2010 - The Year of No Progress :/

This will probably be my final blog post for the year, unless something earth shattering happens in the interim.

This year really was, by all accounts, a lousy year. Absolutely nothing got accomplished this year (hence the title of the blog post). We started with debt and accumulated even MORE debt (medical bills) and there was no increase in income (besides Harry's monthly store bonuses which helped us keep our head above water).

I think the biggest factor that contributed to this was a complete lack of goal setting. Let me rephrase that - it was a complete lack of working on goals and also setting the wrong goals. So I have challenged myself to set goals and develop a road map to really reach those goals. (The road map was completely non-existent in 2010.)

One of the keys to having a successful year in 2011 is to set the right goals, or what I like to term "honest goals". Looking back at my 2010 list of goals, it was immediately apparent that I was setting goals that I thought were the "right" goals based on what other people around me were doing. I was not being honest with myself as to what I really wanted to do. That is going to change for 2011 for sure.

For those of you who are Christians and read my blog, I'd really recommend an article about Christian goal setting here. I absolutely loved it!

Blessings to all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll see you in 2011! :)

Treading water and fading fast....

Well, after my initial success with the box of 20 books I shipped (a total of 8 orders placed from that shipment), I was feeling pretty good. Now, not so much.

I came across a company that seemed pretty reputable in the online bookselling business. They are heavy in the book remainder business (I'll explain what a remainder is in a bit) and have a program where they will ship the books directly to Amazon for your account from their warehouse. They offer what they term a sample lot of 100 books so you can check out the program. The other part of this is that this company runs on a membership basis (a la Costco, Sams) so in order to purchase their sample lot you had to be a member. Membership is $100, but they were having a sale, so the membership fee was then $77.35. It all sounded pretty reasonable to me, so I placed an order.

To give them credit they were very quick in shipping out the books and had great instructions on how to go through the process of listing the books on Amazon, etc. But it has been 2 weeks now, and I have had no sales...none...zip....zilch.....Some of the books are selling so low price wise that I would either break even, have a $.25 profit, or lose money. When I emailed them about my disappointment with the lot, I was told that I would have to reprice in order to generate sales, an that they have sold many of the sample lots and I was their first complaint. They said that they were there to help and to answer questions and even offered to ship out an additional books for free. I was tempted to take them up on that offer, and a friend of mine said I should since they are offering it for free, but I'm reluctant to do it. Amazon charges storage fees on inventory and I'm not thrilled with the idea of paying storage on 100 books, much less 200 books. Although the actual amount would probably be very low (I read that one seller has over 8,000 books in inventory and his fees are $75 a month), just the idea of putting out more money, no matter how little just makes me sad.

Hindsight being 20/20, if I had it to do over again, I would have saved the $177.35 that I paid and not have bothered.

I had another job opportunity that was part time with extremely flexible hours that would have fit my schedule perfectly, but that is still in limbo, as the rep who currently holds the position is on medical leave, and they are not sure if she will be coming back (retiring) or whether she will be asking for an extension. I hope to hear something next week.

The only other possibility is to make the rounds at the mall and look for something seasonal part-time. I would need to have some flexibility in picking up the kids from school, but other than that, with my mother being close by, I can work around my husband's work schedule without too much difficulty.

Anyway, that's where I stand at the moment. Prayers are always appreciated! :)

Excited!

Shipped a box of 20 books to Amazon which were already received and checked in today....already have one order pending from that shipment!

These were books I had around the house as well as some books that my Mom donated to the cause, plus a couple of books that I had bought at a book sale at a thrift store.

I am soooooo excited! :)

Quick update

Just a quick update to say that my daughter's surgery went well and we were able to come home on Wednesday. It was a very long day - she went into the OR at about 12noon and didn't get out of recovery and up to her hospital room until 9pm. But she's doing great and that's the main thing!

I am super excited about my Amazon selling adventure! I went to one book sale and picked up a few books, but my goal now is to qualify for selling in the Toys & Games section for Christmas, then use the proceeds from that to get my PDA scanner and go full swing into selling books.

That's about it - will update again as I get more into the holiday toy selling season!

Heading in a new direction

Well, it's been quite a long time since I've posted to the blog, but I figure I would trying and catch things up and let everyone know what's been going on.

My daughter was unexpectedly hospitalized at the end of July, and that really kind of threw us completely off kilter. I was staying with her, and we were there for about 7 days. She is going to have surgery again on September 20th, but we only hope to be in the hospital for 2 days this time, so that's good.

I've been rethinking my goals for real estate investing, and have come to the conclusion that I am not going to pursue real estate investing until we are on Baby Step 3 (we are big Dave Ramsey fans). This was a tough decision, but I feel that it is the right one for us as a family, especially because of the medical bills that have cropped up due to my daughter's hospitalization. Although we have pretty decent health insurance through my husband's employer, we still have a maximum out of pocket per individual of $3500 per year, and we did not have that much in our flexible spending account to cover the difference.

So, having put real estate investing on hold for now, I then had to figure out how to boost our income on a regular basis. Applying for jobs has not panned out, and now my time is going to be even more limited, as I will be helping my husband's grandfather with taking him to the doctor, dentist, grocery shopping, etc, which I am also currently doing for my mother. So I've decided that I'm going to work on selling books on Amazon using their Fulfillment by Amazon program. The start-up cost is low, and the opportunity to make a consistent monthly income is very good. I hope to get a start on getting ramped up for business before my daughter and I head to the hospital on the 20th.

So that's it for now. I will still update the blog so you can see how I'm doing with my Amazon business. :)

Oh, I almost forgot. Funny story - I received a phone call from someone to whom I sent a probate letter back in January. He said that he's getting ready to put the house in question on the market, but wanted to give me a chance to put in an offer before he does it. I've got to call him back this weekend - should be interesting!

Good news, bad news, good news, bad news...

This was going to be a long post, but I'll spare you the details so you won't get bored. So let's play a game of Good News, Bad News!

Bad News - we didn't have enough money for all of us to go down to Charleston for Ruth's cardiac catheterization procedure on June 16th, so Ruth decided that Dad should be the one to take her.

Good News - Ruth didn't need the cardiac catheterization after all, so she didn't have to spend the night in the hospital!

Bad News - My husband took my mother's car for the Charleston trip, because it had the lowest mileage...on the way back the tread on the front driver's side tire came off and ripped on the wiring harness...so Mom's car is out of commission until everyone has enough money to finish up the repairs.

Good News - at least no one was hurt! And they were about a mile away from their exit on the interstate, so they didn't have to drive too far to get to the gas station.

Bad News - one of our older dogs passed away on the back porch (the day that Ruth and my husband were in Charleston).

Good News - My neighbor has a farm tractor which made burying the dog in the backyard a much easier task.

That pretty much sums it up. Also the recurring theme of not having enough money is getting really, REALLY old. Trying to still work on getting part time employment.

I'm restarting my probate leads mailings this week, so that's good, too.

Oh, and the one lead I had back in February with the gentleman who had his sister's house and his brother's house that he was working on apparently decided to go with a realtor...the sister's house is under contract and the buyer is looking to assign it. He posted the lead on my local REIA's Yahoo group (that's how I found it)...I referred him to a property management company in town, so he called them and they might be interested in buying. He was very appreciative of the lead, so that made me feel good. I'm not upset about losing the lead (I was going to get it under contract for $35k, the buyer has it under contract through the realtor for $25k), but I'm annoyed at myself for not following up and seeing if it was up on Realtor.com (since I don't have MLS access)...it's a learning experience.

Later folks!

Back from hiatus

I guess I put myself on hiatus for almost a month...

It has not been a fun month...lots of juggling going on....and a big, huge cash crunch (when you have to borrow your son's birthday money for gas, that qualifies as a huge cash crunch in my book).

I did call back the one lead from my last post, and he gave me the number of his uncle who lives locally for me to contact so I could get a look at the place. I did not call the uncle, however, because I did not have enough gas in my van (even with borrowing my son's birthday money) to get to where the house is....sigh....so I'm going to call this week, now that I have a full tank of gas, lol, and see what the story is.

Also, if you could please pray for an online friend of mine, I would be so thankful. Her name is Jenn and she has an adopted daughter, Yan, from Hong Kong who has Down Syndrome. She lost just about everything in the flood in Nashville from this past weekend. :( Yan is taking it very hard - "home" was her safe place, her security, and now that it's gone, she is having trouble coping. They were staying at a neighbor's house on higher ground during the flood, as they were not able to drive out of the neighborhood - poor Yan just kept signing "home" (she uses sign language to communicate). I am heartbroken for both of them. :( Please keep them in your thoughts.

That's about all for now....going to work on a plan now that I have some cash flow and see about more probate mailings.

So I'm minding my own business.... :)

Life in the fast lane has been pretty slow lately....last week was Spring Break, so not much was going on...I took the kids to the park on Thursday and was minding my own business (and on hold as I was calling in to the local talk radio station) when I saw I was getting another call...well, I didn't recognize the number, plus I knew I was one of the next callers for the show, so I didn't take the call and let it go to voice mail.

I was quite surprised to find out that it was a call from one of my probate mailings from back in January....very pleasant and polite....a nice surprise!

I've realized that tomorrow is Thursday and I haven't called him back. Yikes! Not a good thing. To be honest, I have a hard time finding any sort of quiet to make phone calls - either a child is trying to talk to me, or a dog is barking or a cat is meowing....so I guess what I will do is go sit in my car in the driveway tomorrow and return this gentleman's phone call and see what's up.

Also as an aside, nothing from the realtor on Facebook (the one who is part of my local REIA Women's group)....perhaps she forgot....I guess I'll send her another message and hopefully she'll respond.

Where do we go now?

Hello folks!

The title of this blog post comes from the lyrics of a GNR tune. I actually went to see GNR with Metallica way back when...betcha didn't think I was into groups like that, huh? LOL

Anyway, here's what's going on with me and the direction I sense I'm supposed to be going on.

First, I remembered an article I read in a Billy Graham magazine called Decision. One of the key themes of the article was "Do the task at hand". It's been almost 10 years since I first read that article and that phrase has been with me since...but it just started to sink in, in regards to my present situation.

For me to "do the task at hand", it involves cleaning and organizing the house. There is no sense of peace in this house right now - it's all topsy turvy, scattered, haphazard....so that needs to change once and for all.

Second, the other topic is tithing. This is a huge leap of faith for us right now, with our budget being so tight, but it is the right thing to do, for us. So starting with the next paycheck, we will be giving 10% of our gross paycheck to our church for church missions.

Third, I've started the baby steps for getting back into the REI game....I've emailed an agent from our local REIA Women's group to see if she, or if she knows someone, who has MLS access for my county so I can look at the sold listings and get an idea of what's going on in the area.

And as an aside, do you remember that I emailed the agent who sold us our house about working with me? Remember how I speculated that he would probably take us off his mailing list? Well, I'm pretty sure he did because I haven't received A THING from him since I emailed him. So much for "I'm never to busy for your referrals..." (a sticker he would put on the back of every envelope). HA!

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Hope the weather is great where you are! I think Spring has definitely come to the Great State of SC. :)

Long time, no blogging...

Well, I'm sorry to be MIA these past couple of weeks....I have been doing my best in being silent and trying to listen to the Lord, and I feel as if I am tuning in much better to His direction. More on this in a little bit...

On a more personal level, my mom officially moved in to her new apartment this past weekend. It has been a wonder to witness God's hand in all of this - from the apartment manager not giving up on contacting me, even when I thought it was a lost cause because Mom didn't qualify income-wise, to our having our tax refund and DH's bonus in hand to cover her rental deposit and moving costs, it really has been the perfect storm of circumstances for all of this to fall into place.

There is a lot to do for Mom to get her settled in. She managed to pack up nearly all of her belongings herself at the ripe young age of 75 (!!) these past couple of weeks, so I will be more than happy going over there on a daily basis to at least help her unpack. Plus I need to help her get set up with new medical doctors, a new bank, getting her car registered and tags transferred, etc., so I figure I'll be pretty busy for at least the next 2 weeks or even more. Mom has her own car, but really doesn't like to drive, so I told her I would be happy to take her grocery shopping and to the doctor, and do all the long distance driving for her on a regular basis for stuff that's not in town (like her Dr. specialists).

As for my sense of direction, I'm getting a good sense that the best thing to do right now for me to get a steady income coming in is to offer bookkeeping services for local real estate investors. The startup costs are pretty low - basically just getting a copy of Quickbooks and a good guide for Quickbooks for real estate investors (like John Hyre's KISS bookkeeping system), and I can advertise on the local REIA's Yahoo group page. The best thing is that in a worst case scenario, if I absolutely do not get any clients, I can always use Quickbooks myself, and there are no other ongoing costs.

The other avenue which I'm still not settled on is the probate marketing....not sure if I should pursue the leads myself or offer them for sale to other investors....so I guess I'm going to fine tune my listening skills to get a better handle on how to proceed with that.

Anyway, the next challenge is coming up with the extra money for getting the Quickbooks and John Hyre's guide. I guess I'm going to have to fine tune the budget and see what I can come up with.

Will update as more develops. :)

Back in the saddle

Ok, it didn't take two weeks....the major life changing event did not come to pass, so we are back to our regularly scheduled life programming....

So I am back in the saddle! (Which IMHO, is one of the really great Aerorsmith tunes.)

I find myself in yet another quandary of life. A lot of our tax refund that I had originally set aside to use for a RE licensing course, had to go to pay my mom's deposit for her rental at the senior apartments in town and will need to be used to get the moving truck to get my mom and her stuff up here, so I'll have to put off the RE licensing course for now. I'm also trying to figure out what to do to bring a regular income into the household. I've applied for jobs and nothing materialized, I'm not currently selling on Ebay or Amazon.....so, I'm kind of stuck.

Then, while at church on Sunday, we had a wonderful message....the sermon series has been based on the life of Abraham, and is entitled Life:Interrupted. The theme of Sunday's message was Encounter and talked about Abraham's encounter with God. One of the main points that really stuck with me was "Is there something you are attempting to do in your own strength that is not working so you can rely solely, exclusively on God to provide?" So, it got me thinking....I have done what I can do to establish a regular income - but have I relied on God? Truth be told, I think not.

So right now, my objective is to stop and listen.....

Oh, btw, the life changing event was the possibility that I was pregnant.... :)

On Hiatus

Sorry to be so silent these past couple of weeks....nothing is going on real estate wise, however, we have the possibility of a major life changing event coming in two weeks or so, so everything is on hold until we get a "final reading" shall we say......

So no updates until that time.....but rest assured, I will let you know what my status is in two weeks....:)

Back to square one

Well, all three leads are officially dead in the water, so I am back to square one.

One thing have learned - if the heirs or PR have starting work on the property, they are not really that motivated, IMHO. I don't know why I just got that, but anyway....

Moving on!

It has been a hectic week because my poor mother has been in the hospital again. :( So I've been trying to keep up with her status and I've also been looking for places that she can move to up here where I am. I found out she doesn't qualify for senior housing in my county because she's over the income limit, but she is under the limit for the next county over, so that's where I am concentrating my search.

At this point, I'm not sure if I will be able to take my real estate course as planned. I really need to figure out what the monthly costs would be to hold my license and if I can cover them out of our household budget until I get some income coming in.

Anyway, the plan is to keep sending out probate letters for now, and to really sit down, once and for all and get a game plan out on paper.....I am really kind of stuck on this, and feel as if I am just spinning my wheels.

Well, that's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Amazon Prime 3 Month Trial

Some of you may not know, but I have a hobby of couponing and being on the lookout for frugal ideas. Sometimes my passion for both REI and frugal living cross paths and light bulbs will come on above my head. LOL

Scott over at The Struggling Investor posted an entry about how his book that he ordered from Amazon for Steph's Book of the Month Club had not arrived yet, and it was going on 2 weeks. This got me thinking of a post I read about getting a 3 month trial for Amazon Prime for as little as $1. With Amazon Prime, 2-day shipping is free, and overnight shipping is $3.99. I think this might come in handy for Steph's Book Club so you might want to look into it. :)

Rather than me try to explain it, let me direct you to the post with all the details HERE at Common Sense with Money.

Hope this helps someone!

Back online

Well, the computer is officially de-toasted (untoasted? lol)! I'm back online and my carbonite subscription is happily restoring my files as we speak!


Here's an update on everything that is percolating:


Mill's Mill House - still waiting on my seller to get my option contract back in the mail to me. I am hesistant to do anything further until I get that back in the mail, and I haven't followed up with him as I wanted to as my time has mostly been spent speaking to Dell Warranty Support, so I am going to call him tomorrow and see what is up.


Spartan Mill Village House - I did not get the option contract in the mail to the seller as I had hoped, since the laptop went down and I had no where to print anything. So I'm going to call him tomorrow, too, and see how the meeting went.


Probate Lead #3 (The Carmax analogy) - I was supposed to have a meeting with him last Friday but he had to reschedule to this past week. I went out to meet him, and it will need work, but he is starting to work on it, so the motivation is not there as much as I thought. We kind of beat around the bush about numbers, and he said he didn't think he could take less than $40k for it....a preliminary ARV comes in at about $60k, so given Steve Cook's formula of ARV *.70 - repairs, we are already looking at $42k before repairs........and it definitely needs more than $2k in repairs, so there's no way I could meet his $40k number. I told him I would get back to him after the weekend, as I didn't think my computer would be up and running before that.


Now that I am back online I will keep researching the probate leads from the legal paper and send out some more letters. I also need to get the follow up postcards out for the previous leads, and also call some title companies to find out their status on simultaneous closings with non-cash buyers (thank you to Steph Davis for that heads up!) I also need to follow up with the lender referrals for the USDA loans. Oh, I almost forgot! I am a member of The Private Money Blueprint. To be blunt honest, I had signed up for the 30 day trial, in hopes that I could glean as much as I could before my trial was up.....I did not think could swing the monthly subscription yet (budget still very tight), but apparently I miscalculated my 30 day period (whoops!) and I ddn't think it was fair to ask for a refund, so after a bit of scrambling and reworking the budget numbers, I was good to go. I was going to watch a lot of the content during the day but then the laptop crashed so I wasn't able to....so now I'm going to get back on track over the weekend and start reviewing the awesome content. :)


Anyway, that's where I am at this point. A special thanks to Scott over at The Struggling Investor for having me in his Top Blogs: 5 Up and Coming Investors post. Wow! I was nearly in tears reading his thoughtful comments about my blog. I am honored, and truly blessed by my online REI friends!

Experiencing technical difficulties - please stand by

Hello folks,

I'm coming to you from the local public library because my laptop is toast. Fortunately the good folks from Dell are going to send a tech out and I hope to be operational again by Friday or Monday.

In the meantime, since I don't really have internet access, nothing has been going on.....I would update more, but my session is almost done and I need to go pick up the kids from school.

Talk to you when I am back online! :)

Another lead in the pipeline

Got a call from the gentleman that called last week (the one I used the Carmax analogy with) and I'll be meeting him on Friday to look over the property. I sense some motivation, as I found out that there is a mortgage on the property, and he is the one who is paying on it, plus he indicated that the house needs work.

Also as an aside, the other gentleman (the one I thought was essentially a dead deal) called to say that they received a letter inviting them to a meeting regarding a potential medical building that is going to be built at the old mill site. I'm wondering if this is going to be some type of eminent domain type of situation..remember that one out of CT, and it was upheld by the Supreme Court? The town in CT (I think it was CT) exercised eminent domain and sold the land to a developer. Anyway, I told him I would put the option contract in the mail today and if it was something they would want to consider to let me know.

Things are rolling along!

No jinxing now

Well, my first deal is almost official, as I noted in my response to Shae's comment on my previous post. It is for the Mill's Mill House, the one where it's the gentleman's childhood home. He gave me the key when I went out to see him on Thursday, and I put the option contract in the mail to him yesterday. There's not a lot of spread in this deal (he wants $35k, and I'm going to try and retail for $42k), but even so, the educational value is priceless.

My plan of action is to sell to an owner occupant. My town qualifies for USDA Rural Housing Loans which offer 100% financing and no seasoning requirements, so I put out a request on my REIA's Yahoo Group for recommendations for lenders who are familiar with this program and received a lot of responses....so I'm going to be emailing to ask about further requirements (credit score, etc.) I also am going to be contacting the title agency referrals that I received from the group, to line up an agency that can do a simultaneous closing. Marketing will be setting up a printed flyer to leave at various businesses around town, advertising in the local paper, and using postlets as well. I don't plan on doing anything with the MLS at this point. I'm hoping that I can this deal under contract with an end buyer before the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit runs out, and if I do, I'll give them a gift certificate to the local tax preparer in town to get their taxes done and file for the credit.

I'm also going to approach a local landlord who also does property management in town and see how much rent would be on this house and ask if he has any interested parties that would want to pick up another rental in the area. There is no work that needs to be done to this place, with the exception of putting in a shower head in the tub, but that wouldn't require much work.

So, we'll see how it goes!

I didn't get to meet with the other seller from Spartanburg, but I'm going to put an option contract in the mail to him to see if they might take it....that will be a tougher sell, for sure.

Still nothing from the one realtor (I bet I'm off his mailing list now, too, Haha!), so I'm definitely pursuing the agent route. Will have to wait until the tax refund in order to register and pay for a class. I was hoping that I could get it done before the First Time Homebuyer Credit runs out, but that doesn't seem likely, given the class schedules I'm seeing.

Anyway, no jinxing the deal now that I've written about it! LOL

Shortest blog update so far....

:)

Can you guess why I'm smiling?

I'll have to keep you in suspense for a couple of days.....sorry! :)

Keeping me on my toes

This probate stuff works!

Another call, kind of a tire-kicker really, just trying to get an idea of what my services are. After croaking a "hello" when the call came in (having a cold and allergies), I really was on the spot - what are my services? Who in the heck am I?

I explained that I am a real estate investor (-1 point for using the term "investor", I guess) and that I work with other investors (-1 again) to buy real estate. We can close quickly, etc. The guy was really nice and was interested and said he would keep my letter and that if he felt that we would be the best option, he would give me a call.

Also, when he asked what price we buy at, I gave him my Carmax analogy - if you have a car you want to sell, you can take it to Carmax and they'll give you an offer on the spot, but it will be lower than if you go and get it detailed and repaired and try to sell it on the retail market, because Carmax will make all the repairs and detailing to get it in marketable shape and buy it from you right then, i.e., Carmax buys from you on the wholesale level, but they can close quickly and you don't have to make repairs.

Now, I don't like comparing myself to a used car dealer, but in this case, it worked. The Personal Representative (PR) completely understood where I was coming from.

So anyway, there you have it, folks! Another call from my probate marketing, and that's after only about 30 letters mailed. This is good stuff!

Itty Bitty Update

Still haven't heard from the agent that I emailed...so I've decided that I'm going to look into getting my license for sure. The local community college has an agent's licensing course, so I'm going to see what the next date is and the cost, and hopefully I can use some funds from our tax refund to take the course.

I think the lead for the Spartan Mill Village is a dead lead for now. With the amount of work that needs to be done, it's just not going to work. I'm going to call the seller on Monday just to let him know that as of now, I'm not able to present an offer, but to keep in touch.

I also need to follow up on my lead with the two houses here in Woodruff. I've really been preoccupied lately, as my mother's friend passed away this week. This is the one who my mother was taking care of as a kind of live in companion, so now my mom needs to get her own place, and she wants to move up here. There is a senior apt complex in town so I got my mom the application and mailed it down to her. I'm hoping I can find something for her ASAP....her friend's family said for her to take all the time she needs to get herself settled, but I know my mom wants to get settled quickly, and I do, too. I miss my mom!

Anyway, before I forget, I'll be doing some more networking with the one guy from the local REIA....he works with some wholesalers and I can farm out my leads on a bird dog basis, and we'll split the fees.

Have to go run to the store to get some things for dinner. 2010 is definitely starting off on a good note!

Quick update

A quick update before I head to bed --

I did manage to call the seller and leave a message on his voicemail -- at least, I THINK I left a message. I heard background noise, then a beep, so I took that to mean to leave a message. LOL Anyway, I posted a note on my REIA Yahoo group, kind of like a bird dog lead...got two responses; one wanted the lead and said he would pay me $500 or 10% of the deal, which ever was more if he could get it done. Sounded good to me, so I sent him the info, and will let the seller know that this gentleman will be contacting him.

I emailed the agent I spoke about in my last post, and he emailed me back and said he would get back to me by the end of this week. I'm hoping that this will work out - so far I'm batting .000 as far as getting an agent lined up. If this strikes out, I will focus on the probate leads and work on getting my license ASAP.

Tomorrow is going to be an "in" day, so I will check the probate notices from before Christmas and get some letters out. I also need to work on the private money aspect of things as well.

Should be a busy day!

Happy New Year!

Ok, time to get started on 2010!

I am still in the process of working on the goals and the action plan. I'm having a really tough time putting things down on paper, but I did get a rough outline going. The way I started was what I wanted things to look like at the end of 2010 (organized home, Molly reading, etc) and now am working backwards at how to achieve them.

Anyway, one of the first things I want to tackle for 2010 is MLS access. The agent that I met with back in September/October never got back to me after I emailed her. Her website is no longer active, either and I no longer receive updates from the searches that I saved on her site. So, then I remembered that the agent that we worked with when we bought our house, still keeps in touch with us, through cards and newsletters. I'm going to email him and see if he can set me up with some searches, or if there is someone that he can recommend that would be interested in helping me out.

I'm still considering getting my license, but need to figure out the monthly costs of this, as our budget is going to be a bit tighter this year because we are participating in my husband's employers Flexible Spending Account plan in order to cover the out of pocket costs for Ruth's cardiac cath procedure this summer.

I still haven't called back that seller. I feel bad about it, but my house has been so chaotic with the kids being home and with my mom visiting, I haven't really found a quiet time to call. I am going to make a concerted effort to call him tomorrow morning, regardless of the background noise volume. LOL

Once I get the REI action plan finished, I will be sure to update. :)