All Forum Posts by: Guy Olds

@Aaliyah Ali  One way to find out about real estate clubs is go to meetup and search for ones within 25 miles of where you live. Most of them are $20 each meeting. Sample a bunch, talk to the members find out what they like about the club you're attending and see if they have a favorite club in the LA area. The clubs usually meet once a  month so in a few months you will have found a few that interest you. 

I attend 3-4 a month although I have only paid for a full year membership in only one. I paid for the year (only $199)  because I thought the benefits were perfect for me and the club is awesome.

@Robert Burns Hey, how are you doing. It's good to see that you are successful at wholesaling.

It seems to me all you need to do is go bigger not necessarily newer as you would with Sean Terry or any other program. Expand your marketing or add new marketing channels. To find out what works locally find a more successful wholesaler than you and take him/her out to lunch. Are there any decent REIA's or real estate meetups in Baton Rouge? You might find other wholesalers there.

Once you've exhausted your local knowledge for ideas and your business still isn't where you want it to be then look for an instructor/course that fits your needs.

That's my two cents.

@Mary Newman As for #4, you want to point out to the PR that if they sell the house to you instead of listing it then they won't have to pay a commission. And so they save money by selling to you.

Also, you have to realize that this will be around a 1 year direct mail process. So, you might want to have 3 or 4 letter sequence and then repeat them throughout the year. Although you don't need the 2nd letter to be already written before you mail the 1st one. 

@Kenyon Lemon At the next IE REI Club in Riverside in 3 weeks let's be sure to connect. See you there.

@Kenyon Lemon Welcome to to BP.

I've been looking Moreno Valley quite a lot lately to look for a property to flip. That's a decent city to start looking in.

If you're looking for investment clubs to network with local investors there's one in Riverside I go to every month. It is the Inland Empire Real Estate Investor Club which meets at the Mission Inn on the 4th Wednesday of the month. A lot of working investors attend this club. You can check it out on meetup.com. Here's the link. http://www.meetup.com/Inland-Empire-Real-Estate-In...

Hope to see you around.

@Shelley L. Welcome to BiggerPockets.

If you want to network with local investors you're in luck because you live in the same town as one of the top southern California real estate investor groups. That group can be found on meetup.com and is Los Angeles-Asian Real Estate Investor Association (LAREIA). I am partial to the group because I'm a member and attend all the monthly meetings. The group meets the 2nd Wednesday each month in Arcadia. Here's the meetup link.  http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Asian-Real-Estat...

There usually are about 70-80 investors each month. There are some newbies but most are working investors. Great for networking and learning.

@Judy Tran Aside from all the great things about BiggerPockets there are plenty of real estate investment clubs in southern California you should consider attending to meet other investors and learn from them. You just happen to live in the neighborhood of one of the best clubs in So Cal. That club is Los Angeles-Asian Real Estate Investor Association also known as LAREIA. You can find it on Meetup. It meets once a month in Arcadia. I'm not just recommending it because I've seen a listing of it - I'm a member and attend all the meetings. http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Asian-Real-Estat...

There's another very good nearby club that I attend called InvestClub for Women (and yes it's also for men) which meets in Glendale. Also nearby. It also meets in Irvine. Glendale's next meeting is tonight, Irvine's next meeting is tomorrow night. You can find that one also on meetup at http://www.meetup.com/investCLUBLA/

Good luck and see you around.

@Earlando Murdock  Since Probate files are public you probably spoke to the wrong person or asked the wrong question.

I just clicked on the link you gave and within a minute a ran across Room 305 at the courthouse Public Service Center for records. They have probate records there.

One thing you have to remember is you don't want to "research" the records, you just want to "view" the records. You will need a case number to start so find one in a local paper or ask a clerk. All probate case are filed sequentially as they come in. You are going to be looking for a computer or a bank of computers to sit at. Hopefully you will run across a friendly clerk or maybe someone sitting at a computer. Based on what I can see it's all digitized but only accessed at the courthouse.

Once you find records start to record the information that @Rick H. listed for you. Create blank info sheets for all your added data. You won't find better instructions than in his post.  It will all go into a spreadsheet so you can mail merge your letters and envelopes.

Hopefully Room 305 is the correct place. Good luck. Keep us updated.

@Ivan Nevarez   As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter whether the PR is an executor or an administrator. How they and the other heirs (actually heirs named in a will are called devisees) got into that position is not as important as the question of do they want the property or don't they.

Spouses living in the same house as the deceased are most likely going to want to keep the property. As are any adult children living in the property. Distant relatives or friends from other cities or other states are not likely to want the property and will want to sell.

But for you the investor, you have to realize that only a very small percentage probate cases or probate leads contain PRs who would be considered "motivated sellers". Most of the time probate sales go through realtors at full or near full retail price.

So who do you target? I'd say eliminate the spouses living with the deceased, eliminate property owned by a trust (they've already wisely determined what will happen with the property and I'm sure it won't be to sell to you). Next determine if the property in question is in an area you want to buy in. If not. don't mail to that PR. Is the property in question in your price range, i f not don't mail to that PR.  Now mail to the rest.

And over time as you contact the PRs you will learn what type of heirs in your area are don't wanters and which are property keepers.

Good luck.

@Account Closed  One of the main purposes of probate is to make sure that the creditors get paid. That may or may not mean that the property has to be sold. Another reason for a property to be sold is to make it easy to divide up the assets of the deceased between the heirs. It seems as though the property you looked may not need to be sold.

The PR will have to change the title to her name and then refi to get out of the reverse mortgage which will not transfer to her. If she can do that she won't sell but if she can't refi then she may have to sell. But at the moment she doesn't sound too motivated and she seems to be testing the water for as high a price as possible. Not a scenario that sounds too good for you.

Still, it's good you got out there. Did you run the numbers on the house? ARV, repairs, MAO?