EasyHUD.com – I want to. . .as they say, “keep it real”, because over the last 100 days I have found it very frustrating and a tad bit irritating in trying to land my first deal. I’m not even talking about the “home run deal” that you frame and hang in your office, I’m talking about ANY good deal. I have been full time since January 2007 (barely 100 days) and I have yet to put together a complete good deal and cash a check.

Now lets be clear, when I first started out 100 days ago, my business model was centered on a sub prime model concept. In the front was a line of people wanting to get a house with bad credit and in the back was a line of sub prime mortgage lenders more than willing to give them loans. My company would play the middle and make a nice piece of change.. . .that was the plan. Well no less than 30 days into the year it became very clear that my model was to say the least. . out dated. I had to literally tear up my business plan and start over if I was going to make it in the jungle.

Now on a good note, my marketing is very strong and the phone rings on a consistent basis BUT, 90% of the calls are what I THOUGHT were bad deals. People in situations where they owed more than the home was worth. It seemed like the industry was changing right before my eyes. The “old school” investors at the REIA meetings didn’t have ANY answers and most of the time they won’t even talk to me unless the deal is “juicy” or unless I buy their “handy dandy real estate investor” handbook for $999.

I begin to stress out because family and friends all seem to wonder, “where’s all the money you said you’d make”. My start up capital is on a steady decline keeping rent paid and the lights on when I got a call that created a shift in my thoughts. A person in foreclosure called and told me their situation and said something like.. “and the bank said I could do a short sale…”. A short what? A short sale?

I immediately google the term and for the next 30 days I am all about learning the in’s and out’s of a short sale. I spent a lot of time listening to Lynn & Judson Voss from www.getrealrei.com on a podcast. They are very down to earth and take a lot of time explaining a lot of the different ways to make real estate work for them. I found www.EASYHUD.COM which to date is a priceless resource due to the fact that it is very current on a very specific niche, short sales. I found www.biggerpockets.com which has a lot of resources for beginners. All of these sites have forums, all of these sites are free and none of them ask for $999 to tell you the basics.

As of today, while I still haven’t landed my first deal, there are potential deals in the pipeline. I have also diversified my approach and chose more than one way to “skin the cat” in my business model which helps a great deal. This is not a success story about how I made 50 grand on first deal or anything like that, but more or less a testimonial to education. It was the pursuit of education that helped turn things around and it will be education that helps close deals. Get educated. Stay Educated.