Well hell, lets do this out in the open, shall we?

[ironman150]

Hello All, i had a nice conversation with UnrealCreative after i ranted about an accountability partner (Meetup - Accountability Partner). He suggested an open progress thread on my TMF journey. He also pointed me to Notable! - Manufacturing a FTE (F*ck This Event!) as i have found that my comfort zone is stopping some hard driving action. I don't NEED a better life but sure want something better than the slow lane. Hopefully this will help me & provide some incentive for others to take action.

so, here goes:
goals: own a cash flowing mobile home park by the end of this August. Have a profitable eBay drop ship store with $5k per month profit. Ditto Shopify with my online goals reached by the end of this year.

Starting not that long ago (i'm old but new to this) I purchased an Ebay course on Udemy. The author is David Vu. No links because that's a no no, but you will find it easy enough. Followed that course to the letter and over the last few months have gross sales just shy of $4k (total gross, not monthly net). Need to max my listings but this is looking good (who knew that R2-D2 mini fridges were so popular over in England?).
I have a couple issues on Shopify but should be up by the middle-ish of August.

MHP's. I have a nice list of private lenders lined up for any deal that cashflows (massive amounts of phone calls for this...massive! I actually took a weeks vacation to cold call till I found them...and am kinda proud of this...patting my own back right now). Currently getting ready to submit 4 LOI's. I have some experience here as my comfort zone/slow lane job is in construction wholesale where i deal with property managers daily (including MHP) and have been for the last 20+ years. I learned lots of the ins/outs of the problems they face and am ready, i think, to own a few of these suckers. I have whittled down about 2 dozen properties to the best cash flowing ones (with increasing population in the area) and am pulling the trigger...and am scared shit-less. But i'm jumping and will pick up the pieces at the bottom.

I WILL BE adding success stories as i proceed. Anyone have questions (or better yet ideas for me to use) please pony up. Some open/honest/striving/freaking-out and learning from it for the world to see.

Oh good golly, what have i just done?

im150

 

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[OldFaithful]

Those are some big goals. I hope it works out and look forward to reading your progress thread. Thanks!

 

[ironman150]

Those are some big goals. I hope it works out and look forward to reading your progress thread. Thanks!

Thank you.

Yeah looks big but I've been working on them for awhile and they all seem to be coming to fruition at the same time. I chunk everything down, assign time to each part and then focus like hell till done.

Sunday's are for multi-family research only. I can crank through the numbers on the MHP or Apartment buildings fairly quick now. By Sunday night I have a list of properties I want to follow up on with my LOI's already partially done for each. Then its finish them up as i get my questions answered and submit. The BIG hurdle was the cash and I believe I have that solved (but won't really know till I ask for the funding i guess). But I don't submit the LOI/OFFER until they (the money guys/girls) look it over and verbally agree to fund it...soooo...yeah...makes my stomach turn yet.

Monday-Wednesday is Ebay while thursday-Sat is Shopify (which is kicking my a$$ for some reason). The online stuff is way more tedious, research/list/pictures/price/ship/pay; but there is just a great feeling when i wake up in the morning and see that i earned some cash overnight (which happened again last night....$180 item that I bought at $140-ish and had Amazon ship it this morning...$40 bucks for the good side!).

here is a pic from Ebay of my last 3 sales over the last week-and -a half. The swan was purchased from Wal-mart @$29.99 and the R@-D2 (shipped to Mexico) I purchased for $99.99 @ thinkgeek. The fridge is normally a $150 cost but it was on sale...BONUS! The multi meter actually has the Amazon store link in my notes where I bought it from. $132 (plus tax or 140). As a side note; i live outside Green Bay WI (USA), but Ebay lets me sell worldwide and has a great international shipping program. They handle all that for you...very nice. I have sent 4 of those R2-D2 mini fridges to England, 1 to Mexico and 1 to Peru.

I guess i'll call this reply my update...again..thank you for the well wishes.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Thanks for posting. The mobile home gigs (Lonnie Deals) always intrigued me because affordable housing NEVER goes out of style. Good luck.

 

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[ironman150]

Thanks for posting. The mobile home gigs (Lonnie Deals) always intrigued me because affordable housing NEVER goes out of style. Good luck.

Not Lonnie Scruggs stuff. I'm buying the whole park. A few dozen spots to either rent the dirt (preferably the tenants own their own home) or dirt & home. First deal will be near $1M....

 

[ironman150]

Just a quick not to say that once my ebay store hits 300 listings, i'm turning it over to a VA to run. I won't be able to handle it at that size and still do other stuff.

 

[OldFaithful]

Probably just my paranoia, but isn't it quite risky to hand over your entire ebay store to a single VA? If a single VA can run it, what's to stop them from learning your "secret sauce" and then setting up their own ebay store using your suppliers & processes? I'd prefer to use multiple VAs and give each 1 a segment of the store to manage so that no 1 person gets to see the entire process. Maybe I'm wrong though...I'll admit that I've never done this myself!!!

 

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[ironman150]

Probably just my paranoia, but isn't it quite risky to hand over your entire ebay store to a single VA? If a single VA can run it, what's to stop them from learning your "secret sauce" and then setting up their own ebay store using your suppliers & processes? I'd prefer to use multiple VAs and give each 1 a segment of the store to manage so that no 1 person gets to see the entire process. Maybe I'm wrong though...I'll admit that I've never done this myself!!!

I'm not sure myself. It's part of the course i purchased. I'm still getting up and running but the gist of it is that i'm freeing up my time by hiring the tedious stuff out. Per the course, it's 300 listings &/or $500 net per month consistently and then you are big enough to bring on help. and i can see why help is needed, just getting to 300 listings will be a multi-month endeavor much less getting to my 1k max listings. Then there is all the order "fulfillment" (just some more computer work) but when your doing a couple dozen orders per day it adds up.

So, I'm working on an "automated" $5k net per month.

 

[Evil_Jester]

@ironman150
I read your post last week and I agreed with it. How can you be hungry when you are already full?
Here's an opportunity for the both of us:
I'm currently searching for somebody to try this experiment with me:
I paypal you $5/everyday to call me for 5 minutes and ask me 3 questions:
1. What did you do today?
2. How could you have been more efficient?
3. What are you going to do tomorrow?

Additionally, I'll do the same for you for free.

A shipment arrived at my place and I'm ready to start an ecomm brand.
If you are interested, reply and I'll give you my background.
-Ryan

 

[ironman150]

@ironman150
I read your post last week and I agreed with it. How can you be hungry when you are already full?
Here's an opportunity for the both of us:
I'm currently searching for somebody to try this experiment with me:
I paypal you $5/everyday to call me for 5 minutes and ask me 3 questions:
1. What did you do today?
2. How could you have been more efficient?
3. What are you going to do tomorrow?

Additionally, I'll do the same for you for free.

A shipment arrived at my place and I'm ready to start an ecomm brand.
If you are interested, reply and I'll give you my background.
-Ryan

I'm game...what's the background?

 

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[ironman150]

UPDATE.
My first major suck at Ebay. The site that I was drop shipping from just shut down my account because: they view me as their competition. Not sure why i'm competition though. I'm paying full price for their stuff and doing all the work to sell their stuff. Hmmmm...me thinks they are IDIOTS!

I had 60 listings and just like that i'm down to 7. 20 minutes per listing and that's about 20hrs gone. But I knew i wasn't in the drivers seat (tmf ) and was actually expecting something like this to happen, just not this soon.

Some LOI's going out this week for MHP's (3 to be exact). Wednesday...someone hold me to that.

thanks

IM150

 

[Evil_Jester]

I'm game...what's the background?

I sent out the same post on a different forum & got a lot of responses. I agreed to do this with another person, but I would like to include you as well since I'm getting into ecommerce again. I'll PM you so I don't cloud up your progress thread

 

[ironman150]

update: Ebay is making enough profit for me to get a VA...starting the hunt this week....kind of exciting. MHP's on the other hand are tougher. Found some good parks but putting deals together has a lot of moving parts and don't all want to move together. I had a few accepted offers but financing (that was in place) moved onto other deals instead. Keeping at it though, the upside is just too huge.

 

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[Entrepreneur Guy]

I'm digging this thread! Sounds like you are using the same mental and physical stamina from running an Ironman to build a business.

 

[ironman150]

I'm digging this thread! Sounds like you are using the same mental and physical stamina from running an Ironman to build a business.

Kind of...i'm getting in shape to do my first ironman (prob a half-one by late next year). I see where my logo & name make it look/sound like i do them but i have not done one yet. It is a bucket list item for me. When i added it to my list a couple years ago, i needed to lose 250lbs. When i joined this forum, i needed to lose 150lbs (hence ironman150). As of 5 minuets ago i have to lose 120lbs, so my name could be changed to ironman120.

I use my name as a reminder and motivator.

daily consistent action my friend, daily consistent action...half ironman late next year & passive-ish cash flow $20k per month by 49...hike mount Kilimanjaro for my 50th birthday (48 currently)....millionaire by 55...world domination coming.

 

[Entrepreneur Guy]

It sounds like you are reaching your goals! Thats fantastic. I know you have to be feeling great about that. Keep going and dont stop.

 

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[ironman150]

had my first $2k profit month passive-ish (Ebay). Thank you Christmas. Having trouble with the VA though as s/he isn't processing orders in a timely fashion. I've started looking for a new one which is time consuming BUT having one is so liberating (when they do what i pay them to do).

4 offers out on MHP's. Struggling to put a complete deal together. I may be being too picky so am planning on lowering my income goals and look at much smaller parks. Use the same metrics though...no crap.

thanks for reading the update.