All Forum Posts by: Kyle B.

Steven Johnson, sounds like we're using similar criteria. I can't really comment on the best way to reach sellers as I've only used the yellow letters to this point. I will say that it seems yellow letters are more popular here on BP. They have a higher response rate but cost more per touch, so you just have weigh those two items.

How effective have the postcards been to this point? If you've had minimal results, it probably makes sense simultaneously try a different method such as yellow letters. Then you can compare what your average costs per leads are for each method.

Best of luck.

Sarah B., thanks for your input. My agent was actually just apprehensive at the idea. I'm going to have him put in a bid today so we'll see how he reacts to it. That should indicate whether or not we continue working together.

Good luck with those 8 offers by the way!

Tim Breems, property has been listed for 45 days so doesn't look like my odds are good. No way I can get close to list price given the age and condition of the home (built in 1938). Worst thing they can do is say no though.

Do you mind if I look you up if I ever venture into the IL market?

Thanks everyone for all the input, very insight information. Tim Breems, the home in question is Fannie Mae. This is in Indiana though, any difference from IL or should i not expect them to come down more than 10%?

Mike LaCava, thanks for the input. You're right... my biggest mistake was not explaining my business model up front. I guess I assumed he would know given I was looking for flips but that was a wrong assumption.

Outside of this conversation, I've enjoyed working with him so far so we'll see how things progress. If I ask him to submit a bid for me and he comes back saying it's too low, then that would let me know it's time to move on to someone different.

So I recently got off the phone with a realtor I have been working with to discuss a property I saw this past weekend and will more likely than not put an offer on. At the end of the conversation, I mentioned what offer price I will most likely make, which was well below list price (~30%). In response to that, my agent became a little apprehensive and mentioned how it takes 3 hours to write up a contract and it makes sense to make offers that have a realistic chance of being accepted. He said you can occasionally make low ball offers but we should be careful about doing that.

I clarified that it was not a low ball offer. It was completely dependent on a projected profit of about $20k based on a $100k investment, and I was making my offer without much concern for the list price. Admittedly, this is my first flip so I'm giving myself a cushion with conservative estimates on repairs and ARV, but going into the process, I didn't realize this would be an issue.

Am I out of line or off base for thinking this? My thought process was to put in a lot of offers and have a small percentage of them get accepted. This seems to be the philosophy of a lot of people here on BP. Does everyone else work with agents that are happy to put in lots of offers or is that not how the business works? I'm thinking my agent may just not be used to working with investors, hence not a good fit to work with going forward.

Really curious about other people's perspective on this.

Thanks!

Kyle Hipp, Pat L., David Niles

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Definitely a few important factors to look into. David - the old pad still exists but it is an older home. I don't recall any damage to it but I didn't really give it a close look. Definitely worth looking at more closely.

Thanks,

Kyle

Jon Holdman, thanks for the info. I was given a rough estimate of $7.5k from a contractor who is also a cousin in law (although he doesn't have a ton of experienced specifically with garages), but his quote seemed to be accurate.

Hoping to get some input from rehabbers who have done this in the past. I'm looking at a property that does not have a garage, although it does have the slab where a garage once stood. All of the comps in that area have sold with garages, so it seems to make sense to build one if I were to flip the property. Without getting into local code issues (unless you're from NW Indiana), can anyone provide general cost guidlines for building a 1.5 car garage?

For reference, the rehabbed home would resale for $130-$140k and is about 1,600 sq ft. (this would be a dettached garage, just wanted to clarify the price point).

Thanks,

Kyle

Brandon Turner, I've had mixed results from my mailings up to this point. I have gotten a very high call back rate (~13%) but a lot of these calls have been tire kickers just curious about what I am going to offer for their property. Most conversations go along the lines of:

Me: "So how much are you looking to get your property for?"

Them: "I'm not really looking to sell, just wanted to hear what your offer is."

Most of the time, the properties have been already renovated by the current owner, so that alone makes it difficult to purchase at a discounted price. I haven't talked to anyone truly motivated yet, but I've only sent out 300 letters to this point, so there is a lot more potenital with my list if I keep going with this. My guess is that you will find a lot more properties in need of rehab (which I was trying to target, in order to justify a low purchase price) if you add a filter for a much longer ownership period. If you're looking for more turn key properties, this method should connect you with a lot of those types of properties though.

For reference, I'm sending mailings to absentee owned properties with equity of at least 40%. I also screened out homes purchased in the last few years (I think the cutoff I used was 12/31/2009). Cost per lead was 20 cents (304 leads for $61.77). Also, if you purchase from Listsource, unless you pay a monthly fee to gain access to their "premium" account, you have to use PayPal to order online, which was kind of annoying for me to open.

Hope this helps.

Kyle