 45 decedents & 106 heirs. With my 20% response rate, that means the phone should ring 9 times with interested sellers. Not bad, but I nded more.

My foreclosure researcher has been real quiet the last week or so, but he's got a new baby and I imagine he's spending more time at home as the temps dip below 30... I need to follow up with him to see if I need to find a replacement...

I'm meeting up with my probate researcher Wed morning and hope to crank out another 50 records to be mailed later this week.

I am also going to look into out of town owners as a mailing list as well. I know that my best probate responses have come from this category and since I'm at the courthouse anyway to do probates, it makes sense to find the title office and start snooping around for info...

I think my Self would be happy with that...

-Taylor

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Door-Hanger Cop

Disclaimer: At no time was your host (hereafter referred to as Heytaylor or tireless host) or anyone in his association in any real or perceived danger during the following event. Both researcher and Heytaylor were far-removed from the scene as this conversation took place. And, it is your host's humble opinion that the officer mentioned in this account would not likely be such a fool to actually track-down your host (Heytaylor) or his diligent researcher (hereafter referred to as Mike) and jeopardize his badge/career/reputation because of his own ridiculous behavior that will be revealed in the following account.
This account is presented as a humorous vignette and is your tireless host's finest attempt at enjoyable writing, yet all responsibility (and even the occurance of the following event) will be completely and wholly denied if the tireless host is approached (or reproached) for participating in the following conversation. Stay calm. Everybody is fine. The real problem is al quaeda anyway right? Life is funny. Laugh a little.


That being said, please enjoy the following from "A day in the life of a pre-foreclosure real estate investor..."
I've got a pre-foreclosure researcher (hereafter referred to as Mike,) and his normal routine at the door is to knock twice and then leave one of my flyers offering our Free Report for people having trouble with their mortgage...

Now, there is nothing on the flyer that notes anything about foreclosure specifically because I believe that allowing people in FC to save face may give me a leg up on the idiots out there with lines like, "Hi, I know you're in foreclosure. Are we going to do business together?"
But I digress...

For the most part, the people in FC are very nice, but sometimes, no matter what we may try to do to distance ourselves from the nuts in the world, at times, interactions with the crazies do occur.

Case in point.

I knew that Mike was out making calls this particular evening so I kept my cell phone with me in case he called with a lead. Mike called me a couple of times with questions about foreclosure procedures and such, so when my phone rang again I wasn't surprised or on guard at all.

I didn't recognize the call ID so I figured that it would be someone calling on one of my flyers. It was. Turns out that the guy on the line was a tenant and was irate that someone would leave a flyer on his door. I calmly asked about his landlord in between his rantings and learned that his landlord was not in FC, but that the $#^*$#'ing bank had screwed everything up. I assured him that the bank would likely publish a rescission notice in the next 2 weeks or so, but to expect calls/visits from other investors in the next few weeks. (At this point I was just trying to get this dude off the phone)

He then started swearing again and began to go on about how it is illegal to leave flyers inside a door. (Turns out that Mike opened the screen door and left a rolled up flyer between the handle and the door jam.) I was getting tired of listening to this yahoo at this point and considered hanging up, but as I pulled the phone from my ear I thought...

"Self, this guy has your cell number... Better to see this through to the end and get him off the line than have him write "for a good time call (insert cell # here)" inside the mens room in every gas station in his neighborhood..." Hmmm... I had a good point there...

Since I usually have good advice, I listened to myself, but at the same time I was still a little cranky, so...

I told my verbal tenant caller that I wasn't aware of any law against leaving a flyer at the door and asked, "What do you do when the pizza guy leaves a hanger on your door?" (before reproaching your tireless host for his witty albeit ill-advised quip to the cussing phone-caller, please refer to disclaimer in paragraph 1 of this post.) The obvious intention of said quip was for the enjoyment of your tireless host and to get the crazy person on the other end to hang up the phone, while at the same time show him how ridiculous he was being for flying off the handle in a expletive-laden tirade for a simple flyer at his door. I digress...

This comment really lit him up and he came loose with a tirade of profanity that any enlisted Navy-man would be proud of and then let it slip that he is currently a Virginia Beach Police Officer (which, in some small way means that he works for me, the taxpayer...) and painted a clear picture of how he was going to drive through the neighborhood and track me down and cuff me, face-down in the street. It became clear at this point that he thought it was me (your fearless host!) who left the flyer on his door and he said he knew what my car looked like and if he had some clothes on he'd track me down right this second! (Thank heavens for the western cultural tradition of the after-work shower!)

Cue the twightlight zone music... This was really getting weird. At this point I'm thinking 'holy crap!' I got myself a badged-up testosterone fueled, tazer armed fool on the line here! Run away! Run away!

I backed away from the conversation quickly knowing that it although it was my voice on the line, it was my diligent reacher's butt was on the line since he had likely just left the house only minutes before!

OK, (I said to myself,) get him calmed down.
Why is he mad? Oh yeah, the flyer,
the visit... strangers knocking on his door...

If you were nuts, what would make you go away? Take away the pain/annoyance! Brilliant!

I told him that I would take his house off my list and he wouldn't hear from any of my team ever again, but I again warned him that he may get visits from other investors until the rescission notice got posted in the paper.

He yelled 'FINE!' and hung up.

End of conversation. Whew! (And luckily, no further calls since then.)

Of course, I called my diligent researcher Mike and he was far away from that house, in fact, he hadn't been in that particular neighborhood for over an hour, but he still put an "X" on that record to keep the "cuff master" from having a similar face-to-face conversation with him.

I've got to say, I pity the fool that knocks on this guy's door next...
Dominoes pizza, Maria's cleaning service and JT's pressure washing better watch out for...

The Door-Hanger Cop!

Ps. Please return to top of post & re-read disclaimer before reprimanding your tireless host.

Pps. Post a comment. I know you're here. I can see you in my sitemeter. :)

Monday, January 14, 2008

What would YOU Say?

The call went like this...
(This is an edited version. Call actually took place Thursday Jan 3rd.)

Taylor: Hey (boss), this is Taylor. I need next Friday off & I know I haven't accrued any vacation time so I wanted to run it by you first.
Boss: No problem.
Taylor: Great, oh, and I also need to leave a little early on Thursday as well. Is that ok?
Boss: Um... Ok... Do you have a job interview or something?
Taylor: Yes, out on the West coast.
Boss: We're going to need to change the setup. This relationship isn't working for us. We're going to have to make a change.

20 mins later the office manager came in & said that they were going to let me go. Can't keep paying me to work for them if I was looking for a job. Thanks and goodbye.

I stuck with my philosophy that honesty is the best policy and was straight up with him, but he wasn't as understanding about my situation as I had thought. What would you have said?

The next day I was up and out the door to the probate office. No time to wallow in my unemployment pit of sorrow... I've gotta get a deal going!

So I went out to the west coast on Thursday/Friday for the interview & things went well, it's just a waiting game at this point since they have 2 other candidates to interview this week. I sent out thank you emails this morning to keep me in their minds while they interview the other candidates this week and expect to hear something next week. I'll keep you posted.

On the RE side, I got another probate call while I was in the airport on Thursday. I think that puts me at 16 from the last mailing I did 3 weeks ago! That is a 20% response rate! I have an appointment to call her back and go look at the house this afternoon. Also following up on the "Used Car Dealership" house(previous post) and Jeanne St today as well.

I took page out of Tampa Steph's playbook and called one of those "WE BUY HOUSES" signs to see if they were interested in being on my buyers list. The call went great and I have the details of the type of deals he's looking for and hope to send him something soon. (Hopefully one of these probate deals will materialize and I can flip it his way.) He had no problem with my 5k referral fee, so that's a great contact. Note to self... Call those signs.

With my new found unemployment, I have time to get to the courthouse and gather probate info. I met with my researcher on Wednesday after her 6 week hiatus and in 2 hours we got through the final 2007 files. She's going to keep going on Wednesdays and I plan to add another county to my list on Wednesday & Thursday this week. My table should be full of letters, stamps & envelopes all week!

I am also working on a free & clear mailing campaign in my target zip codes. There are so many options you can do with free & clear houses and since most of my probates have been free & clear's I feel very comfortable talking to owners.

I'm also considering dropping the $25/month for a 1-800 number for a 24 hr pre-recorded info line for my: probates (please press 1), foreclosure (please press 2), and free & clear (please press 3). I have developed a pre-foreclosure info report that I can use my researcher to deliver and really hope that the combination of all these things will help get me that elusive 'first deal' that I'm looking for... I may hold off on this idea until I know for sure what my job situation is going to look like, but I am working on scripts for each of the pre-recorded messages.

Now that I think of it, I'm full time real estate investor! At least until that job calls back next week...

Check back tomorrow for my post about the Angry Pre-Foreclosure Policeman!

Keepin' it great in 2008!

Taylor

ps. I'm usually not one for politics. In fact, I usually leave that to my lovely bride. But I was referred to this site and after answering all the questions, the answer I got was the candidate I like! Turns out I'm pretty right on with my gut-assumptions after all! Mitt's a hit!