All Forum Posts by: Joshua Martin

@Raeann Baumgartner Glad to see the leads are coming! The short sale route is slow, certainly, depends a little bit on the lender whether they will respond slower yet, or a little more quickly. (Small local banks will give a quicker turnaround). However, that process is a bit involved and you'd probably have to bring someone in on it, it also may not be worth it if your ARV is correct and the property needs such minimal repairs.

My thoughts would be these: call a hard money lender and ask about transactional funding. If you had to close on the property and then list it on the MLS, even waiting a few months to sell it, you might still come out alright. Additionally, talking to one of them would give you another set of eyes on the deal.

Additionally, PM if you like and I could run comps (I think my MLS access will get me that far up there ;)

Best of luck!

JTM

@Account Closed

Hey! Welcome aboard! Have you heard the most recent podcast (or maybe the second to last) with the gentleman about your age that starting investing a few years ago? A great one to listen to, and might speak to your exact situation. 

As to what to do exactly, that depends on your goals. Are you set for retirement? Do you want cash flow? Do you want long term equity gain? Do you want quick cash?

As for me, I want cash, so this means at the moment I'm marketing to wholesale deals, and also trying to work in the world of traditional real estate (I did get a license, but getting that depends on your goals), and when I hopefully start buying properties in about a year they will be cash flow properties (meaning C areas with higher rates of return), and then down the road I'll start thinking about long term plays. Anyways, once you have a plan, you can see the steps to get there.

Best of luck,

JTM

@THU NGUYEN Good question, interesting answers. Yeah I think it'll depend on the investor. As posters have mentioned, they've done well with the long term play (buying for equity and appreciation), but I'm a short term player, I'm going for cash flow (because I don't currently have a job I like and want to stay in).

Best of luck,

JTM

@Jacob Lewis

Claire pretty much gave you the catchall, but I'll include two things: 1. listen to the 'direct mail marketing' podcast with Micahel Quarles (not a BP podcast, it's own thing), and in episode one he breaks down basically every mailing list available and gives you a picture of the criteria that can be used. 2. Choose a specific geographic region. Someone recommend I do this before I started mailing (which of course I didn't), and I'm learning as I go (I just sent my first marketing a month ago, and am finalizing the second mailing) - but I'm mailing an entire county, a metropolitan county at that - and I'm finding that most of the leads are... cheap. What I mean is that almost all of the leads are very undesirable properties to begin with, and then they're just bad leads for the standard reasons. While these leads can work for wholesaling, someone with the intention of flipping houses would be wasting their time marketing where I am. So, take that into account. Better areas you might get less calls and less leads, but the properties themselves might be more desirable or have a higher margin if you can get a deal out of them. The ARVs on most of the calls I'm getting are 15-25k (for the cash buyer), and in some cases they wouldn't be deals if people gave me the properties. In any case, just a thought. 

Learn as we go.

Best,

JTM 

Hey guys. 

Thanks for the nudge @Jordan Scott, I was just thinking I needed to get on here.

First two weeks marketing results:

Probate: Sent 80 letters, 2 responses (2.5%), offer written on one, waiting for response. I partnered with the same wholesaler I mentioned previously on this one, as they're showing me how they do everything which is quite valuable in my estimation. Fingers crossed, should know in a day or two once seller has met with attorney (he has a couple offers on the property).

Bandit Signs: I put out twenty last week, several calls. Mostly trash leads, but as mentioned previously, we did go see one where the seller radically downplayed the condition of the property. Rehab was going to be more than the house. So much for 'just needs a roof.'

Postcards: Sent a thousand, and, like a good amateur, I've somewhat lost track of the response rate as I'm trying to build some kind of better tracking system around leads and follow up, etc. I think at least 10, so a 1% response, at about $100 a lead. Mostly trash, to be honest, although three are certainly worth follow ups and could become motivated with a little time. 

Tax Foreclosures: I went through the pending city foreclosures for the last two terms of the year, and probably sent a cumulative 50 letters (lots and lots of trash leads, or back tax balances higher than the value of the property), and I got one response yesterday. A messy lead, for sure, but I'm trying to set up a walk through with a fellow investor who is interested. Short sale, back tax, vacant, squatters, copper ripped out, etc. -- still, this guy is interested, so I'm just bird doggin this one because it's trash for wholesale.

Conclusions: we're halfway through the month so I may get more calls yet, but already looking ahead for better lead capture next month. (At first I was just doing my mental 'seller lead sheet' on whatever scrap paper I had available, needless to say, this is a poor system. I've since got a simple 3 ring binder and have the seller lead sheets organized according to month. I still need to get podio working to some degree, because the intention is to then log the leads there and mark down for follow ups. On this point, while I wouldn't have spent weeks setting up a good lead capture system, I'd suggest having some sort of plan for this part.

The calls themselves have been easy. There was a good bit of fear about talking to sellers, etc., but after doing it about 20-25 times that's all gone. Still learning to be more effective, obviously, and learning to ask the key questions about motivation, condition, and price that qualify the lead, but I get a bit better every time, and am quickly learning property values and wholesale prices in different areas of the city. The idea of a 'script' simply doesn't work, as a far as I can tell, because every conversation is just so different.

Also trying to get this traditional vein going of working as an agent, and I've been working with an investor trying to scout good deals. Between the two, my time has been thin, but I'm just going till something starts clicking. You're either earning or learning, I guess.

Either way, great exposure, learning tons, and there's still a chance I'll close a deal this month.

Best,

JTM

First week response rate from postcards, .3% (that's 3 calls for 1,000 postcards, now $214 leads). - Not bad actually. Good practice talking to a few sellers and running numbers, and we're only a week in. One may pan out, he's thinking if he likes the range I gave him, and I'll follow up in a week or so if he doesn't call me back.

However, surprisingly, bandit signs. I guess they do work. I've gotten probably about 6-8 calls off these, and while some are obvious duds (one lady didn't even own the house!), I'm going to look at one tomorrow and do a scope of work, and plan to partner up with a local wholesaler to contract and sell the deal. 9 am tomorrow, let's hope this one pans out.

Updates to come.

JTM

@Craig Carmichael Sounds good. Let's do that soon!

@ The gang, my guess is that the postcards are landing more or less today, and I got a call this morning. Following up on it as we speak, comps, etc., but looks like a really hood property. Alright for wholesale, but you never know if they're flexible. Generally, I don't think "What's your offer?!" is a good indicator of motivation.

 Anyways, that makes the response rate .1%, and a $642 lead. But hey, they just went out. Slow and steady as we go.

@Steve Bracero. Currently, 0%. Haha. But they mailed last Thursday I believe, so I'm hoping I get some call shortly.

My other thought is that if they're really aggressive, they're probably not that motivated, merely curious and angry. If somebody asked me that series of questions my guess is that they actually don't want to sell me their house.

Additionally, try to turn it around and ask the questions yourself. 

@Daniel Thomas

  I have no idea! Haha. I've been sending mail for about a month, and just sent out a thousand yesterday, but I haven't had to deal with any like that yet.

 One guy did ask why I sent him mail (its was a D for D lead and in my notes I put 'run down,' and 'overgrown') but I obviously wasn't going to tell him that. I've tried to be delicate with the few who have asked, like, "the grass could've been a little long or maybe I just like the house."

As I'm thinking about it now though, mailing an equity list, I'll probably say something like 'I mail everyone whose lived in there house for more than 4 years (or whatever filter you built in). That way they don't feel special, but you also don't want to say 'I'm going after you equity.'

 Just some thoughts, but I'm curious how other people have handled this.

Best of luck,

JTM