# Another thread for newbies



## bigdaddy (Mar 3, 2013)

Hold on tight, here comes a big rant!!
I was going to respond to a few different threads but decided to post a new one.

I wish everyone would stop calling it a preservation business! Of course if you only work for safeguard then maybe you can say preservation business(more like worker/employee)

You are in the REO business (Real Estate Owned). 
That consist of preservation, maintenance, and repairs.

Saying you are in preservation and ONLY working for middleman is like saying you are a plumber but you ONLY snake out shi*ty toilets. You see there is a plumber in the area that does all of the rough-in on new houses, installs high end fixtures on rehabs, installs water heaters, fixes plumbing leaks but calls you when the crapper if full! You get to tell all your friends you are a plumber! Guess what? You ain't jack SH*T!

I don't consider anyone who ONLY works for a national or regional to be in the REO business. 

Sorry, I don't! You are just someone elses laborer.

I know some guys have a middleman they tolerate but still are able to find work on their own and will eventually be successful and drop all middleman at some point. My rant is for anyone new or has been in this business for a year or more and can't find one single direct client. 

You see, it's because of the middlemen that 90% of you guys who find this site even exist. If it wasn't for them all of the work would be performed by actual contractors who know the business!

It is too easy for someone who just lost a job, or looking for work to be suckered into working for a middleman. They answer an ad and say "Hell, I can cut lawns and winterize a house, how hard can it be I cut my own grass" Then they come on here crying about how their business failed and how this "Preservation Industry" is such a waste of time and EVERYONE who does it will lose money! WRONG! 

Lets make another comparison. Lets say you have worked sales for your entire life and lost your job, you tell your wife "I want to open a restaurant" Your wife ask "What the HELL do you know about a restaurant?" You say "Honey how hard can it be?? I make dinner on the weekends right?" How do you think that is going to work out for you??? I don't know the number but most business fail within the first year! Why? Most of the time it's because the person was unfamiliar with the business or not prepared. Sound familiar???

Lets take it a step further. Say you open a Jack in the Box or Subway, or Taco Bell, etc.... Any of the franchise businesses. That's what it's like signing up for a middleman. You don't have to make a name for yourself, you don't have to find customers, you don't have to know what an OVEN is! You just have to sign up and WHAM! You have all the volume you need. Of course you still have all of the overhead, you have to buy ALL MATERIALS from the franchise and pay them a % of all sales! Whats the problem? Go find any franchise owner and ask them what kind of money they are bringing home at the end of the year, I bet it's on track with most of you guys working for a national or regional! 99% of franchise owners will tell you they OWN their job! They do NOT make allot of money.

Now lets look at it a different way. Guys like me are the ones who grew up in the restaurant business. Maybe I worked at McD's at age 13, at age 17 I got a job at a local independent hot spot restaurant in town as a server, after high school I went to college for management and worked my way up to assistant manager, eventually I was running the joint and knew EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE aspect of running a restaurant. Now at age 30 I decide to open my OWN top shelf 5 star restaurant on Main St. 
I struggle the first year as all business do but I survive, I would have failed if I didn't have 15 years experience in the industry! By age 35 I own THE HOTTEST SPOT IN TOWN! Everyone knows my place and comes here for dates, birthdays, anniversary, weddings, etc...
Sure they still go to Mcd's everyday for lunch and spend $7 but when they want to drop $400 they come to me!!!

I responded in a thread the other day about a lady who's husband quit after 4 years of dealing with middleman. He never really took off in the "Preservation business" and got tired of being pushed around and not making money. He got a job making good money with vacation and benefits. I'm glad he got out and made a decision to go back into the work force and hope it turns out great for their family!

He is probably a great worker, hard worker, loyal worker, someone any employer would love to call an employee!

But that is the PROBLEM! Some people make great employees and some make great bosses(business owners). You have to be one or the other!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a great worker, the problem is if you try to become the boss, most times you will not succeed! 
Now, I'm not taking about being the boss of your department, I'm talking about running an entire business.
Sometimes it happens but I truly believe it is inside you all along and not something that can be learned or taught.

I never worked at Mc'd's, the above was just a restaurant reference. However, I was dirt poor when I was a kid. I grew up in North Philly and raised by a single woman with 2 kids who worked at a grocery store making minimum wage. When I was 10 I got a paper route and bought all my own clothes, bike, scooter, toys, and an Atari 8 bit computer in 1985. I had 3 jobs in high school, got my wife (then girlfriend) pregnant at 17 (yeah, FUN) always had at least full time job and 2 others. However! I always had that drive in me, I knew I was the boss from day 1. By the time I was 25 I worked my last JOB and now I am a successful BUSINESS OWNER!

What I am getting at is this business is like any other business on the planet! If you want to own one then you better do you homework, not just answer a Craigslist ad and think you will be the next BIGDADDY!

RANT OVER!


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## ctquietcorner (Jun 29, 2013)

bigdaddy said:


> Hold on tight, here comes a big rant!!
> I was going to respond to a few different threads but decided to post a new one.
> 
> I wish everyone would stop calling it a preservation business! Of course if you only work for safeguard then maybe you can say preservation business(more like worker/employee)
> ...


Not sure who pissed in your cheerios, but boy are you angry today.

Just for the record my husband for 22 years owned and ran his own auto repair shop which he opened when he was 19. He got tired of fixing vehicles so he sold it. He has a CDL-A license and drove for 15 years, but wanted to be home on the weekends so decided to try out the P&P route that his nephew spoke so highly of. 
For the 4 years he did that work we both worked very hard to get him in directly with banks and realtors unfortunately the area we live in does not have the high foreclosure rate that other parts of the country have so it wasn't meant to be. I met with numerous realtors and bank officials each month. I was able to answer every question they threw at me with ease and confidence that my husband could perform the work required. But again most were already under a contract with a National Property Preservation company. These were only for foreclosed properties as occupied properties had the owners maintaining them. 

There was one small time realtor who only worked in certain town that did give my husband several lawn cuts at $75 a pop and the lawns took no time at all to do and NO photos were required only the day he would being going. He will do those this Summer for him.

So before you say some people are Indians and some people are Chiefs you should look at where they live since not all of us live in states that have foreclosures on every corner.


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## bigdaddy (Mar 3, 2013)

ctquietcorner said:


> Not sure who pissed in your cheerios, but boy are you angry today.
> 
> Just for the record my husband for 22 years owned and ran his own auto repair shop which he opened when he was 19. He got tired of fixing vehicles so he sold it. He has a CDL-A license and drove for 15 years, but wanted to be home on the weekends so decided to try out the P&P route that his nephew spoke so highly of.
> For the 4 years he did that work we both worked very hard to get him in directly with banks and realtors unfortunately the area we live in does not have the high foreclosure rate that other parts of the country have so it wasn't meant to be. I met with numerous realtors and bank officials each month. I was able to answer every question they threw at me with ease and confidence that my husband could perform the work required. But again most were already under a contract with a National Property Preservation company. These were only for foreclosed properties as occupied properties had the owners maintaining them.
> ...


AGAIN, Wish you best of luck with your husbands new job.
You guys are another statistic.
Re-read my rant again, maybe your husband would be better off in different line of work, maybe something he is good at like fixing cars or driving a truck?
He had no experience in this type of business, he tried and failed. Move on.
So after 22 successful years running his own business he got out because of boredom?? :vs_whistle:


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## david (Apr 11, 2012)

*Hi*

IM going to say this again i read a lot of you keep saying go direct go direct,this all depends where you live how you will or will not succeed in this business. i know the biggest realtor around where im at and they dont even get direct work it all still goes through different nationals-regionals.
philly-detroit-atlanta much bigger places yes their will be more oppurtinity because of the size.
people get tired of the bull**** late checks,chargebacks which i can say after 8 years never had 1 hmmmm wonder why,and lot of the stuff i read from some people on here i really dont believe,just some do a job better then others is all.
I say congrats to ctquiets husband and getting out less crap im sure of that and knowing he'll see a check every week where they'll know they can keep up on bills instead of getting a million excuses why checks are late.
Theres bull on every corner and i can say on here some are full of bull too.
If you made your business a success then congrats but just because someone decided to do something different does'nt mean they failed,the system failed them.


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## bigdaddy (Mar 3, 2013)

david said:


> IM going to say this again i read a lot of you keep saying go direct go direct,this all depends where you live how you will or will not succeed in this business. i know the biggest realtor around where im at and they dont even get direct work it all still goes through different nationals-regionals.
> philly-detroit-atlanta much bigger places yes their will be more oppurtinity because of the size.
> people get tired of the bull**** late checks,chargebacks which i can say after 8 years never had 1 hmmmm wonder why,and lot of the stuff i read from some people on here i really dont believe,just some do a job better then others is all.
> I say congrats to ctquiets husband and getting out less crap im sure of that and knowing he'll see a check every week where they'll know they can keep up on bills instead of getting a million excuses why checks are late.
> ...


It doesn't matter where you live, the work is there! I know for a FACT that Wells Fargo (one of the largest banks in the US!) uses agents for preservation work on REO homes! Pre-forclosure almost EVERYONE uses the nationals and regional but I am taking about BANK OWNED. And there are hundreds of smaller companies to work for, you just need to find them! Just because they don't use you doesn't mean they aren't using someone else. 
As far as where you live, I am sick and tired of hearing that same old excuse!
If you live in Bumble F*CK backwoods away from a major metropolitan then OF COURSE there are not going to be as many houses as a big city. 
WHOS FAULT IS THAT????????????
My point is if the work is not there to begin with then you will need to cover a much larger area or DO SOMETHING ELSE!!
Need an example???
Sea Isle Ice Company covers the entire Jersey Shore and South Jersey, not a very large area but I bet them make MULTI MILLIONS OF DOLLARS every summer selling frozen water! If you have ever been to the shore there are ice boxes on every corner. Now, imagine for a second if we were on a ice business forum and I was telling you guys how much money I was making selling ice in New Jersey in the summer as the owner of an ice company. Some moron in ALASKA decides to open his ice business from October to March and goes broke after the first year. Then he comes back on the forum to bitch at everyone else crying about how nobody wants to buy his ice and us guys in Jersey are all full of sh*t and no one in their right mind would pay for frozen water. Part of running a successful business is KNOWING about your business. I cover 10 counties in PA and each one has at least 150 new properties a month. If you live in MONTANA and there are only 40 for the ENTIRE STATE of course you are not going to have as much volume as I do, you would most certainly be better off with having a 9-5 job but if you decide to try it anyway, don't come on here bitching about it!


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

bigdaddy said:


> It doesn't matter where you live, the work is there! I know for a FACT that Wells Fargo (one of the largest banks in the US!) uses agents for preservation work on REO homes! Pre-forclosure almost EVERYONE uses the nationals and regional but I am taking about BANK OWNED. And there are hundreds of smaller companies to work for, you just need to find them! Just because they don't use you doesn't mean they aren't using someone else.
> As far as where you live, I am sick and tired of hearing that same old excuse!
> If you live in Bumble F*CK backwoods away from a major metropolitan then OF COURSE there are not going to be as many houses as a big city.
> WHOS FAULT IS THAT????????????
> ...



I live in a small mostly rural market. My phone rings all the time from new numbers who were referred to us by realtors. We are seeing more and more nationals go after our work and it does hurt our bottom line. My realtors would rather use us but unfortunately they can't.

However there is still plenty of business out there. I truly believe 90% of companies do not know how to market themselves and solicit business. If you haven't worked for anyone there won't be any word of mouth. You have to have a marketing plan. A strategy! We do not just call up Keller Williams and tell them "Hey ummm... Like, We cut grass more better than anyone else!"


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## bigdaddy (Mar 3, 2013)

Craigslist Hack said:


> I live in a small mostly rural market. My phone rings all the time from new numbers who were referred to us by realtors. We are seeing more and more nationals go after our work and it does hurt our bottom line. My realtors would rather use us but unfortunately they can't.
> 
> However there is still plenty of business out there. I truly believe 90% of companies do not know how to market themselves and solicit business. If you haven't worked for anyone there won't be any word of mouth. You have to have a marketing plan. A strategy! We do not just call up Keller Williams and tell them "Hey ummm... Like, We cut grass more better than anyone else!"


Yes, I say it all the time. You have to get your foot in the door first, any door! Once you land a job make sue you give 150% As long as you do that you did your part. Your work will ALWAYS speak for itself. It's not just the quality of your work but your attitude, appearance, professionalism, knowledge, dependability,etc...
The first client is always the hardest, after that it gets much easier but like you said, 90% don't know how to market themselves and will never land that first real client and will ultimately end up quitting.
And of course it will be everyone elses fault.


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## madxtreme01 (Mar 5, 2015)

I personally can speak from experience that it is very difficult to get your foot in the door. I have been in this industry since 2008. First starting with inspections, then expanding into P&P and some reo. I have found it extremely difficult to get the direct work. My area is extremely saturated, and also saturated with work. Every person I speak to says I have my crews and a list 5 pages long of backups. I randomly get calls from local agents, but it is not frequent. I wish I could get rid of the middlemen, but as for now I have 2 choices. Either suck it up and deal with it while I pound the pavement trying to work direct, or just quit and move onto another venture. Back in 2010 when I formed my company I was doing really well only doing P&P. I did only 1 direct job back then for a realtor on a commercial property. Worked out well, except the agent tried to stiff me and I had to go direct to Capital One to get paid after 3 months.


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## bigdaddy (Mar 3, 2013)

madxtreme01 said:


> I personally can speak from experience that it is very difficult to get your foot in the door. I have been in this industry since 2008. First starting with inspections, then expanding into P&P and some reo. I have found it extremely difficult to get the direct work. My area is extremely saturated, and also saturated with work. Every person I speak to says I have my crews and a list 5 pages long of backups. I randomly get calls from local agents, but it is not frequent. I wish I could get rid of the middlemen, but as for now I have 2 choices. Either suck it up and deal with it while I pound the pavement trying to work direct, or just quit and move onto another venture. Back in 2010 when I formed my company I was doing really well only doing P&P. I did only 1 direct job back then for a realtor on a commercial property. Worked out well, except the agent tried to stiff me and I had to go direct to Capital One to get paid after 3 months.


You are in NJ right?
Last year EVERY one of my clients were literally BEGGING me to go to NJ because there was so much inventory.
I had enough work in PA and didn't want to go thru the registration process so I declined all offers.


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## madxtreme01 (Mar 5, 2015)

bigdaddy said:


> You are in NJ right?
> Last year EVERY one of my clients were literally BEGGING me to go to NJ because there was so much inventory.
> I had enough work in PA and didn't want to go thru the registration process so I declined all offers.


.

I'm not saying that the work isn't available. I know it is, I have just had a hard time getting any type of direct work. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places or I'm not looking hard enough, but I have contacted the smaller banks in my area, agents, Credit Unions, and literally nothing.


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

madxtreme01 said:


> I personally can speak from experience that it is very difficult to get your foot in the door. I have been in this industry since 2008. First starting with inspections, then expanding into P&P and some reo. I have found it extremely difficult to get the direct work. My area is extremely saturated, and also saturated with work. Every person I speak to says I have my crews and a list 5 pages long of backups. I randomly get calls from local agents, but it is not frequent. I wish I could get rid of the middlemen, but as for now I have 2 choices. Either suck it up and deal with it while I pound the pavement trying to work direct, or just quit and move onto another venture. Back in 2010 when I formed my company I was doing really well only doing P&P. I did only 1 direct job back then for a realtor on a commercial property. Worked out well, except the agent tried to stiff me and I had to go direct to Capital One to get paid after 3 months.


How many lunch and learns have you been to? How many times have you sponsored a realtors sales meeting by catering in breakfast for them? How many chamber of commerce meetings have you attended? How strong is your power point and media presentation for your company? Are you offering services that others are already providing like grass cuts or are you showing the potential clients all the unique things you and your company can do? 

We pitch inspection repairs and show quirky jobs we have done. You know the weird stuff, barn wood accent walls, mason jar pendant lights, steel shingle roofs, garden Windows, antique sewing machines that we have turned into vessel sinks, anything we can do to leave an impression. There is nothing exciting about trash out discussions. 

I usually have a great looking office girl in sexy but sensible business attire do 90% of the pitch and I do the question and answer segment. Never let it go longer than 20 mins and try to stay under 15.


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## GTX63 (Apr 12, 2012)

X2^^
A list full of subs to do work is just that and nothing more. A broker could care less if you are just one more guy with a trailer and some equipment. If you want to get your foot in the door, then make your feet do something do something besides stand in line.


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