All Forum Posts by: Joshua Martin

Hey Gang,

  So I've had my license for a several weeks, but finally signed on with a broker. As every new agent starts out trying to work their sphere, I'm wondering if anyone has good free software for doing this and keep track of your sphere and the people that you add to it? Something that can keep track of dates and notify me of when to follow up -- I just know I won't be able to keep track doing it on my own.

  Is podio my only option for this kind of thing? If so, that's fine, but I'm just wondering if there's other options out there as my broker's seems hyper-limited.

Thanks for the input.

JTM

Thanks Steve, that was kind of my thought process.

Minor update: 1,000 postcards mailed today - yellow letters right on point with a one week turnaround time. Let the calls start coming.

JTM

@Steve Vaughan

  I've been thinking over this lead I came across the other day and wanted to know what someone with experience in these low equity deals would've done. 

It is the lead I mentioned previously on this thread, but the numbers are here: PP (amount owed on mortgage) 215k, ARV 275-285. Now, I never went and looked at the house because I didn't think there was any meat on it anyways, but the details I gathered from the seller are that it needs some work, hasn't been updated in 30 years, one of the windows is broken, and the place is generally dated.

Thinking that the end buyer in this area would be someone with the intention of flipping the property, I thought my margin had to be much higher. For example, ARV @ 280 x .65 - repairs - my fee = 137,000k. I assumed 40k on repairs (I know, without seeing it) assuming that it needs an updated kitchen and bath in an area with a high finish level. So that's what, a 20-25k kitchen?

  Anyways, I think it's gone now, but for future reference what might you have done with it? If sub2, assuming he went along with it, would've required $4,200 p/m rent to hit the BP 2% rule, and while that's a ball park and probably not attainable in an area like this, you'd still have to assume the mortgage payment would be about 1200 per month just principal and interest.

  Just looking for creative strategies going forward. 

Thanks in advance.

JTM

I like the simplicity of #37. 

And dude, we have the exact same name, lol.

@Account Closed

Great content and inspiring post. Needed to hear something like that today. 

Best, 

JTM

The standard yellow letter looks like this:

Dear (Seller)

  Hi,

        My name is (you)

           and I want to

              $BUY$

         your house at

          1234 Main St.

       Please call me at

       (your number)

                                     Please call

                                     Thanks,

                                      (you again)

                                      (number again)

Go to yellow letters .com and look at some samples. Some are much wordier, but I think this is the standard. It's verbatim their first yellow letter. 

Thanks for weighing in guys.

@John Chin It is sort of multi-pronged, it's just finding it's structure as we go. I'm planning to mail the 1,000 leads for six months, not sure how I'll space them yet, and the probate 5 separate times. But I'm just building the pieces as we go. Wrote my second probate letter last night, just needs some fine tuning.

@Kami S. Getting something of a start. Just talking to sellers is good practice. I actually just got off the phone with a FSBO that I guess I called a few weeks ago. Wants too much money, but I'll follow up in a month or two. It's certainly in the right area.

And no, I've just been picking them up as they come in. Or if I even see a number on my google voice I call back right away. But given the few calls I've got, only one left a message. She was certainly motivated, but I think I negotiated myself right out of that deal due to inexperience. We learn as we go. 

The postcards should be getting mailed this week. I think on Thursday if the one week turn around time was right.

I think for the future mailing I'm going to use click2mail though. I like that you can really design your own pieces rather than just changing text, and they mail next day, giving you a much better approximation of when your mail will arrive.

Best,

JTM

Hey @Mateusz Prawdzik, 

Lots of things going on there, and it sounds like they all need to be refined a bit. 

First off, absentee owners, if that's the list you want to work, you can buy a list off of listsource or listability or Melissa data. I just bought one off of list source, and you can build in certain criteria with respect to what types of proerties you want to look for. Google 'mailing lists bigger pockets' and read all the old threads about these. In fact, just start reading about direct mail marketing and you'll find a bunch of answers. 

With regards to driving for dollars, you basically have the idea, but you need to research and refine those leads. Figure out the city tax assessors site where you live and find all the public information about the property you can then decide if you want to mail them. If they bought it last year, for example, probably a no go. 

As for the FSBO, give him a call and say some dumb stuff, it'll be good practice. Learn as you go. I get better every time I talk to a seller. And what you're talking about is basically bird dogging. Finding a motivated seller and passing it to an investor that can handle the lead. Good practice.

And the ARV, a contractor will not know and will not be the person to ask. I have a real estate license and access to the MLS so that is working for me. You should consider finding a good, investor friendly agent or finding an alternative means, like a refined Zillow. I don't know what people use, but I'm sure there's something out there.

Good luck, 

JTM

I would say no.

A few things:

What is the ARV? Yes, it may be listed at 495k, but that doesn't mean it's worth it. There's a duplex a few blocks away from where I live right now listed for 210k, it's probably worth 180k if the interior is really nice. Would it be a deal if I paid 180k? A 30k discount from an inflated listing price?

You need to know the true value of the property and base your target discount on that. Investors try to shoot for 80%. You could call a realtor and ask him what he thinks a property is worth (be aware he will want to work as your agent, perhaps you should find an investor friendly one anyhow), and go from there.

As for some of your numbers, they might be a bit off too. People typically use at least 8.3% for vacancy, assuming perhaps one month out of the year it is vacant for turnover and painting and what have you.

CapEx and repairs people also run differently, but a combined 15% of GSI is more common.

Seeing that you have 0% in property management budget means that you plan to manage this property indefinitely?

I also don't understand what the plan is with the property? Long term hold? Or are you planning to live there? Are you both planning to live there?

In short, for where I'm at and what my goals are, no it doesn't not look like a deal at all. 19k investment to make $136 a month looks pretty miserable - but I'm after cash flow. If you have lots and lots of money and need somewhere to put it for tax purposes or long term wealth building maybe there's another motive here, but I don't see it.

Just keep analyzing deals, and don't buy the first one you see. I almost did that a few months back, and I'm glad I didn't.