All Forum Posts by: Alvin Grier

After reading Michael Gerber's "E-Myth" and Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Work Week" I've been focusing on creating duplicable systems for our wholesaling business.

My job is to handle marketing, and my business partner is more on the front lines, talking to buyers and sellers, title company, etc.

We have a few virtual assistants that help with our marketing campaigns. I have the systems pretty much in-place for our marketing, but I need to find a way to systemize my partner's end of the operation.

They're always running around like a chicken with their heads cut off putting out fires, and talking with the sellers and the buyers. I know it's a part of the business, however in order for our business to grow, we have to be able to get OUT of the business, so that we can work ON the business.

I say all of that to ask for advice on systemizing "their" part of the business. I know this is a broad question; to try to be more clear, I'm asking if you know of a resource online or something I can reference that can make dealing with sellers and buyers a little more clean?

My partner is constantly bouncing back and forth, relaying messages between parties, running to show properties, etc. They just come across as unorganized and inefficient, and I'd like to suggest something that can help that portion of our business.

Thanks for your time and suggestions in advance. I apologize for writing a book :-)

An "expert" in wholesaling suggested reaching out to local attorneys asking for them to refer clients to us that may be looking to liquidate residential properties.

Being that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, we want to make sure we go about this the right way.

How might I go about figuring out the message and form of direct marketing (typed letter, written letter, postcard, etc.) that's best for this campaign?

Thanks in advance for your time, consideration, and help.

Any constructive feedback is welcomed.

I am about to outsource to have someone else (other than myself) physically write our "We Buy Houses" message on our bandit signs.

How much have you paid for such a service in the past?
Or,
How much is a fair price to pay them per sign?

I've done one round of absentee letters so far, and there's got to be a better way to go about tracking our campaigns than what I've been trying to do.

From keeping track of the returned envelopes, to all of the various responses I get via email and telephone from the recipients, not to mention the other duties I have, I've been having a hard time keeping track of the responses, let alone keeping metrics on the effectiveness of the campaign, which I definitely would like to do.

What kind of system do you have established to track responses and the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns?

Especially considering that sometimes I take calls when I'm out and about; in these instances, I have to find a piece of paper or something to jot down their property information as well as make a note to update my spreadsheet of absentee owners that I got a new response...

The process of tracking this seems very intimidating to me. There's so much to it.

I need to establish an effective system that we can use to make this a little simpler.

I'm so confused and overwhelmed, that I don't even know what I'm asking for in particular, I just need a system... like yesterday! :-)

Thanks in advance for your help and time.

I recently switched to posting them up high on telephone posts, and they stay around a LOT longer.

Actually some of our signs are still there after three months, believe it or not.

If you're writing the wording on the signs yourself and you choose to post them up high, just go over the words a couple times, because when they're up high, they're harder to read with thin handwriting.

What way are you speaking of, exactly? Finding the names of the deceased through obituaries and cross-referencing that in public records to see if they had a home in their name?

That seems pretty tough if I'm not using public records to view the probate records to see who's getting the home from the deceased, am I wrong?

Or is there some other way to get this information?

I know there's quit claim and warranty deed... Is that what you're talking about?

It looks like I would need to keep a watchful eye on the recently deceased person's property records over time to see if deed transfer takes place.

Am I right?

Took me a while to think about what you said, so I tried to come up with a well-thought out response.

Also, if I'm sending postcards, how would I know when to stop sending them?

And if I'm sending a postcard to the home, who would I address it to, since the person just passed away, and there's no transfer of title on record yet?

Are either of the methods you mentioned above better than the other in your opinion?

I was actually taking a liking to the "matching obits to owners " idea, as it seemed to be a little easier than the probate route.

By the way, when you say "match obits to owners," what exactly do you mean?

My assumption, is that that entailed finding a name in the obituaries, perhaps researching their name in whitepages.com (to find an address to cross-reference), and matching them up with a record for a property in the county property record search tool that I referenced earlier in this thread.

Am I right?

I'm going to have a VA start working for us next week, based in the Philippines.

Does anyone know where I can find a sample real estate virtual assistant agreement that I can modify accordingly and send to the new VA?

I've also read about providing welcome packets to VA's that you hire, that introduce them to your business, and list out their duties... Might anyone know where I can find a sample of each of these types of documents that I can reference?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Thanks for that feedback, Michelle. Very valuable insight

So how can pre-probates help us at this point, if at all?

Being that the county I focus on requires that I have a case number, how else might I go about finding the info I need to identify probate properties?

I'm beginning to doubt the validity of the records available using their online tool.

When I just ran a search for the two probate record categories,(http://www.waynecountylandrecords.com/RealEstate/SearchEntry.aspx?e=newSession), like eight pages of results come up, but they all show up as being for the year 1999.