Des Moines, IA · Member since 2019 · 19 posts · 14 votes
Quick question for you guys. When driving for dollars and coming across properties that are vacant but owned by an LLC or a corporation, is it worth trying to research the number of the LLC (I'm told batch tracing companies do not skip trace these).
Would I look these people up and treat them as potential tired landlords? I'm just starting out and I'm trying to be laser precise on the leads that I spend my time with...would I be wasting my time and better served by moving on?
Investor · Austin TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
7y
@Shannon McLeod Glad I could help Shannon! Let me give you another tip kind of along the same lines. When I was new and didnt have much of a buyers list, anytime I got a house under contract I would look at all the owners of the properties in the same neighborhood and any LLC that owned a property or any individual that owned more than one property in that neighborhood got contacted by me. You already know that they buy in that neighborhood and have the money to do so and many times I found they would be familiar with the house I had under contract. Just another tip, hope it helps!
Flipper/Rehabber · Long Beach, CA · Member since 2017 · 155 posts · 118 votes
7y
@Shannon McLeod
I'm still saving those properties that are llc owner but I am filtering them out of my excel sheet before I send into skip tracing. Once I get a long enough list of LLC's I will pay someone to manually search these. Then send that list in for skip tracing.
Investor · Scottsdale AZ · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 423 votes
7y
@Dennis M. You are correct. Sending a generic postcard is a waste of time and will get tossed and that is why we do NOT do that.
We send a professional two page mailer which is very specific & personalized to each property owner. Page one is a brief introduction about who we are and how we got their information. Page two is a detailed, personal purchase agreement with a specific offer price.
Once they reach back out to us and let us know they are interested, then we meet with them, explain the process, address and help with any moving concerns, etc. We hold their hands through the whole process and provide all the "human emotion" support they need.
It's important to not waste time with individuals who have no intention of selling and certainly do not want to be talked into anything.
I'm getting ready to post and share a great example of a transaction we completed (SFR) using direct mail so everyone can see what is possible.
No price range, but a specific offer price. Like this: $289,421.24. Trust me, having a very specific price really gets their attention. Wouldn't you want to call back someone and find out exactly how they arrived at that offer?
(And isn't getting a professional offer in the mail better than some stranger knocking on your door?)
Great question! For houses, we use DataTree (First American Title's data company). You can get very specific to what data you pull for example, 3-4 bedrooms, built after x date, no mortgage, min/max sq footage, zoning... There are over 100 characteristics you can select from as you are pulling the data (aka leads).
We find that 3,000 offers to owners will consistently yield 1+ houses. We recently sent 10,000 offers to Mesa, AZ and bought 4 houses. And more are still coming back but I pass on the ones that aren't real bargins, or have title/other issues.
You will want to spent a lot of time on picking an area, downloading/scrubbing the data, and strategic pricing. Worth the time invested.
Wholesaler/Investor · Dallas, TX · Member since 2018 · 260 posts · 222 votes
7y
@Shannon McLeod I personally look up all members of the LLC or any other company, for that matter, and try to reach out to them. There are several reason why I would do this:
a. It might just be that they need to sell, for a variety of reasons.
b. It might just be that they just purchased their 1st investment deal, and I found a new potential buyer.
c. It might be that they are interested in networking, as am I, and maybe we could find a way to work together, down the road. d. It might be that they would call me down the road with a property that they can't/won't move on themselves, but remembered a great conversation I had with them.
I never pass up an opportunity to speak with an investor, you just never know what they might be able to offer, down the road.
Tampa, FL · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 3 votes
7y
@Jill DeWit Hope you're doing well. I'm relatively new to this world and with working full time, I need to optimize the time I have to focus on REI by reaching out to the right sellers. You sound very confident in your marketing and search methods, I was curious about somethings you mentioned.
How do you go about finding precise lists and more importantly, what are you looking for in those list that makes those homeowners so motivated?
Thanks for your time and looking forward to hearing back.
Rental Property Investor · Sonora, CA · Member since 2017 · 78 posts · 25 votes
7y
Wow! This happens to be an awesome thread of information that I'll continue to follow on D4$. Great advice to take notes and revisit at a later time through taking action. @Lydia R.@Dennis M.@Jill DeWit
For houses, I use DataTree which is First American Title's data company and gives me direct access to all the assessor information about the property, who owns it, mortgage details (if any), & much more. It's public information and legal to mail someone.
How do I know they are motivated? I mail them ALL a real specific cash offer and wait for them to contact me. Typically every 3,000 offers mailed will yield me 1 house. (I am being conservative & there is a bit of research that goes into my offers.)
So that costs me about $1,950 for data/mail total to make $20+k profit on a house flip. (I won't buy if the spread is not good & being conservative again.)
I buy the house outright for cash (not an assignment) and mark them up a little and re-sell fast to a flipper.
*The main point of this whole process* is that I can do this all in 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon and sit back and wait for the motivated sellers to contact me.
Realtor · Fort Lauderdale, FL · Member since 2012 · 17 posts · 1 vote
7y
@Jill DeWit Thanks for all the info. I'm curious, when you say mail them all a real specific cash offer, do you mean each offer is specific to the property? if so, what system are using that is generating 3,000 specific offers?
I pull property/ownership data directly from the county assessor and mass price (based on $x per acre for land, or by sq ft for houses) the whole batch/list. (Data from RealQuestPro for land and DataTree for houses)
Then I do a simple mail merge of that data (excel) into my pre-written letter (word) & offer template that makes it personal to them. (Once my data is ready and priced, the 3,000 unit mail merge only takes a few minutes.)
At the end, I have a pdf file with 6,000 pages (since it's a two-pages per owner) and that gets printed & mailed.
Realtor · Fort Lauderdale, FL · Member since 2012 · 17 posts · 1 vote
7y
@Jill DeWit Thank you for taking time out of your day to respond. The mass pricing is what I'm trying to wrap my head around. Does DataTree provide an assessed value for each of the 3,000 properties and then calculate what you're willing to pay as an investor?
EXCELLENT question! We never use "assessed" value. We use current/"for sale" comps and base our offers off those.
Rural vacant land - we offer around 25-30% of the average, lowest available (It's easier to double your money in vacant land.)
SFRs - figure out how much you want to make (we don't get greedy, we aim to quickly resell) and work it backwards into your offer price. (We are happy to make $30-50k and flip with no renovation in only days...)
There is a bit of work that goes into strategic pricing, but you are clearly "getting it".
It is all about great data and good pricing.
And don't round up your offer price. When you mail an offer that reads "Dear Mr. Mathurin, We are interested in buying your house at 123 Main Street for $297,223.16.." they pay attention!