BiggerPockets

So a JV partner of mine said the other day " Just fax offers all day for 50% of the asking price"

Of course he goes on to say once we have on accepted we will do our due dilligence.

My thoughts on this after reading on this board for a while are that I would put myself in a negative light with some REO agents if I did that. We will have the cash to close on the offers that get accepted, and will not have to double close or anything fancy.

But primarily wanted to get input on whether or not I should spam offers. And if not, why not?

Yeah I know what you mean. I know that if they accepted the low ball offers we would spam, we would close and make sure they get paid. But I think like you said 99% of them will never get accepted.

Instead I guess I will go the way of the REO rockstar guy. Develop relationships with the top brokers in the areas we want. Let them know we can close cash, show them POF, put a deposit in their title company and everything else to be taken seriously.

THEN we will spam offers. LOL!

I'm with Will - relationships are key . . . sending cold spammy faxes or emails are not the way to go IMO.

I have one alternative that worked for me. I used to have my real estate agent send a quick email to listing agents of properties we were looking at (it was easy because he could link email addresses from the MLS).

We would sort through REOs, pick the best 15-20 that would make good flips. My agent would send a quick email that said nothing more than "I have a cash buyer interested in 'x' property for 'y' price. Should we send a formal offer?"

We would get some helpful feedback without wasting everyone's time.

The most positive feedback came on ugly homes that were on the market 90+ days in which we threw out purchase numbers 70-75% of list price in the emails.

Steve I really like your method. We are currently looking at a few REOs. I contacted the listing agent yesterday and may try emailing her about my offers. Thanks for the tip!

Developing a relationship with an REO broker is a great step, however, it still will not get lowball offers accepted because you have a good rapport with the agent. What it WILL do is put you on their contact list of qualified buyers, so when the really good deals become available, you are contacted before the property hits the market and have first shot at it (along with the rest of their list - at least it beats the rest of the MLS buyers.) I am a broker myself, but I get a heads up from a lot of REO brokers in the area on hot deals before they hit MLS because I've shown I am also a capable cash buyer that WILL close and NOT load a bunch of weasel clauses in my offer. It also helps that I step aside and allow them to collect both sides of the commission :)