All Forum Posts by: Brian Davis

I am trying to find a service where I can automate my offer creation and submission to listing agents.   I have a PDF contract I typically use and a standard email when I send off an offer.  I currently go through the pdf, make the changes of address, dates, price, etc. I personalize the email for the agents and then attach and send it off.   I would like a software where I can simply change the variables, put in the email address, and boom, email/pdf off to agent.  Any suggestions? 

I am at about 10 minutes per offer/email but I know this should only take a minute or 2 if it is automated.  50-100 offers a week and this time would quickly add up so i need some way to streamline this process a little better.

Damn @Dell Schlabach , bringing it!  Best advice I have heard all day. Thanks Man.

@Luc Boiron Thanks for the reply. It seems the only way to fill the pipeline with enough deals is to maximize every possibilty to its fullest extent. So the plan would be as follows:

Exhaust the MLS. Analyze as many properties as possible and make as many offers as possible. Track my offers, follow up on my offers, make offers on everything we look at consistently. Be more vigilant in making sure we are on top of the MLS and get out to see properties and work with a sense of urgency.

Letters and Postcards: Absentee owners, Inheritance List, Probate, Pre-foreclosure, etc. With increased volume, revenue increases and we can hire a true salesperson to take calls and go on appointments.  This would be a full time position in and of itself.

Networking: Birddogs, students that I can mentor, wholesalers, REO agents, agents in general, etc.

Bandit signs - have our sales guy take these calls as well. 

Then there are probably 10 more ways we would think of as we go along but these are top of mind. I do not think there is a shortage of deals. I think we just need to get more creative, work harder, and be more thoughtful and we can get whatever we need.  Same goes with raising private funds and finding good contractors. Like I said, from what I can gather, if I can get enough good quality people working towards the same vision, anything can be accomplished. And its not like I am trying to save all the starving children..lol...just trying to flip some houses in larger quantities.  :)

 I do 15 basically by myself with a broken system and I act as the GC.  Acquisitions and rehab, staging, and being a father to 2 boys. I am the real estate agent/broker on both sides. If I used GC's for all my projects, I could do 25 and I am certain, just depends on the right people fixing the homes. Other investors currently have businesses that do over 100 rehabs a year. This means I can do it. Because they are no smarter than me. That I am also certain.  

We flew to the moon. We fly planes. We are connecting right here through a screen almost immediately and you live 3000 miles away. I flip a switch and there is light. I have the knowledge of the world at my fingertips. 

Reasonable yes. Doable, yes.  The only question is whether or not I am going to do it.  I am just trying to figure out the easiest, quickest and most logical way to get there as I plan to do it. Not saying that I will. I have had lots of plans for many things in the past but I have changed direction because that's what we do sometimes and I have the freedom to change my mind at any point given new information.  

I figured someone would post a comment like this and I am not trying to be flippant or arrogant, but reasonable feels like a polite way of telling me to be "realistic".  If people were "realistic", we would not be having this conversation right now.   I could see shooting for 1000 in 3 years when I am doing only 10, but we are looking at something very reasonable IMO. 5-10x. 

I believe it is accomplished through great people. I believe anything worth a damn in this world is accomplished through great people working together, solving problems. That's why this website is so powerful.

So i just wanted to throw that in really quick because I have come to resent it when people have told me to be "realistic" in the past. If I listened to everyone that told me to be "realistic", I would be sitting in a cubicle right now and my kids would be picking their nose in a daycare.  Instead, I am going for a beautiful adventure with my family as i type this last word.

Sorry if that comes off the wrong way, but looking for solutions, not reasons why we cannot.   Those are easy to come up with. And we only need one reason we cannot like Jim Rohn says.  We don't need 5.  Just 1.   (the quote escapes me but whatever)

thx man...letters to jim was possibly an lol situation..i have yet to commit to a book...im just writing for my sanity at this point...trying to ramp up this real estate thing for now

Thanks also Jason. I tend to look at things from a flippers prospective since thats what i am, so I would want to be at 70% minus repairs so it gives me 2 exit strategies. If the house works as a good flip and a good rental, then you are in great shape.  I would also suggest you look at those rents seriously to make sure no one is giving you inflated versions of the truth as well.

As for finding a deal, short sales are sooo flimsy and unpredictable and i would never bet on any 1 offer coming together. Its almost like 1 in 50 short sale offers ever come to fruition so i wouldnt hold my breath on that one. The only thing you can do to increase your chance of finding a deal being accepted and moving forward is to greatly increase the number of offers you make. It sometimes takes LOTS of offers to get a true deal. Thats the best i got. 

I have come to the point in my real estate investing career where I know in order for me to continue to grow, I really need to put a much greater emphasis on networking.   This site is great for that I know. But I was wondering if someone had tips on how to find the right people to talk to?  What people to approach for coffee? How to ask people to meet up without sounding like a weirdo? I feel like the more people I can meet with, the better, but do I want to meet with newbie guy everyday for lunch?  I feel like finding and talking with people that are currently involved with real estate and making a living doing so would be much better connection . But again, I do not know.  Any advice? How would I be able to do this in large numbers? I would like to just start meeting someone new everyday if possible in my market and see where that takes me. 

Thanks again for any advice.

Hey BP,

Over the past year, we have successfully completed 15 fix and flip rehabs but this year we are looking to greatly expand the business.  I am currently in the middle of trying to streamline the business and all its systems so that we can handle more volume.  Through some various research, I have found these couple of ideas that we plan to implement very shortly that we expect can help in our growth:

1. A “default house template”

a. Every rehab will be near identical in materials used unless specific circumstance changes it
b. SKU’s have been written and organized to hand to contractors and insert into contracts
c. Extremely clear directions on all standard aspects of a house

2. Hiring great General Contractors
a. Paying for these high end contractors will be the biggest jump for me but I believe will
pay for itself with managing multiple projects and not needing as much over site per job
as long as I have been very clear about what I want
b. Obviously this one is much easier said than done to find the right people but I do not believe it to be impossible. I would imagine it would be a “get what you pay for” type of thing.

I believe these two changes alone will make the biggest difference in our ability to grow because it will allow me to place more emphasis on finding deals and networking for partners/lenders.

I am hoping any bigger rehabbers can chime in with what they have done to bring their business to the next level. My goal this is to move from the 15 houses we did last year to doing 50-100 flips per year as we move forward.  I know this is possible since other people are doing it but I know we need some help logistically with our plan as it will be much easier with some good advice from those who have been there before. 

So to you guys and girls who have made the jump from 10 houses to 50 or more, what are some of the systems and methods you have used to increase your volume??  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks yall!

Kind of a strange post for a real estate investing forum but I will tie this back to real estate. I recently realized that writing is a good outlet for me and sharing my thoughts can maybe help someone else so it’s a win-win. I think stories from our lives can sometimes be the most valuable lessons to help move our business in one direction or another so here it is.

Yesterday my dog was not looking good. He was lethargic and throwing up and looked sick. So last night after dinner, I brought him to the emergency pet hospital. They looked at him and said he would be best off staying the night so they can run some tests and make sure he is gonna be ok. We got a call a few hours later from the doctor and she said that from everything she can see, it appears that he has cancer and it seems a tumor in his spleen had ruptured. This means he will need surgery today.

This is not an easy pill to swallow. He is your typical awesome little dog that doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. He always means well and loves us unconditionally. He is our best friend and is my immediate family and he is irreplaceable. We love Scooter and he is good to us.

So I was thinking about it this morning on my run while wiping some tears away. (It's a strange experience running through the streets crying. Probably good it was dark so the neighbors couldn't see me.) Our pets have a much shorter life so we are continually reminded of a huge life lesson that we need to be reminded of as it is an all important truth to remember.

We are not guaranteed tomorrow. All we have is today so we better make the most of it.

Scooter is not dead. We plan to have the surgery today and make sure we can do whatever we can for him. We are hoping that the cancer is not malignant and he will go on to live a long healthy life. He is only 8 years old and the toughest guy you could imagine so my thoughts will be positive. That being said, this experience did remind me of that all important lesson that is crucial to remember.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed so we better make the most of today. Do the things we know we need to do today. Be honest with people. Follow your dreams. Create a new, exciting vision for your life since you only have 1 opportunity to make those dreams a reality.

For real estate: make the calls you need to make to reach the goals you need to reach to make this an incredible life for you and your family. Put up the bandit signs. Mail the letters. Buy the house. Make it bigger and badder if that's what you desire. Think bigger. Get stronger. Be better.

We have only one chance and one opportunity to move through this life. It seems that now would be a good time to start turning our dreams into realities. Now would be a good time to treat people how they should be treated. Now would be a good time to say the things we think but never say. Now would be a great time to be honest with ourselves.

I write this because I understand what I need to do, not that I always do it. So I hope it doesn't come off as preachy. I have been writing for myself as it is therapeutic and it's good for me to reaffirm with myself the things I need to do and hopefully it resonates with someone else. I recently had the conclusion that if I can connect with 1 person out of 100, it's better than connecting with 0 out of a million. So that’s my story today.

I am trying to figure out how to get computer generated homes values together with all of the properties for sale in my current market. I would ideally have a zillow value for every active home from 2 years ago before that zillow value started to drop due to foreclosure activity , market time, or whatever other variables they use to determine the value. This is just another piece of data I would like to compile to better help in identifying potential deals. Anyone have any clue where or how I can get this data without hiring a VA to make this happen house by house? I need a backdoor into computer generated home values somewhere. Thanks...Any help would be so greatly appreciated.