All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Garland

@Anthony Muffi Hello Anthony. 25-30 cents per lead is a stretch. Most people charge anywhere from 1-10 dollars per lead for this service. I may be able to help you out or at least point you in the right direction because this is what I do full-time for investors. Please PM me, and I'll provide more details.

Larry Murray Like the others indicated, this happens all the time and I wouldn't take her seriously at all. You got her address the same way that all of the other companies who send her mail did. The only issue is that your mail piece is so personal that some people view it as a violation of privacy even though property information is public. Just laugh it off. I have a folder on my computer full of angry voicemails that I listen to when I need a laugh. At least you're getting a response from your mail unlike some people on BP recently!

@Dustin Frank You will need to go on your state's Secretary of State site here and search the business name to find the registered agent. Oftentimes, the registered agent is a company or attorney so you'll have to Google them to find a phone number for them. Sometimes, they'll tell you who the owner of the LLC is; however, they may be reluctant to give you this information. If you see that the registered agent is an individual, then you're in luck. The only thing you have to do is run a quick skip trace to locate their phone number and address. You can either call them directly or mail them. I'm thinking that this property may be registered with a corporation or attorney since you didn't get a response back from your letter.

Keenan Smith I'm glad to help! Please let me know if you have any more questions.

@Matt Turcutto I didn't intend to come across so blunt regarding the equity filters. However, it's extremely important as rehabber that you have equity once you purchase. You want to add value to the property through your repairs, and this is difficult to do if the property has low equity. I'm unaware of your previous experience, but you need to be able to negotiate with the banks directly in order to work with short sales. Also, I'm unsure if you need to be a licensed realtor or broker in your state to do this. I know in South Carolina, you don't have to be licensed; however, the process can take anywhere from six months to a year.

I've targeted the mortgage late, inherited, probate, and tax delinquent lists previously and did not use equity filters, which resulted in an abysmal ROI. If you do want to target short sales or homes with little equity then I suggest doing this strategically. In List Source, you can filter by negative equity. So if you're willing to pay above market value, then you can control how much a property owner is upside down on their home. The worse feeling is having a motivated seller call and they're significantly upside down on their property. That's what happened when I mailed the mortgage late list for several months.

While you may want to focus on specific areas that investors aren't heavily working in, the likelihood of getting a deal may be low. I think @Andrew Johnson articulated this perfectly. The people you're marketing to generally aren't in a difficult spot financially, and the only way they would sell to an investor is if they're going through divorce or some difficult emotional situation. It is advantageous to market to areas that have lot of investor activity because your message has been broadcasted to the property owners already. It's much easier to get a property under contract if you don't have to explain the benefits of selling with an investor to the prospect. Contrarily, If you're the only investor marketing in your neighborhood, you're going to have take very cold prospects and explain the benefits of working with an investor to every single seller. My personal suggestion is that you focus on one exit strategy and master a single marketing strategy before you add on anything else. If you want to rehab homes, then I would solely focus on this and not short sales or sub-tos  This will allow you to both narrow the focus of your marketing efforts and ensure you're not becoming overwhelmed. I can only count a handful of investors, that I personally know, who run their own marketing in addition to rehabbing properties. Rehabbing is a full-time job in itself, so a lot of them outsource their lead generation or rely on wholesalers for deals. I just feel like you're trying to do too much, and it reminds me of when I first started. I empathize with you and understand your frustration. There are a lot of great suggestions on this post, and we all want to see you succeed.

@Teresa DelaMater I apologize, I'm just seeing this message because I wasn't mentioned in your previous comment. If you haven't found a direct mail distributor already, I suggest either yellowletters.com or yellowlettershop.com. I've used both in the past with great results. Always get a proof before sending them out, too. I hope this helps!

@Matt Turcutto You've received some great suggestions, and I want to offer my input because you're not too far way from achieving success. Your persistence has gotten you this far, and I'd hate to see you quit after you've come this far. I did read a few things in your initial post that should be tweaked immediately. Firstly, I think your main issue are your lists. You're not focused on the right zip codes and prospect group, which is why your message isn't being well-received. I always qualify my target zip codes and check how many cash sales there were in the previous six months. If there are 100 cash sales in one zip code and only four in another, I'm going to go with the zip code that has 100. The reason being is because there is a lot of investor activity in the zip code with 100 cash sales. The prospects are already getting mailed to by investors so they know the benefits of working with you, and these will likely be blue collar areas with a lot of homes with equity. It may take some time to qualify the zip codes at first, but you'll thank yourself later. You want to use List Source to pull all of the cash sales in your target area and choose the zip codes with the most cash sales to market to. 

Secondly, I don't think your number of leads per list is large enough. While you may be targeting over 1,000 individuals per month, you're not focused enough. Rather than doing four separate lists, I would focus on one or two and hit those consistently. The smallest campaign I ever ran was a list of 390 names and that was a very specific neighborhood that had a lot of dilapidated homes. I typically aim for at least 1,000 prospects per campaign. I would suggest discontinuing the first and fourth lists, unless there have been a crazy number of cash sales. Also, if you haven't filtered by equity then your list is essentially worthless as a cash buyer. Not having equity filters on your lists is like shooting in the dark. These homes could be upside down or only have 10-20% equity, and you won't know until the prospect calls you.

Lastly, I want to touch on your marketing piece. You should really do yellow letters, or at least have your typed letter in an invitation envelope with "handwritten" font to increase your open rate. While you may not immediately close on these deals, it will at least initiate the conversation and you can followup with the leads. Every one of my deals, except for one, came from consistent followup.

I think your biggest issue is the lists you are targeting. If they're not solid from the start, your whole campaign will fail. Direct mail can work; however, it requires research and not deviating from what's worked for other investors. I spent about five solid months intensely studying the BP forums back in 2015 before I sent out my first letters, and I'm glad I waited. I was on a very tight budget, and we really only had one shot to get it right. Thankfully, we were able to pull a deal from that campaign, and we haven't looked back since. I know you're discouraged, but if you want to invest in real estate for the long haul, then this will be the first time of many that you spend money and not see an immediate ROI. I was definitely breaking even in my first year because I was learning and spending money experimenting with what works.

@Jan Wanot I have my own database I started compiling a few years back. I go to different stores and buy data directly from them, and I also pull from the big 3 bureaus. I suggest getting a tool like TLO or Lexis Nexis. A lot of investors on BP have access to them, and I think TLO charges $1.00 a search atop of the monthly fee. The numbers are spotty for both tools and may be outdated. But it'll get you by if you're only doing a couple hundred records per month. If you need to skip trace thousands, then it can get pricy. Please let me know if you'd like for me to clarify anything I stated!

@James Danchus I agree with what @Justin Silverio indicated. Your value is that you're providing them a quick way to liquidate their property without a long drawn-out process. I've gone overboard with trying to provide too much value, and at a point there is a diminishing returns effect. For instance, one time a lady called us from of a mail piece and indicated that she didn't have a phone so she would try to call us at a later date. We actually bought a prepaid phone and Fedexed it to her address. Turns out, she wasn't even motivated to sell. She got a free phone out of it, and we wasted $100. Essentially, what I'm stating is that if someone can't see your benefits from your direct mail message then there's nothing you can do to convince them to sell their home to you. It's just not going to happen. I hope this assisted and provided some context.

@Account Closed Thanks John! I'm trying to get on your level.