All Forum Posts by: Braden C.

@Gerald Donaire No, don't exclude them. 

@Dakota Mathis I would suggest skip tracing the owners and calling them before sending a letter. That's what we do and have a lot of success. The conversation is basically "hi, I was driving by your property on XX street and noticed it might be vacant. I am looking for a house in that area and wanted to see if it's something you would be interested in selling." I always say "might" be vacant, some people just don't take care of their properties and will get offended. 

If I can't find a good working phone number or get someone to take my calls, then I'll start sending letters. Good luck!  

@Timothy Frazier Since you work full time, direct mail is going to be tough to do (and this is coming from a direct mail guy). What makes a DM campaign successful is not only the mail piece, but your ability to answer calls and be professional on the phone. We have a lot of competition in our market with other companies or individuals sending mail but I hear time and time again from sellers that the majority of people sending mail don't answer/return phone calls and are just unprofessional on the phone. 

If I were you, I'd be out driving for dollars on your days off or free time. It's cheap and when you find a potential deal you can make a quick phone call to the owner. We get several really good deals every year from D4D. 

Like a lot of people have already said, it really depends on what kind of condition the steps are actually in. If there is a safety risk, I would go ahead and get them fixed. Maybe she fell or slipped after a few days of living there and no longer feels safe with the current condition. The lawsuit comment might seem like a threat but if the steps are in fact in bad condition and she's made repeated requests to have them fixed, she's right about having to sue if she gets hurt. 

If they just look bad and she wants them to look nice and new, then it's a firm no. I had a tenant once who would ask me almost monthly to put down new flooring for him because he didn't like the color of the current tile. Every month it was a firm no, but he kept asking up until the day I sold the place. Some tenants don't understand the difference of being a tenant and being an owner. 

@Andrew Hyder If you're looking for seller financed deals, I would suggest trying this out as we've had success in the past. Send a professional letter with your typical we buy houses message, then add a handwritten font at an angle that says "If you don't want to lose the monthly income from this property, we have options!". The option of course would be for the seller to hold a note and still receive monthly income without the headaches of being a landlord. The very first batch we sent out by adding that message we got a duplex with 100% seller financing at 8% interest.  

@Paul Slawski Is there seller local? It would be worth driving by his house to see if there's any activity, I'd go on trash day and see if there are any trashcans out. You never know, he might've had an accident or a family emergency. You could always try calling from a different phone number and see if he answers. If he's heading towards foreclosure then he's probably getting several calls from the bank and/or debt collectors daily so he might not answer. Another idea would be to look him up on facebook and see if there's any recent activity. 

I've found that sellers facing foreclosure are usually facing other difficult financial situations as well. They're getting bombarded with calls from debt collectors and letters from attorneys. The threat of another lawsuit to force specific performance will likely have a much lower chance of success than with a normal situation. I'd personally go the gentle route for as long as I could and try your best to help the guy. Once you threaten a lawsuit he might just tell you to get in line. 

Hopefully it works out! 

@Austin Geiser We've been hitting multi family hard so far this year and have had a lot of success. We're not putting any criteria other than it being multi family. We're of course still sending to absentee owned single family houses but our cost per acquisition is quite a bit higher compared to what multi family has been for us lately. 

@Ophelia Kier I am curious, why not just get a license and not have to worry about stuff like this? It's so easy to get and adds a new revenue stream for your business. The only thing you would have to change in your current business is disclosing to sellers and buyers that you're licensed. Wholesaling is an awesome strategy and we wholesale deals all the time, but in my opinion you should be licensed to do it. 

I'd pick one thing, and get really good at it before trying lots of different approaches at one time. SEO, PPC, direct mail, bandit signs, cold calling, door knocking, and the list goes on. They all work, I can say that with 100% certainty because I've got deals from each of them. I didn't try to do everything all at once though and I scaled what worked the best for me. Hopefully this helps give you a bit of guidance. Good luck! 

@Joshua Cayton You can rent a PO box from a UPS store for relatively cheap, that's what I would recommend. I've sent out probably close to a million letters for my business and only once or twice has someone actually shown up at my office. It wasn't a big deal, but I certainly wouldn't want someone showing up at my house. 

Yellow letters are going to generate more calls, professional letters are going to generate better leads and less time wasting calls. If you're just getting started and want to get better at taking calls and running numbers, yellow letters aren't a bad idea. Once you get comfortable on the phone and with your numbers, I'd recommend sending out professional letters instead. Every market is different though and there are lots of different opinions, I'm just sharing mine :) 

Good luck!