All Forum Posts by: Alison M.

J., I see you're in Brooklyn. Even in the big metropolis of NYC there must be real estate investor groups, meetings, etc where you can network and meet hard money lenders who will help you build a track record. There may even be some here on BP. A POF letter can make it much easier to get deals under contract, assuming it is valid and current.

As for EMD, most investors I know only put a small amount of money down on a property. The rationale is that if you're making many offers each week you can't afford to be making big EMDs. For wholesale deals I don't even make a deposit until I have a ratified contract, and no one has ever commented on it.

I wholesale in Washington DC, nothing like Aaron's friends' deal but still pretty high-priced residential real estate. Lots of folks on this site wholesale in expensive cities, it all works the same!

Interesting topic. In 2013 I spoke to 104 serious sellers on the phone, closed 4 deals, and have another 3-4 still in the negotiation stage. I don't log the tire-kicker sellers, or the ones who want to be removed from the list. The tire kickers will continue to get postcards from me if they change their minds and if they seem "on the fence" I follow up with them every few months.

While that sounds pretty good, the bad part is that it took 22,000 postcards to get there. So my serious response rate was only .47%.

I say you can't make a decision unless you've seen the inside of property. Go have a look before going through all this decision agony! Usually the walk-through clarifies a lot of things.

The other thing to consider Ryan is how competitive your market is. If there is a REIA group that meets in the area you can start to get a feel by attending the meetings and hearing what folks have to say.

Every jurisdiction is different, but I would check with the government of the town you want to farm and see if they keep a list of vacant properties. Some do.

Here in the DC metro area our multiple listing service does NOT indicate if the house is vacant or not unless the agent puts it in the notes. Many people don't want their houses to be identified as vacant (or even have signs in front) because of a perceived security risk.

Thanks again Dawn. $35k would buy a lot of marketing for me! I will check out Lending Club.

I was browsing about QR codes and want to revive this thread. Has anyone used QR codes successfully in the past year and noticed that it made a difference in their response rates? Who are you mailing to when you use them?

Thanks @Chad Standish and @Dawn Anastasi . Dawn I see what you're referring to.

Does anyone know of other sites that allow fundraising for soft costs like marketing?

Thanks Maurice, I'll check it out. How many loans have you done with Prosper?