Lorena Gerlach with the Real Estate Profit Coach here with Day Two of my 1:1 with student Rosalind Winn and her team in Arlington, TX. We had appointments set with potential members of Rosalind’s dream team: a title company that Rosalind knew of, and an REO listing agent Rosalind found through Realtor.com. We also had a local area real estate investment club meeting. It was going to be a busy day.

One of Rosalind’s target segments was absentee owners. One very easy way to get this information is through your friendly USPS mailperson. Your mailperson knows all the vacant homes on their route, so why not engage them as one of your bird dogs? I had Rosalind write a note to her mailperson and leave it in her mail box. She actually caught the mailperson and had a live conversation with him. Turns out the primary delivery person was on vacation, and the temporary delivery person was open to helping out! Sweet! We may have just doubled her coverage if the primary is willing to help out too. Remember, don’t be afraid to ask for what you want or need.

Rosalind’s sphere of influence is potentially huge through team members Momma and Auntie! Her team had brought us a couple of potential sellers, so we had some properties to evaluate. MLS access is my preferred method to obtain comps, however we can find out quite a bit about properties through other methods. I taught Rosalind and team how to use the county appraisal district website to see what information they could obtain. Many CAD’s are online, free to use and can be quite helpful. Mapquest.com and GoogleEarth and RentOMeter.com are also useful tools for when analyzing properties.

In addition to comps, it’s important knowing how to control a property. We reviewed using a purchase contract with a double close or assignment, taking a property Subject To the existing mortgage and last but not least, controlling a property with an option. Rosalind has these forms in her vast real estate library.

We left for our first meeting of the day with the business development manager of a local title company. Catherine provided some useful information for a new real estate investor, including marketing forms that can be replicated and an e-flyer service for a nominal charge. Catherine offered free access to the monthly pre-foreclosure list – sweet! She also introduced us to a senior escrow officer that worked with the majority of investor closings.

Our next meeting was with a local real estate agent. Deonne was very energetic and knowledgeable of her area. She stated she’s trained her investors to expect deals fifty cents on the dollar – super sweet! She has connections for rehab crews, lenders, and credit repair services to name a few. Deonne has the potential to be a strong member of Rosalind’s team.

Our last appointment of the evening was a local area Meetup real estate investment group. This group is very well run and offers not only education but also networking opportunities. With freshly printed business cards in hand, Rosalind and her team quickly got busy talking shop with fellow investors and vendors during the network hour. The instructional part of the meeting taught investors how to use a Roth Self-Directed IRA to fund real estate transactions.

We’re at the half way point! I left Rosalind with additional homework assignments and called it a night!