BiggerPockets

Hello BP Fam,

From what I've gathered thus far, it's advised that, as a newbie wholesaler, I narrow-in on or master a particular neighborhood, so I figured what better neighborhood to start with than my own. So I did just that, and surprisingly came across a few potentials. One in particular has all the aspects one would look for in a deal. Severely unkept yard, newspapers EVERYWHERE, several notices/stickers placed on the front door (something to do with the home being "winterized"), etc.

So my question is, how do I go about finding the owner or getting in contact with SOMEONE pertaining to the house? Let me add that there's NO Realtor or FSBO sign in the yard, and I looked up the house in our county appraisal district records, and found a name, but it ties back in to the same address.

All help/replies are greatly appreciated!

I would write a letter and put it in the mail box (Make it specific to the property and communicate how you can help). Also, you could always try to talk to the surrounding neighbors to see if they know the individual. Neighbors are noise and typically a solid resource for insight. Good luck.

Thanks Guys.

As much as I don't want to give up on this one, I understand REOs to be a totally different ballgame. One that I KNOW I'm not experienced enough to deal with. I'll try a letter in the mailbox anyway and hope for the best. I'm guessing worst-case scenario, I could just birdog it to someone in the area who specializes in REOs.

Lastly, in general, what's the order of business you guys follow when you spot potential deals solely from riding around?

But what if the address on file with the county appraiser is the same as the property address? Mailing anything wouldn't do too much good, b/c it'd just end up at that house right?

Sounds good. I'll give it a shot.

Thanks Jimmy C.

The bank will also step in to winterize any property where the owner has abandoned the property, but it has not yet completed the foreclosure (so not yet technically REO). This is to protect the asset that serves as the bank's collateral. If this is the case, then who's going to see that letter, since the owners have taken off for parts unknown (most likely)?

And if it already is REO, then putting a letter in the mailbox is a total waste of time and effort.

Not sure how you would birddog REOs, since they will usually end up listed on the MLS - buyers just need an agent to get those.

Jimmy has good advice - keep looking and track down the owners. And hope that the mailing address differs from the property address.

Dion are you trying to wholesale because you have no money starting out??

If that's the case why not go work for a big investor company and get paid to learn the ropes?? Buildup cash and start doing your own deals.

Re-inventing the wheel will take you much longer to get going.Having someone to show you what is working and is not and preventing you from making the same mistakes is priceless.

Yes winterizing you are wasting your time.On the REO's I list if the property is priced right I don't need a middleman wholesaler trying to put under contract cheap and collect a fee.

The right price will bring me plenty of direct cash buyers that can close fast.Asset managers sometimes have over 100 files to deal with and don't have time for investors with no money to try exotic ways to make money.

Sometimes those deals work but many times they do not and the asset managers plays the percentages.

Now if you have cash to purchase sometimes you will catch the bank on the right day when all the planets line up and they will take a low offer and dump it which will make it easier to wholesale.

Forget all these people who say things are easy and try to sell you something.Nothing is easy and takes smart work and time management.The question at the end of the day is do you enjoy doing it??

Dion, although my business is more on the property management side of things, I say put a stamp on the letter and send it. If they have added a forwarding address and they still have control of the home, you may get lucky. I've done something similar in locating vacant homes in my area & like you, I found that the public records still has the address as the vacant home. Worst case scenario, the letter comes back. I got at least one client this way, they had to move out of town & were making their payments but never thought about hiring a property manager. Score for sending the letter!

I would agree with that Steve. However in this case he checked the county records, and I am guessing that the owner of record is not a bank.

If that is the case then it can still be a pre-foreclosure, and sending a letter could possibly forward to the homeowners new address.

You can do a title search with a site like https://fwprodweb1.firstam.com/fastweb/fwlogin.asp and find out who actually owns the property.

Contact them and make an offer...