$156,000 Annual Income And More Time With Our Kids…and being with them is everything

Read Transcript for “$156,000 Annual Income And More Time With Our Kids…and being with them is everything”

 
Shelly: Shelly Fonner from Terre Haute, Indiana. I believe it’s been 8 months. It was in May. We got Joe’s book that was $39.95 or something, and we did an assignment to an investor actually in April right before we joined the Mentor Program. So we figured if we could make $3,000 on a $40 book, we probably ought to come to the Mentor Program.
 
Shelly: We came to the Mentor Program and, of course got tons more information, went back and began doing the “For Rent Method” and some “Subject-to” deals. We’ve done a couple more assignments with the investors and we just implemented more of what we had learned, so it’s just snowballed from there.
 
Shelly: Several pieces of the puzzle were missing. They would give you enough information in these books and the different tapes that we had to get started, but if you had a question that came up or a different situation, you never knew what the step was so you would always fall short of completing the deal because you wouldn’t know exactly what the final step was. You couldn’t call anybody to get your questions answered and so you were just left not completing it again.
 
Shelly: I don’t remember exactly what I clicked on, but in Googling, I must have found one of his sites, read it, and he had a book he was offering for $39.95 and my mentality at that time was, ‘What’s 40 bucks? I’ve spent thousands upon thousands. I’ll just see.’ And so upon reading it, I’ll tell you what intrigued me the most is that I’m from Indiana and so is he. And so therefore, there was a connection. And I thought, ‘Huh, Indiana, Indiana – this might work out better because I’ve already done the Vegas and the Florida and the variety of areas.’ So, I got the book and read it. It was a lot of the similar information that I had read but it seemed to go into depth a little more than what I had already gotten and read.
 
Shelly: I actually called Joe and he answered the phone when I called, so I knew I was onto something right away (because he answered). And I just asked a generic question. I don’t even remember now what it was, but the fact that he had a number with an area code in the same state as I was and that it wasn’t an 800 number and he answered – I was quite impressed. So I read the book. It had a lot of valuable information, and actually dabbled in the book, and what I mean by that is that I flipped through it and read it front and back several times. Finally, about 3 months later, I decided to implement one of the methods that he had talked about in his book and within 12 days, made $3,000.
 
Shelly: ”Holy cow! This is exciting! I have already spent thousands upon thousands on other books and tapes that left me with very little to speak of, let alone $3,000 in 12 days.” So once I read that and made the $3,000, then at that point, we had a decision to make. Do we just continue doing what we just learned (which we could have) or do we want to go find out some more things that we can do? And that’s when we decided to join the Mentor Program.
 
Shelly: Informative. And that’s probably what I left with the most – was that I knew exactly what I needed to do when I went home – start making money.
 
Shelly: Informative. And that’s probably what I left with the most – was that I knew exactly what I needed to do when I went home – start making money, which is exactly what I was looking for.
 
Shelly: Well, they may tell you A and they might tell you B, but C and D are probably missing and so is the paycheck and so therefore, you’re stuck; just enough to get you excited to buy their program is really what it boils down to. And there is some good information in some of these things. The problem is you don’t know what to do once you get home. It doesn’t do any good to fill your brain with a whole bunch of stuff and then go home and have no idea of what to do next.
 
Shelly: Well, it clicked right away, what we needed to do. I was still working full time so it was down to small little things that we could do at home and still make it work. We put an ad in the paper and so that started the phone ringing. And little things began to snowball; nothing big. But yet we were answering the phone, doing some calls, working full time, our kids and our life – we really didn’t do a whole lot the first 30 days after going home other than dabbling, researching; ‘What do we do next?’, ‘Let’s get a voicemail box,’ etc. These little things that we had heard about, we did do.
 
Shelly: It began to snowball just a little bit after that. We started doing a little more and the more we started to do, the more the phone rang. So then it began to snowball into that again.
 
Shelly: In August, we had done a couple of For Rent Methods, so we had made another $5,000 – very exciting once again. And now we’re getting frustrated because I’m still working a full time job. Life still interferes, and I’m getting agitated because I’m not making 5 grand at work. But I’m putting in a lot more time at that, so I’ll continue that for a little bit, just because it’s the security and it’s a job. It’s not paying but yet it’s a job so your mentality is to keep it because that’s what you’re supposed to do (you think).
 
Shelly: 3 kids at home and a total of 5 kids. We came to the Buying Event, again in September, and we had done… I would have to think about it again, but we’d probably done 10 deals. We were excited but I still hadn’t given up the job yet. In October, after the Buying Event, I went home and gave my notice. So on the first of October, I stopped my job and then jumped in with both feet at this point. So now it’s do or die.
 
Shelly: Well, now it’s real crazy because it’s all snowballed even more. So the phone rings off the hook and we’re answering the phone and people are calling us. And it’s great.
 
Shelly: Over the last 8 months, we have averaged $13,000. All I’ll tell you is that the market is wrong. There was no way you could make any money in real estate and that the depression was taking over. And that’s true in a lot of areas. There’s a lot of realtors, there’s a lot of mortgage brokers and there’s a lot of industry that’s down. That’s just not the case here.
 
Shelly: I think it’s great. I think it’s a huge motivator to get around people that are like minded. So I enjoy very much coming and seeing what everybody else is doing, share your stories and your experiences, help each other, and maybe someone’s got a snag in something and you can motivate them and help them. It’s very encouraging to come.
 
Shelly: They’re all exciting, truly. From helping the single mom move out of her mom’s house into a home of their own is very exciting – the fact that they’ve been living in an apartment that maybe they haven’t liked so well into a home of their own and the kids are running through the house, excited and picking out their rooms – that’s very enjoyable – to helping the sellers get through a time in which they didn’t realize there was a solution. So, very rewarding on that side as well for them to be able to go to the next chapter in their life and be able to have a smooth transaction happen that they never felt was possible. That’s really what it’s all about.
 
Shelly: They’re excited. You know, kids they kind of mimic what you’re doing. They kind of see what you’re doing. They ask a lot. ‘Did we buy any houses today? Did we sell any houses today? Are we going to look at a house on the way home?’ It’s very much around them. They think we move often. They pick out their rooms in every home even if it’s not a home we’re moving into. But it gets them involved, and to them it’s exciting. And we’re all together, so that, to me, is the biggest thing.
 
Shelly: The fact that you don’t have to miss the special awards at school and the fact that you don’t have to try to figure out how to get to the doctor’s office when you have an appointment, and different things – you’re just much more involved. And that, to me, is everything.