I've decided to start a new weekly blog entry with the goals I want to accomplish that week. It doesn't really matter what they are they'll be on here. Whether it's real estate,  fitness or holiday related, they'll be on here.

Considering this is a short week my goals are simple:

1) Listen to the new MP3's I downloaded from Eric Medemar about finding buyers

2) Eat lots of junk food. <-- Seriously a goal. I don't each much and am letting go this week

3) Finish up the research to find my potential buyers phone numbers

Short week, short goals list. Next week I'll update whether I got these goals done.

I'm going to start a series of blogs to let you, the readers, follow me along as I experiment with real estate wholesaling. Hopefully this gives you some inspiration to try this experiment on your own!

I pointed out that one of my goals for 2010 is to make 50k in extra income from real estate wholesaling. It's an ambitious goal. A little scary to think about it MORE exciting to think about completing the goal. Who doesn't want and extra 50k?

I think the quickest way to success with any endeavor is modeling. I'm a big fan of modeling. No, not the magazine or runway modeling. Well, ok, I'm a fan of that but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about succeeding by modeling the success of others. There is a quote that I heard once that said "Do what a person that makes 100k does and you will make 100k". So, I'm going to do what other wholesalers do. More specifically, I'm going to follow success model of Eric Medemar. The very down to earth real estate investor / teacher / mentor. I'm ONLY going to use his Ultimate Wholesaling Course. At $97 bucks it's pretty cheap compared to the money I've spent on other courses. The reason I'm using his is it's very easy to understand and I figure if anyone else wants to experiment with wholesaling properties, $97 is a relatively low risk investment for them.

Eric says one of the first steps to wholesaling is to build a buyers list. This is a list of people who will potentially buy properties you find for them. This goes against everything that I learned from other courses. Most courses teach "Find the property, and the buyers will come". For some reason that logic, to me, sounds flawed. Maybe that's why building the buyers list first sounds like a better plan to me. It's not because the philosophy of "find the property, get the buyers" doesn't work (it does) but it's not my preferred way to going into wholesaling. I hate the thought of getting a property under contract and then running around scrambling for a buyer.

The first thing I did was contact a real estate agent friend of mine and asked him to send me a list of homes that sold in the last few months that were cash sales, foreclosure sales and short sales. If you don't have a real estate friend, open the phone book and call some and ask for a list of sold foreclosures. Eventually someone will give it to you. There is more information in the course. In any case, I was expecting a list of 20-25 properties. Man was I wrong. I already have a combination of 75 names and properties! That's crazy! Now, I won't find all of the numbers to these people so I'm going to send them a post card and direct them to my "bargain properties" website.


My process of finding who bought the property goes like this:

1) Get the address from the MLS listing (the list I got from the real estate agent)

2) Lookup the address on the property appraisers website to find out who owns it. The county I live in makes it REALLY easy to do this. In fact, if you live anywhere in Florida it's really easy to find out who owns the property by visiting the property appraisers website for the county the property resides in.

For instance, here is one example for volusia county florida. Go to http://webserver.vcgov.org/index.html and click on Parcel Record Search. Next, click on the "Search by Location Address". Next enter an address. I just used "123 Howland" because Howland Blvd is a major road in the biggest city in Volusia county. You now have a list of properties that match that address search. If you click the "Alternate Key" button you'll see all the details about the property. Pretty easy right?

3) Find out if that person owns any other properties. This, again, is VERY easy. Rather than doing an address search I do an owner name search. This provides me a list of all of the properties that the owner has. Occasionally the property is registered to a corporation. Again, it's really easy to find out who owns the corporation. Simply go to the site that has the names of all of the corporations in  your state (sunbiz.org for Florida) and look up who the owners are. I've also looked up corporation owners in California very easily as well.

4) Do a google / bing / yahoo search for a phone number for the owner. I have found phone numbers for people on business websites (where they work), sales sites for other properties
they own, reunion sites, etc. However, there are times when the number can't be found. Like I said before, I'm going to send them direct mail ads until they respond by signing up as a buyer or call to tell me to stop sending them letters.

The properties that didn't have the information about who bought the property are ones that I'll drive to to see if I find any 'For Rent' signs in the yard. If they don't have for rent signs I'll wait a few more weeks and look at the property appraisers site again to find out who bought it.

Coming up, step 2. Contacting the buyers. What I plan on doing is recording some of the calls to let you hear what I say to them. Even if they aren't interested I'll still put them up here. Maybe someone can give me some tips on how to close them.

Lately I've been reading a lot. Between How to be rich and happy, the four hour work week and Eric Medemars course I think I may have been trying to do too much. It finally came fruition today when I figured out why I've been a little "cranky" lately. The problem was I was trying to do too many experimental things to make money with very little results. That's a horrible feeling. It was frustation at a very high level. So I decided to back off a little and concentrate only on my predefined goals I set out before. Which means I'll be concentrating on real estate wholesaling. I will continue doing it until I don't make any money in a few months or hit my goal of 50k by the end of the year. That doesn't mean I'll stop doing it then but I will allow myself to take on another experimental way of making money (like product development explained in the four hour work week).

The lesson in all of this for me was to experiment with one thing at a time. If you fail, move on to the next experiment. Don't try to do three different experiments at once. You're only cheating yourself out of success from any of them.

This morning I had a little trouble getting out of bed. My brain must be in superactive mode right now because I keep waking up to strange thoughts. Good thoughts too... In any case, I was tired and wasn't sure if I should go on my morning walk / run. I'm glad I did.

As I was leaving my house I heard a garbage truck across the street. My first thought was "Is it Friday already?". It's Tuesday and they are running another route. Then I noticed something I've never seen before. The garbage man on the back of the truck was dancing and fooling around. You couldn't help but smile. Then it dawned on me... this guy probably has one of the worst jobs (at least worst smelling) in the US. No one dreams of being a garbage man when they grow up. But somehow this guy was happy with his job. Now he's not getting rich being a garbage man, but he is happy. That's more than a lot of people can say about their jobs. How many of you are dancing around and having a good time at your job? Probably not too many.

Just goes to show if your mindset is right, you can enjoy pretty much anything. Even picking up garbage!

How Full is Your Glass?

The image to the left is of a shirt that I own. I think that tells you a little bit on how I look at life. I'm an optimist for the most part. However, after reading this chapter I realized that I have some pessimism in my life. You know what... I really don't like that at all. With the help of the book I’m changing my pessimistic views on what little pessimistic views I have left.

My wife, who I love to death, is a pessimist more than an optimist. Although she has turned to optimism on some of her beliefs there are times that I wish I could dive into her brain and change her. It’s not something I can do though. She’s the only one who can change it.

Anyways, back to the book. This chapter is about the differences in optimism and pessimism. I don’t think it’s any secret that pessimistic people, for the most part, are not living a rich and happy lifestyle. The reason behind this is because pessimistic people are worriers. Problems and fears they have resonate with them. Their problems and fears are the reoccurring thought in their mind. Optimistic people, while they worry, know how to get past it. Or rather they find a way NOT to worry about their problems and fears. There is a short workshop in this chapter that helps you discover whether or not your a pessimist or optimist. That's where I discovered there that I have a small bit of pessimism left in my life.

About a year ago I had sort of an epiphany. The more I worried about money, the less I had. I’m not kidding about that. The more I thought about how little money I had, no matter if I had enough or not, I would end up with less money that week / month that I started with. Then I read a quote that basically said “You become what you think about”. Think about that for a minute……… Ok, minute up. YOU BECOME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT! I immediately stopped worrying about money. No joke, it basically happened overnight.  Thinking about not having enough money? Guess what will happen? It happened to ME and I’m an optimist!

In any case, the best two points I took away from this chapter are first, realism is not pessimism. People love to “keep it real” and think they are not pessimists. They are just being realistic!  Sure they are... Second, it’s true that people can be “worried sick”. You’re brain is so powerful that if you allow it, it can literally destroy your life. Scary though huh?

Sick of being a pessimist and worrying all the time? Read the book…

This review is part of a comprehensive review of the book "How to become Rich and Happy"

Almost every success manual / book / seminar / whatever all say the same thing. You need goals. No goals = no vision = no success = poor. Ok, so I made the last part up. But the idea of trying to become successful at something without any visible goals is kind of like running a marathon without a finish line. Can it be done? Sure, but it's a little harder in my opinion. I know from experience.

My goals are very attainable. I'll be disappointed if I don't hit them. The reason I'm putting them on here for all to see is very simple. Motivation... If I have others riding my butt to get them done, then they'll get done. I don't want someone here telling me that I'm a failure. I'm sure more than a few people will check back in from time to time to see if I have failed like they thought I would. But... No way am I failing at these goals. No way, no how, no sir.

Ok. On to my goals:

8% body fat by March 2010

This goal is for me. It will not benefit anyone except me. It's something that I've always wanted to do but never had the follow through to do it. I've been down to around 10% (I'm about 12-13% right now). It's not TERRIBLY difficult to do but I need to be more disciplined. The key to any workout regiment is eating right and consistency. Have a headache? Take some goodies and freaking work out. No excuses! I started this morning by running instead of walking. I will workout this afternoon. I have a pullup bar and a set of bowflex selecttech dumbbells. Did I mention I'll be doing P90x (mostly)? Ouch... It's tough. I will not be doing the FULL plyometrics workout because I have a problem with my left foot that prevents me getting an effective workout after 30 minutes or so of plyometics. Other than that it's full on...

50k in extra income by Dec 2010

I know what you're thinking... 50k in EXTRA income. Yes, 50k in EXTRA income. I already make a decent salary. Which, oddly enough, is a detriment in my case. The reason is that people with very little money seem to be MORE motivated to get themselves out of financial dire straights. I'm not in that position BUT I'm also not rich. Therefore the extra income will be used to better my position and become rich. I will end up only KEEPING 30k out of the 50k. Why? Taxes, savings and donations. I take 20% out for taxes (always too high), 10% for savings and 10% for donations. That means the IRS will get 10k (not really), my savings will go up 5k and various charities will get 5k. MOST LIKELY what will happen is that I will end up paying LESS in taxes and MORE to charity. The extra 30k will be used to pay off any debts (I have very little except my house) and to reinvest in my business(es) where I'm making the money.

Wholesale 10 homes by Dec 2010

Anyone make the correlation between this goal and the last goal? I'm hoping that the majority of the 50k comes from wholesaling homes. Why? Because it's a lot less time consuming to wholesale a single home and make 5k than it is to bill out 5k of work (in most cases). That's not to say that I won't continue to do consulting work I just hope to do less of it. I'm following Eric Medemar's system which is a LOT cheaper than most systems and I just really like the guys work. Not to mention I truly believe he's out to help as many people as possible. Of course he makes money doing it but why shouldn't he? Anyways, back to the goal. I believe that this is a very attainable goal. After I have wholesaled 10 homes I believe that I will be in a position to start to renovate and hold on to them as well. This will allow me to build up my passive income (income that is earned without working).

Spend one month away from home by Sep 2010

One of my biggest dreams is to travel around the world. This doesn't mean stay in Rome for a day, then on to Venice for a day, etc, etc. I mean TRAVEL!!! That means staying in places for more than a week. This goal isn't to stay in Italy (not this year, very soon) but rather somewhere in the US, Bahamas or US Virgin Islands for a month. The key is that I WILL BE WORKING when I visit. Notice I didn't say 1 month vacation. Right now I can't do that. It's a complete possibility is 2011. Sort of a working vacation. I need to see more of the US and the world. I really want my wife and kids to experience more than just what Florida has to offer. We have already visited New York City and the Bahamas in the past few years but obviously there is a lot more to the US and world than those places. Spending a month somewhere allows to say we REALLY visited that place.


So those are my big goals for now. You'll notice that I put a Goal Tracker on the right side of the blog. Feel free to check in from time to time to see if I'm keeping up with my goals.

Realism is for accountants

This chapter covers something that affects every single one of us. "Keeping it real" or "Yeah, but" or "That's great, but". Anyone here ever say that after someone describes their vision to you? Maybe, more often than not, you say it to yourself after thinking that you're about to make some SERIOUS breakthrough. Maybe you had a GREAT idea that could make you some serious cash. Only to have that little voice in your head is telling you to "keep it real yo!!!" Then you see your vision in the store? Someone else beat you to the punch? It's happened to me before and it sucks.

The authors give some GREAT examples of crazy ideas that you probably would have scoffed at if they were presented to you. This isn't in the book but imagine for a second that your son, who is attending Harvard, comes home to tell you he's done with Harvard. He has a crazy idea to start a new company. Could you imagine that anger you would feel? The frustration levels would be through the roof!! Then imagine 10 years from that date that the Harvard dropout would be a billionaire... Would that change your feelings a little bit? Good, because the story above, in some form, is about Bill Gates. A Harvard dropout becomes a billionaire... True Story.

For a second imagine your Bill Gates father. He comes home and says "Dad, I'm starting a software company". What would you say? I know I'd be furious... That is until I read this book. I'd be upset but at the same time, I can't really force my son to do anything. One important thing I read is that most people are unhappy with their lives because they did something THEIR PARENT'S wanted them to do in life, not what they wanted to do with their life. That's a powerful statement. I cannot imagine any greater disservice to my kids then to force them to do something they didn't love to do.

This chapter also touches a little on beliefs. Beliefs can be a very limiting thing in your life if you let it. Don't believe you can do something? Guess what, you can't... Believe that you can? Then you can do it. I mean if it's in the realm of possibility. What I mean is I'm under 6 foot tall, never played organized football and weigh less than 200 lbs. It's really not a possibility that I can become an NFL quarterback. I can however play a vicious game of flag football...

Point is that you can basically anything you want if you choose to. That's an awesome feeling KNOWING you can do something before it's actually happened. For instance, I KNOW that I will be wealthy. Am I now? Nope, but I will be and will be soon. I hope you are too...

This review is part of a comprehensive review of the book "How to become Rich and Happy"

In my opinion, fear rivals almost ANYTHING in it's pursuit of keeping you unhappy. Fear can hold you back from achieving your dreams. Fear can ruin a good time by rearing it's ugly head. Fear can make you afraid of fair rides. But fear can be overcome... Oh yes, fear can be overcome.

I know what you're thinking... Did you really just say fear can make you afraid of fair rides? Well... as weird as it sounds, fear can make you afraid of fair rides. At least, it did for me.I'm really not sure where the fear came from but before tonight, I hadn't rode a ferris wheel in probably 15 years. For some odd reason I was afraid of ferris wheels but NOT afraid the Gravatron or the Pirate Ship. You know, the rides that can actually make you sick. Not sure if it was the height, seeing tvs show of people falling off them, or some other deeply rooted fear. I just knew that I wouldn't go near one.

A funny thing happens when you start reading books about your brain. You begin to understand how it works and how to control it. That's exactly what I did tonight. I didn't let that little voice in my head tell me I was afraid. I told my little voice to shut it's mouth and that I wasn't afraid. Yeah... I talk to myself quite often. As do you...

In any case, after looking at the stupid thing I realized that it was completely irrational for me to be afraid of a ferris wheel. Much to the shock of my wife, I told her that we were going to ride it. That voice in my head started up again. I just told it that I was going on the ferris wheel and there was nothing that was going to stop me. For the first few seconds after I got on I was feeling a little sick to my stomach. Then I immediately told myself that I was not afraid and something magical happened... I wasn't afraid. I was immediately over my fear.

After I got off I was grinning ear to ear. Not because I had a good time (ferris wheels are kind of boring) but because I knew I had got over a fear. What a great feeling...

I believe the best way to get over a particular fear is to do what it is that you're afraid. Obviously a fear of dying would not be included in the "just do it" category. However, even if one of your biggest fears is death that fear can be overcome as well. Anyone can overcome any fear if they want to. It's all in YOUR head and you control it.

I suggest you read "The power of your subconscious". It will give you great insight into how your brain works.

Is exercise necessary to be rich and happy?

I was thinking about this recently… Is exercise necessary to be rich and happy? Anthony Robbins says in his “Get the Edge” CD’s (yes, I have them and they’re GREAT) that you should start every day off with exercise. After a few weeks of experimenting… I have to agree.

I’ve never really been a morning person. That’s bothered me because I feel like if I get an earlier start on the day I don’t have to work late at night to get things done. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on getting up earlier. I categorize my success with getting more done into two categories:

Non-exercise mornings
On non-exercise mornings I am drowsy throughout the morning and feel that I need coffee to get my day started. I don’t really like to drink coffee in the morning because the afternoon crash comes very quickly. Then I have to have ANOTHER cup of coffee to get me through the afternoon. I LOVE green tea but I find myself drinking less of it on days that I don’t get up and exercise in the morning.

Exercise mornings
On the days I do some sort of exercise in the morning I feel 100% better and ready to face the day when I start working. I'm also able to ONLY drink Green Tea (my favorite is Chai Green Tea which is available at Publix in Florida) throughout the day. No coffee needed on exercise days.

When I say “exercise” I’m not talking about some viscous P90x workout (although I do that in the evenings). I’m simply talking about taking a walk for 20-30 minutes. That’s it. This is also a great time for incantations and letting your mind wonder and think. I have thought of so many great ideas when I’m just simply taking a morning walk. Make sure you write the ideas down when you get back to your place. Otherwise you’ll forget the ideas. Something I've done on more than one occasion.

Ok... So back to the question I originally asked; “Is exercise necessary to be rich and happy”? For me, it’s absolutely necessary. However, I do know people who are rich and happy without it. If you’re on the fence on whether you really want to exercise then experiment with it for a few days. See how it makes you feel. Just do the 15-30 minutes of walking in the morning. I promise you you'll be more alert and ready to go in the morning.

Don’t have time? Wake up earlier. Stop making excuses and go do it! You’ll be glad you did and it's just another step closer to being rich and happy!

Don't believe your beliefs unless they believe in you

This was a short chapter about beliefs. The author gives some great examples of beliefs that most people believe to be true but are in fact false. For instance we all have heard that the great wall of china can be seen from space. Turns out that’s not true. However, the real meaning behind that is that there are many beliefs in your life that are false beliefs. There are many instances were these beliefs were instilled at a young age and you never knew any better. Maybe your parents constantly said “I hate my job” or “work sucks”. Guess what you’re going to believe when it come times for you to work? Yep… “Work sucks”.

There are negative beliefs that you have about yourself right now that are untrue. This chapter was a pre-cursor to future chapters about changing your beliefs. I'll tell you from reading the whole book already... It will show you how to change them!

This review is part of a comprehensive review of the book "How to become Rich and Happy"