All Forum Posts by: Bill Devola

@Missy H. 

So you're saying you more or less stick to one town?

 203Ks are a pain in the @$$ (take a long time to close, restrictive red tape, sellers generally hate them), BUT one thing to keep in mind is that its not a bad way for someone without renovation experience to start.  The bank looking over your shoulder means you cant really screw it up.  Its a bureaucratic safety net that will give a newbie a really good blue print on dealing with contractors, making a rehab plan, and keeping contractors to a schedule/budget/milestone list.   

That is only generally speaking of course.  Whether or not its good for you depends on several factors.   

I used to be a strictly local guy, but then started work for a company that bought houses in almost everyone of the contiguous 48.   It blew my mind how different the markets are across the U.S.A. 

Do you stick to your home town (and a single cash cow) or do you travel 15 miles (or more?) or even do out of state?

@Craig Moore

The strategies that you lay out are very dialed in and specific.  "Buy a 2-fam with 3% down, refi in a year..." versus "Buy a turnkey 3-fam..."   One key thing you're missing is world doesn't generally work with you so well!  You have to have flexibility to do different things to make a good deal work.  Especially in a market like this (at least in the NYC metro area) that has gotten more seller friendly.  

Looking at this from a higher level, I agree with @Al R.  I'm not saying be open to purchasing a strip mall or doing new construction, but go through the exercise of doing a detailed evaluation of a deal on a 2 or 3 or SF home you could buy now.  Taxes, rents, interest, mortgage insurance.   Talk to realtors.  Get on craigslist and look at competing rentals and see what things really rent for.  Doing this exercise is going to help you learn and ultimately will do way more to clarify your strategy as it fits for your life than any of our advice ever could.  

I guarantee people in your area make any and all of those techniques work for them.  The looked in depth and saw what fit their lifestyle, what was available/good deal, and what they liked and found their niche.  You'll find yours too once you just hold your nose and dive in like @Al R. said. 

 This goes back to the flaws of the software (or any "automated" software)...if you're really going to get after it, face to face door to door is the way to go.  Phone is the next best thing.  After that there is a huge drop off in the effectiveness/response rate.  

Automating deal finding from a kick-backed, desktop position is one innovation the tech nerds haven't quite mastered.  And i can't blame them.  I'm sure its a hard nut to crack.  

But, by the same token, this is the reason that the go getters of the world like @Josh Smith can carve out a living doing this.  Those with the desire and hunger will make a path where one didn't exist.  Those who walk along the carved path trudge through muddied footprints.  

@John Smith:

Great review!  Not only did you eliminate some of the speculation on the software itself, you even took the time to mention some software alternatives that accomplish the same thing.  

We are considering signing up at my company.  Currently, we don't use squeeze pages or do any sort of direct marketing to target off market sellers.  I've done some of this personally in the past, before the internet became near ubiquitous, and it was (as most can guess) a lot of work.   

@John Smith (or anyone else) :  how has your direct marketing utilizing the web been?  I've always assumed that people that had houses to get rid of at a discount didn't hit the web to look for a place to sell.  But I'm open to the idea that I could be misguided on that.