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All Forum Posts by: Paul Wakim

Paul Wakim has started 17 posts and replied 42 times.

Post: How much money do make?

Paul WakimPosted
  • Specialist
  • USA
  • Posts 45
  • Votes 17

@Casity Kao & @Brandon Beatty Thanks so much. 

Casity, I like your Idea about ARV and allowing them to determine it based on the comps. Unfortunately, one of the properties I am working on is unique in that it has a lot of land in a great area but the structure is awful. Rock solid comps are few and far between.

Post: How much money do make?

Paul WakimPosted
  • Specialist
  • USA
  • Posts 45
  • Votes 17

Hello everyone, I am working on a few deals right now, one of which I will resell for sure and the other I haven't decided yet. My question is... If I did decide to resell one or both of these deals to a rehabber how much should I calculate as profit for the rehabber when the property sells to the end buyer after rehab? 

I have one property at the moment that needs A LOT of work so I assume the rehab will take 6 months roughly. If you were going to put 6 months of time and money into a property how much would you like to make on it? I am accounting for financing costs, closing costs and of course rehab costs. I estimate the rehab will cost between $80 and $95K. I'm not talking about a home run here but a solid deal for sure. 

I am trying to calculate a fair asking price for the situation. Any advice will help!

Thanks in advance. 

Post: Facebook ad success

Paul WakimPosted
  • Specialist
  • USA
  • Posts 45
  • Votes 17

@Paul Fagot

This is what I have found to work for clients and for myself. 

Start with a broad audience inside an engagement campaign that has never been exposed to you or your brand. Anyone who you can target based on interests or demographic info that could be labeled as “distressed” or wanting to sell. Show this audience an ad that contains a video and some short ad text describing what you do. The video cannot be longer than 15 seconds so you can utilize all the placements Facebook, their adnetworks and Instagram have to offer. The goal of this ad is to hit as many people as possible. 

Let that run for a week or longer. You can split test this with other ad sets that have variations in targeting and messaging and media. 

Next, if you decided to split test in anyway you want to save the audiences, media and messaging that worked best. When I say worked best I mean the media that made people watch to 95% of the video. 

Create a new campaign with the “traffic” objective. 

Take that audience of people who watched a large majority of your initial video and target them with a more direct ask and a link to your landing page. Again use a video. This one can be longer but No more than 1 minute. 

Be sure to have the pixel on your landing page. If you have a form for them to fill out make sure when they submit the form it sends them to a new page, the “thank you” page. Ensure the pixel is properly placed on this page as well. 

Let this ad run until the frequency metric in ads manager for this campaign reaches 1.4-1.7. 

Next set up your final campaign. This one needs to be a “conversion” objective. You’ll need to create a custom conversion that tells Facebook a new lead has been brought in once they hit the thank you page. 

The audience should be the people who clicked through to your site on the second ad but did not end up filling out the contact form.

For this campaign use a new video, no longer than 1 minute. Make sure you are directing asking the audience to click through to your site. Let it run until the frequency hits 1.5 ish. 

Because this 3rd campaign is a conversion campaign Facebook will optimize the campaign automatically so more people fill out your contact form. 

With this funnel you are enticing the most interested sellers in your market to take action and contact you. 

You can always put more money into split testing at the top of the funnel with different initial audiences that will set the foundation for this whole process. The more splits the more accurate a representation you will have of the perfect / best converting audience. 

Additionally, if you have lists you have purchases or past sellers info those are GOLD. They can be utilized inside facebooks ad platform to directly target those individuals you were going to mail. Or in the case of people who sold to you in the past they can be used to make lookalike audiences so Facebook can automatically go out and find other people just like those people who sold to you before. 

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. 

If you take the time and money to do this and work it... it will work. 

Originally posted by @Sawyer Dina:

Hey Paul,

That's an excellent question, a tough one to figure out for sure. It sounds to me that either the county has not updated the owner's name properly...OR more than likely the property was passed down to his son with the same name as an inheritance. The mailing address usually is different from the owner's address if 1) it's currently vacant and the owner lives elsewhere or 2) the owner is an investor and has the property as a rental.

I'm actually a wholesaler in the Pittsburgh area and could hook you up to some great off market deals if you'd like to check them out. Of course they are mostly vacant properties that need work done to them but several are for sale under $20K. If you'd like to reach out to me, send me a private message through Bigger Pockets and we talk further over there.

Also, as a wholesaler, we use a number of online tools to find owners phone numbers, and email addresses. They come at a price but can be worth it, look into Spokeo & Intelius. They might help. 

Best,

Sawyer

 Sawyer, what kind of success have you had using Spokeo or Intelius? They are some of the first results that show up when I try to look for the owner's contact info

Post: Abandoned property help

Paul WakimPosted
  • Specialist
  • USA
  • Posts 45
  • Votes 17

@Karen Rittenhouse Thank you for the advice. I will do my best to figure out how to do that. I am part of the local REIA group and will be sure to ask them as well.

Post: Abandoned property help

Paul WakimPosted
  • Specialist
  • USA
  • Posts 45
  • Votes 17

So there is a property close to me in the east end of Pittsburgh that I have had my eye on for a while. It is abandoned but It is in an AMAZING location and I think it could potentially be a great deal for me. BUT when looking at the tax website it shows the owner as the guy who died in the house. Then when looking at the owner mailing address it shows a different address than the home I'm interested in.

I talked to the neighbor today who said she has been in her house for 4 years and it has been vacant the entire time she has lived there. She seems to think there is an insurance company or hospital with a lien against the house. The tax site also shows that the taxes have not been paid for the past 3 years. I cannot see beyond that.

I can take that owner mailing address and search for it on the same site and get the owners first and last name.

Other than mailing that address and walking up to the front door (both of which I have tried) what other ways could I contact the owner of the property?

Can anyone recommend a way to gather more info on this property that will point me to the owner or a better understanding of the situation?

Thanks in advance!

So there is a property close to me in the east end of Pittsburgh that I have had my eye on for a while. It is abandoned but It is in an AMAZING location and I think it could potentially be a great deal for me. BUT when looking at the Allegheny tax website it shows the owner as the guy who died in the house. Then when looking at the owner mailing address it shows a different address than the home I'm interested in. 

I talked to the neighbor today who said she has been in her house for 4 years and it has been vacant the entire time she has lived there. She seems to think there is an insurance company or hospital with a lien against the house. The tax site also shows that the taxes have not been paid for the past 3 years. I cannot see beyond that. 

I can take that owner mailing address and search for it on the same site and get the owners first and last name.

Other than mailing that address and walking up to the front door what other ways could I contact the owner of the property? 

Does anyone know of a way to gather more info on this property? 

Thanks in advance!

Yes, the number I posted are best case scenario at a $400K purchase price. I do not plan to move forward with this property if the seller is not willing to go down in price. As for the location of the property, I am very familiar with the area and think that it's a fantastic place to invest based on what I know others pay for rent. However, there is no way I could go through with this deal if the purchase price is not decreased. I will FOR SURE have to make updates to each of the 3 occupied units. 

@Zachary Corum thank you for the links and for your awesome response. I will be sure to read it over. Based on what I have heard from the landlord/seller they are most likely on month to month leases. If I can get a better purchase price it might make sense... definitely a big IF.

@Account Closed thanks for the advice. Currently, the rents are not controlled by anyone but the landlord. He has another career and has simply done a poor job staying on top of the rents and keeping them at market levels. 

If I were to raise the rents in all the units to market rates I can expect : 

NOI: $32,559.56

Cash Flow: $14,559.56

COC (ROI): 11.84%

Cap rate: 8.14%

and that's with $15,000 of upgrades planned for investment after the initial purchase of $400K. 

Is there an easy way for me to find what the average cap rate is in my area? 

Thanks so much to everyone who responded. I know for sure the rents can be significantly higher. A family member of mine lives 2 doors down from this 4 plex in a similar house and pays $1000/m. The home they live in is nothing special and is the same quality as the homes/units in this 4 plex. 

@Josh Caldwell are you familiar with the laws in our area? Do I have to wait until their current lease expires? Or does their current lease expire when I purchase the property? What if there is no signed documentation for a lease? I am trying to think of the worst case scenario so I am prepared.