My marketing is generating so many leads, that I may have to start creating a post for each business category. Let’s start with a mid-year recap:

January 2010: I started the year off with three businesses: real estate (agency/investing), mobile notary public services, and a designer fragrance online store. Then I added a fashion accessories biz.

July 2010: I’ve retired the designer fragrance and fashion accessories businesses. Real estate and vending and now my top priorities, with notary services running a close second.

I’ve gotten on the habit of a regular lead-generation plan for both my real estate and vending business. And now I get so many calls and emails, I don’t have time to return them all. The only time I have to return calls is during my lunchbreak (I still have a J-O-B), and when I get home from work after 5pm. I’d like to call people early in the morning, but I think 8:30am phone calls might be a bit too much. Then again, some might see me as a go-getter. I guess I’ll have to test that theory and see

For real estate, I’ve been marketing heavily to people facing foreclosure, and the response rate has been good. My recent batch of 78 letters yielded 10 phone calls. That’s a 12% response rate, much better than the supposed “average” response rate of 2%. I’m attributing that to the fact that I only use hand-addressed envelopes and stamps for postage. I know it takes longer, but I believe people open it because it looks like it’s coming from someone they know. All the other mailings I’ve done using labels or printed envelopes got me ZERO response. So I’m sticking with what works. The next step to this will be hiring an assistant to do it every week.

For the vending business, I’ve decided to focus on non-profit groups instead of for-profit locations. My hunch is that since they always need money anyway, they’ll like getting a monthly payout from the machine. I did a test by sending emails to some senior centers in my area. Out of 11 emails sent, two responded that they wanted a machine (that’s an 18% response rate, in case you’re wondering). I placed my first machine at a bar, which I’m due to service for the first time this coming week. It’s a double-head, which I’m going to break down to a single. After reading all the discussions on the Vendiscuss forum, I’ve decided to sell gumballs only. They’re the most profitable, and the easiest item to obtain. I’ll check my results after a month, and if it’s not where I want to be, then I’ll consider incorporating candy. My goal is build my passive business stream and keep it as simple as possible.

One thing I like about this process is that I keep coming to the same “realizations” over and over again. Stay consistent with lead generation, and always keep the goal in mind.

candy bulk vending · lead generation · marketing · real estate investing

I have another potential shortsale deal in the works from someone who received one of my plain ‘ol letters in the mail. I always hand address the letters and use a stamp. I strongly believe these get opened and read at a much higher rate than labeled letters or postcards. The homeowner tried to do a loan modification, but is fairly certain i won’t be approved. This is a rancher with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. His story is typical: his business failed, had to file bankruptcy, etc. I feel bad for him, but I’m glad that I can probably help and make some money in the process.

This is the second good lead from my letter campaign. Only 44 cents invested to make a few thousand dollars. I’m very excited.

Update on the other deals:

• I called again today to get status on docs for the sub2 I’m working on. They claim my authorization letter expired 90 days from the date it was signed by the borrower. I’ve been dealing with this servicer (Litton Loan Servicing) since April. I love it how they don’t tell you any of those details when you initally send the authorization letter. Now I have to add this to my checklist of initial contact with lenders: verify whether or not authorization expires, and if so, when. Bastards.
• The lender for the duplex shortsale (American Home Mortgage) claims that they received my authorization letter, but they didn’t “see” the borrower’s signature on it. Bullshit. So I have to fax it again. Bastards.

horrible mortgage companies · horrible mortgage servicers · investments · lead generation · shortsales

The tenant finally has a new, working water heater. Hooray. The contractor was even did a temporary fix for the basement door, without me asking, which makes me happy. As long as he can respond to my calls timely, I will be using him for every repair I need. Turns out that he also is a landlord himself, so I’ll be milking him for lots of advice/tips, for sure.

After speaking to a good friend of mine, I’m going to give this landlording business a chance. It is passive income after all, and I don’t really want to give that up. I feel I have a good tenant, so as long as the property is decent, I should be okay. I think my rant yesterday was a result of momentary insanity caused by frustration. So let’s see.

On the vending business front, I’m in the process of signing up with a charity, and then I’m going to hire a locating service to place the machine so I don’t have to pay a commission every month. The service charges only $31 and they offer a money back guarantee with results within a week of ordering. They’ll even relocate for free if I get kicked out within 90 days for any reason.

On the perfume business front, I’m closing my Paypal account. They have instituted a new “policy” where they can hold your funds for whatever amount of time they please. The letter states that it is not because I did anything wrong, but because they want to implement a new policy to “protect” me. I received this information after receiving a new order for almost $100 from a new client through the iOffer.com store. So guess what? I told them, with a selection of choice words, that I don’t need to use their service anymore. So I instructed them to refund the transaction to the buyer and close my account. In the meantime, the buyer paid me via Google Checkout (with NO problems whatsoever, of course), and I’ll be processing the order today. It’s so nice to have a choice with payment processors.

passive income · Paypal sucks ass · perfume business · real estate rentals · vending business

Sooo, less than one month into being a landlord with a sub2 property, my gut feeling about not wanting to be a landlord has been confirmed. The tenant is great, but the property is already starting to get on my nerves. The water heater broke about two days after the tenant moved in, and I haven’t been able to get ANYONE to come fix it. I’ve called several contractors, who all reschedule or just don’t show. Even Roto-Rooter rescheduled, but at least I didn’t have to remind them to call me back. I’m not sure what upsets me more: that my tenant and her child haven’t had hot water for almost a week, or the fact that contractors are so freaking unreliable! Hopefully this water heater just needs to be fixed and not replaced. I also need to replace a rear basement door, as well as the front screen door, and have an electrician check why the ceiling fans aren’t working (since there were working last time I checked almost a month ag0). So yeah, landlording is not for me. I will continue with the shortsale of this property, and sell it with the tenant occupant in place. I think that at 35K property with a tenant paying $875/month will be an awesome deal. I should’ve just stuck to my gut and flipped this without getting into sub2. Oh well.

During my Memphis trip, I got the brilliant idea of starting a newsstand business at Greyhound bus stations. Well, they’ve shut me down. I contacted the person in charge, several times, and Greyhound just isn’t interested in having ANY vendors at their bus stations. So while it seemed promising, I’m not going to press the issue. Maybe they’ll change their minds in the future. In the meantime, I need to get crackin’ on other businesses, which leads me to…

I am finally starting a vending business! About two years ago, I’d read an ebook on how to startup a vending business, it had good information on pitfalls to watch out for, how to shop for machines,  etc. But I never followed up.  Then I started looking at starting an ATM business, but that requires way too much capital (more than what I have anyway), and there’s a safety issue with transporting large sums of cash by myself (a big NO-NO). Now that I’m serious about developing a passive income stream, I decided to get on the ball. I reread the book, and decided to start a bulk candy vending business. I found a NEW double-head candy machine on craigslist for $100, but I was able to talk to the seller down to $70. The machine still had the plastic wraps on it. This machine typically sells for about $200 brand new. He’d purchased it almost seven years ago to start a business himself, but never did. I tested the machine with quarters to make sure it worked, and loaded that baby into my car. Now I just need to buy candy at BJs and place it at a location. I made a post on Facebook asking my friends if they or anyone they knew wanted a machine at their place of business, and one of my real estate clients responded that her dad needs one in his detail shop. So I’ll call her today to make the arrangements. I want to have it placed by this weekend. Here’s the pic of the candy machine taken with my Blackberry:

I have two other shortsale deals that are progressing. The big one looks like it may close in the next month or so. The other one (a duplex), is just starting, and I hope to close on that by August.

I’m also going to change real estate brokerages again. This will (hopefully) be my last switch before I finally get my broker’s license. I’m taking one of my broker licensing courses online right now, with about seven classes to go. I’m sooo ready to be a broker already. There’s nothing like having total control over your money.

That’s all the updates I have for now.

passive income business · real estate investing · vending business

So I’ve decided that shortsale investing is not for me. I’m going to stick to wholesaling and buying properties sub2. The the time to get paid for a shortsale is just way too long for my taste. I’m still working on a deal that I started negotiations for in February. However, I will make shortsales a regular part of my business as an agent. The listings are easy to get, and my past customers make great testimonials for me. Plus, the more listings I have, the more buyers I can get, and the bigger potential to double-pop a deal.

Speaking of sub2, I’m going to try being a landlord to see how I like it. While I like investing and being an agent, I still need a source of passive income. And while I try my best to close every deal, I know that I won’t close them all. Being a landlord seems to be the easiest passive income stream to get into right now, so I’m going to try it. I already have a tenant for one property which is a single family home. The other is a duplex, for which each unit should be able to rent for $500/month. The plan with the sub2 properties is to get a loan modification to lower the payment (if necessary), and rent them out.

To summarize: I  have three shortsale properties under contract. I will be purchasing two of them sub2 with the intent of renting them out for passive income. The third will be a shortsale flip for cash profit.

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It’s only Wednesday and I’ve already been dealt two blows in the real estate arena. The first is a wholesale deal for which I’d already found an end-buyer. The seller of this deal has decided not to sell, and wants to move back into her home. This was especially painful because it was such a pain-in-the-ass to get this deal signed! When I called the buyer’s agent to give her the bad news, I was sooo happy I got her voicemail. She hasn’t even bothered to call me back, she only emailed me asking for the release form. That was sucky.

The second blow is the short-sale flip I’ve been working on since February. After months of asking for an interior BPO, and Saxon Mortgage adamantly telling me that I had to do the interior BPO myself because they don’t, I was informed yesterday by a new customer service rep that they actually do interior BPOs “all the time”. This means that I now have to wait another three business days for their BPO vendor to call me to get access to the property. So I wasted another two weeks and hours of my time taking photos and creating a BPO – FOR NOTHING!!! They better hope to God that the value comes in at the purchase price or less, because I’m going to give them even more hell during the negotation. Bastards.

The good news is that I got another shortsale property under contract last night. This is a duplex in West Philly. Now the more I get into this shortsale/wholesaling thing, the more I’m thinking that maybe I should be a landlord after all. I’ve been resisting it, because I’ve seen the problems that my landlord clients have endured. But, I just don’t see any other way to create cashflow without having to own a business. I like wholesaling, and I’ll probably do it forever, but I see now that I really can’t rely on wholesaling for regular income. I have to at least try being a landlord to see if I have the stomach for it.

Speaking of which… I have a renter for a shortsale property that I was going to wholesale. So I’m going to purchase it subject-to instead, and see how I like being a landlord. I’ll get the monthly payments lowered through loan modification, and use the deposits from the renter for the upfront payment to the mortgage company. So the only money I’ll spend will be for the deed and LLC formation. This should be fun, and I’ll do a better job of documenting the process on this blog.

Gotta get back to work now, so thanks for visiting!

real estate investing · short sales · wholesaling

The upgrade to the shopping cart went better than expected. However, I forgot to include a requirement in the terms, so I’m going to have my coder do one more task for a small additional fee. Once that’s completed (by Friday), I’ll be able to upload products and start directing my current customers to my site. I can’t wait to show the world the final product.

I got that third property under contract for a potential wholesale deal, and I’m still dealing with title issues on the wacky property. At this moment, I have four properties under contract: two are short sales, and the other two are “traditional” wholesale deals. I first shortsale that I’ve been working on for about three months just requested the interior BPO, so it’s almost there. This one has the potential for a 20K profit. So I just need to be a little more patient.

I got to meet with a group of Philly wholesalers last week, and it was awesome. One of the wholesalers invited one of his mentors/partners as a guest speaker. This guy has done everything in Philly from wholesaling, to rehab flips, to subject-to. He shared a lot of good information, and even gave us a tips on what he would’ve done differently if he knew then what he knows now. It was very enlightening, and I can’t wait for the next meeting.

Designer fragrance business · networking · real estate wholesaling

Fragrances: I thought my “professional looking” fragrance website would be up and running by now, but it’s not. I believe part of the problem is that I picked a bad shopping cart software package, then I selected a vendor who has revealed (after starting the project), that he’s never installed this particular shopping cart before. He just created a sample for me to see that he could at least do the basics. The problem with that is my project requires more than the basics. The only thing working is the Paypal module. I can’t import products or categories, and I can’t insert them manually either. Which has now given me great pause. While the site I created myself wasn’t the prettiest, it worked perfectly, and was easy to update. Now I’m thinking that I should’ve just left my creation in place, and hire someone to make it beautiful instead of hiring someone to do the opposite.

Real estate investing: One of my wholesale deals has run into a snag. I already knew it would have issues with liens, but the title report reveals that the liens are A LOT bigger than what the seller said (big surprise). There’s a tax lien of $16K, and a water bill lien of $25K (no, that’s not a typo). I’ve emailed the seller with no response so I’ll call her today. Thank goodness I have three more in the pipeline, because I have a feeling this one won’t work out.

elance · perfume business · real estate wholesaling business · wholesale properties

Here are quick updates on what’s going on with my ventures this week:

• Real estate – I got another wholesale property under contract Wednesday, and I’m meeting with a seller to get another one under contract tonight. This will keep me on track to meet my goal of wholesaling at least one property a month. Two of the properties are shortsale/wholesale deals, and the other two are “traditional” wholesale deals.
• Mobile notary service – I had two more appointments for notary service this week, which is okay. I’m still working on the automation of marketing this business. I contacted a targeted publication for classified ad rates, so I should have an answer soon. One of my old friends is also moving back to Philly, and she wants to be a notary. So I may have her replace me, and just run the business without having to run around notarizing stuff. We’ll see.
• Designer fragrances – Today is the day that I select an eLance vendor to install the shopping cart software for my designer fragrance website. I’m selecting someone from overseas, which makes me a bit nervous, but I expect everything will work out. I originally planned to install it myself, but after two failed attempts, I realized my time was better spent doing other things.

That’s it for now, gotta get back to work

business activity updates · Designer fragrance business · mobile notary public business · real estate wholesaling business

While leaving a notary appointment, the security guard at the front desk asked me: don’t you have a home for rent on 4th Street? I said yes, and he said: yeah, I recognized your face from the ad. The house isn’t what he’s looking for, but I will find him a rental. I got his number and gave him my card. How cool is that?

marketing · real estate · real estate agent · rentals