Struggling to Get Started » Top Blogs

Must See Blog Posts: Safe Act, Passive Income, Wacky Calls and more…

Scott Costello — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:21:02 +0000

From time to time I like to share what I’ve been reading. I will admit that I usually put out these types of posts when I am having a case of writers block and can’t think of anything related to what I’m doing. In any event, these kinds of posts give me a good opportunity to introduce you to new bloggers out there. Hope you enjoy the below blog posts and if you want to share any feel free to leave a comment..

Is the SAFE ACT an Urban Legend?

Sharon left a comment on my previous post about creative offers referring to the SAVE act and how it would affect owner financing. Over the past few days I’ve been doing some reading about the act and I must say I’m still very confused as to how it really works. The post I linked to above just talks about the act and where we stand in 2011 with it.

Quest for Passive Income (Episode 3): Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing with Bill Lassiter

I’ve always been a huge fan of Shae Bynes, so when she brings in people for interviews I pay attention to those people. Bill Lassiter is definitely one of those people you want to learn from if you are in the same situation as he and I. Like myself he works a full time IT job, is wholesaling properties and really ramping up his affiliate marketing efforts. This is a very interesting podcast.

Wacky Seller Phone Call

I have not had a call exactly like this one yet, but there are people who just don’t want to give you any information. Carey handled this call very well as I would have started getting very sarcastic with this lady pretty quickly. How does $1 sound??

The Butterfly Effect of Inertia

While Maren Kate doesn’t talk about real estate investing, many of her post about making it in business can directly applied to the way we attack investing. I’m a big fan of her and her blog and I think you should be as well. read one of her most recent posts and you’ll most likely agree.

How to Build Rapport with Sellers Quickly

This post deals with an important part of talking with sellers. Rapport and Trust are pretty much interchangeable when dealing with sellers. It will cause them to remember you and recommend you as well. If you get a chance, take a few moments and watch the video Dave and Julie posted over at their blog.

Have you read any great blog posts from other blogs recently?

You all are Great! And Now You Get Gifts

Scott Costello — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:37:04 +0000

Thank you all for voting for me in the REIClub.com Best REI Blog contest. I must say I was shocked at the results. My goal was to get more votes then I did last fall during the MustKnowInvesting blog contest (I came in last place there). Well, goal Achieved!

The contest had 3 categories, Best Real Estate Investing Blogs (Individual), Best Real Estate Investing Blogs (Multi-Author) and Best Real Estate Investing Blogs (Up & Coming). I was entered into the Up & Coming category. Here are the results….

Best Real Estate Investing Blogs (Individual)

The Investor Insights – Susan Lassiter-Lyons
House Flipping Blog – Tom Tarrant
Short Sale Fundamentals -Cory Boatright

Best Real Estate Investing Blogs (Multi-Author)

Bigger Pockets Blog – Josh Dorkin
REIClub Blog – Tim Randle

Best Real Estate Investing Blogs (Up & Coming)

Flipping Junkie – Danny Johnson
Struggling Investor – Scott Costello
REI Millions – Althea Robinson

here is a link to the Winners Post over at REIClub.com

I first want to congratulate Danny Johnson for winning the category and Althea for taking the bronze medal. You both deserved it! Now on to me…. I don’t know who was stuffing the ballet box, but I thank you! I can not believe I finished in 2nd place among all those great blogs. I’m not really sure how I beat out Althea, Craig Fuhr, Matt Rosen, Rachel or any of the other Investors. Was just my week last week I guess.

Prizes To Give Away

Even though I didn’t finish in first, ReiClub was generous enough to allow me to give away 5 Audio Interview packages to my readers. These guys are valued at roughly $100 each and they are packed with great information from some great investors like Steve Cook, Mike Collins, Than Merrill, Alan Cowgill, Patrick Riddle and Ron Mead. For further descriptions here are links to the courses…

I’ll be giving these courses away next week to some lucky readers so stay tuned…

Must Read Blog Posts & 36 Days Down

Scott Costello — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:00:37 +0000

I am actually having a little bit of writer’s block today so I decided to link to some of the best blog posts I’ve read the last few weeks. One of the best ways I know of at getting your mind focused and thinking outside of the box is to read other people’s thoughts. If you get the chance, read some of the posts below and tell me what you think.

Great Blog Posts That I’ve Read This Week

Personal Goal Update

Besides real estate investing I’ve been working hard on my personal goals this past few months. You all know that I’m officially out of debt (minus the mortgage) and that I’ve been doing P90x to help me get in better shape.

Getting out of debt was not a hard process once I adjusted the way I spent money. P90x on the other hand is a daily grind that I am constantly squeezing in at all hours of the day. Some days the only time I can spare 90 minutes is at 11pm while other times I have to split the work out up into two part. The key though is never missing a day and I’m proud to say that I am on day 36 of the training and have NOT missed one day!

Even though I’ve only lost about 1 lb (down to about 180.5), I’ve built muscle for sure and have been getting stronger. I can do about 80% of the abRiperX and I am up to 7 pullups (up from 3). I still struggle with Yoga and I’m wondering when I’ll be flexible enough to do all the positions.

54 more days!

Must See Posts: Women, 1000 Houses, Target Markets and More

Scott Costello — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:48:34 +0000

Here are some of the great posts I’ve read over the past few weeks from around the blogosphere. Patrick Riddle over at MustKnowInvesting.com is running down the top 8 women in real estate investing and is currently featuring Steph Davis (no wonder why she just restyled her hair). Along with Steph, another P-Rid girl, Shae Bynes just posted up a killer book review that you can see down below. It may just be my first 400 page book I’ve ever read. The rest of the posts are extremely informative and ones I will review again in the future.

Hope you enjoy the posts and if you know of any other great posts from around the web feel free to post the link in my comments section.

1) Steph Davis – The Best and Brightest Women in Real Estate Investing by Patrick Riddle

Here we go again… with our “Best and Brightest Women in Real Estate Investing” series. New to the series? Start with the introduction. This week, bartender-turned-wholesaler Steph Davis of Flip This Wholesaler is bringing us Part 5. I had the pleasure of meeting Steph recently in person for the first time. We’ve known each other for awhile… but like many of the online relationships I’ve made over the years, I hadn’t actually met her in the flesh until the other day. Check us out…

2) Book Review: My Life & 1000 Houses by Mitch Stephen by Shae Bynes

Last week I finished reading my 24th book of the year….phew! My goal of reading 2-3 books each month is going really well. I keep a running list of the books I want to read and interestingly enough, today’s review is for a book that was not on the list, written by a first time author I was unfamiliar with, and yet is one of my favorite reads of this year!

3) Why & How New Investors Should Focus on Specific Target Markets by Ryan Moeller @ BiggerPockets.com

One thing I notice about the most successful investors is that they focus. They focus on one strategy, focus in specific areas of a market and become a master. This is extremely important, especially for beginners; choosing 2-3 zip codes or neighborhoods are a great Unfortunately most beginners are open to any kind of strategy and look for deals anywhere, often leading to problems. Here are reasons why successful investors focus on specific areas.

4) Investing 101: Working With Banks by Rachel @ Adventures in Mobile Homes

Recently, I’ve been getting a bit agitated and annoyed working with banks on their mobile home inventories. Right now, the banks owned mobiles are just too much of a risk for what the banks (in my experience) are looking to get. It’s getting to the point where even the parks won’t buy them back. And, that raises a major red flag with me. (Note: Typically, I try not to compete with the parks I do business with. Some of the parks I work with (but not all), will usually go after the bank owned mobiles – they’ve got a separate team of people and experience in this area (usually not the park manager). Regarding typical homeowners, they usually don’t go after these as it is too time consuming and usually cannot be negotiated effectively over the phone like the bank owned homes).

5) Is Your Realtor a GREAT Real Estate Agent? by J. Scott @ BiggerPockets.com

There’s a BiggerPockets forum thread going on this week that addresses the issue of realtors, and whether they are worth their fee when selling your investment property. While I’m not going to address that particular issue in this post (suffice it to say, I believe great agents are worth every penny and not-so-great agents will lose you lots of pennies), I do want to review the criteria that I use to differentiate the great agents, especially when it comes to working with investors. First, let me break down the three main areas that I use to evaluate an agent…

6) 123Flip Newsletter by J. Scott @ 123Flip.com

I’ve had a Newsletter Signup form on my website for over a year now, and while I’ve had a lot of people sign up, I never started sending our 123Flip.com Newsletter… I’m planning to change that, and will be starting to send a regular newsletter within the next couple weeks or so. I plan to include tips, industry news, how-to articles, etc, that won’t be available on the website (I need some incentive to get people to sign up, don’t I? This is not a typical informational post but I put this here because if J. Scott is sending out a news letter, you want to be on the mailing list!

I Think BiggerPockets Made a Mistake

Scott Costello — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:13:53 +0000

When I was first getting starting in Real Estate Investing, reading everything I could find on the subject, I would routinely search for blogs that would show me what it was actually like to be an investor. At the time one of the most popular and well regarded blogs of this type was Steph Davis’ flipthiswholesaler.net (flipthiswholesaler.blogspot.com at the time). In my mind there was none better at portraying the daily life of an investor.

I wanted to find more like that and found this blog post on a site called Biggerpockets that listed the top 35 real estate investing blogs on the net. It was a great list and lead me to some other outstanding blogs but that list has seen better days as many of the sites have been forgotten, closed down or just changed focus.

About a year ago Joshua Dorkin, founder of BiggerPockets, updated that post asking for people to recommend some top blogs because he was going to revisit the list. I was happy to nominate FlipthisWholesaler.net and 123Flip.com (J Scott’s blog).

Yesterday the new list came out with the updated Top 20 Real Estate Investing Blogs and, if you’ve been reading rei blogs for a while, some very recognizable blogs made the list

1-2-3 Flip
BawldGuy Talking
The BiggerPockets Blog – As if you didn’t know it would make the list
Build Bankroll
Flip This Wholesaler
Good Faith Investing
House Flipping Blog
Life as Real Estate Investors
Live and Flip
Llenrock Commercial Real Estate Finance Blog
REI Tips
Shaun’s Real Estate Adventures

And then there are 8 honorable mention sites to round out the top 20 and on closer examination I think I uncovered a typo or something. Take a look for yourself…

Honorable Mentions:

Yea, some how Struggling Investor got put in there. After 200+ blogs that Joshua reviewed, I can understand the mistake. However it got on the list I’m proud to be there and am just honored that people are actually reading what I have to say. Thanks Joshua and Bigger Pockets for the honor!

Must See Posts: Yellow Letters, A Big Check and 3 Words

Scott Costello — Fri, 28 May 2010 13:13:07 +0000

Here are some of the great posts I’ve read over the past few days from around the blogosphere. I’ve last time I did a post like this it was received very well. One of the funniest posts of all time was Steph Davis’ post about her big fat check. Justin McClelland wrote a post that expands on an article he had written for my blog and it does a great job of explaining Yellow Letter marketing in ever more detail.

Hope you enjoy the posts and if you know of any other great posts from around the web feel free to post the link in my comments section.

How Much Money Do You Need To Quit Your Job – And Why?

…There’s a kind of logic, I guess, if by “logic” we mean “linear but not particularly logical.” It’s like, “Well, I make $40,000 now. I probably don’t need all of that because I’m pretty sure some of that is work related costs. And I could cut down some. Plus there’s probably get some tax write offs by having a home office. So I’d need maybe $30,000 a year. I guess I’d need about half a year’s salary to be comfortable getting started, so that’s $15,000. And I’ll have business start up costs, so let’s double that and call it thirty grand…

3 Words of Advice for New Real Estate Investors by Shae Bynes via BiggerPockets.com

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with a work at home mother of 2 young children who is brand new to the real estate investing game. Within 10 minutes of speaking with her, I learned that she had completed 4 wholesale deals over the past few months….and while that is impressive, what is even more awesome is that it was just recently in November 2009 when she first heard about wholesaling as a way to get started in real estate. Talk about a woman of action!

Cashing the BIG FAT CHECKS all up in here by Steph Davis

Sorry about that, but I’ve been really busy counting all my money after closing a big, fat, ginormous deal last week! It was one for the record books, guys! Then, after I finished counting all my loot, I decided to take some of my profits and head down to the Keys for a few days to bask in the glory of my accomplishment. It was awesome.

Would you like to know how much I made on the deal?

Do It Yourself – Yellow Letter Marketing by Justin McClelland

Yellow-Letter marketing has been proven over the years as one of the most effective marketing methods available. When sending a personalized, handwritten, hand-addressed yellow letter; it is not uncommon for marketers to experience response rates as high as 15%.

As a Real Estate Investor, marketing is what drives your business. A 15% response rate can inundate you with calls so be sure to be prepared. Read on, and I will give you the complete Do-It-Yourself instructions for creating a Real Estate Investor Yellow-Letter Direct-Mail campaign.

Rent to Own: What Comes First, the Tenant or the Property? by Julie Broad via BiggerPockets.com

When my husband Dave and I decided to make real estate investing our full time job, we had been investing together for seven years and had built up a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio. We were in a strong financial position for the long term but our short term cash needs were not being met by our properties alone…

Google News Shows Publishers How To Optimize YouTube Videos

Inbal from the Google News team posted a Google News Help thread linking to a blog post explaining how to optimize your YouTube videos to show up well in Google News.

Here are the tips from the blog:

1. Timely uploads
Videos should be uploaded as quickly as possible — this will help them reach the news homepage faster and be grouped with the most recent articles…..

Again, if you know of any other great posts from around the web feel free to post the link in my comments section.

Top Blogs: 12 Incredible non Real Estate Blogs

Scott Costello — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:59:48 +0000

If you haven’t noticed I’ve become a big fan of blogging, internet marketing and all things that help lead me to a better and more fulfilling life. Real estate is a big part of that, but in order to succeed I must be in the right frame of mind as well as have the underlining skills to best take advantage.

Below are a list of 12 blogs that have nothing to do with real estate investing but are a must read in my book. If you have followed me on twitter (follow me here) you’ll have seen me share many posts from these blogs. Take a look at the list and I promise you’ll be drawn in just like I was.

1. SeoMoz.org (http://www.seomoz.org/blog)

This blog to me is the king of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. If you are like me, you’ve heard of SEO but were never really sure what it took to rank well. Sure backlinks and keywords are important, but there is so much more and these guys are on top of it. Whiteboard Fridays are awesome!

2. Gravitational Marketing (http://www.gravitationalmarketing.com)

The BigIdeaGuy and the 5FtHighMktgGuy (or Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller) are high energy and very entertaining guys. They are big Internet Marketing guys who give you tons of ideas for attracting customers for your service or product. They haven’t posted in a while, but I’m guess it’s because they are working on something big. Even still, their archives have a tremendous amount of great information.

3. ChristBrogan.com (http://www.ChrisBrogan.com)

Community and Social Media expert. If you wanted to learn the best techniques for using social media to enhance your business, Chris Brogan is the guy to learn it from. He is a best selling author of the book Trust Agents. Chris always posts consistently and his content is second to none. This is a MUST READ!

4. ExcapingThe9to5.com (http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com)

Maren Kate is an expiring millionaire who is all about Start-up businesses. She has developed quite a few successful endeavors and shares here experiences on her blog. She is very passionate and it comes across in her writing. If you have dreams of ditching your 9 to 5 job and taking control of your life, put this in your RSS reader.

5. Problogger.net (http://www.problogger.net)

For those who want to learn how to create a kick ass blog, Problogger.net is the best source around. Darren Rowse is the creator and main contributor to the site and everyone of his posts are well thought out and always helpful. He even has a series of posts that he put together called 31 days to build a better blog. I’ve gone through it and it is amazing.

6. PenelopeTrunk.com (http://blog.penelopetrunk.com)

“Advice at the Intersection of Work and Life”. I love that tag line as well as her blog. Penelope’s blog mainly deals with career advice and she shares her experiences with her start-up companies. She is a wonderful writer and is really able to get her points across with great stories and every day examples of ways you can achieve what you want.

7. SmartPassiveIncome.com (http://www.smartpassiveincome.com)

My most retweeted blog of all time. Pat Flynn pumps out the quality content like nobody else. His main focus is on creating passive income streams on the internet through things such as affiliate sales, adsense and blog creation. Overall Pat’s blog is not very old, but his meteoric rise in popularity is a pure testament to his knowledge and the content on the site. Best of all you will see him answering almost every comment a reader may leave. Go ahead, leave a comment on his site!

8. Steve Cook’s Lifeonaire (http://www.lifeonaire.com)

In his Blog, Steve talks about living life the way you want to live it and how to achieve that life. Steve is known more for his Real Estate Investing teachings but his Lifeonaire vision is well thought out and can change your life if you practice what he preaches. He doesn’t post much, but when he does I’m reading it first. This is what I like to call a High Impact, low commitment blog…Few posts but very powerful!

9. Entrepreneurs-Journey.com (http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/)

Down to earth advice on Internet Marketing and Blogging. Yaro Starak has written articles, produced podcasts and frequently updates his blog with helpful information. I only recently came across this blog, but I’m subscribed to it now and have enjoyed the first few weeks of posts that I’ve read. What do you think of it?

10. NextLevelBlogger.com (http://www.nextlevelblogger.com/)

Christopher Russel focuses on creating small, profitable websites. He has a background in Real Estate Investing as well and you’ll notice a him tie that into his posts about Internet Marketing and website building. Chris is also a top level direct marketer and gives top level advice.

11. DailyBlogTips.com (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/)

Daniel Scocco is a blog builder and has developed many blogs since 2005. He shares everything he has learned in the world of blogging through this site. To give you an idea of the quality of the blog, it was nominated for a blog award for “Best Web Development Blog” in 2007.

12. CoppyBlogger.com (http://www.copyblogger.com/)

This blog takes a little different approach to what it takes to create a good blog. Josh focuses on Content Strategies and Copy writing skills. I know I lack in my ability to write good copy, so discovering this blog a few weeks ago has opened my eyes to a few things. If you are a blogger, make sure this is in your RSS reader as it will without a doubt help you create better content for your site.

Hopefully you find these non real estate related blogs helpful to you and what ever endeavors you are interested in. I’m always interested in discovering great new blogs that are not real estate related, so please share with the rest of us any blogs that you just can’t miss day in and day out.

Thanks!

Top Blogs: 7 Must Read Rei Information Blogs

Scott Costello — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:07:30 +0000

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

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…

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.”

Have a REI Blog? Get the Word Out

Scott Costello — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:06:36 +0000

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

Lets my growing readership know about your blog
Get Free back link from a PR1 (just found out I’ve been promoted from a PR0!) site. This helps you gain credibility
You give me something else to read each day
Good way to start networking
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

Top Blogs: 8 Investors Who Are Crushing It and Sharing

Scott Costello — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:51:31 +0000

In todays rendition of Top Blogs I am going to focus on Investors who have made it. Not only have these inspiring people become what most of us want to be, they are sharing all that valuable knowledge for free on their blogs. Some may be selling an eBook or a course, but if you hang around their blogs long enough they will spill every bit of what is in their product out to you for FREE!

These are not those “Guru” types that were once investors and now are course pushers, these men and women are true investors who work their asses off to continue to be successful Real Estate Investors. This list consists of rehabbers, wholesalers and landlords so what ever aspect of investing you are after there is someone below that you should be following.

1. FlipThisWholesaler.net by Stephani Davis

Steph’s blog, in my opinion, is the poster child for all real estate investor blogs out. This is the only blog that I have found where you can literally follow her entire journey to becoming a full time investor. If you have been around my blog for any period of time, you’ve most definitely seen me mention and promote FlipThisWholesaler.net before. Steph recently redesigned her site with videos, articles, guest posts from awesome investors such as Craig Fuhr. Steph’s Mentor, Steve Cook is a guy who I have great respect for and his teachings really show through with TampaSteph.

Visit some of her latest Reader Mail Videos..

2. Subject2.com by Nick Johnson

What can I say about this guy? Nick is an in your face, hold nothing back person and if you’ve never heard the energy/passion in which he talks about investing it’s insane. He reminds me of the guy on the food network who hosts the show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (minus the spiky hair), Guy Fieri. His blog is relatively new compared to the rest of these senior citizens, but let me tell you the amount of unbelievable content that he puts out on a daily basis is insane! I would have to say he has averaged no less the 3 posts per day over the past two weeks alone. These are not fluff posts people. Instead of trying to describe him any more, here is his latest video where he calls up a Realtor in Virginia and starts the closing process for a property he just bought (did I mention he lives in Arizona and is in his boxers and a tshirt?)

Live phone call with Nick and a Virginia Realtor

Some other Great posts by Nick

3. 123Flip.com by J. Scott

J. Scott is only in his second year of rehabbing houses, but it seems like he’s been doing it his entire life. J is a statistics machine and breaks down each project’s budget to show you everything from what he spent on the kitchen to how much profit he made. He does this in such a way that it’s easy to understand. Like everyone in this list, he is a great person and is always willing to help out if you ask him. His model for investing is simple, he buys most of his houses off the MLS that his Realtor Wife finds. Even with his core business set, he is always branching out a bit to other areas of investing like buying and selling mobile homes ala Lonnie Scruggs. One of the best features of his site are the helpful articles he has written…

4. CraigFuhr.com by Craig Fuhr

Craig has recently rededicated himself to his blog and has really stepped it up a notch. There are video walk throughs of his properties as well as routine updates on how each is progressing. There are always valuable lessons to be learned from his posts. Like being careful when walking on a wet floor. If you are in the Baltimore area, he will also team up with you to help you out. I personally don’t know Craig outside of the few questions I’ve asked him through email, but Steph Davis always has good things to say about him so that is good enough for me. Here are a couple of posts that I enjoy reading from Craig Fuhr…

5. Flipping Crazy by Matthew Kearney

Matt’s blog is simple. There are not a lot of frills like articles or stories about his life. What you will find there are great updates on all his rehabs with lots of amazing pictures of his meticulous rehabs. Matt does some stellar work with small and large projects and routinely updates the progress of his current projects. For example his newly finished East Longmeadow and 87 Bessemer houses. If you like before and after pictures, he will deliver.

Thinking of rehabbing houses or are already a rehabber? You’ll find Matt’s blog to be very informative and interesting. Even if you are a wholesaler you can pick up some tidbits of information about what rehabbers look for and also some acquisition methods used to obtain properties.

6. Build Bankroll by Steve

Impressive results and one busy man! In 2009 Steve bought, rehabbed and Rented/Sold 25 houses to go along with 6 more houses that are in various stages of rehab. Steve pretty much does it all and although his main focus is to buy and hold or sell, he does wholesale from time to time. His blog is very well structured and is simple. There are sections on Buying, Selling, Rehabbing, Wholesaling, Renting, Evaluating Deals and there is also a Video area. Great stuff from a successful investor!

Here are some of the great posts that I’ve noticed from him recently…

7. RevNyou by Julie Broad and Dave Peniuk

Julie and Dave are two of the nicest Canadians (or people in general) you’ll ever meet. They invest mostly in a buy and hold fashion up in the greater north so some of their techniques are different because of how Canadian housing laws are. This should not stop you from reading their blog however, because it is loaded with great content. Not only that, but RevNyou won the Battle of the Rei Blogs over at MustKnowInvesting.com. Huge honor!

I’ve gotten to know Julie a little bit over the past few months and she is sweet and very generous. Dave on the other hand…is a great guy as well. You will see his comments here on my blog as well as many others and he always adds something valuable. Here are some notable post from the Julie and Dave team…

8. TomTarrant.com by Tom Tarrant

Tom’s blog offers great video montages, helpful tips and tricks to investing and just gives you the straight story about his projects. He is a Rehabber much like Steve, J. Scott and Matt and works mainly out of Texas. Truth be told though I think he secretly wants to be a photographer or make short films. If you’ve seen some of his video’s you’ll know what I mean, here and here. My favorite section of his blog is his projects page where he shows the Before and After of all his properties.

Here are some good Articles by Tom

Stay tuned for my next Top Blog post that will list the Best REI Information Blogs such as MustKnowInvesting.com