All Forum Posts by: Doug Pretorius

@Andre Williams Close to retail? What's your plan with the property? If you want to wholetail it you need to get it for about 85% of market value. If you're offering close to full price I hope you're getting it on terms, sub2, contract for deed, or lease option.

@Reggie Maggard I tried to outside cold calling a few times. Both to VAs and to local commissioned salespeople. In every case they made a few calls and gave up, even though I told them starting out they're probably going to have to make 200-300 calls before they find a single lead.

Cold calling is just as important as answering the phone from direct mail. You need to do it yourself, at least until you're doing enough volume to build, train and properly oversee a full-time staff member.

@London Elliott Simple, they pay the loan off from the proceeds of the sale. Or they sell the property subject to the loan staying in place.

In the first scenario let's say they owe $80k and they sell the house for $100k. They get $100k from the buyer and use $80k of it to pay off their loan. If they owe more than they can sell the house for they have to come up with the difference out of their own pocket.

@Kim Durst 4.5-5% is a good deal, how much are they asking down? Unmotivated sellers usually demand 10% interest with 10-20% down. Can you do better? Of course. But the seller has to be extremely motivated.

@Paul Bowers I do all of my prospecting by phone so mine wouldn't do you much good, it would be faster for you to start from scratch.

@Dean H. THERE YOU ARE! I've been trying to reach you regarding one of your properties... ;)

Seems like a sign of another market peak, everybody and their grandma is trying to buy, buy, buy. Which means you probably should be selling so you can buy those houses back later for half the price.

@Demarko Lee Ask them how much they think the house is worth, then ask how much they're willing to let it go for. If they say they just want to get what they owe, ask how much they owe and for the details on their mortgage (payments, interest rate, amortization etc.) If they say "make me an offer", offer them $1.

If at all possible, you want them to tell you what they want instead of you telling them what you want. Try to keep this key point in mind...THEY are the seller. YOU are the buyer. It's their job to sell you on why you should buy their house!

@Paul Bowers I'm a cheapskate so I like to use Google Sheets for tracking leads. A CRM would probably be a better idea, but I've never found one I liked.

@Zack Kahl When you click on a listing on zoocasa, scroll down and you'll see sales of similar homes in the area, how much they listed for, how much they sold for, and how long ago the sale happened.

Zoocasa seems pretty good, except their expired listings data is totally wrong. Many houses listed as expired in my neighborhood, I know for a fact actually sold.

@Jonathan Liu No problem. Good luck!