All Forum Posts by: Moises R Cosme

1. The letter is great

2. Direct mail works when you have bigger data sets; on average your response rate on mail marketing is about 1%

2a. What's your envelope going to look like?  Focus on what the outside of the mail piece looks like (if they open it, you are a million times more likely to get a response).  If it looks like junk mail, they will not open it.

3. If your data set is really limited, I suggest the following: (1) calling the people on your list within 3 days of sending the mail, and (2) planning to send each person at least 6 more pieces of mail in 10 to 14 day increments.

Direct marketing is extremely effective, but you really have to work at it.  Mail - call - email & be consistent with all three avenues. 

Congrats!!!  This is awesome. 

Carolyn, 

Gutters:  this is not a huge issue; gutters are relatively inexpensive and easy to get done. 

Cracks in the brick:  how old is the house?  Depending on its age, cracks in the brick may be  a normal occurence or a serious problem (if the house is newer & you have cracks in the brick, this is an issue)

The foundation: again, the level of concern on this item depends on the age of the house.. If the house is older, you can expect to have this kind of thing come up (and be expensive to repair); if its a newer house and you have a foundation problem the builder may have done a bad job.

Plumbing: sounds like the house is older, lead pipes are a problem - this is the first item where I would consider moving on from the property.  

Water heater:  high end water heaters run $2800 installed, I would not be concerned about this

Furnace:  a good furnace has a useful life of 30 years

Negative slope:  this is likely the root cause for the foundation issue

Key question:  how much is the house going to worth if you repair these issues?  Keep in mind that you do not add value to a property by fixing a foundation or plumbing (these are baseline expectations, any Buyer expects that the house will have a good foundation and good plumbing).  So if there isn't a really high upside those types of issues would tell me to exercise the inspection clause & move on. 

I hope this helps. 

Ryan, I am 99% sure you will need to go commercial; I dealt with a similar transition a few years back.  

This is such an awesome story!!!  I did something very similar.  

1. I think we are going to see a move away from large office spaces; the pandemic has shown the business community that they can be productive with their staff working remotely.    

2. Any business that helps business people use the cloud will grow; I have a friend that jumped into an IT business, he has a background in Citrix & I think given the new reality that we are all facing that he will do well. 

This is awesome!!! 

What are you looking for?  Are you looking for cheap property?  Or are you looking for high margin flips?  Are you buying & holding or just flipping? 

We are not having this issue in MA; housing inventory is so tight state wide that anytime there is anything new on the market it gets snapped up.  Consider working with an Agent, they may be able to assist. 

Zaid, sorry... I did not elaborate.  If you find the right deal, securing financing should be straight forward; a hard money lender will lend on any property as long as the collateral supports the loan.  Finding great financing is a result of doing many deals, you cannot expect to have great financing while you are starting out - if you find a great deal, get whatever financing is available and do the deal; great deals are hard to come by and collateral based lending is largely homogeneous at this point (there is very little variability in their terms from one lender to the next).  Finding the right market is not essential if you understand the numbers in the market that you are working in; great markets will yield higher profits, but if you have the right deal and you know your numbers you should be able to profit in any market.  Investors are pretty easy to find IF you have the right deal, have your numbers down cold and have a good plan for the project; investors are all about finding a profit, so they are just looking for the right deal.  Lastly, finding the right broker is important but it is the least important thing on this list... The right broker will help you, but on balance brokers are there to facilitate they generally aren't lining up perfect deals to give to one client.  We as investors are responsible for finding deals, brokers are there to facilitate the process.  If this helps, I would appreciate if you gave my post a vote.