All Forum Posts by: Ben Blackmon

Welcome to investing..... uncertainty, aggrevation, stress, that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach awaits. Ok, it's not that bad at least not in the beginning.

All kidding aside, finding deals are really simple and easy. My opinion is finding the deal is the first thing to do, figuring out what to do with it is second. I tried it the other way and never got much done.

Now I focus totally on marketing because that's where it begins. It's a lot easier trying to get a deal done when you've got five or six to choose from then when you are trying to cling to 1 crappy potential deal.

Make contacts, make offers but most of all keep your eyes and mind open. Potential deals will fly past your face almost daily you just gotta be awake.

Once you think you might have one go for it. Due diligence is of course part of any good investors operation, but acting quickly and decisively are also good traits.

You can make deals or make excuses but you can't do both.... ( I can't remember who I stole that quote from or I would credit them right here)

Hope this helps.

Memphis can be a tough market however, I have always thought it could take off and since it hasn't seen the appreciation which other areas have then it also hasn't seen the declines.

Government owned properties aren't likely to take much of a discount, typically in Tennessee on a HUD foreclosure they an appraisal and pretty much stick to that value. Funny thing is the appraiser does the value 'subject to' and HUD will typically give an allowance. The bigger problem though, is HUD wants to sell the properties to owner occupants first and investors second, so it can be a challenge.

As for REO's it really depends on the Investors and their bottom dollar. Cash can be used as an incentive and I ditto the remarks about contingencies.

Something to consider is doing preforeclosures as opposed to foreclosed homes. Here in Tennesse we foreclose on them very quickly and their is no specific public record filing before it hits the newspaper, but when you find them it's a lot easier to work out deals with the banks even FHA/VA loans prior to foreclosure.

There's obviously a lot more to it then what I just described but food for thought.

Good Luck!

To answer the part of your question about any good direct mail companies; There are many but really the company you deal with should do what you are asking them to do. If you are doing a relatively small mailing (under 2000 pieces), you can usually stay local if they are going to give you the type of service you need. If you are doing a larger mailing with odd size postcards (which I highly recommend) and/or mutliple piece letters (which I also highly recommend) then you might try Think Ink Marketing in California or City Printing.

All the Best,
Ben