It’s me, Steph Davis.

Remember me?  The one who used to update her blog regularly and not take off for weeks at a time.  Remember?

Truth is, I decided to go on somewhat of a hiatus last week from Facebook, the Blogosphere, and Gmail.  A social media/internet detox, if you will.

The result of my detox was a thorough ass-kicking of last week: One JV deal in the bag, another one being negotiated as we speak (this one is a non-REO deal that I will tell you about in my next post), and a slew of new buyers added to my buyers list.  One of those buyers just flew in from NY today and I will be meeting up with him tomorrow to see if we can do some business while he is in town.

Needless to say, I’m quite pleased with my progress, and have no intention of slowing down. Although, I do pinky swear promise that I will start updating more frequently.  You can hold me to that.

So anyway, let’s talk about this month’s Flip This Book Club selection (Get Off Your “But” by Sean Stephenson), shall we?

When I bought the book, I had never heard of Sean Stephenson and knew nothing about him or his story.  It wasn’t until I started reading that I learned of his genetic disorder.  For those who didn’t get a chance to read the book, Sean was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta aka Brittle Bones Disorder.  He is 3 feet tall and permanently confined to a wheelchair.  When he was born, the doctors told him it would be easier to count the number of bones that weren’t broken in his body.  By the time he reached the age of 18, he had suffered more than 200 bone fractures.

Despite being faced with these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Sean has gone on to become an internationally known public speaker, a clinical psychotherapist, and a role model and inspiration to millions of people all over the World (including myself).

Aside from telling his remarkable life story, in Get Off Your But, Sean also explains how to conquer insecurities and self doubt, and end the cycles of negativity and self-sabotage once and for all.  It’s kind of hard not to take his advice when you look at all he has achieved in spite of the struggles he has faced in his own life.  Here’s a guy who had every reason in the world to sit around wallowing in self pity, but when given the choice of viewing his condition as either a burden or a gift, he decided to view it as a gift.

Definitely an inspiring read, and one that I will keep handy for the next time I am feeling down in the dumps and throwing myself a pity party.  Sometimes a little perspective is just what the Doctor ordered.

For those who read it, I’d love to hear thoughts…….

Oh, and also- this month’s Flip This Book Club pick is Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk!  I’ve heard all sorts of good stuff about it, and have been dying to read it for the last several months.  Hope you all will join me in reading this one- we’ll meet here on April 5th to discuss.

How’s your weekend shaping up so far?

I had another highly productive Saturday today.  Been up since the crack o’ dawn hustlin away.  Looks like I’m going to be getting a contract signed tomorrow, but I’ll save the details for later since it’s not official yet and I don’t want to jinx myself.

I just whipped up another Reader Mail video for you guys.  I’m pretty sure that Windows Movie Maker is secretly reading my blog, because it didn’t act up even once this time. I guess it doesn’t want to be bashed in the face with a shovel after all. Hehe.

Anywho, hope you like the video.

Have a great weekend!

P.S.
You can subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here. Just click on the yellow “subscribe” button at the top once you get there.

P.P.S.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of my eBook yet, you can click here to get it.

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Flip This Book Club is meeting here on March 8th @ 8pm- hope to see you here!

Sorry I’ve been MIA this week- I went a little overboard with the BDay celebrations on Monday, and ended up spending all day Tuesday sick in bed cursing myself and the 278 bloody marys I drank.  And then I got way behind on everything else, and have been playing catch up yesterday and today, yadda, yadda, yadda….

But ANYWAY, I’m back in the saddle again, and super duper excited to share my very first “Flip This Success Story” interview with you guys!

I know there are quite a few people who read this blog who have doubts as to whether this stuff really works, or maybe you think it works in some cities or towns, but not yours. Or maybe you think you’re too young or too old, or live in too small of a town, or too big of a town with too much competition.  I know how it is, because I used to think the exact same way.

Now that I’ve proven to myself that this stuff really does work, and now that I know a whole bunch of other people who are out there in various markets kicking butt, I thought it would be an awesome idea to start interviewing some of these people so you guys can listen to their success stories, and hopefully get some inspiration and motivation from them…

For my very first call, I was lucky enough to get Eileen Meyer (pronounced like the hot dog) to take some time out of her Saturday to chat with me about her business, and talk about the HUD property that she just flipped for a cool $18,000!  For those who haven’t been following Eileen’s blog- she is a mother of 3, working a full time job, and still manages to find the time to kick some serious butt flipping REOs up there in Wisconsin!!

Please give a warm welcome to Eileen, Everybody……..(*****Applause and Cheers!****)

The interview is about an hour long, and you can click here to listen in.

Enjoy!

P.S.
Try not to pay attention to the the minor technical difficulties we had in the beginning of the interview.  I don’t know how to edit audio recordings yet (shocking!), so I had to leave it in there. Also, I have never interviewed anyone before, so if I sound like an idiot, have mercy.  I will get better.

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If anyone else would like to share one of their recent wholesale deals with the community, I’d love to get you on the phone for an interview.  Shoot me an email to reosteph @ gmail. com or send me a msg on Facebook so we can set something up!

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Thanks for sharing with us, Eileen, and KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!

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I just spent 2 hours and 40 minutes (no joke) trying to figure out how to upload the call to this blog post.  Good times.  Thankfully, Shae was able to help me out before I hit the self-destruct button. Thanks, Shae!

I was up at 5:30 am, worked all day, went for a 3.75 mile run, interviewed Eileen for my  brand-spanking-new Flip This Success Story series that I’ve been procrastinating doing for the last, oh, 3 months or so, and then I decided to cap the day off with a Reader Mail video for you guys.

I’m beat.

Speaking of beat- I hate to beat a dead horse, but I seriously want to bash Windows Movie Maker in the face as hard as I can with a shovel.   We are officially broken up and I will be seeking a replacement ASAP.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the Reader Mail.  You can kind of tell I’m a wee bit tired when I totally lose my train of thought and forget what I’m talking about in the first few seconds of the video.  Hehe.

Enjoy your weekend Everybody.

How’s Everyone’s week going so far?

Things are off to a great start here (minus the weather).  Brrrrrrrrrrrr.

It  looks like I may be putting another deal together with one of my wholesaling compadres.  This particular property hit the market at the end of last week at a ridiculously low price.  I thought about making an offer on it, since one of my new buyers is looking for deals in this neighborhood.  I sold her a similar property towards the end of last year, and she just called me a few days ago asking if I had anything else.

So, anyway, I thought about making an offer on the property until I saw who the listing agent was. I’m sure I’ve probably mentioned this before, but a good majority of the REO agents around these parts are in bed with some of the wholesalers (not literally, that I know of), and this particular agent is in bed with one of my wholesaler buddies, so I didn’t even bother to make an offer on it, because I don’t like wasting my time.

Anywho, my buddy who is in bed with the listing agent knows that I have buyers in the neighborhood where this particular house is located, so he called me yesterday to tell me he’s getting the deal and to ask if I have someone for it. The contract price with the bank is 22k, and I think I can get 30k-ish from my buyer, so we’ll see.  I’ll call her first thing in the morning and have her check it out.

I’ve also got one other buyer who is always looking for properties in this neighborhood, but I hate dealing with him because he is a cheap bastard.  I seriously could call him up tomorrow and tell him I am selling a 4/2 2000 sf home that was built in 2009, needs no work, and is worth 200k, and offer it to him for five dollars, and he would try to get it for $3 with me paying all closing costs. He drives me up the freaking wall.  I have learned to jack my prices up between 8-10k when I bring him a deal because he LOVES to beat me up on price.

So anyway, I’m pretty sure I can get one of those two to take it, even though it is a piece of crap property in the hood.

It’s all good in the hood, ya know?

Ima sell me a house in the hood.  Teehee.

In other, non-real estate related-news…… check out what my Mom got for me:

PINK POTS AND PANS!!!!

Aren’t they the cutest things you’ve ever seen in your entire life?  This is actually the very first set of pots and pans I’ve ever owned in my 30 some years of life on this planet.  I feel all grown up now. (THANKS MOM! XOXO)

I’d like to say that my first attempt at cooking in them was a great success, but then I would be lying.  This is the recipe I tried, which, thankfully didn’t turn out as bad as the Great Scallop Disaster of 2010, but was nothing to write home about either.  I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 10.  It photographed well, though, which is almost as important….

Looks just like the picture in the recipe, doesn’t it?  Too bad it tasted like spicy cardboard (I went a little overboard with the crushed red pepper again).

Alrighty then folks, that’s about all I’ve got for now.  Hope you all have a great week!

10-4, Over and out.

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I had no reason for naming my post what I did, other than the fact that I have had that song stuck in my head ALL DAY, and I was hoping you all would join me in my misery. You’re welcome.

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“We don’t need no water let the mo*#er fu$#*r burn…..”

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend.  I also hope you didn’t forget my Valentine’s Day present for tomorrow…

My gift to you is this Reader Mail video that I just threw together.  And when I say “threw together” what I really mean is that it took me 4.5 hours to make because Windows Movie Maker hates my guts.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

Later Alligators!

P.S.
If you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel yet, you can do so by clicking here, then clicking on the yellow “subscribe” button above the video.

How was your week?  Everybody making lots of offers and lots of money?

All is well over here in Tampa, minus the fact that I haven’t seen the sun in about 4 days, and also, I’m FREEZING MY ASS OFF.  I know many of you are buried under seven hundred feet of snow and are without electricity and you probably want to crawl through the computer and strangle me when I complain about it being fourty effing degrees here, but I can’t help it.  THIS WEATHER BLOWS. It’s no accident that I live in the Sunshine State, so I feel entitled to complain.

Anywho, enough about the weather- let’s talk real estate, shall we?

I thought I was going to be writing a post today about a new REO deal that I just got under contract, but that ain’t happening, apparently.  I’ve actually been negotiating with the bank on this particular deal since last week and thought it was in the bag.  The house has been on the market on and off  for over two years.  Two. Years. Seriously.  It’s currently listed for $25,000 and my initial offer was $12.2k.  The house is a piece of crap located on Piece Of Crap Street, but I’ve got a buyer who happens to like this little area and he’s looking for something in the el cheapo price range, and this dump fits the bill…

So, anyway, I offered 12.2k, all cash, no contingencies, with a 3 day closing.  The bank came down from $25k to 16k on their first counter, which was quite shocking, in a good way.  Nine times out of ten when they come off their list price that much right out of the gate, they will come down more.  So, I countered back at 13.5k last week and have been waiting and waiting for a response.  I already ran the deal past my buyer, who said he would be interested at 20k-ish.

I finally got a call back from the agent yesterday letting me know that they got a full price offer and asking  if I was interested in coming up any more.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Yeah, no thanks.

I figured it was a wholesaler who put it under contract, so I checked Craigslist a few hours later, and sure enough, the property was listed with a nice little 7k markup.  There’s no way in hell anyone is going to pay that much for that property, so I expect to see it hit the market again in the next 3-10 days, depending on how long the inspection period is.  I already let the agent know that I’m still interested, and I’ll be checking in with her every couple of days so she doesn’t forget…

Aside from that, I’ve got a few other deals I’m working on with my wholesaler buddies, but nothing under contract at the moment.  I’ve also got a few out of state buyers that are looking for deals in Tampa, as well as some of my local buyers who have been calling me looking for houses.

And that’s about all I’ve got for now, folks.  Gotta run- time to make the doughnuts.

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

P.S.
Things are not going so well for Chef Steph. My Scallops Parmesan turned out disastrous and had to be thrown away. Seriously, it was that bad.

Ewwwww.  I can barely look without gagging a little bit.

I hope you enjoyed the weekend and the Super Bowl.  Hopefully you were all rooting for the Saints.

So…..how many of you guys read the Book of the Month?

I ended up ordering it from Amazon because they didn’t have it at the library, and both Borders and Barnes and Noble didn’t have it in stock either.  I didn’t order it until late in the month, and was worried I wasn’t going to be able to finish in time, but I ended up tearing through it in one sitting as soon as it arrived.  The book was only 121 pages, but was crammed full of awesome information.

I spoke to Shae about the book before I read it, and she told me she wore out her highlighter going through it.  I did the same thing.  When I got finished, almost every single page had something circled or highlighted.

For those who didn’t read the book, it is broken up into five sections, each one representing one of the five pieces to the life puzzle: Philosophy, Attitude, Activity, Results, and Lifestyle.

I’d say my favorite section in the book was chapter 3, which focused on the “Activity” piece of the puzzle.  Following is an excerpt from that chapter, where Jim is comparing those who are struggling in their businesses and lives to those who are super successful. He then goes on to answer the question- “Why are we not all doing better than they are?”

“The answer might well be that we do not work at achieving our goals, and they do. We do not take all that we are to the marketplace and put it to work.  They do.  We do not stay up late at night developing new plans to achieve our dreams and work hard day after day to make those dreams a reality.  They do. We do not learn all that we possibly can about our industry and our markets.  They do.  We do not make every effort to get around the right sources of influence, to associate with those people who can help us to achieve our goals.  They do.  While we are dreaming about the promise of the future, they are doing something about it, and they are doing it with a consistency and with an intensity and a level of commitment that would put many of us to shame….”

I typed that paragraph out , printed it, and tacked it on the bulletin board next to my desk to serve as a constant reminder of what I need to be doing if I want to achieve the level of success that I am looking for…

So, what about you guys?  What did you think of the book?  Anything in particular that really resonated with you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about it…

Oh, before I forget- next month’s choice for the Book of the Month will be Get Off Your “But” by Sean Stephenson.  I actually heard about this one from Julie Broad on one of her video guest posts for MustKnowInvesting.com.  Thanks Julie!

P.S.
I got my Fan Page badge working again- it’s over there in the right sidebar. If you haven’t become a fan of Flip This Wholesaler yet, I’d love for you to do so!

P.P.S
Have a great week Everybody!

Hope you are all having a great weekend so far!  

Are you getting ready to cheer on your favorite team in the Super Bowl? (Or as I like to call it- the Stupid Bowl. Hehe).  I’m not a big football fan (at all), but I do like to watch the commercials.

While all of you are eating chicken wings and drinking beer, I’ll be answering phones at my brother Niko’s pizza shop in Clearwater.  This is always a real good time, as you can imagine.  The phone literally rings off the hook for like 3 hours straight, and the majority of the people who call are hammered, don’t have a clue what they want to order, and can’t be heard over the 685 people screaming in the background.  It’s awesome.

So anyway, I told you earlier in the week that I had a guest post coming up from Justin McClelland (I call him Mr. Hustle, btw), which I had meant to post on Friday, but I felt so inspired about giving away the Douchebag Award that it didn’t happen.  So I’m bringing it to you today, on this lovely Stupid Bowl Sunday.

If you aren’t already a reader of Justin’s blog, I recommend you add him to your blog roll.  If you look up the word “Hustle” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure you’ll find a picture of him staring back at you.

Please give a warm welcome to Justin as he talks about 8 different ways to find buyers for your wholesale deals (it’s broken up into 2 videos, as it exceeded the YouTube time limit)…..

Thanks Justin, for doing the videos for us!

If you guys have any questions or comments about any of these strategies, please feel free to ask away- we’ll both be happy to answer!

Enjoy the Stupid Bowl, Everybody!!

P.S.
If you decide to order pizza during the game, don’t forget to be nice to your order taker. Also, it’s helpful if you figure out what you want to order before you call. Just sayin…

P.P.S.
Don’t forget, The Flip This Book Club will be meeting back here tomorrow at 8pm sharp!

P.P.P.S.
Do any of you tech-y guys out there, have any idea why my Facebook Fan Page badge decided to break? I had to take it down today because this is what it looked like in my sidebar:

Then when I went to Facebook to try and get new html to put in the text widget, it looked like this:

Any advice would be appreciated- thanks!!

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I’m going to be in pizza-order-taking hell for the rest of the day, so if I don’t respond to comments or emails ’til tomorrow, that’s why.

Congratulations Amanda McNall, and thank you so much for plagiarizing this article that I wrote for the BiggerPockets Blog!  I can’t tell you how excited I was to see it posted (verbatim) on your blog yesterday!!!!

That’s totally awesome, because I secretly love spending my time writing content so that random lazy assholes on the internet can steal it and then try to pass it off as their own!

Way to go Amanda McNall- plagiarizing rocks!

I mean, what’s the point of spending time writing your own articles or paying someone to write them for you, when you can just head on over to the BiggerPockets blog and steal content from someone else- FOR FREE!!!! Woooooohoooooo!

So, without further ado, Amanda McNall, I’d like to present you with the esteemed Flip This Wholesaler Douchebag of the Month Award!

Keep up the great plagiarization work, Amanda McNall- you’re making the douchebags of the world a proud bunch!

P.S.
I’ve written 25 other articles on BiggerPockets- please feel free to steal those, too.

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Don’t forget to hit me up on Facebook- I have over 3000 contacts, which provides a great opportunity for you to spam affiliate links on my wall! I enjoy that almost as much as getting my articles ripped off!

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Is douchebag one word or two? My spell checker tells me it’s two, but Lord Google says otherwise…

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Photo courtesy of BrooklynSucks.com

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Have a great weekend Everybody!