All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Garland

@Christopher Berkely Welcome to BP! I see that you're interested in vacation rentals near the beaches. I'm actually managing a marketing campaign for a company downtown that is looking to snag a few rentals on Folly Beach. We gotten a nice response rate from us just calling 170 sellers. I don't know the exact figures but it's far better than direct mail. We got in touch with almost all of them within the first week and set up our client with 7 appointments.

I say all of this because a lot of people would think that the higher-priced areas are more competitive, but it's literally the opposite. The homeowners we spoke to haven't received a single call or letter about their properties. There is virtually no competition so your chances of getting a deal at one of the beaches is high. You just need to make sure you're in the same price range as your seller or can negotiate terms, like our client. Please let me know if you have any questions.

More importantly, you need to know what has sold within the last 6 months. If there are a few sales, then there is at least some interest in the area. I just don't want you invest and not have a viable exit strategy. Also, to check the market rent in the area and potentially what you can rent the properties for, check out rentometer. It's pretty accurate and you can do a lot of searches on their free plan. Please keep me posted on your progress with this situation. 

@Ceary Williams Is the land rural? And do you have any comps for the area? I would ensure there's a demand for rentals before building them. Rentals and rehabs are not necessarily in my skill set so I don't want to give you any inaccurate information.

@Ceary Williams Yes, please let me know if you need any more clarification regarding the questions I answered. I think I hit on all of the topics. Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with Rock Hill. It's more closer to North Carolina than me. It's about 3 hours north from my city. I wish I knew somebody I could point your way but I don' know anybody. Are you looking to invest there? I might be able to point you in the right direction.

@Vanessa Castillo You can bypass the county and go directly to List Source to buy an absentee list. If you do want to go through the county to get a list, then you should try and get a code violations or divorce list. I found that a lot of these properties are already being cold called by my team through our absentee high-equity campaign so obtaining these lists is superfluous for us. However, if you're strapped for cash and looking for the lowest hanging fruit, then I would definitely get a list of code violations from your city. This list is only available through the city, and you'll have a leg up because other investors aren't specifically targeting these property owners.

If the county gives you the runaround and says that any list you want is private, then file a FOIA (freedom of information act) request. I did this last year and got about 1,000 leads for $50. It took about a week to get the leads to me. However, you need to do a lot of due diligence on these leads because some can be upside down or have probate issues. If the property is abandoned, there's a reason! Just make sure it's within your means and monetarily beneficial to resolve the seller's problem. Best of luck.

@Joey Hampton Most counties allow you to search property owner information online. Some have deed records available online also, but I found that the information is limited in my county. If you ever need to find an owner's information, just type in Google "Anywhere County AND property search" (replace anywhere with your subject property's county). After you do this, the county's online tax assessor's site should be one of the first search results. If you get stuck doing that, then there's a nifty website here that will enable you to find a county's public records sites anywhere in the US. I did the hard work for you, though. Charolette's assessor's site is here. :) Stay motivated!

@Ceary Williams Great job taking action. Remember to be consistent with following up with the homeowners, and make sure you're talking to the decision-maker on the deed. One of the issues I encountered when I first started was speaking to a relative of the property owner. Another step I would take is to check the register of deeds to ensure the owner didn't take out an outrageous HELOC on the property between 2005-2009. I can guarantee that if they did during this time, then there is no equity in the home. This will largely explain its dilapidated condition due to it being upside down. Taking these steps prior to mailing the sellers will result in you saving time and encountering less unwanted "surprises" down the road. Also, I would aim to target a lot more sellers. I initially made the same mistake by only mailing 10-20 drive for dollars leads and thinking I would get a response. You're going to eventually need to invest in marketing to at least 1000 leads monthly to land consistent deals. If money is an issue, I suggest doing a tactic that I coined "Google Driving for Dollars". Google maps is fairly updated in most areas where investors are active. If your farm area is within a year updated on Google Maps, then this will work. Go on Google and type in any address in your investment location. You can start with the area you were driving for dollars in. Then from there, just click down the street until you locate an abandoned-looking property. As soon as you locate one, start up an excel spread sheet and write down the address. Go to you county tax assessor's site and locate the home owner's name and mailing address. You can probably compile a list of 500 solid leads doing this over the weekend. Once you have this list, you can either send yellow letters out or cold call the sellers. I absolutely love calling sellers because you know immediately if the individual is motivated. I think there are too many hoops for the seller to jump through when you mail. And I'm highly skeptical of direct mail deliverably rates. Just because the letter isn't returned doesn't mean it delivered.

Also, you don't have to physically go inside your county's assessor's office. Your county's online assessor is available here. You can look up any owner information at the website I linked. I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any questions. I have extensive experience dealing with distressed properties.

@Fred Lopez Copy that; I just responded to your colleague request.

@Sean Autry I'm unsure of what TLO stands for but it's a tool from Transunion. You can search it by googling TLOXP. If you get an account, be wary that Transunion isn't fond of us using it for marketing purposes. If you tell them that you're using it for those purposes, then you might not qualify for an account.

@Solomon Oh The tax assessor's site doesn't usually have any lien information on it. Also, the county officials generally dont know how to access that type of information and if they can, they likely think its private. Although, that information is public. 

Are you able to access your county's   register of deeds online? There should be a book and page associated with the lien if it's a mechanics lien or bank lien. That's how it is in my particular counties I invest in, but the information presented to the public varies by county. Please send me the screenshot.