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Top Blogs: 7 Must Read Rei Information Blogs
February 18, 2010 by Scott Costello · Comments
To continue my Top Blogs series, today I will be bringing to your attention 7 Real Estate Investing blogs that I call Information Blogs. These blogs are run by outstanding people who invest, but choose to provide high quality investing tips and other information needed by today’s investors.
Best of all, these people provide the information gratis, free for all. Sure these blogs will offer products for sale that they have created or other products that they fully endorse but I trust these guys. One of the criteria for making this list is for the blog owner to be accessible through email, twitter or facebook and all of the below are truly that.
1. ReiTips.com by J.P. Moses
J.P. is on top of every real estate related topic out there and he covers it with unbiased exuberance. There is so much on the site that it’s hard to cover it all here. When your inbox gets filled with 100s of emails trying to sell you the next great REI product, Mr Moses is the person to see. He usually posts a great video review of the course and gives it to you straight. J.P. also has a sister site called FreeReiForms.com where you can download a great package of 54 REI related forms for free! Go check it out.
Here are some of the recent Tips from ReiTips.com
- 5 Email Tricks that Flip Houses
- True Crime: FDIC {Hearts} One West (Screws Everyone Else)
- Candid Video: “Freedom$oft or FreedomFLOP?”
2. Real Estate Black Book by Peter Kolat
This blog is all about Real Estate Marketing and boy has Peter put together some impressive information. He is on top of all the latest technology out there and how you can use it for marketing on the internet in order to attract buyers and sellers. He’ll cover the use of twitter, facebook, google buzz, iPhone apps, internet marketing tools, webpage design, craigslist and much, much more. I have no idea how the guy knows so much about so much so quickly, but Peter does.
A couple very informative posts are…
- How To Avoid The Biggest Mistakes Most Real Estate Investors & Agents Make When Using Social Media Websites
- 11 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Real Estate Website – Part 2
- How To Get Your Site Discovered by Search Engines & Get Automatic Traffic To Your Real Estate Website
3. Buy Probate Property by Ron Mead
The runner up in the Battle of the Rei Blogs, Ron puts out some unmatched tips and tricks pertaining to probate investing. Not only does he teach you about investing, he also writes about mindset. To me this is one of the most important skills to master while investing, mastering how to put yourself in the proper mindset will take you very very far. Here is an awesome quote from Ron Mead that pretty much sums him up..
“In everything you do, work harder than anyone else… put everything you’ve got into whatever you do… realize each of us gets only one chance in life… don’t waste your limited time here… make a difference… leave the world a better place than you found it… do everything you can to help make a difference for other people and for yourself.”
More from Ron can be found here…
4. Bigger Pockets Blog by Joshue Dorkin and Friends
This blog is unique in that it consists of post by many different types of investors. Each investor covers different topics such as wholesaling, goal setting, rehabbing and even how to deal with unsupportive spouses. I have my favorite writers, but ever article is well thought out and of high quality. Joshua Dorkin does a great job of selecting the authors and requires them to post a minimum of once a week so there is always something interesting to read.
A small sampling of some of the great articles
- What’s in a Contract? Almost Everything You Need to Know About Contractor Contracts
- FHA Guidelines Scheduled to Change this Spring and Summer
- Controlling Your Real Estate Deals and Handling Catastrophes
- Your Signficant Other Hates Real Estate Investing – Now What?
5. ReiBrain.com by Trevor Mauch
As described by Trevor, “The REI Brain is simply an online resource and community for a huge stockpile of FREE real estate investing and life success information, tools, resources, tutorials, products, and much more.” I couldn’t agree more, I regularly get some very useful real estate investing documents that he offers for free. Trevor reviews products, offers up strategies he uses while investing and has mentored a few investors who regularly visit my site as well. Great guy!
Some great sections you must visit are..
- Property Management Software Reviews
- Real Estate Investing Forms
- Real Estate Investing Business Plan – Creating Your Plan
6. MustKnowInvesting.com by Patrick Riddle
Patrick is a highly entertaining fella and his blog show that through and through. His videos entertain as well as provide great information on a variety of subjects. His main focus of the blog is getting financing through private lenders. He even has a highly rated course teaching how to do it step by step. The great thing about this site is that there are so many other outstanding investors who participate and comment that you can make some really good connections. P-Rid also started the annual “Battle of the REI Blogs” that you’ve seen me mention in past Top Blogs.
My favorite posts from MustKnowInvesting.com are
- Creative Real Estate Solutions in Today’s Market – Video Series
- The Investor Connection Contest
- Battle of the Rei Blogs
To me this is a must read on a daily basis, only because it will give you the low down on what is going on in the world of Realtors. In a way we are competing against them so if we can understand how they think and in what directions their industry is headed, we will have an advantage. The posts are usually very well written and are informative for sure.
Here are the last few posts from this blog
- The Do’s and Don’ts of Remodeling
- Do Loan Modifications Work?
- Strategic Mortgage Defaults: Is It a Financial Issue? Is It a Moral Issue? Or Is It Both?
Bonus Blogs
- Bubble Meter
A housing bubble blog dedicated to tracking the continuing decline of the housing bubble throughout the USA. It is a long and slow decline. Housing prices were simply unsustainable. National housing bubble coverage, with special attention to the Washington, DC area housing bubble. Please join in the discussion. - Future of Real Estate Marketing
The Future of Real Estate Marketing blog examines the impact of Web 2.0 and the Internet on real estate and real estate marketing. - The Creative Investor Blog/ArticlesHere you can read Real Estate Investing Articles from some of the best Real Estate Investors in the business
Past Top Blog Posts…
Have an REI Blog? Get the Word Out! – Great place to advertise your Blog so others can find you
8 Investors Who are Crushing It and Sharing
5 Top Up and Coming Investors
Popularity: 52% [?]
Better Your Productivity: To-Do Lists – Part 1
February 16, 2010 by Scott Costello · Comments
The last few weeks I’ve really gotten a lot done, so much more then I have in the past. I owe my increased productivity to a little iPhone app I downloaded called ToodleDo. I have always heard that the best way to get things accomplished is to create a To-Do List and I couldn’t agree more.
When my wife and I write down our weekend “things to get done” list, it’s amazing how quickly and easily we move through the list and get our errands done. Conversely, if we neglect to write the list out we squander the day thinking of what has to be done instead of doing what has to be done.
Over the past 6 months I’ve been experimenting with different ways to create my To-Do Lists. To me this is important as the list has to be…
- easily accessible from where ever I am,
- easy to update
- easy to organize
- be able to schedule tasks for future dates
- have reoccurring tasks
All of you work differently and your needs may vary, but the above is what works for me. Below I’m going to list the 6 ways that I’ve come up with to write my To-Do Lists and then I’ll give you the results I’ve had with each.
Pencil and Paper
Very simple, throw all technology aside and just use a simple notepad and pencil. Each morning (or night before) you write down the things you want to do that day.
My Results: I had some pretty good success with this method. I found it to be simple, easy and effective. My only gripe is that you have to carry this list with you every where and if you have a reoccurring task you must remember to write it down again.
iPhone App
For those people who use the iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS (or other app capable phone), you have access to some great applications for keeping track of your ToDo lists. The feature set for each is a little different, but in the end I think this is a great options for many. There are features to categorize, prioritize and set reoccurring tasks as well as future tasks. You can get lost in all the features, so you have to pick the application that will best suite your needs.
My Results: I’ve currently only tested ToodleDo and am enjoying the results so far. You can sync it to their webpage which will then send you email and push notifications for upcoming tasks, overdue tasks and more. I am going to try out the other apps, but they all cost a few bucks. What I like best about the iPhone apps is that my phone is always with me and if I think of something I need to do I can quickly and easily enter it into my task lists.
BiggerPockets.com
This is a great idea by Joshua Dorkin, creator of BiggerPockets.com. If you are a member you have free access to the Task Application tool, otherwise join up for a free account and get going. The interface is a simple check list where you can add new tasks and thenark them when complete. This is a brand new feature for the site so I’m sure over time it will be expanded.
Here is the complete rundown of the BiggerPocket’s Task Application
My Results: I haven’t really given this a full test run because I don’t really like web based to-do lists because you have to physically log into the site and look at your list. It’s not always at your fingertips. This might be good for people who are on the computer all day, but as real estate investors we should be out and about. If Josh can create an iPhone app that ties into this page it would be a great thing.
Google Tasks
Google Calendar has a feature called Google Tasks that lets you setup ToDo list items and when you’d like to have them accomplished. Those items would then show up on your Google Calendar. All the features of Google Calendar would then be available to you, such as notifications and syncing with your iPhone and Google based phones.
My Results: Before I found Toodledo, I was using this method. It’s pretty effective but I’d get a little put off by having to specifically go into tasks to mark an item as completed instead of doing so through the Google Calendar itself. I like things to be one or two clicks away or I get annoyed pretty quickly.
Whiteboard
I got this idea from Pat Flynn over at SmartPassiveIncome.com. He writes out his todo lists on a white board in his office. He actually has just installed giant, wall sized whiteboards that he uses to brainstorm with.
My Results: I don’t have a whiteboard in my office just yet, but I really like this idea because it puts your ToDo list right in front of your face when you are in your office. To me this would be more effective then a paper and pencil, the only draw back is it’s not portable. Maybe if you combine paper and pencil and the whiteboard it could make for a killer combo.
They also have electronic Whiteboards that you hook up to your computer and can read what you are writing. Pretty slick!
More Options
If you are looking for more options for keeping track of your tasks have a look at this well put together blog post over at SolutionWatch.com.
25 To Do LIsts to Stay Productive
In Part II of this series I will layout some techniques for writing affective todo lists.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Probate Monday: How else to bring in calls
February 15, 2010 by Scott Costello · Comments
I sent out my mailers last week and have only gotten two calls. One was a guy calling to tell me I sent the letter to a retirement community. He was wondering what I was trying to accomplish. For one it’s not trying to buy into a retirement community full of condos, haha. The guy was nice and was just trying to help me out by letting me know that pretty much any street named after a president in Rockaway is a part of a larger complex they have. I will be filtering those out in the future.
As for the other call, I missed it cause I was not near my phone and they left no message. Crap! Although as Shae has told me before, “if they don’t leave a message, then they aren’t really motivated.” They are still getting a follow up postcard though.
Bringing In More Seller Leads
I’m on a pretty tight budget, $200 a month for my marketing. This $200 comes out of my family’s money so I’m very hesitant to pull more out until I can prove to my wife that real estate investing is a viable money making strategy. This is how the $200 gets spent…
$97 Probate Leads
$15 Envelopes
$38 Stamps
$5 Printer Ink
$0 Paper (I get the paper free through a friend)
$30 Postcards through Click2Mail.com
$185 Total per month
On the average month, I’m left with $15 to spend on marketing, plus what ever extra I pull in from affiliate sales on this website and adsense. The ideal situation would be for me to earn more money through this website in order to support a higher marketing budget so I can expand my mailers. Since that is not the case right now I’ve got to start being more proactive and clever.
My next steps to getting in front of more sellers
Leveraging the MLS: Starting this week I will be doing searches for Short Sales, Bank Owned properties and Estate Sales and making offers on those houses. I will have a different strategy for the Short Sale listings. I will call up the listing agents and tell them I have a person (Nick) who wants to buy short sales in the area and then let them know what Nick’s criteria is for making an offer.
Going to open houses and networking with other Realtors: This will obviously have to wait until I’m mobile again, but it puts me right in the face of realtors. My main agenda here will be to talk them up about letting Nick handle their short sale listings. I will also let them know I look to purchase estate sale listings.
Posting ads on craigslist: I haven’t had a lot of success on craigslist over the last few years. I did manage to sell my car one time, but that was it. The one thing I do attract when I post ads, is a constant spamming of my in box asking me to visit this great real estate site. Even so, it only takes a few moments to place an ad on craigslist so why not? I’ll be advertising for Short Sales listings, Estates and what ever else I can think of.
Contact estate asset selling companies: This one actually just came to me as I was typing this post. I will locate and contact companies that sell the assets in estate sales and offer to refer them to any sellers that I talk to in exchange for some leads they may be able to supply to me. Seems like a win-win situation
Get some birddogs to look for me: Not really sure how to go about doing this, but I’ll start posting ads tonight on craigslist to see if I can rangle up some birddogs who might be willing to locate houses for me in exchange for a $3000 finders fee (actually I might not be allowed to do that as a Realtor). If anyone has had experience doing this I’d love to hear how you went about it.
Well, those are my action items for the next month and beyond that should aid in bringing me closer to my first deal. If you have any other ideas please leave a comment.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Lessons Learned: The Wrong Kind of Busy
February 12, 2010 by Scott Costello · Comments
In last week’s Lessons Learned I talked about how important it is to stop hiding behind technology and actually use the phone to communicate with people. For some using the phone is natural but for others like myself it is going to be a challenge because we have to overcome habit and fear.
This past week was a pretty busy week for myself, I rarely watched TV and was contently doing something that was Real Estate Investing related. Let me try and break down how my week went…
Monday: Read REI Blogs; Talked with Jason “BildgeFisherman” on skype about our strategies; Worked on the Redesign of my webpage to use the Thesis theme; Posted a few craigslist ads to try and attract short sale leads; Posted my Probate Monday Blog post.
Tuesday: Read REI Blogs; Commented on forums; Did days 9,10,11,12 of 31 Days to a better blog (by David Rowse); Emailed some Realtors about short sales; looked around the MLS.
Wednesday: Snow day from the 9to5; Read REI Blogs; Worked on my blog redesign for most of the day; Came up with some blog post ideas I wanted to write about; Figured out the computer screen capture software for the video I created; Posted Short Sale Craigslist ads again; looked around the MLS.
Thursday: Got a phone call from my marketing; Did research into ways to write down to-do lists; Ordered the new Book of the month club book; Read REI Blogs; Worked on a Simple logo for my blog redesign;looked around the MLS.
Friday: So far today I’ve just been working and I’ve written this post.
What I learned
Busy week considering I also worked my 9to5 as well, right? As I looked back on the week I thought to myself, what did I really accomplish that would help me as a real estate investor? Sure there were some items like talking with Jason, posting ads and sending out emails (of which I plan on follow up calls next week), but many of those other things where not getting me closer to my goals.
My overriding goal is to become a successful real estate investor and if you looked at what I did last week it looks like it’s to be a blogger. This past week shows that I keep busy, but sometimes it’s the wrong kind of busy. Many times in my 9 to 5 world I’ll be assigned tasks that just seem to take up time and give the illusion that I’m being productive. This is called Busy Work.
If you want to achieve your goals you must limit the busy work in your life and replace it with productive, moving forward type tasks. The idea is if the work you are doing does not get you closer to your end goal, then drop it and do something that does!
A great way to keep yourself on track is to setup a daily To-Do List that you follow. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be posting a series about To-Do Lists and the best way to go about writing them to guarantee you follow through.
Popularity: 19% [?]
How To: Mail Merge Your Probate List and Letter
February 10, 2010 by Scott Costello · Comments
One of the lessons in life that I’ve learned over the years is not to assume people know how to do certain simple tasks. Up until last December I’ve never mail merged anything before, and I’m a computer programmer and a self proclaimed computer geek. I just never had a need for it. With that being said, I’m sure there are people who are reading my blog who have never mail merged and are looking to know how. So I decided this was the perfect gateway video for me to do that might launch me into many more.
*disclaimer: I know I’m a very laid back person, but this video makes me sound like I’m fully reclined and I took a shot of NyQuil nighttime.*
Hope this helps someone out there.
Popularity: 17% [?]
