Real Estate Investing - NHREIA Meeting

Tonight I went to my first real estate investors meeting (the New Hampshire Chapter). There were over 100 investors there, most of them newbies like myself. But there were also many experienced investors. The talk was about pre-foreclosures and foreclosure deals.

Now, foreclosures have not been my focus. But, when I heard the speaker talk about marketing to people in foreclosure, I began to think that I need to learn the skills to tap this market. The major advantage to marketing to people facing foreclosure is that most of these people NEED TO SELL. Then, he went on to talk about the skills of working this market -- going to the courthouse to look up deals, inspect the title for liens, look for other judgements against the property, run comps, and more. And, all of this needs to be done in 30 days or less before the foreclosure auction occurs. I quickly became overwhelmed! I don't have these skills yet, what am I going to do.

I came home and instead of feeling energized and excited, I felt anxious and overwhelmed. How am I going to get started when there are so many skills I am still lacking? How many more seminars do I need to attend before I start? How much more money?

I talked to Rebecca about how I was feeling. She is a little frustrated with me for not taking action.

I remember a quote I heard recently by Henry Ford: "Obstacles are those ugly things that appear in front of us when we take our eyes off the goal."

I need to focus on my goal: to buy and lease-option 3 houses this year. Yes, I can do this. I need to review the steps to reach this goal:

1. Rev up my marketing machine:
- create a website - done ($5/month + $42 start up): http://www.3weeksorless.com
- create and post bandit signs in N. Manchester, Bow, Hooksett, & Candia ($100)
- create folded business cards to place in car doors ($140)
- place signs on my car "We buy houses" ($275)
- advertise in newspaper or flyer ($50 per month)
2. Find 20 deals/week
3. Select top 1-2 deals per week to work
4. Buy 1 house before then end of march subject to:

Ok, so I reviewed my goals, and my steps towards these goals. I feel better! This looks doable to me. I'm going to stick to my marketing plan, find deals, select the best deals.