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.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
More importantly, you need to know what has sold within the last 6 months. If there are a few sales, then there is at least some interest in the area. I just don't want you invest and not have a viable exit strategy. Also, to check the market rent in the area and potentially what you can rent the properties for, check out rentometer. It's pretty accurate and you can do a lot of searches on their free plan. Please keep me posted on your progress with this situation.
Tega Cay, SC · Member since 2014 · 213 posts · 74 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams@Cornelius Garland I am a full time investor in Rock Hill. I only do Rock Hill. My company specializes in rehabbing homes for investors and also new construction. If you have any questions about the Rock Hill market reach out!
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
Cornelius Garland I must say I had a lot of fun "Google Driving for Dollars. However I'm not finding much. I don't know how I'm going to find 100 properties Driving for Dollars. At least not in the market I'm looking in. Maybe I'll try another market. Also, the link for the Bergen county tax assessments isn't working for some reason.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
David Chwaszczewski Nice to meet you. You're just the man I need to talk to. My Grandmother has about for plots of land on Harrison st and a house on Stroupe st. The house were going to renovate for my grandmother to live in . I want to figure out what the best option for that market. build and flip or build and hold. I'm also leaning towards prefabs. Your input will be appreciated. Thanks.
Real Estate Investor · Sunny Isles Beach, FL · Member since 2013 · 788 posts · 333 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams Some of the critical aspects of direct-mail marketing is having: (1) a script when they call; (2) a follow-up system; (3) a system to take voicemail / record the number if you're unavailable at the initial call. I would have those planned before spending funds on direct-mail.
You can also save a few dollars by checking MLS to see if the property is listed before mailing.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@David Chwaszczewski Thanks for chiming in! I wanted to assist Ceary but wasn't familiar with your area.
Also, @Ceary Williams I've had that issue as well. There are a couple of areas I started out Google Driving for Dollars in where I knew for sure there were dilapidated properties. My area is probably unique because there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of homes that are boarded up, but have huge potential. Charleston is a very interesting market, and my area may be a rare case. Either way, I would say you were successful because you saved gas and your time even though you didn't locate a property. Instead of actually driving to those locations, you leveraged technology and let Google Maps do the work for you. I would try a different neighborhood to see if you have any luck. A great trick to see where investors are rehabbing is to go to List Source and see which zip codes near you have had the most cash sales. This would be a great starting point. I can help you with this if you need any assistance. Just let me know.
I checked the Bergen County website and it appears they only have a directory that lists contacts in the county. One thing that irks me is that there is no national standard between the counties regarding the accessibility of their data. One county may have all of their data online and the adjacent county may require you to call to get access to the information. I would call the county assessor's office to see if they have a way you can access the data online. There may be a small fee to do this; however, it will be worth it if you need to search property records. Seperately, I was able to find Bergen County's register of deeds online. You can use this site to verify ownership and any liens or mortgages in a property owner's name. You can access it here.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
I decided to move on to another market that I was familiar with that had more opportunities for wholesaling and flipping. I moved on to Hudson county. I put together a spread sheet of about 40 properties. Unfortunately I forgot to save the document and lost it. Smh. Time to start a new one.
Charlotte, NC · Member since 2017 · 68 posts · 10 votes
9y
Ceary Williams When filling out a Yellow Letter order, do we need to specify which address to send the letters to anywhere? I know on the yellow letter, it will merge [PROPERTY ADDRESS], but if the owner's mailing address is different, which address will it be sent to? I haven't sent out any yellow letters yet, so I apologize for the question. I was searching around for about 30 minutes trying to find an answer.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
Joey Hampton I'm new at this myself, but it sounds like you used some type on software. My yellow letters were hand written with hand written envelopes. I noticed most of the owners I found didn't have another address. So I mailed them directly to the properties I'm interested in. For th other properties. I sent the yellow letters to the owners new mailing address.
Charlotte, NC · Member since 2017 · 68 posts · 10 votes
9y
Ceary Williams Right, however there isn't an option on the website so I didn't know if they sent it to the mailing address or the property address, lol.
Charlotte, NC · Member since 2017 · 68 posts · 10 votes
9y
Ceary Williams It's a list of two different counties from my area. I'll message you. I was recommended by a few people to do this and it worked pretty good, and it was cheaper than everyone posts.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Ceary Williams@Joey Hampton I thought I would interject to provide some guidance. Your lists should definitely have equity and you also need to mail more than 200 leads to get a response. I've dealt with a lot of list providers in the past that promised the leads were "good"; however, after mailing I discovered there was no motivation at all. I would really try to stick with an absentee high-equity list. I found that there are typically not enough leads when I'm using other lists to efficently scale my marketing. For instance, while probates or inherited leads may be a good list to target, I'll never make it the basis of my investment business. You're essentially counting on people to pass away to get a lead. I'm not saying is impossible; however, this is something you can add after you close a few deals.
Also if you plan on wholesaling, then I highly suggest getting up to 500 leads at a minimum. I've landed deals with a list with fewer leads, but I was targeting a specific neighborhood and we did some door knocking and a lot cold calling to increase our response rate. I'm glad you both are taking action; I just wanted to provide some direction so you save time and money! I've been through exactly what you're going through and understand it can be overwhelming.
Wholesaler · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2015 · 398 posts · 679 votes
9y
@Joey Hampton I always get my lists off of List Source. You're able to filter by equity on there. If your list provider is able to filter by equity then I would use them. Just ask them because you can spend a lot of money on lists and not be able to wholesale them. I made this mistake on a preforeclosure list I bought and an inherited list.
Investor · Hampton, VA · Member since 2016 · 3 posts · 1 vote
9y
How does someone go about finding properties to wholesale? I'm very interested in doing this on the side, until I retire from my job and get into real estate investing full time.
Charlotte, NC · Member since 2017 · 68 posts · 10 votes
9y
Tony Alston You must find a list of motivated sellers. Quite a few people get their list from ListSource. However, they aren't free. This is a very basic answer to your question, but figured I'd reply.
Englewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 43 posts · 11 votes
9y
I'm Ready for Round 2. I made up another list of abandoned houses. Now I need to find the owners. Last time I went to the recorders office. This time I want to use an online source. Which website should I use ?