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Probate Monday: Letters Sent

There are new challenges when you can’t leave the house without help.  I don’t know how people survive sans the services of a car.  Take for example mailing out probate letters.  I had them all printed, stuffed and envelopes labeled and realized I only had 40 of the 80 stamps needed.  Let’s go hop in the car and get some…Nope!  No driving for me for another 2 weeks.  So I have to arrange for my wife, mom, brother or friend to pick me up some stamps.  Got them on Thursday.  Stamped them all up and ready to send…same problem!  So I ask a favor of my wife if she could drop them off at the post office box.  She is a great wife and did so over the weekend.

The letters took a little longer to get out then I had hoped, but they are on the way into the hands of potential sellers.  When asking friends and family to do you favors for me as constantly as I’ve had to over the past 4 weeks, I feel bad.  Since these are favors, I can’t really be to hard on them for fitting it into their schedules instead of doing it on my schedule.  You know what I mean?  We all hate that friend who will ask you for a favor, but then jumps on you for doing it a different way or taking to long to do it. Treat others how you would like to be treated.

Needless to say I didn’t get any calls in this week, but next week is going to be huge!

I think I mentioned this in a post last week, but on the envelopes this time I printed…In Regards to the house at 123 Main St in Yourtown, NJ. Hopefully that will draw attention to the executor that I’m talking about their inherited house.

Total Letters Sent: 160

Total Calls: 12

Response Rate: 7.5%

Deals: 0

Popularity: 5% [?]

Book Review: The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle

As part of the Flip This Book Club we were required to read Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle (affiliate link) by Jim Rohn.  I ordered this book from amazon.com on Jan 13th and it finally got to me on Feb 5th.  It is a very short book, 128 pages in all, which allowed me and my snail like reading pace to actually finish the book in a weekend.  Just in time to participate in our book club meeting to discuss the topics in the book.

I’ve never heard of this book before or even Jim Rohn so I had no preconceptions going in.  After going through the first few pages I was getting the feeling the ton of the book was going to be one of preaching.  Nobody likes to be preached to, but I read on and I’m glad I did.

Jim brings you full circle from philosophy to desired life style.  He really focused on building a better you through dealing with your attitude, actions and discipline.  Each aspect of our personality must work together for us to achieve or full potential.  With out the proper philosophy your attitude will hinder you.  Without the property attitude your actions will never lead you to your goals.  With out action there will be no positive results to build your confidence.  Without results, the lifestyle you desire will be unattainable.

I can’t begin to tell you how powerful I think this book is.  It really cemented into my brain that it all starts with how I think, but that is not enough to think or take action, I have to always be learning, adjusting and growing.

I will be reading this book again in the near future.  Here are a few powerful quotes from the book…

Failure’s most dangerous attribute is it’s subtlety. Sometimes we don’t even know we are failing because that failure had little to no effect on us at the time.  These failures aren’t always acts, but sometimes just a miss judgment.

Failure is nothing more then a few errors in judgment repeated everyday. We do not fail over night, failure is an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices.

Small neglects have a way of becoming major over sites with the passage of time. It is very easy to get off track if you don’t put the effort in to stay the course.  1 degree off at the beginning could cause you to move way off line with your long term goals.

Life is not designed to give rewords in proportion to our level of need, it gives them in proportion to our level of deserve.

You can buy the book at amazon for $10:Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle (affiliate link)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Lessons Learned: What I did Wrong This Week

One of the best ways to improve habits and continuing on a positive path is to look back and analyze your actions.  I’m going to start a new post series called Failure Friday Lessons Learned that I will attempt to identify something I did wrong or could have done better over the past week.  The infraction may be something big or it may be something tiny, but if not corrected I will be destined to repeat that same mistake over and over again.

What I did Wrong This Week…

I sent an email instead of making a phone call.

During the past two weeks I started advertising for short sales on craigslist to see if I could attract any Realtors who may have some short sale listings.   I’ve described this in detail here in this post, Short Sale Comissions.  After two weeks of posting ads, I finally was contacted by someone who had a few short sales.  Great!  so I shot Nick a quick email letting him know. This is what Nick had to say to my email..

call me. Email is for disconnected relationships.

It took me 1 half second after reading his reply to pick up the phone and call him.  Just take a minute and think about those 5 words, “Email is for disconnected relationships.”  I’m not going to go into a long post explaining what that mans, It’s just correct.

The lesson I will be taking from this past week is that Real Estate Investing is about building personal relationships with people and you can’t do that unless you talk with them on the phone or face to face.  Email is good for sending notes, it’s not good for establishing that bond which is so important to success.

What did you do wrong this week?

If I’m admitting to one of my mistakes, I only think it’s fair if you admit a mistake you made this week.  So fess up and leave a comment.  It feels good to admit your error in judgment and I can guarantee it will be helpful and reassuring to someone else.

Popularity: 16% [?]

25 things you didn’t know about me

Most Real Estate blogs I find don’t really have a personal element to them, it’s all Real Estate all the time.  The same can be said for real estate investing courses or how to books.  The very best books and blogs seem to get  you emotionally involved in some way shape or form.  For me, those authors who put a little of themselves out there in the open and intertwine personal experiences into their content are the books and blogs that I remember most and the ones I want to read.

This post is not exactly me intertwining my personal stories into my real estate investing world but I thought it would be fun to throw out 25 things that you guys and girls may not know about me.  I payed no attention to order or detail, they are just the first 25 things that popped into my head.

25 things you didn’t know about me

1. I’ve had the same hair cut since I was 10
2. I’m a huge Yankees, Giants and Knicks fan
3. I am a very quiet person in general.  Won the award as most quiet in my high school class.  Also won most athletic
4. One of my wife’s friends recently said that I my not talk much, but when I do it’s usually worth listening to.
5. I don’t hold grudges, in fact I find it impossible to and I’ve tried!
6. My 9 to 5 job is as a Software developer for an Engineering company where I develope financial and project management applications.
7. I’m addicted to Ghost Hunters and any other Ghost finding shows
8. I’ve been married for 3 years and love every second of it (no kids yet, just a little dog Jack)
9. I am a technology Junkie! two of my favorite websites are Engadget.com and Gizmodo.com
10. I am the middle child of 3 sons.  My brother Joe is 4 years younger then I am and my other brother, Tim, is 2 years older.
11. When I married my wife, she described it as the Cleavers (from leave it to beaver) and Rosanne Bar’s family joining.  Guess which side my family is?
12. My humor is all Sarcasm.  Really?  I never would have guess that
13. I am a fantasy sports nut, to the point were my wife just rolls her eyes at the mear mention of it.  Sunday Ticket on Directv is awesome!
14. I don’t mind watching girlie movies
15. I proposed to my wife by sending her on a scavenger hunt that lasted all day.
16. I got put on academic probation at Virginia Tech while I studied to become an Engineer.  I have no idea how anyone gets through engineering school, it’s Crazy!  Economics was an elective and by far the easiest class I had to take.  Dynamics, Differential Equations, Physics and Electronic Circuits all in the same semester.  F, F, D,D,C  and I’m no dummy
17. I’m a terribly picky eater.  No seafood, no spicy, no vegetables, no mustard, mayo, oil, vinegar, Tia, Indian, most mexican, etc. It’s quicker to name the foods I do like.
18. Favorite meal is either baby back ribs or fondue
19. I love playing Basketball, baseball, soccer, ping pong and most sports
20. My high game in bowling is 265
21. My low round in golf is 74
22. I do not drink, have only tasted a beer once and have never drank any alcohol ever
23. Favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption.  Morgan Freeman is the Man “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying”
24. I won $1500 on one hand of “let it ride” poker when I was 22, which was the only time I’ve ever come home from a casino in the black.
25. My second hobby outside of real estate investing is building furniture (i’m a novice at that as well, but I love it)

So there you have it, hopefully you laughed a little bit and learned something fun about me.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Have a REI Blog? Get the Word Out

I had this thought last night while I couldn’t sleep.  I’m not sure if this will work out the way I hope it does but it’s worth a shot.

I invite everyone who has a real estate related blog to advertise it below in the comments.  If the blog is brand new or you’ve been typing out quality content for years, I want to know about it and add you to my RSS feed.

Here are the benefits for doing so

1. Lets my growing readership know about your blog
2. Get Free back link from a PR1 (just found out I’ve been promoted from a PR0!) site.  This helps you gain credibility
3. You give me something else to read each day
4. Good way to start networking
5. Carey/Chris affect (I posted about her blog and a fellow reader, Chris, gave her some awesome, unsolicited advice)

The end goal is that I’d love to grow a huge list of active rei blogs.  So here is what I want you to say in your comment.

Site: Http://www.StrugglingInvestor.com
Name: Scott Costello
About: My blog is about a 9 to 5 drone trying to break free from the path to no where. I’m investing part time and even though I haven’t gotten my first deal yet I’m getting closer and closer.  My center of attention right now is probate investing and post about how I’m doing it and sharing my experiences.

Ok share away!

Disclaimer If this post is a collosal failure, which it might turn out to be, I will be deleting it and pretending I never came up with this terrible idea

image by altemark

Popularity: 22% [?]

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