Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

I just whipped up another Reader Mail video for your Sunday night/Monday morning viewing pleasure.

If you have further questions after watching the video, feel free to leave them in the comments section and I’ll be happy to answer them…

Enjoy!

P.S.
If you need a proof of funds letter to submit with your REO offers, you can get one for free at FundThisWholesaler.net.

P.P.S.
If you have a bajillion questions about the REO wholesaling process and want them all answered ASAP, pick up my Flip This REO! eBook today!

P.P.P.S.
Is it too much to ask for Viddler to pick a freeze frame of me where I don’t look like a jackass? Geeze.

I got counters on three of the properties I offered on earlier this week, one of which was a 10k price drop. It’s usually a good sign when the bank drops the price substantially on the first counter, so I’m thinking I can get them to come down a little more. I’ve been after this particular property for about five months now- it keeps going under contract and then popping up on the market several weeks later.   Good news for me, bad news for the bank…

If I can get them down a few thousand more, I’ll have myself a deal.   The property is in a neighborhood that one of my favorite buyers likes, and I know he is looking for deals right now, so hopefully it will all work out.

I also got a call from an REO agent today about a property that I offered on almost 3 months ago.  At that time, it was listed at 33k and I offered 13.5k.   The bank rejected my offer three months ago, but the agent told me they are getting ready to do another BPO and she thinks the bank will take 13.5k this time around.  I haven’t been inside the house since I made the first offer three months ago, so I’m going to go check it out again in the morning to refresh my memory…

Let’s see…what else?

Oh, one of my wholesaler friends called to tell me about a property that is about to hit the market in the next day or so…  The listing agent is giving him first dibs on the house (damn dirty agents!!!!),  so I went to check that out today as well.  Another one of my buyers is looking for properties in this neighborhood in the same price range, so this could potentially turn into a deal, too.

I’ve also got about 10 other offers floating around, so I should be getting feedback from those over the next couple of days.

Lots of lines in the water, just waiting for a bite..

And that’s all I’ve got for today, folks.

Adios Amigos!

P.S.
My plan to check emails only once/day is not working out so well.
I need an intervention, I think.

I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween weekend.

My plan to dress up as a hot dog never materialized, so instead I decided to be Steph with pink hair and sunglasses….

I kind of look like a transvestite, no?

Anywho, I don’t have too much to report on the real estate front.  The deal that I was working on with Murphy never materialized.   My buyer decided to take his sweet old time getting back to me with a contract and deposit, and by the time he made up his mind and decided to go for it,  it was too late.  Yay!

Today I went and looked at 6 properties and put offers in on all of them.  Right now I’ve got a handful of buyers who are chomping at the bit for new deals, so I’m making offers on anything and everything.  I’ve got a list of properties to look at tomorrow as well.  I’ll just keep making offers until I get one.  That always seems to do the trick..

In other news, after reading this article by Tim Ferriss for the 100th time, I’ve decided that I need to do something about my addiction to my Crackberry.  My email habits are totally out of control, and I need to put my foot down ASAP.  So……from here on out, I’m only checking my email ONCE A DAY.  I’ve tried implementing this strategy several times in the past, but was not able to stick to it. This time I mean business, dammit.

I’ll keep you posted..

Oh, I also recorded a Saturday Night Reader Mail on Halloween, which turned into a 4 hour production because Windows Movie Maker is a steaming pile of dog crap. I posted it to my blog late Saturday night (after many Halloween cocktails), then I went back to edit the post and accidentally deleted the whole thing. I was seconds away from punching my laptop in the face, so I decided to wait until I cooled off to repost it.

So, here it is….(it’s about using bandit signs to find buyers, btw).  Enjoy!

Click here to get your FREE BANDIT SIGNS!

Later Alligators!

P.S.
Try not to pay attention to how many times I say “Um” in the video.

P.P.S.
Don’t forget to pick up your copy of Flip This REO!

I just wanted to write a quick post to say THANK YOU to all of you who voted!

I read through each of the 127 comments that you left for me, and want you all to know how much I appreciate you showing up and supporting me….you guys ROCK!

Anywho, just wanted to pop in and say thanks, and wish you all a safe and happy Halloween weekend…

Later Alligators….

P.S.
Hope to see you on the Flip or Treat call that I’m doing with JP tomorrow!

P.P.S
Congratulations to Julie, Dave, and Bram over at RevNYou!

P.P.P.S.
I’m considering dressing up as a hot dog tomorrow and wearing a sign around my neck that says, “Happy Halloweenie!”   Hehehe.

Thanks to you guys, I was able to knock JP out of third place!  I can’t do too much trash-talking just yet though, as there are still two hours to go before the polls close.

The last tally of votes was done at 3:21 pm, and this is how it looked…

1st Place – Julie Broad with 225 votes

2nd Place – Ron Mead with 208

3rd Place – ME!!!!!!! with 114 (Woot!)

4th Place – Susan Lassiter-Lyons with 96

5th Place – JP Moses with 91

6th Place – P-Rid with 68

7th Place – Trevor Mauch 39

Patrick is out celebrating his Birthday tonight (Happy B-Day P-Rid!), so he’s not going to be announcing the winner until 2pm tomorrow.

If you guys haven’t cast your vote yet, pretty please head over to the contest page and vote for me!!  There’s still a little bit of time left, and every vote counts!

Thank a billion to all of you who have voted for me already- it really means a lot to have your support.  You guys ROCK!

Later Alligators!

P.S.
Jim asked me to post this picture for him- he’s kind of competitive, and thought this might get me a few more votes..(he made the shirt himself, btw).

P.P.S.
JP just sent me a message and told me he’s giving up and wants all of his votes to go to me.  He couldn’t take the pressure of the competition, apparently..

P.P.P.S.
Speaking of JP…..if you guys haven’t heard about the Flip or Treat call that JP and I are doing this Saturday (Halloween), click here to learn more! It’s going to be Spooktacular! Hehe. Hope to see you all there…

And I am getting my ASS kicked!

Right now, Julie Broad from RevNYou is CLEANING HOUSE with a whopping 76 votes!!  She said she has the entire country of Canada behind her, and apparently, she wasn’t kidding…

In second place is Susan Lassiter-Lyons with 40 votes..

Third place is none other than Mr. JP Moses, with 34 votes

And in 4th place is yours truly, with 30 votes!!

Rumor has it that Trevor Mauch is getting ready to send out an email to his HUMONGOUS email list, so he’s probably going to knock me right out of 4th place.  Actually, this just in…..the Probate Guy just sent out an email to his list and is up to 33 votes already.  CRAP!

I don’t know if I can compete with these guys and their email lists, but I’m going to fight it out ’til the bitter end!

If you guys haven’t voted yet, you can head on over to the contest and do it now..  You don’t have to opt in or anything- just post who your favorite blogger is in the comments section…

LET’S KICK THESE EMAIL MARKETER”S ASSES, GUYS!  Think of it as revenge for the SIM’S LAUNCH! Hehe.

I’m counting on you guys to represent!

And so is Jim….

Later Alligators- GO VOTE!

P.S.
Thanks to all of you who have voted for me already- I’m reading your comments over on the contest page, and I appreciate each and every vote I’ve gotten so far.

P.P.S.
Every time one of the competitors sends out an email or posts something to their blog, P-Rid shuts his site down and pretends like the server crashed…. So, if the site is down when you go to vote, make sure to check back later.

P.P.P.S
A little something to get you in the fightin’ mood….

VOTE FOR STEPH!

Actually, the mud slinging already got started on Friday, and I spent most of the weekend defending my Facebook wall from JP Moses, Patrick Riddle, Shae Bynes, Susan Lassiter-Lyons, etc.

To give you an example, take a look at the little gift that JP left for me on Saturday…

Here’s another one from JP, with the caption “Just spotted your blog’s biggest fan”

Then there was this one, posted to my Facebook wall by none other than my pal, Shae Bynes (who is playing the “Underdog” card in the competition, even though I think she is a force to be reckoned with).. the caption on this one read, “Kiss the ring, sister..”

Then we have this one from P-Rid, with a caption that read…”If your blog was standing in front of me … that would be a ninja kick to the face”

Susan Lassiter-Lyons also posted a cartoon video, complete with bombs, ninjas, samurai swords, and decapitations, but it’s just too graphic to post on my blog.

OK fine, here it is- but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

So anyway, as you can see, my competitors are taking this Battle quite seriously, and I need all the help I can get from you guys if I want to win this thing.

The winner of the competition will be determined by which Blogger gets the most votes from their readers.  So, actually, it’s more like a “Battle of the Blog Readers”, since you guys will ultimately be deciding who wins.  I’m pretty sure that I have the most kick-ass readers in all of the Blogosphere, so I fully expect to win and take home first prize (and bragging rights).

Oh, and do you want to hear the best part of all?

Patrick is giving away five of his Private Money Blueprint courses to the Blogger with the most votes, and that blogger gets to give them away to five of the people who voted for them. This is a top notch course that retails for $700, and I get to give FIVE of them away to you guys if you vote for me and I win!!

In all honesty, we’re up against some stiff competition- so if we’re going to pull this off, you guys all need to vote (for me)!

To cast your vote, you can head over to Patrick’s site- MustKnowInvesting.com-  There you will see profiles for all of the bloggers who are participating, which will include links to their blogs, as well as their social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc). Feel free to poke around and mingle,  just don’t forget to cast your vote for Flip This Wholesaler!

Don’t leave me hangin’ guys- head on over there and VOTE!!

Later Alligators!

P.S.
If you haven’t added me as a contact on Facebook yet, you can do so here. I’d love to have you join in on the mud slinging and name calling. It’s good times.

P.P.S.
If you’re on Twitter, click here to Tweet about the contest and tell all of your followers to vote for me!

P.P.P.S

I’m pleased to announce that I found my Mojo and am up and at ‘em again- woohoo!

I should be good to go for another six months or so,  so don’t expect any more 2 week hiatuses (hiati?) for awhile..

Anywho, I’ve got some possible deals cookin’ that I should be finding out about by the end of the day.  One of them is a deal that Murphy got under contract 3 weeks ago.  I thought it would be a no-brainer deal for a buyer of mine that I have done quite a bit of business with.  The house fits his buying criteria perfectly- neighborhood, price, beds/bath, all that stuff..

I sent it to him 3 weeks ago and he wasn’t interested because it is too small.  He gets pickier and pickier every time I talk to him, and now he’s only buying stuff that is 1200 sf or more, concrete block, in nice neighborhoods, and 3 bedrooms/2 bath minimum.  Smart guy.  He’s got over 20 houses right now, and wants another 30.  He’s going to hold all of them as rentals (all are producing positive cash flow), and I’m guessing he’s going to be sitting on a freaking gold mine 10 years down the road..

So, anyway, he passed on the deal, but called 2 days ago to ask if it was still available.  He’s now working with a group of investors from outside of the US who want to do the same thing he’s doing, and apparently they want the property.

Long story short, we should be getting a contract for 64k by the end of the day (contract price with the bank is 58k), but I’m not holding my breath.  The title work on this one is ready to go, so if all works out, it should close by Friday of next week.  There are a few too many “ifs” and “shoulds” in that sentence for my liking, but we’ll just have to wait and see..

The other deal is a duplex that I offered on last week and just got a counter back from the bank yesterday.   I picked up a new buyer earlier this week from one of the signs I have out (I’ve got about 60 signs out right now),  and he just so happens to be looking for duplexes in this neighborhood.  He just bought one right up the street from the property I offered on, so I know he’s interested in this area.  Right now the bank is at 41k, and I need to get them down about 5k more.  I countered back this morning and am hoping to hear back from them by the end of the day.

If I don’t end up getting this one at my price, I’ll wait 2 weeks and have Murphy put in an offer and see if they will come down a little more.  Half of something is better than nothing, ya know..

Oh, before I forget, my buddy Patrick Riddle, AKA P-Rid, is holding the first annual “Battle of the REI Blogs” starting this coming Monday.   I’m up against some heavy hitters, so I really need for you guys to put on your game faces and help me out.  Some of the contestants are already starting to talk smack (not mentioning any names, TREVOR MAUCH), and I would really like to put them all in their places!

I’ll be back Monday morning to explain the details of the contest, so make sure to check back here bright and early.  I’m actually heading off now for a weekend long Top-Secret-Ninja-Blog-Battle-Boot Camp (it’s known in the industry as TSNBBBC), to brush up on my skills.. I hear it’s some pretty intensive training, so wish me luck!

Have a great weekend, Everybody!

Later Alligators..

P.S.
If you’re ready to get off the fence and learn how to flip REOs, grab yourself a copy of my Flip This REO! eBook today- click here to get it now!

P.P.S.
Don’t forget to check back here Monday morning- I need all the votes I can get!

P.P.P.S.
This has nothing to do with real estate, but if you’re into nature-y stuff like I am, you’ll appreciate this GINORMOUS dead snake they recently found in South Florida. Crazy!  If you look really close at the end you can see his fangs.  (Sorry to all my Facebook friends, I know you’ve already seen this a time or two)

Remember me?

I thought today would be a good day to come out of hibernation, being that it is my THREE year Bloggiversary and all..

Three years- can you believe it?

Seems like just yesterday that I sat down to write my first post on my original blog over at Flippinghomes.com.  Actually, I take that back. It seems more like 3 lifetimes ago, but you know what I mean.

So, I spent the ENTIRE day baking a delicious Bloggiversary cybercake for all of us to enjoy.  It’s dark chocolate with black raspberry filling and a cream cheese frosting……

Mmmmmmm…. looks delish, doesn’t it?

Go ahead and help yourselves- there’s plenty to go around…

So, anywho, in case you were wondering what the hell I’ve been up to (clearly not blogging), the truth is…. I’ve been in somewhat of a funk lately.

Also, I’ve been suffering from writer’s block, as well as a mild to moderate case of REI burn-out.

And also, my lower back has been kicking like Chuck Norris for about two weeks now, and last but not least, I think I’m coming down with the flu or something. (Mom, if you’re reading this, I just made all of that up for dramatic effect, so stop worrying).

So yeah, I’ve not been very productive in the real estate/blogging departments lately.

I expect this funk to last approximately 0-2 more days, and then I will be back in the swing of things, dammit.

I considered keeping the details of this little rut to myself, but I figured if you guys are on the internets and in the real estate arena, you already have enough people blowing smoke up your ass on a daily basis, so I thought I’d do something a little different and tell it like it is.

Zing.

On a lighter note, I start my orientation to become a volunteer at the Humane Society this Saturday, which I am really looking forward to.  I’m going to be an animal companion, which basically consists of taking the dogs outside to give them exercise. I’m also going to see if Jim will qualify for the Pet-a-Pet program.   Perhaps I’m biased, but I think he would make the perfect therapy dog….

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now, guys.

If you don’t see another post from me by the weekend…..send help.  Just kidding.

Later Alligators!

P.S.
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me these last 3 years- you guys are the best, and I truly appreciate all of your support. For real.

P.P.S.
Don’t forget to wipe the cake crumbs off your chin.

P.P.P.S.
There are still a few copies of my Flip This REO! eBook left in cyberspace. Click here to grab yours now!

It’s been a busy week over here in Steph Land.

I’ve been making lots of offers, marketing properties for my buddies, and hunting down new cash buyers to add to my list.

Of the 12 offers I made last weekend, 4 of them were rejected, 3 went to highest and best (I wasn’t the best on any of them), 2 of them I got counters on and am still going back and forth with the bank, and the others I never heard anything back from the agents, so I’m assuming they were rejected.

My buddy Lee (aka the REO Rockstar) just got a property under contract in my favorite hood, so I spent the morning trying to get it sold. I sent a few of my buyers out to look at it, but haven’t heard anything back yet.

I’ve also got 20 signs out in the neighborhood, so I should be getting quite a few calls from those. Tomorrow morning I’ll head out to get some numbers off of “For Rent” signs and call those people up to see if they want more houses.  I would have done this today, but it was getting close to noon, and the streets were starting to fill up.   Even though I thoroughly enjoy being whistled and barked at (who doesn’t?), I decided I’d rather go back in the morning when most people are still in bed with hangovers.

I’ve been doing a bit of research on the MLS lately, just to see what’s been going on, and I noticed that the City of Tampa is now buying up quite a few REO properties in the neighborhoods that I work in.  So…. it looks like I will be competing with them for deals, too.

Yay!

According to this article,  they have close to 14 million to spend, which will go a loooooong way, especially when they are purchasing properties for 20k and under.

Perhaps I need to look for a new favorite neighborhood.

Or maybe I should send the City a letter telling them they need to get the hell off my turf- OR ELSE. I got street cred in the hood, yo.

Well, that about wraps it up for now..

I’ll leave you with a hilarious video that Shae posted on Facebook today.  It sums up the REO offer-making process quite nicely…

Have a great weekend, y’all- and don’t forget to pick up a copy of my shiny new eBook- Flip This REO! Click here to grab one now!

Later Alligators..