This one is here in Smithville.  It might have been a good deal, but it's a really old house and I'm worried about wholesaling it (1910).  I estimated pretty low on my offer and it wasn't in her ballpark.  But I have to be careful, too.  She really doesn't want to fix it up and sell it, but it may be her best option.  I'm hoping I'm not being too conservative with numbers, but I'd rather err on that side than the other, especially in this market.

Tomorrow I look at an REO (bank-owned property).  It was built in the 1950s, so I know I could offer more, though the area isn't wonderful.  We'll see.

The house in Galion is just not going to be a deal.  I shouldn't be surprised, most calls don't lead to deals.  I guess when you're getting started, the first calls get your attention.  Anyway, I advised him to fix it up and sell it himself, or consider rent to own. 

I had an ad in this weekend in the local paper, only one call so far.  But it does seem like it takes repeat ads before you get calls.  That's what the gurus teach anyway.

Otherwise, it's Sunday, so not much going on.

I got two calls today, one from my craiglist ad and one from my newspaper ad that started today.  The one from the paper was trying to sell a new, pretty home, so I told him that's not my market area.  The other has a home that was flooded and he got a different job, moved and just needs to sell.  Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like there's a lot of equity (if any) in it, so he may be in a real fix.  He will fax me comps from his realtor on Monday, so I'll know more then.

Another investor is making an offer on the apartment building.  That's OK with me, I'm not really ready to do anything with that, but I want to keep looking and learning.

Looks like I'll be getting an option to purchase on the home I got the call about.  I will start to market it immediately.  Hopefully a landlord over in that area will be interested.  The homeowner seems very nice.  He has done a LOT of work on the property himself and wants to recoup his costs.  I don't blame him.

I also placed the ad in my local paper for this weekend.  Got another email about a house, too, but it was in Akron.  Told them I'd probably know someone that would be interested, but they didn't reply.

I placed an ad in our local weekly paper, and will call the daily tomorrow.

I got a call from an investor in a nearly city, from my Craigslist ad.  He seems fairly new.  We discussed how we could network, share leads, etc.  I also told him about the short sale company I discovered. 

Also got a call from a homeowner.  It is in a county a ways away, probably nearly an hour from here.  I will find my buyer's list tomorrow and find an investor in that area to see if he might be interested.  I could get a finder's fee or possibly a wholesale fee if the numbers the homeowner gave me add up.

Today is Sunday and I don't work much if at all on Sundays.  I did post two ads on Craigslist, for the closest two cities.  They are "WE BUY HOUSES" ads.  Tomorrow I will place newspaper ads.  I also faxed in a sheet to a short sale company.  When I come across SS leads, I will hopefully refer them to them, and if we close successfully, they get a certain % of my profit. 

I'll be reading some more of my wholesaling courses tonight, refreshing my memory.

Though one could say I'm not exactly a newbie to REI (hubby and I have two rehabs currently leased out as lease options), I feel like I'm starting over.  We learned a lot from the rehabs, namely, even when you buy right, if you have to use expensive money and you don't have a lot of reserves (meaning you end up rehabbing rather slowly), then you won't make what you could have.

Both rehabs will net some profit when sold, and one is cashflowing and one is breaking even, I know I can do better.  But we surely did learn a lot!

So, I will focus on wholesaling for a while.  Yes, I might have tried that first.  But with dh home between jobs and his great skills at fixing/building anything, it was just "common sense" that he did most of the work.  In the future, we'll sub it out and he can just boss people!

I have been talking with a local REO agent, and will place my "WE BUY HOUSES" ads in 2 papers this week.  I will resume placing business cards around town, this time more aggressively.  I'm re-reading my two wholesaling courses and taking notes.

My goal is to wholesale 4-6 houses this year, minimum of $5k per deal, and to buy and L/O one house.