All Forum Posts by: Duane Alexander

How are investors marketing using facebook ads now with the new special ad category for housing that limits targeting to specific zip codes? I am a flipper looking for my first deal in a couple of specific zip codes so it's a bummer for me that we cannot use facebook ads in this manner anymore to generate leads. 

An alternative could be to generate a list using prop stream or whatever and then create a custom audience to target using that. Has anyone done that? How big of a list would be necessary to make this strategy effective? Could I get away with a very specific list with 200-500 addresses? Or would I need a list of 1500+ for this to be worth any time? 

Welp I have some good news and bad news. I lost out on the offer. Can you believe that? 15k above asking and the LA told me that my offer wasn't anywhere near the top. The good news is that this would have been a HORRIBLE deal and I actually rescinded my offer before the LA could reject it. The house was actually listed wrong. It was listed at 1100 sqft when it was actually 2700 sqft! I knew the square footage was off when I walked the house as it felt bigger but I thought it was because of the added 2 car garage that was framed as apart of the house. The square footage I saw on prop stream was also different than what was on the mls (1026 sqft vs 1129 sqft). Confused, I sent my contractor to take a deeper look at the property to verify the square footage, and take a look at the addition. He also pulled the permits which showed that the house was actually 2700 sqft. The framing was not permitted and completely shotty (the current condition of the house is completed gutted with new framing). This of course doubled my rehab estimate from 100k to 200k+. I really dodged a bullet this one. If they would have accepted my offer I would have been out of 5k escrow. I'm disappointed but this was definitely a learning experience.

Can you add an appraisal contingency to your offer? 

So with my numbers my max offer price is 15k above asking which would put me at 70% of ARV minus repairs, which would be a killer deal in this neighborhood. I ended up increasing my offer from 5k above asking to 12k above asking. I also increased my EMD to 5k since I had an agent friend suggest that 3% of asking would be a good EMD for a foreclosure. I'll let you guys know how things go.

Are you buying this with no inspection or appraisal contingency? If your numbers still work at 375k or even 390k, why does it matter that the duplex a couple of doors down sold for 360k? How long ago was it sold? In a hot market I wouldn't really expect to get a good deal (numbers wise) far below asking due to the lack of inventory and abundance of buyers.

 @Kalim Kalla what Atlanta facebook groups do you recommend? The ones I have found only have a bunch of people trying to build buyers list.

So is it not typical for people to put higher EMD's in for REO's?

I put in a offer on a foreclosure here in GA and the LA responded after 3 days saying that they wanted highest and best. My first offer was 5k above asking but I only offered 1k of earnest money. I didn't realize that people typically put in a higher EMD. I was thinking about increasing my offer a bit and putting in a 5k deposit. Will that be enough or should I go higher. The deal is a no diligence deal so I'm a little hesitant about dropping too much on my earnest deposit. Any advice?

Good luck finding a house in Atlanta proper with a good school district under 200k that only needs a cosmetic rehab. You prob want to look at surrounding counties.

This is exactly my plan! Text first then call. I had the same thought they these people are probably getting a bunch of mailers, so me texting and calling in a more personalized way will be to my advantage.