All Forum Posts by: Eric N.

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Eric N.:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Eric N.:

Quote from @Nadeem Alamgir:

Quote from @Henry Lazerow:

The idea is you get a crazy good deal so these risks are worth it. Reality is most wholesale deals are awful, fake rehab/ARV numbers hidden big ticket repairs and not even far enough below prices you can negotiate off MLS. Just work with a realtor who invests themselves and can find you a good deal.

Agreed, it's a volume game, and yes, some of these guys are scammy, but if you can filter them out, you'll find deals you won't see on the market. Even with their assignment fees added on, the value add deals make a lot more sense than most MLS deals.

Most of posters on this thread are real estate agents. They resent wholesalers because they believe wholesalers are stealing their bread and butter. Some brokers and RE agents just hate wholesalers, and this will never change.

Here is the truth: 

1. Real estate agent has a conflict of interest when representing investors. Agent is always interested in inflating the worth and price of property, because agent earns commission based on the sold price of the property. I have seen a lot of investors in deep dirt , because they paid retail price on as is property that is not worth half of what it costs to buy and fully rehab it.

2. Wholesalers are humans, like politicians, cops, attorneys, brokers, agents, doctors, astronauts and etc. Some are scumbags, others are not. Some are competent, others are clueless. Some are deliberately deceitful, others are transparent. 

3. Investor is not a mentally challenged , elderly or minor consumer, in need of a nanny or third party guardian/protector. Investor is an entrepreneur and as any businessman must accept the risks and responsibilities that come with running a business. Lazy and stupid investors will always fail, but smart ones will study their market, understand that they are responsible for their own actions and will only buy properties that make sense investing in.

4. As a flipper I am currently looking to buy a property in $1.1M - $1.3M ARV neighborhood. I have a partner who is GC. I have a team of three realtors in the area where I am looking to buy a house for rehab. I know how much it will cost to rehab the house, based on whatever variables and finishes I select. I know DOM for those houses listed in 1.1.M-1.3M range. I will only buy it if I can get it for ARV minus Cost of Rehab minus 10% resale cost minus my closing costs, minus my Hard Money Cost (interest/origination fees) minus holding cost and minus $250,000 I want to make in 6 to 9 months period if I buy that property. Whatever that number IS (after all deductions) is MAO I will pay for the property. If I don't get it for that number I will NOT buy it. I would rather NOT flip than loose money or work and sweat while everyone else makes money. I am the only person responsible for doing my due diligence.

5. As a wholesaler, I do my best to get the property for less than 70% of ARV minus rehab costs and my assignment fee. I know what underwriters and hard money lenders look for when they approve hard money and DSCR loans. But when I have property under contract I don't expect contract buyer to rely on my numbers or analysis. I usually say: here is the house and this is my asking price. At most I will disclose ARV, based on comps in the area. Rehab costs are for me personally to figure , so I can properly negotiate the selling price with the seller. But I don't think it's a good idea to share it with buyer. I may share it if I know they have plenty of experience, to show that I have a clue what their cost of rehab will be. But generally wholesalers should avoid posting rehab costs for a deal. I don't know who they will use for construction and where they will get their materials. Some investors run their own crews and have GC license. They have storages and use stored materials from previous projects and buy dirt cheap materials and appliances from auctions. Others hire general contractors who charge premium for running the project, they pay full price for materials. As you can imagine, cost of rehab can vary drastically from one to another investor. So, I will never be able to tell buyer what exactly it will cost them to fix the property. They are the ones who must figure it out. I will run mid point numbers just to figure what the property is worth as an investment opportunity before I put it under contract.

P.S. I liked your response that's why I replied to your post. You are honest. If I ever decided to work with a realtor I would pick someone like you.

Biggest risk is cash buyers get no title insurance on the wholesaler assingment fee.. if there is a title claim and the buyer gets paid out they lose the assingment fee.. poof gone.. no wholesaler is going to cut them a check.. Most folks simply do not know that title companies will only insure the underlying contract amount..  

For me I insist on buying extra title insurance to cover the fee.. Most wont do it so its a dialing for dollars situation. many never heard of it.. U have to educate them.. but in markets I am funding high volume flippers its a must and I do find a company that will accomodate.. Average one off investor might not have the same pull based on lack of deal volume.

I think this is something buyer has to do, not something wholesaler should be actively participating in or offering. Assignment fee is just like the closing costs, attorney's fees , origination fees and etc. Buyer received services and paid for them, and none of the parties that provided the services should be on the hook, unless there was some sort of fraud or misrepresentation involved. Of course, buyer is free to purchase extra coverage, if they elect to do so. But I don't think it's responsibility of the wholesaler to offer it.
What I know wholesaler must do is to disclose everything that he is aware of. For instance, suppose there is a ground rent on property. There are legitimate, brick on concrete foundation houses that stand on grounds that still collect ground rents, dating back to colonial times. If wholesaler fails to disclose such leasehold (at least in the jurisdictions I have dealt with), he will be on the hook once buyer finds it out. He might be on the hook even if buyer finds out during title search, doesn't make a fuss about it at closing and later comes after wholesaler when they want to redeem the land. But ,aside from such encumbrance that assignor must disclose, any other liens issues and insurance for those type of claims should  be the responsibility of the buyer and the title agency to clear. 

Note that I am not posting this to argue or dispute your position. I believe business interests are best served when everyone acts in a good faith, including the buyer, seller and wholesaler. I personally have never heard of extra insurance coverage to cover the assignment fee, so I will discuss this with my local title agency that handles my transactions. They are very good and thorough on everything, they do comprehensive title search before insuring it. May be they should advise buyers to add extra coverage when producing the title insurance for them. 

the point is very few people especially beginners usuing wholesalers understand the risk they take and I am 100% Certain very few wholesalers know this either .. Did U know this ?  The other issue is the title company you are using may not be aware or will offer it.. 

Are you going to move your file because of it to protect the buyer ???? Or just tell the buyer caveat Emptar sorry you did not know this youd should have not my deal.. 

I had a property with ground rent, which, by law, can be redeemed for a few thousand dollars. The title agency alerted me to this; I wouldn’t have been able to uncover it on my own, as the ground rent was recorded many decades ago—well before the 1970s, which is as far back as public land records go when searched online.

I went out of my way to add an addendum to my original PSA, as well as to the AA, to inform the buyer that there is ground rent, and that they will need to redeem the land in the future. I don’t want them coming after me two years later trying to make me pay the redemption costs. I’m not trying to hide anything from the buyer—I’m not stupid enough to do that.

That said, my understanding is that I am the principal in the assignment of PSA transaction, not a broker or an agent representing either the seller or the buyer. As such, I do not owe fiduciary duties to either party, and in fact, could get myself into trouble if I appear to be acting on behalf of one side or the other.

But I see no harm in informing the title company about the assignment fee insurance (which would probably cost few extra dollars, like PIP insurance for drivers) , so they can offer appropriate coverage to the buyer. To me it’s a common sense to try to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with buyers, rather than treating them poorly.

A lot of people, in all kinds of industries, seem to have a “dog-eat-dog” mentality—I don’t share that view. While I do believe in personal responsibility and that everyone should advocate for themselves, I also value goodwill on a personal level. That’s part of my personal philosophy and how I do business. So, if there’s any way I can make the buyer’s life easier—without creating the appearance that I’m acting as their agent—I’ll certainly do it.

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Eric N.:

Quote from @Nadeem Alamgir:

Quote from @Henry Lazerow:

The idea is you get a crazy good deal so these risks are worth it. Reality is most wholesale deals are awful, fake rehab/ARV numbers hidden big ticket repairs and not even far enough below prices you can negotiate off MLS. Just work with a realtor who invests themselves and can find you a good deal.

Agreed, it's a volume game, and yes, some of these guys are scammy, but if you can filter them out, you'll find deals you won't see on the market. Even with their assignment fees added on, the value add deals make a lot more sense than most MLS deals.

Most of posters on this thread are real estate agents. They resent wholesalers because they believe wholesalers are stealing their bread and butter. Some brokers and RE agents just hate wholesalers, and this will never change.

Here is the truth: 

1. Real estate agent has a conflict of interest when representing investors. Agent is always interested in inflating the worth and price of property, because agent earns commission based on the sold price of the property. I have seen a lot of investors in deep dirt , because they paid retail price on as is property that is not worth half of what it costs to buy and fully rehab it.

2. Wholesalers are humans, like politicians, cops, attorneys, brokers, agents, doctors, astronauts and etc. Some are scumbags, others are not. Some are competent, others are clueless. Some are deliberately deceitful, others are transparent. 

3. Investor is not a mentally challenged , elderly or minor consumer, in need of a nanny or third party guardian/protector. Investor is an entrepreneur and as any businessman must accept the risks and responsibilities that come with running a business. Lazy and stupid investors will always fail, but smart ones will study their market, understand that they are responsible for their own actions and will only buy properties that make sense investing in.

4. As a flipper I am currently looking to buy a property in $1.1M - $1.3M ARV neighborhood. I have a partner who is GC. I have a team of three realtors in the area where I am looking to buy a house for rehab. I know how much it will cost to rehab the house, based on whatever variables and finishes I select. I know DOM for those houses listed in 1.1.M-1.3M range. I will only buy it if I can get it for ARV minus Cost of Rehab minus 10% resale cost minus my closing costs, minus my Hard Money Cost (interest/origination fees) minus holding cost and minus $250,000 I want to make in 6 to 9 months period if I buy that property. Whatever that number IS (after all deductions) is MAO I will pay for the property. If I don't get it for that number I will NOT buy it. I would rather NOT flip than loose money or work and sweat while everyone else makes money. I am the only person responsible for doing my due diligence.

5. As a wholesaler, I do my best to get the property for less than 70% of ARV minus rehab costs and my assignment fee. I know what underwriters and hard money lenders look for when they approve hard money and DSCR loans. But when I have property under contract I don't expect contract buyer to rely on my numbers or analysis. I usually say: here is the house and this is my asking price. At most I will disclose ARV, based on comps in the area. Rehab costs are for me personally to figure , so I can properly negotiate the selling price with the seller. But I don't think it's a good idea to share it with buyer. I may share it if I know they have plenty of experience, to show that I have a clue what their cost of rehab will be. But generally wholesalers should avoid posting rehab costs for a deal. I don't know who they will use for construction and where they will get their materials. Some investors run their own crews and have GC license. They have storages and use stored materials from previous projects and buy dirt cheap materials and appliances from auctions. Others hire general contractors who charge premium for running the project, they pay full price for materials. As you can imagine, cost of rehab can vary drastically from one to another investor. So, I will never be able to tell buyer what exactly it will cost them to fix the property. They are the ones who must figure it out. I will run mid point numbers just to figure what the property is worth as an investment opportunity before I put it under contract.

P.S. I liked your response that's why I replied to your post. You are honest. If I ever decided to work with a realtor I would pick someone like you.

Biggest risk is cash buyers get no title insurance on the wholesaler assingment fee.. if there is a title claim and the buyer gets paid out they lose the assingment fee.. poof gone.. no wholesaler is going to cut them a check.. Most folks simply do not know that title companies will only insure the underlying contract amount..  

For me I insist on buying extra title insurance to cover the fee.. Most wont do it so its a dialing for dollars situation. many never heard of it.. U have to educate them.. but in markets I am funding high volume flippers its a must and I do find a company that will accomodate.. Average one off investor might not have the same pull based on lack of deal volume.

I think this is something buyer has to do, not something wholesaler should be actively participating in or offering. Assignment fee is just like the closing costs, attorney's fees , origination fees and etc. Buyer received services and paid for them, and none of the parties that provided the services should be on the hook, unless there was some sort of fraud or misrepresentation involved. Of course, buyer is free to purchase extra coverage, if they elect to do so. But I don't think it's responsibility of the wholesaler to offer it.
What I know wholesaler must do is to disclose everything that he is aware of. For instance, suppose there is a ground rent on property. There are legitimate, brick on concrete foundation houses that stand on grounds that still collect ground rents, dating back to colonial times. If wholesaler fails to disclose such leasehold (at least in the jurisdictions I have dealt with), he will be on the hook once buyer finds it out. He might be on the hook even if buyer finds out during title search, doesn't make a fuss about it at closing and later comes after wholesaler when they want to redeem the land. But ,aside from such encumbrance that assignor must disclose, any other liens issues and insurance for those type of claims should  be the responsibility of the buyer and the title agency to clear. 

Note that I am not posting this to argue or dispute your position. I believe business interests are best served when everyone acts in a good faith, including the buyer, seller and wholesaler. I personally have never heard of extra insurance coverage to cover the assignment fee, so I will discuss this with my local title agency that handles my transactions. They are very good and thorough on everything, they do comprehensive title search before insuring it. May be they should advise buyers to add extra coverage when producing the title insurance for them. 

Quote from @Remington Lyman:

Hello BP Community!

Has anyone thought the content of the forums have been degrading recently? I feel like moderators and/or the staff of BP have been unable or unwilling to moderate the forums to the same standard they used to. It is riddled with self promotions and ChatGPT --- posts lately...

@Scott Trench

Market has changed since 2022. REI is no longer a cakewalk it was. 0% interest rates, idiotic rush to gobble up everything at overinflated prices, multitrillion dollar stimulus packages that tripled cost of materials and labor, job losses in middle to upper middle class job sectors, hedge funds slowing down on REI.... list goes on and on. Today REI is not as alluring as it was 3 years ago, therefore you see waning interest from genuine posters. And the void will always fill with something, spam or otherwise. I don't think BP can do anything about it. If tides in RE change then the forums may once again attack large volume of people as they did few years ago.

As a wholesaler, I am regularly dealing with distressed property owners who feel depressed because of negative cash flow and liabilities incurred. Very often, the culprit is the purchase price: I find out they have paid near retail price when investing into their portfolio. When I ask them who advised them to overpay and acquire the losing property at such high price, way too many say that it was a realtor who sold it to them, with rosy pictures of property appreciation and their "professional CMA". I always tell investors to be very careful with realtors. Realtors are inherently invested in overinflating a property value, because their bloodline is a commission. Cheap property = low commission. Fool the buyer/overinflate property value = earn high commission. Realtors thus have unavoidable conflict of interest when dealing with investor buyers. Investor buyers must do their own homework and be very skeptical of the realtors when buying an investment property. Danger lurks in every advise that realtor gives to investor buyer.

Quote from @Nadeem Alamgir:

Quote from @Henry Lazerow:

The idea is you get a crazy good deal so these risks are worth it. Reality is most wholesale deals are awful, fake rehab/ARV numbers hidden big ticket repairs and not even far enough below prices you can negotiate off MLS. Just work with a realtor who invests themselves and can find you a good deal.

Agreed, it's a volume game, and yes, some of these guys are scammy, but if you can filter them out, you'll find deals you won't see on the market. Even with their assignment fees added on, the value add deals make a lot more sense than most MLS deals.

Most of posters on this thread are real estate agents. They resent wholesalers because they believe wholesalers are stealing their bread and butter. Some brokers and RE agents just hate wholesalers, and this will never change.

Here is the truth: 

1. Real estate agent has a conflict of interest when representing investors. Agent is always interested in inflating the worth and price of property, because agent earns commission based on the sold price of the property. I have seen a lot of investors in deep dirt , because they paid retail price on as is property that is not worth half of what it costs to buy and fully rehab it.

2. Wholesalers are humans, like politicians, cops, attorneys, brokers, agents, doctors, astronauts and etc. Some are scumbags, others are not. Some are competent, others are clueless. Some are deliberately deceitful, others are transparent. 

3. Investor is not a mentally challenged , elderly or minor consumer, in need of a nanny or third party guardian/protector. Investor is an entrepreneur and as any businessman must accept the risks and responsibilities that come with running a business. Lazy and stupid investors will always fail, but smart ones will study their market, understand that they are responsible for their own actions and will only buy properties that make sense investing in.

4. As a flipper I am currently looking to buy a property in $1.1M - $1.3M ARV neighborhood. I have a partner who is GC. I have a team of three realtors in the area where I am looking to buy a house for rehab. I know how much it will cost to rehab the house, based on whatever variables and finishes I select. I know DOM for those houses listed in 1.1.M-1.3M range. I will only buy it if I can get it for ARV minus Cost of Rehab minus 10% resale cost minus my closing costs, minus my Hard Money Cost (interest/origination fees) minus holding cost and minus $250,000 I want to make in 6 to 9 months period if I buy that property. Whatever that number IS (after all deductions) is MAO I will pay for the property. If I don't get it for that number I will NOT buy it. I would rather NOT flip than loose money or work and sweat while everyone else makes money. I am the only person responsible for doing my due diligence.

5. As a wholesaler, I do my best to get the property for less than 70% of ARV minus rehab costs and my assignment fee. I know what underwriters and hard money lenders look for when they approve hard money and DSCR loans. But when I have property under contract I don't expect contract buyer to rely on my numbers or analysis. I usually say: here is the house and this is my asking price. At most I will disclose ARV, based on comps in the area. Rehab costs are for me personally to figure , so I can properly negotiate the selling price with the seller. But I don't think it's a good idea to share it with buyer. I may share it if I know they have plenty of experience, to show that I have a clue what their cost of rehab will be. But generally wholesalers should avoid posting rehab costs for a deal. I don't know who they will use for construction and where they will get their materials. Some investors run their own crews and have GC license. They have storages and use stored materials from previous projects and buy dirt cheap materials and appliances from auctions. Others hire general contractors who charge premium for running the project, they pay full price for materials. As you can imagine, cost of rehab can vary drastically from one to another investor. So, I will never be able to tell buyer what exactly it will cost them to fix the property. They are the ones who must figure it out. I will run mid point numbers just to figure what the property is worth as an investment opportunity before I put it under contract.

P.S. I liked your response that's why I replied to your post. You are honest. If I ever decided to work with a realtor I would pick someone like you.

Hey David, you are a man of your word. I appreciate it what you did for us!

For the record: owner of the company reached out to me directly following this post and offered a solution that I did not expect. Skip tracing is a tough business, but here you have a company owner that cares about their customers and will take extra steps to make things work. That's a value right there!

Quote from @James McGovern:

Would you purchase a book on hard money horror stories? I am thinking about writing a book containing horror stories and guidance on how the scenario could be avoided. I think books are better then expensive overpriced mastermind workshops

I wouldn't. Anyone who bought the investment property at the right price will avoid those horror stories. Buy at 60% of ARV minus repair costs, and you have a cushion there should things go south. You will be able to sell it at discount and still walk out with no loss. Buy it at 80% ARV (without repair costs counted), and you will wish your mother didn't give a birth to you, so there would be one less fool out there. No matter how good economy is, you are risking to make zero to negative cash flow and profit on it, and just sit and hope that some day it will appreciate enough to make you rich. Don't do that. HML is essentially a business partner with guaranteed share of the profit in the deal, with a Note in hand to protect them from your failure. Don't use HML if you think they are Evil. If you do, make sure you are smart about it and give as much thought to your investment as lender does when financing your deal. Use common sense. Don't get overexcited and never make impulsive decisions.

In some states you will get yourself into serious trouble for going after properties in foreclosure. I would not touch those with seven feet pole. In others, it's legal. But they way I look at it is this: don't ever say or pretend that you are there to help them out and keep them in their homes. Few months back I did DM and one of the few sellers I have got was in foreclosure. I didn't target him because he was in foreclosure. I just sent eight thousand mail pieces to all the absentee owners or owners of distressed properties with high equity. I found out from him that he was in FC. He was surprised that I didn't know. I was surprised that he was in FC. Anyhow, long story short, at some point when I told him what his property is worth to me as an investor and that my MAO would be such and such (otherwise I would do disservice to myself), he exclaimed "But how about me? You only talk about your bottom line, what is there for me?". I honestly told him that his situation was his, that I was in no position or place to help him with his FC. I advised him to use all means necessary to keep his home (by the time he called me he exhausted all the options , he did two loan modifications and twice defaulted on those , unable to keep up payments). I ended up walking out and I in retrospective I am glad that I did. I would never want to give him an impression that I was there to help him out when my sole objective was to acquire his property for the investment purposes.

As someone mentioned to OP, there are many cases where getting that property off the shoulders of home owner is a blessing to owner who avoids complete foreclosure on his property. In most of those cases owner would loose his home anyway, but having the property sold by trustee on auction would simply add that outcome to his records and make it even harder to buy another home to live in for the next few years. But if there is such positive outcome I will only mention it in passing, never emphasizing the benefits of selling to me and never giving a comfort or a sense that I am there to help or serve home owner. 

Sometimes your good intentions (supposing you are sincere in your desire to help and not just blowing smoke to deceive home owner) can get you in a lot of trouble with law and regulations. Stay out of it and keep your communication with home owner professional. Here I am, I evaluated your property as an investment opportunity and here is my MAO, take it or leave it. The moment they reject your offer just walk out. They will call and reach out to you if they want to accept your offer.

As to ethical side of it, they made a contract with the bank who bought the house for them (paid for it on their behalf). They owe the bank what bank paid for it, simple and clear. They breached that contract and bank now will reposes the house through foreclosure. Whether you, as an investor, buy it from them or a third party buys it at the auction, the outcome is essentially the same: they will loose that house and will be forced out of it. They same would happen to me if I stopped paying my mortgage. 

Yes, it's possible that they would get more in proceeds if they let it go through auction, but opposite can happen as well. If there is a deficiency and no one buys it for what they owe, they will be on a hook to pay it back after they loose their home. At the end of the day it's a matter of what someone out there offers (or is willing to bid) on the house, whether it's you or someone who comes to court steps , pays deposit and buys it at the auction. 

But beware of legal ramifications and claims that you were deceiving the home owner to steal their equity. Never ever let your conversation cross the professional line. Talk to them like an investor out to look for his own interests, make them MAO and walk out if they reject it. Let someone else buy their troubles.

Quote from @Stephen Morales:

Quote from @Eric N.:

Quote from @David Lecko:

Eric, When did you last use DealMachine? I am the founder of DealMachine so I am biased, however if you have not used DealMachine data recently, I would love to show you how it is much better quality than other options.

Top 3 reasons:

1. Other systems give you numbers, but they don't label and filter them by RENTER vs OWNER vs FAMILY. We let you filter that in your dialer and when exporting so you're only reaching just the decision maker. It boosts your contact rate to 25% in our dialer, and is more efficient with your labor costs.

2. You can search EVERY PERSON IN THE US with the property owner's name. Nobody else provides that. Owner occupied is matched 95% in DealMachine and 85% overall system-wide. Those are high match rates, and this magnifying glass you can click to view all people with that owner name, closes the gap.

3. More than a "skip trace." The phone number is available immediately without clicking a button. You don't have to wait 30 minutes for your file. You can filter by our consumer data file, things like birthday, income level, occupation, education level, and language of the owner.

Evidence that gives me this confidence in telling you it is the best available:

Our average customer used to spend $200 per month, but I found out the big call centers had 6 dealmachine accounts all with different emails, because our data was so good. I was shocked! But we are making the system friendlier to the big data consumers we now have.

Hope this helps!

Hi David, thanks for jumping in here. I actually used DealMachine back in April of this year, so my feedback is based on fairly recent firsthand experience.

I uploaded about 10,000 leads (pulled by one of my VA's from DM) into BatchDialer and had other VAs call through them consistently for 30 days. What I found was that a large portion of the numbers were either disconnected (which the dialer flagged automatically) or wrong numbers (where the person answering had no connection to the subject property and didn't know who we were looking for).

From a practical standpoint, when using a power dialer, we typically only upload the first three numbers for each lead—that’s the max. Each additional number after that tends to be half as accurate as the one before it, so unless you’re dialing manually, the general rule of thumb is to stick to the top three. And the results I am referencing are based on dialing the top three numbers for each prospect. 

For me, it’s not just about an 85–95% match rate on paper; accuracy really matters in practice. When you’re paying for VAs and a dialer, wrong numbers get expensive fast. You still pay your callers to speak with people who have nothing to do with the property, and you’re also paying for dialer that stays busy calling all those wrong numbers.

Now, I can see how large call centers might find the data usable—they may run a million numbers a month with hundreds of agents and dialers, so their sheer scale could yield acceptable results. But I operate a much smaller team—just two cold callers—and for us, the accuracy of the skip-traced numbers is absolutely critical.

Hi Eric, 

If you value accuracy I'd love to give you skip tracing credits to compare and A/B test a list from other providers with PrimeTracers' data. Since PrimeTracers runs off a pay as you go model, high quality data is everything to earn our user's business.

Happy to help you with your next campaign so you can experience the difference when you use high accuracy data. 

 Kindly share. You can DM me if you want to continue off public board. 

Quote from @David Lecko:

Eric, When did you last use DealMachine? I am the founder of DealMachine so I am biased, however if you have not used DealMachine data recently, I would love to show you how it is much better quality than other options.

Top 3 reasons:

1. Other systems give you numbers, but they don't label and filter them by RENTER vs OWNER vs FAMILY. We let you filter that in your dialer and when exporting so you're only reaching just the decision maker. It boosts your contact rate to 25% in our dialer, and is more efficient with your labor costs.

2. You can search EVERY PERSON IN THE US with the property owner's name. Nobody else provides that. Owner occupied is matched 95% in DealMachine and 85% overall system-wide. Those are high match rates, and this magnifying glass you can click to view all people with that owner name, closes the gap.

3. More than a "skip trace." The phone number is available immediately without clicking a button. You don't have to wait 30 minutes for your file. You can filter by our consumer data file, things like birthday, income level, occupation, education level, and language of the owner.

Evidence that gives me this confidence in telling you it is the best available:

Our average customer used to spend $200 per month, but I found out the big call centers had 6 dealmachine accounts all with different emails, because our data was so good. I was shocked! But we are making the system friendlier to the big data consumers we now have.

Hope this helps!

Hi David, thanks for jumping in here. I actually used DealMachine back in April of this year, so my feedback is based on fairly recent firsthand experience.

I uploaded about 10,000 leads (pulled by one of my VA's from DM) into BatchDialer and had other VAs call through them consistently for 30 days. What I found was that a large portion of the numbers were either disconnected (which the dialer flagged automatically) or wrong numbers (where the person answering had no connection to the subject property and didn't know who we were looking for).

From a practical standpoint, when using a power dialer, we typically only upload the first three numbers for each lead—that’s the max. Each additional number after that tends to be half as accurate as the one before it, so unless you’re dialing manually, the general rule of thumb is to stick to the top three. And the results I am referencing are based on dialing the top three numbers for each prospect. 

For me, it’s not just about an 85–95% match rate on paper; accuracy really matters in practice. When you’re paying for VAs and a dialer, wrong numbers get expensive fast. You still pay your callers to speak with people who have nothing to do with the property, and you’re also paying for dialer that stays busy calling all those wrong numbers.

Now, I can see how large call centers might find the data usable—they may run a million numbers a month with hundreds of agents and dialers, so their sheer scale could yield acceptable results. But I operate a much smaller team—just two cold callers—and for us, the accuracy of the skip-traced numbers is absolutely critical.