tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268369770464650892011-07-28T23:50:56.624-04:00Postings by Melody Scott, a real estate investor stuck in an "in between" stage of her investing career: no longer a newbie, but not yet a successful, seasoned veteran. Follow as she freely shares her experiences with real estate investing, personal development, and the road to financial independance (road still under construction!)Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-17685519466865615112010-02-13T20:51:00.008-05:002010-02-13T23:42:55.663-05:00

Today I did some painting in my own home. I actually really enjoy painting, but only because I do it on my own terms.OK, before you yawn and click away, let me tell you a little about how I paint. There is no tedious taping. no drop cloths. No pushing all the furniture into the middle of the room. No messy rollers and trays. Just one gallon of paint and a stubby paint brush. I may paint for 20

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-89394932054199971752010-02-10T11:36:00.002-05:002010-02-10T17:01:10.265-05:00

Last week I got a submission to my website for a lead that sounded great. After talking on the phone with the seller a couple times and driving by the house to check it out, I was sold on the deal. It was the best deal I've come across in many many months, possibly ever. I would buy this lovely tri-level 4 bedroom home on a cul-de-sac in a wonderful family neighborhood for a bargin price, and the

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-33717150208791937002010-02-05T09:59:00.004-05:002010-02-05T10:25:27.713-05:00

Alright, I've been debating for months if I should restart this blog. After my world sort of fell apart last September, I thought it would be useless to post all the whining and blubbering that would inevitably come out when I sat down to write. Suffice to say that nothing I was working on previously actually ended up closing, and I spent the last few months of the year wondering what in the

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-49569884155348990722009-08-27T20:38:00.005-04:002009-08-27T21:41:14.373-04:00

A little back story first.Earlier this year I did two major things: Left my regular "day" job and started my OWN real estate investment company without my former partner. While both were scary in some ways, they were exciting and fun in many others and I've really enjoyed being my own boss. I had run the numbers before I became unemployed and knew that I could go the summer without working at all

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-32966830117801054452009-08-26T21:16:00.004-04:002009-08-26T21:44:04.260-04:00

Today was a happy day! Not a closing day yet, but the next best thing. Signed contract day! The second quad deal that I've been toying with for a while now is officially under contract as a totally "Subject to the Existing Mortgage" deal. Yippee!!! I'm just a title search away from owning a nice cashflowing quad!Actually, I'll be owning 50% of a nice cashflowing quad. I was in the unfortunate

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-12078231402532294692009-08-22T22:12:00.005-04:002009-08-22T22:37:00.499-04:00

I could not be happier to say that I have TWO quad deals in the making that are looking very good right now. Even though I was out of town all week, I still somehow managed to make phone calls and drive to the Panera and Office Max parking lots to send emails (I was much too sweaty and covered in paint splatters to venture out of the car!), which was enough to keep things rolling along on both

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-58274069462654921642009-08-15T23:20:00.005-04:002009-08-15T23:49:13.654-04:00

Nope, I haven't forgotten about my blog here. I've had one hell of a crazy week or so, chasing leads, answering the phone, looking at properties and generally feeling like I'm actually doing work. WORK. Ugh. Not exactly what I want to be calling it but hey, the going is starting to get tough so you know what that means...I'm not going to go into much detail because I don't want to count my

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-61344479316984189372009-08-04T21:14:00.005-04:002009-08-04T21:46:17.236-04:00

I'm BAAAAAACK!Whew! I feel like I've been living out of a suitcase for close to a month. Travelling up north multiple times and then vacation to the beach (not that I'm complaining about THAT), I barely had time to unpack for one thing before I was packing for the next! But now I'm back at my home sweet home with my lovely fluffy bed (soooooo nice to sleep in my bed) and am ready to make things

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-49230531491153189542009-07-30T14:55:00.004-04:002009-07-30T15:17:51.238-04:00

My Dad has a buddy who has a little place at the beach in the OBX (North Carolina's Outer Banks). Every year we go down there as a family and spend a week at the house, which we get for a dirt cheap rate of course. The house is nothing really glamorous or special, sort of resembles a double-wide on stilts, but its clean and comfortable and suits our needs perfectly.This year, we had to find a new

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-50083976735113706752009-07-17T22:40:00.003-04:002009-07-17T23:01:53.833-04:00

For the first time in over a month I feel like I had a good week!I really do struggle with time management, goals and priorities, so meeting one of my goals this week feels like an incredible accomplishment, even if it is a somewhat small goal in the grand scheme of things. This week I set a goal of getting a website up on my domain that actually works and can capture lead information for me

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-64461870883414339942009-07-12T16:21:00.005-04:002009-07-12T16:36:31.964-04:00

I have this rental property that's been a thorn in my side pretty much since the day we first acquired it. I bought it late last fall with my then partner, intending it to be our first minor rehab and then to rent it out after the fix up. We got seller financing and used a credit line for the simple rehab materials, and decided to do all the fix-up ourselves. Ideally we were hoping we'd be able

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-4796031394897850092009-07-09T14:37:00.003-04:002009-07-09T14:48:09.629-04:00

Many people lately have been asking me what my real estate investment focus is. I can understand why, since right now I don't have a lot of details on what I'm working on in my blog. That's because its a whole bunch of NOTHIN' at the moment. I'm working on changing that, new marketing materials have been ordered and some new ideas will soon be implemented. So much happened in the first half of

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-54636906661407936882009-07-07T15:50:00.004-04:002009-07-07T17:57:16.535-04:00

I am not a sales person. Not truly. It doesn't really jive with my personality. Which is funny because so much of what I do is sales, in more than one aspect of my life.Even though I kind of detest sales in many ways (shhh, don't tell my ex-boss!), I also can find it quite pleasurable in many others when I actually believe in what I have in hand. Today I talked at length with several people about

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-58284595476828115682009-07-06T11:38:00.004-04:002009-07-06T11:43:13.877-04:00

To be perfectly honest I haven't done very much in the way of marketing since I started on my own with REstore Property Group a couple months ago (my former business partner and I spilt for those of you who didn't know). I've been contacting FSBOs, for rent signs and others that are already interested in selling. I've posted some "buy your house" ads on Craigslist since its there and so easy and

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-44980745152650167942009-07-03T17:00:00.003-04:002009-07-03T17:05:51.736-04:00

Back in January I set a few broad goals for the year. Not too specific since I'm still feeling my way through this business and wanted flexibility to change things as needed. My two main goals were to quit my job and buy a multifamily building of 4 or more units. Hooray for achieving goal #1! Not exactly the way I had planned it, but still, I've been blissfully free to do my own thing for over a

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-76922772667991078012009-06-29T14:13:00.005-04:002009-06-29T15:14:51.349-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about my poor time management and how I'm going to overcome this insanely large hurdle on my own. I loved all the comments I received after my previous post, "So Apparently I Suck at Time Management." It would seem I'm not the only one! Yes, we all obviously get the same 24 hours each and every day, and its heartening to know that many of us still have not figured out

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-9764764831150554302009-06-28T15:47:00.005-04:002009-06-28T16:31:11.596-04:00

I can't decide how I feel about affiliate-type programs. They seem to be the current fad in all real estate type marketing right now, and some of it is really making me angry. One guy's "Make Millions" system in particular has been offered to me via email, Facebook, and Twitter so many times by so many DIFFERENT people that I've about had it with all of them and am close to disconnecting myself

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-76145241524945816932009-06-26T16:07:00.004-04:002009-06-26T16:35:19.035-04:00

Man, when I had a J-O-B I thought to myself, "all I need is to get rid of this horrible time-wasting job and I'll have all the time I need to finally get things done!"Nearly one month after fulfilling that dream, I still have no time. There's just never enough. I seriously don't know how I gained 9 more hours in my day and yet still accomplish so little!I started out with a plan. Really, I did.

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-55929145628850011322009-06-24T16:35:00.006-04:002009-06-24T17:17:15.752-04:00

I just got back from what seemed like a very long trip to visit my extended family in Syracuse, NY. My grandfather, the only person I'll probably ever personally know whose intellect rivaled Einstein, is very ill and not much longer for this Earth. It is sad to see this once vibrant man, who still rode his bike to the local library up until last year, now wasting away in a hospital style bed,

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-77419022904803140832009-06-14T21:42:00.006-04:002009-06-14T22:36:28.890-04:00

I have to admit, when it comes to real estate investing I am consistently putting the cart before the horse. I will chase leads, talk to sellers, and look at properties all day long, but when it comes to talking to people about private lending and finding the money to do the deals, I never seem to get around to it at the right times.Talking to people about money is just plain boring to me, while

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-26487850427199705252009-06-05T21:12:00.015-04:002009-06-09T09:23:06.776-04:00

As part of our evolution at Local Real Estate Deals Magazine, we will soon have a columnist (and good friend of mine!) writing about the perspective of women real estate investors. Lets face it, men in this industry far outnumber the women, so there are certainly some differences and stories behind those of us in that minority!Being a member of this minority and talking to my friend about the

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-44094467443719878172009-06-05T17:43:00.005-04:002009-06-05T21:12:16.717-04:00

I'm on a quest. Not the dragon-slaying type, but so far equally as mythic and frought with difficulties.I made it my goal at the beginning of the year to purchase a multifamily property, and I'm not talking duplex. I have bigger things in mind.Problem is, it is now June and I have realized I have wasted half the year on other things that have not realted to that goal. Properties that won't rent,

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-14827951015332849052009-06-03T10:39:00.008-04:002009-06-03T16:23:20.515-04:00

I'm sometimes perplexed with the way the entire real estate investing industry works. The more I network, both in person and online, the more it seems that everyone is out to sell you something and/or get their 15 minutes of fame out of real estate. Don't get me wrong, I love making money just as much as the next person, but I just can't identify with this phenomenon.Anyone who has a few deals

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-62257782628141497832009-05-29T22:51:00.003-04:002009-05-29T22:56:41.939-04:00

Last night I went to my local REIA meeting as I do every month. This night they had a particularly big turn out for the particularly energetic national speaker. I saw people last night that I haven’t seen at meetings in a while and also met investors that I’ve never met before. Which led me to wonder, why in the world do I not see these people every month???????When I started out I took the

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-78852889613758752652009-05-25T21:00:00.004-04:002009-05-25T23:00:35.612-04:00

This past Friday I found myself suddenly jobless. YIKES!!!! Granted, this is something I’ve been working towards anyway and was even planning on, but I don’t think you can ever be completely prepared for it until the reality strikes. So far it hasn’t completely “sunk in” that I have no set schedule to abide by, no boss looking over my shoulder to make sure my work is getting done, and most

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-35086887074200150462009-05-13T23:01:00.005-04:002009-05-13T23:08:33.913-04:00

I have a question: What is the one thing you will end up taking away from this economic crisis we find ourselves in?There’s a never ending stream of news articles about how we got here, who’s to blame, finger pointing, predictions about the length, depth, and duration of this, the worst recession since the Great Depression. I’ll leave the analysis of those statistics to the professionals and hope

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-10158819939503724392009-05-08T22:28:00.005-04:002009-05-09T10:41:22.328-04:00

Its curious how the human mind works. Whenever I learn something new, it seems that I can usually gain more knowledge from the "Ooops, don't do that!" moments than the ones where I easily succeed the first time. If I'm learning a new computer program and click the right combination of buttons the first time, more often than not I can’t exactly replicate it a second time without re-reading the

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-50807815719132653352009-05-04T22:34:00.001-04:002009-05-04T22:36:26.444-04:00

Not too long ago I was working slowly and diligently toward becoming a medium-to-large size fish in the decent sized pond of my city, Richmond VA. I frequented all the local real estate investor groups regularly and was known by a good number of local investors, as well as a few in other parts of the state. Sure, I had big dreams of knowing and becoming known by investors all over the country,

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26836977046465089.post-85863387955217998012009-05-02T21:43:00.002-04:002009-05-02T22:15:16.538-04:00

Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the thoughts of mine own mind without exposure, or to take up the pen and unleash those thoughts, and by that stroke open mineself to the world?For me it wasn't much of a decision. I already narrate my life in my head as I'm living it and talk WAY too much about my own situations, good or bad, to anyone who makes the mistake of asking, so it's no big step to write

Melody Scottnoreply@blogger.com1