@Joe Fairless This is an email that I sent to Seth Williams after we sold our first property. I bought my second lot for $100 and sold it 3 weeks later for $1100.
Seth, I would like to thank you for everything that you do! I found your website, and sent my first 250 postcard mailer in June. I received a 6% return rate, and had a chance to purchase 4 properties. Three of these were in a subdivision with high HOA fees and 1 was in a flood zone. I decided that none of these were a good fit for me. I modified my list from the same county, deleted the owners who were in these subdivisions, and sent my second mailer of 440 post cards. I received a 7% return rate and had the chance to purchase 4 more properties! Two were in a very rural area with limited access, and one was in a flood zone. The 4th property was a beautiful .5 acre wooded lot in a sought after school district! This lot was appraised for $40,000 and we purchased it for $1500 + $1300 in delinquent taxes and $750 in closing costs. We sold this today, 40 days later for $9500! I have sent 2 more mailers (600 post cards) since this purchase, but, i have not purchased another lot. I had a solid lead that backed out last week. I have learned a lot on my first sale and believe that I am very close buying more property.
These are some of the things that I have learned:- Get used to hearing the word NO! A lot! I have worked in sales for several years, and am used to this, but it still frustrates me at times.
- Set your offer range and stick with it! I was really close to overpaying for a beach lot that I found in my 3rd mailer. I love the area and wanted to keep it for myself if it did not sell. Thank God my Wife was there to keep me on track!
- I need to learn to do most of the closing work on my own. We were lucky to find a property that had enough profit to pay for the $750 closing cost. This will not be the case on some of the lower priced properties that are abundant in this area.
- DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE CURRENT YEAR’S PRORATED TAX BALANCE!!! I did not know that I was responsible for this year’s taxes! I was informed that I owed $700 in taxes when i showed up to close! Thank God this property had plenty of profit margin and easily covered this balance!
- Don’t rely on the county’s appraisal rate when setting your purchase and sale price. A realtor advised me to list this property for $27,500. I listed it at this price for a week and got zero emails or phone calls. I dropped it to $15,500 and got some interest. I dropped it to $11,000 and the calls began to come in.
- List your property on any website that offers free advertisement. I got a lot of inquiry from buy/sell/trade groups on Facebook. I also used Craigslist, ForSaleByOwner.com, Zillow, and a very popular local classified website called SouthEastTexas.com (my buyer found me on setx.com) I was disappointed with Zillow. My property was the #1 viewed in this city for the last 40 days, it was viewed 1400 times, and I only received 1 email. Zillow allows realtors to advertise on for sale by owner adds. I cannot prove it, but I am pretty sure that the realtors received some inquiries that were not shared with me. (I called Zillow, and I was told that they received some inquiries about my listing, but they would not tell me how many)
- DON’T GIVE UP!!!! These mailers have taught me that there are more motivated sellers and more property available than I will be able to buy!
Please keep up the hard work. I really enjoy reading your blog and would not have purchased this property if I would not have stumbled across REtipster.com!!!
