All Forum Posts by: Clay Huber

Alvin Ray - why not consider investing in Kalamazoo where you live? That's a nice area, or if anything, you should consider Grand Rapids, which would be a quicker drive than all the way across the state to Detroit.

Brady Hanna I wrote a blog article on this very topic: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/05/24/you-just-passed-your-real-estate-licensee-test-now-what/

It doesn't go into Kansas City specifically, but the overall theme applies to any market.

One question though. Are 'both' your wife and yourself wanting to get licensed? If so, why?

It isn't exactly cheap to carry/maintain a license, and if you are only planning on using it for investing purposes, I don't really see why you would want to double your business overhead by both becoming licensed?

Perhaps I misread or am misunderstanding?

That's great. Truly impressive, especially when there hasn't even been 25 episodes yet!

Ned Carey - my question too. I'm not sure how this would even be possible?

Lauren Hardy - amen sister! I would hope everyone's time is more valuable than the time it takes to remove and save something that is only worth $.46, but worst yet, probably ILLEGAL to be doing in the first place.

Not really a bad thing as it seems pretty standard, but I recently put in an offer for a friend of mine on a BoA foreclosure, and it took them FOREVER to get back to us.

When dealing with a bank, I never expect to hear something the same/next day, so my expectations are based in reality I would say, but wow... they took a ridiculous amount of time to respond with "we need your highest and best".

I agree with Jesse Rivera.

Pay them $1k or whatever you feel is fair for the time they have spent helping you out.

Assuming you want to build a real estate investing business, you want your name to always be shed in a positive light around the community, so while short term it may sting a bit to pay out a "consulting fee" when margins are already thin, in the broad scope of things, things like this can go a long way.

The ONLY way you would be "taking advantage" of the seller is if you held a gun to their head and "made" them sign the contract.

Real estate is about the numbers. You need to follow the numbers and be in the business to make money.

As long as the person has the option of saying "no" to your offer, then you can sleep easy at night.

While 350 letters is not anything huge, I'm more a believer in the system you have set-up to market to those 350 people (opposed to simply the "number" you send out).

Meaning (and this is nothing new, there is a ton of information on BP about it), you need to have a system and budget allotted to contact these 350 people over the course of time. Most people won't reply after the 1st "touch", but if you hit them a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. time, your response rate will go up.

So, to answer your question, I think your best bet is to continue to hit up those same 350 people. You can add in some more, but you can't give up after only one "batch".

People that provide help/services for money are not guru's in my book. With that being said, the second I see anything in their marketing or advertising that says and/or implies:

"Real estate is easy and you can make money with little effort and time" (or any variation of that)

Then BOOOOM! Down into the guru category you go for me.

Isn't that wild? Hearing stuff like this and then combining it with my own experience just reinforces the fact that direct mail really is a worthwhile marketing strategy to generate leads.