Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
I took some action over the last couple of days and drove around my neighborhood looking for abandoned houses. I found 20. Yesterday I went to the tax assessors office to get a much info about the properties as possible. Today I'm writing letters to the properties that have the most potential. Wish me Luck.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams Great job taking action. Remember to be consistent with following up with the homeowners, and make sure you're talking to the decision-maker on the deed. One of the issues I encountered when I first started was speaking to a relative of the property owner. Another step I would take is to check the register of deeds to ensure the owner didn't take out an outrageous HELOC on the property between 2005-2009. I can guarantee that if they did during this time, then there is no equity in the home. This will largely explain its dilapidated condition due to it being upside down. Taking these steps prior to mailing the sellers will result in you saving time and encountering less unwanted "surprises" down the road. Also, I would aim to target a lot more sellers. I initially made the same mistake by only mailing 10-20 drive for dollars leads and thinking I would get a response. You're going to eventually need to invest in marketing to at least 1000 leads monthly to land consistent deals. If money is an issue, I suggest doing a tactic that I coined "Google Driving for Dollars". Google maps is fairly updated in most areas where investors are active. If your farm area is within a year updated on Google Maps, then this will work. Go on Google and type in any address in your investment location. You can start with the area you were driving for dollars in. Then from there, just click down the street until you locate an abandoned-looking property. As soon as you locate one, start up an excel spread sheet and write down the address. Go to you county tax assessor's site and locate the home owner's name and mailing address. You can probably compile a list of 500 solid leads doing this over the weekend. Once you have this list, you can either send yellow letters out or cold call the sellers. I absolutely love calling sellers because you know immediately if the individual is motivated. I think there are too many hoops for the seller to jump through when you mail. And I'm highly skeptical of direct mail deliverably rates. Just because the letter isn't returned doesn't mean it delivered.
Also, you don't have to physically go inside your county's assessor's office. Your county's online assessor is available here. You can look up any owner information at the website I linked. I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any questions. I have extensive experience dealing with distressed properties.
Investor · Los Angeles · Member since 2017 · 31 posts · 6 votes
9y
Congrats on the first steps! I'm doing the same currently! As far as the tax assessor, please do share, what are the fees to find out the info for the abandoned properties?
Thanks
-Vanessa
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
Joey Hampton Vanessa Castillo the tax assessor' office should be at the county court house. There's no charge. You can research the owner info to any property in your county on the computers provided in the office. I was able to find the owner's name and when the property was bought and sold. No phone numbers were provided unfortunately.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
Joey Hampton Once I found where the office was I didn't really need to speak to anyone or ask any questions. Just research the info you're looking for on the computers. Good Luck!
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams Great job taking action. Remember to be consistent with following up with the homeowners, and make sure you're talking to the decision-maker on the deed. One of the issues I encountered when I first started was speaking to a relative of the property owner. Another step I would take is to check the register of deeds to ensure the owner didn't take out an outrageous HELOC on the property between 2005-2009. I can guarantee that if they did during this time, then there is no equity in the home. This will largely explain its dilapidated condition due to it being upside down. Taking these steps prior to mailing the sellers will result in you saving time and encountering less unwanted "surprises" down the road. Also, I would aim to target a lot more sellers. I initially made the same mistake by only mailing 10-20 drive for dollars leads and thinking I would get a response. You're going to eventually need to invest in marketing to at least 1000 leads monthly to land consistent deals. If money is an issue, I suggest doing a tactic that I coined "Google Driving for Dollars". Google maps is fairly updated in most areas where investors are active. If your farm area is within a year updated on Google Maps, then this will work. Go on Google and type in any address in your investment location. You can start with the area you were driving for dollars in. Then from there, just click down the street until you locate an abandoned-looking property. As soon as you locate one, start up an excel spread sheet and write down the address. Go to you county tax assessor's site and locate the home owner's name and mailing address. You can probably compile a list of 500 solid leads doing this over the weekend. Once you have this list, you can either send yellow letters out or cold call the sellers. I absolutely love calling sellers because you know immediately if the individual is motivated. I think there are too many hoops for the seller to jump through when you mail. And I'm highly skeptical of direct mail deliverably rates. Just because the letter isn't returned doesn't mean it delivered.
Also, you don't have to physically go inside your county's assessor's office. Your county's online assessor is available here. You can look up any owner information at the website I linked. I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any questions. I have extensive experience dealing with distressed properties.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Joey Hampton Most counties allow you to search property owner information online. Some have deed records available online also, but I found that the information is limited in my county. If you ever need to find an owner's information, just type in Google "Anywhere County AND property search" (replace anywhere with your subject property's county). After you do this, the county's online tax assessor's site should be one of the first search results. If you get stuck doing that, then there's a nifty website here that will enable you to find a county's public records sites anywhere in the US. I did the hard work for you, though. Charolette's assessor's site is here. :) Stay motivated!
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Vanessa Castillo You can bypass the county and go directly to List Source to buy an absentee list. If you do want to go through the county to get a list, then you should try and get a code violations or divorce list. I found that a lot of these properties are already being cold called by my team through our absentee high-equity campaign so obtaining these lists is superfluous for us. However, if you're strapped for cash and looking for the lowest hanging fruit, then I would definitely get a list of code violations from your city. This list is only available through the city, and you'll have a leg up because other investors aren't specifically targeting these property owners.
If the county gives you the runaround and says that any list you want is private, then file a FOIA (freedom of information act) request. I did this last year and got about 1,000 leads for $50. It took about a week to get the leads to me. However, you need to do a lot of due diligence on these leads because some can be upside down or have probate issues. If the property is abandoned, there's a reason! Just make sure it's within your means and monetarily beneficial to resolve the seller's problem. Best of luck.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams Yes, please let me know if you need any more clarification regarding the questions I answered. I think I hit on all of the topics. Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with Rock Hill. It's more closer to North Carolina than me. It's about 3 hours north from my city. I wish I knew somebody I could point your way but I don' know anybody. Are you looking to invest there? I might be able to point you in the right direction.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
Cornelius Garland Yes. My grandmother has a house there that needs to be renovated. She also has 6 other plots of land that used to have houses on them but they were torn down . My father wants to build prefabs on the land and rent out the homes. I was thinking of building prefabs and selling the homes.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams Is the land rural? And do you have any comps for the area? I would ensure there's a demand for rentals before building them. Rentals and rehabs are not necessarily in my skill set so I don't want to give you any inaccurate information.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
Cornelius Garland it's a suburban area. There is nothin for sale in the area on Zillow. The estimated value of the houses in the area range from 70k to 100k. It's amazing that nothing came up for sale in the area on zillow. I'm going to do some research.