Problems of a Home Based Business

The biggest problems with a home based business is getting people to take your work serious. My thinks that all I do all day is play on the computer. I can't get her to understand that I'm working.

Really. I am.

Honest.

Ignore the Peggle game currently on the screen.

The other day, I spend the afternoon on Yellow Pages making up a list of Realtors that I wanted to contact. I had the office address, the Realtor's name, and when I could find it, the Realtor's phone and email address. I had to call the office, in most cases, to get the fax number. Spent most of the day doing this, so it was after 7 PM when I decided that my list was large enough.

Okay, so maybe I should have been contacting people as I found the numbers. But I went with the massive response approach. I emailed about 30 Realtors on my list with the type of properties that my partner and I are looking to purchase. I then faxed the same information to the office in hopes that other Realtors that I missed with the email would see my information and contact me.

I said, essentially, "I have a joint venture with nationally known real estate investor Pat Martin. We have a $55 million line of credit and we are looking for distressed properties that have little or no equity that are in need of a short sale with a minimum value of $420,000.

"We are cash buyers. We can provide a proof of funds letter from an attorney and title company with our offer. We guarantee your 6% commission if we purchase the property. Our team of former loss mitigation specialists will do all the negotiating on the property.

"Since we are buying the property in cash, we would then ask you, the Realtor, to find a buyer for the property at the price we decide, which will be well below market value so that the property will sell quickly."

Great, huh? Who wouldn't want to close more deals and make more money? Especially in this current market?

Apparently no one.

Not one call. Not one email. Not even from the Realtors that personally know.

So now I have to spend another following up with phone calls to find out if anyone received my messages. If so, why didn't I receive any responses? Was it just another piece of junk mail to them? Did they like the offer, but didn't have a line on any short sales? Or have they just heard it all before?

Back to my story. When I finished with the emails and faxes, I went over to Realty Trac and looked at some bank owned REO properties. For those that don't know, REO means Real Estate Owned. These are properties that the bank has foreclosed on, they went to auction, and since no one made a minimum bid, the bank was forced to buy the property back. They now own the property. The bank is in the business of lending money, not owning property, so they now need to sell these properties. Local Realtor's then get the listing to sell these properties.

Sometimes, an investor can get the REO properties below market, depending on how long the bank has owned the property and how willing the bank loss mitigator is to get the property off the bank's books. With the flood of foreclosures and about a ten month supply of homes, many banks are willing to negotiate.

But my wife thinks that I'm just playing on the computer. If I'm not out of the house and at the Post Office, then I'm not really working. It's all just play.

Let's see how that tune changes when I get paid!