Mailout and New Loan Officer

Mailout
Well, as expected, the postcard mailout I was hoping to land in everyone's mailbox last Friday did indeed land in everyone's mailbox this past MONDAY, instead. It is now mid-afternoon on Wed, and I have yet to get a single call. Of course, all this silence really has my wife (and me, too, actually) wondering if the postcard mailout is a good thing. I keep telling her (and myself) that all it takes is one solid deal from these mailouts, and it will more than cover the cost for years to come. But having a silent cellphone isn't much comfort.

I may have to shift gears a lttle and change the postcard to be simpler. As it is, there is a lot of information I've crammed onto the card, and people may not even see any catch-words before sending it to the trash bin. I may just put a few buzz words and a large font "STOP FORECLOSURE" or "WE BUY HOUSES" instead just to see if it generates more calls - heck, ANY calls. :-(

To my surprise, my wife also mentioned that we should try other forms of advertising given that this method isn't doing the job. I usually got at least 1-2 calls every time I put out bandit signs, and I may do that again in addition to some other things.

New Loan Officer
I finally got to talk on the phone to the loan officer I mentioned briefly before here. I asked him some interview-type questions, and he answered each one superbly. He also gave me a good introduction on how involved he is with real estate. It turns out he's pretty much run the gambit - lease/options, sub2's, rentals, flips, owner financing, you name it - and has been doing this for over 20 years. He only recently (in the last few years) started doin the loan side of things. He asked me about me goals and what I've done so far, and said I seem to have the whole idea down solid, which was good to know.

I will need to fill out a loan app in order for him to get the ball rolling. During lunch, I filled out most of it and realized that we still have a long, hard road ahead before we can think about financial independence. We own about half-a-million in various assets (mainly our two houses), but also carry a lot of debt. The good news is that our networth really spiked upwards when we landed this investment property, and I hope it continues.