All Forum Posts by: Gustavo Munoz Castro

I live outside the US and have two rentals there. I tried self managing my first year, it didn't work out great as I rushed and rented to the first person I found. They were a bad tenant, smoked, paid late and disappeared from time to time. I tried having real estate agents show the property to prospective tenants (wasn't comfortable giving folks access remotely) but they didn't make much money to they would flake as well. Property manager ended up being the best solution for me. 10% seems very high, in Seattle I pay 5% plus a leasing fee every time they need to find a new tenant. Shop around.

Give it a shot the first year if you can so you can see for yourself if it makes sense. I've had I think 3 middle of the night maintenance emergencies since I've been away and never had to manage them. Property manager started off using my chosen vendors, but as the years have gone by (I left in 2015) some have dropped out and slowly I have just started using the property manager's vendors our of convenienve. If you push back and price compare you can always keep them honest.

If you don't have a ton of cash, you gotta put in more effort. Knock on doors, talk to the neighbors, tell them you're looking for houses to buy. You gotta hustle, once you find some deals, money will find you. There's always a shortage of deals in the market, specially now.

Good news is that once you gain some traction, you'll be able to buy better lists, a power dialer and even hire a VA to help you find qualified seller leads (I run a call center for Real Estate). Gotta start somewhere though, take advantage that you're small and resourceful.

Getting a quality list is the GAME. Don't skimp on a good list, it will make everything else more effective (calling time, mailers, etc). You can maybe save some cash and just get a single line virtual dialer like Vonage Business or Ring Central (look for month to month only), you don't need a massive power dialer right off the bat (another $150-$250 per month). 

1. Narrow focus on lead generation. You're in a super competitive and very high priced market. I'd say try whatever can work, try different lists (absentee, notice of default, pre-foreclosure, old Expired, FSBO that looks run down, etc), get 1K numbers at a time, call 2-3 times and shelve it for at least 1 month a get new ones. When you've tried several categories then you can niche down. If you got that suggestion through networking and folks killing it with those strategies then maybe start there. Follow-up sequence looks solid. For the driving for dollars strategy, keep following up long term.

$1K isn't a lot once you factor in list building, dialer, mailers, etc, but should be enough to get you started. Once you gain some traction you can hire a VA caller to at least batch up and make the calls more efficient, its what takes the most time (I run a call center for Real Estate).

found this thread through search, curious, how did it go for you? did you find someone to make calls?

 List builders like Propstream and tie them to a phone number using a tool like Lead Sherpa or The Share Group. Give it a shot.

 Hi Neil, yes we do, we work with Real Estate Teams and Investors for prospecting. Sending you a colleague request.

Targeted cold calling. Start with a list of high equity homeowners and give them a call. Just come out and say it, ask them if they would be interested in a cash offer for their home? If they don't hang up or say no, engage with them. Qualify the property and the seller for motivation. RInse and repeat.

Its a grind but the good news is once you gain traction you can hire a VA to make the calls so you can talk to the hand raisers. I run a call center for Real Estate so I know it can work. Let me know if you have any questions.

Prospecting. Start by targeting high equity homeowners, not properties for sale on the MLS. Reach out via call and ask if they would be interested in an offer on their property? Ask that question 30-50 times per day and you will get some great conversations.

Its a grind. The good news is that once you gain traction you can hire a VA to cold call for you and then just talk to the most motivated sellers. I run a call center for Real Estate so I know this is doable.