All Forum Posts by: Ray Lai

@Henry T.

Lots of people trying to help you do due diligence on your first deal. 

@Nicholas Weckstein is on point about the many different costs you need to include.

It would be more helpful for us giving advice to see an actual breakdown of your numbers. The numbers shouldn't be pro-forma based on your realtor's 'advice' but actual numbers that you can get from the financial statements from the previous seller. Ask for their trailing 12 and base your numbers on that.

In dangerous areas like Englewood, make sure you factor in a MUCH higher vacancy rate than a nice neighborhood. Nice neighborhoods you factor in 5-10% due to turnover. For bad areas like Englewood 20% is not even conservative.

Remember - numbers only work out if you can get tenants that pay, and pay on time. 

The taxes and laws in your area are not friendly for landlords.

BTW, even though I'm in San Diego now, I used to live in Chi city before moving here so I'm familiar with your hood.

REsimpli has developed a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module that is tailored for real estate investors at REsimpli.com. Our software includes built in seller-intake scripts to help you ask the right questions and manage your marketing leads. You can also use our automated system for follow-up. The reliable CRM will increase the amount of deals you get from your marketing and mailings because it supports more efficient and consistent follow-up. It reminds you to follow-up on the different deals in your pipeline, and help you ask the right questions to the sellers.

Check it out here at:

https://resimpli.com/

There will always be a free version of our software. However, more advanced capabilities are being added in future releases as well and we'll eventually charge a small subscription for the superuser version.

Current features include:

- Intake script that contains questions to ask sellers of properties in order to capture accurate information for follow-up

- Ability to schedule and track appointments to enable efficient follow-up for responses and reminders to follow-up

- Full Google API functionality for fast and easy sign-up

- Full Zillow API functionality - just pop in an address and it'll auto-populate the data for the property for you using the Zillow database

- Google street view functionality so you can virtually walk around the potential home and it places a pin where your house is so you can tell where it is in relation to other properties on the street as you virtually walk it.

Take action now - don't procrastinate - try it for free now, and improve your closing rate by using a system that works! Why not improve your bottom line? If you want a higher conversion rate for your direct mail and other real estate marketing campaigns, then come check out the REsimpli CRM to close more deals. It'll help you schedule and conduct improved follow-up with your sellers, which will increase your profits as you land more deals. Consistent and reliable communication is critical in our business and having an effective system will save you time, headache and increase your closing rate. It'll also help you ask all the right questions to sellers so you won't drop the ball and miss out on crucial information about your property you're buying.

@Mia Trasolini

There are actually tons of variables but I'm familiar with the areas you speak of since I'm a San Diegan / investor myself.

Couple of points to consider

1) If you're at a bottom of the real estate cycle - sketchy areas can improve rapidly, if you're near the top, the former sketchy areas are now gentrified. The cycle takes time. Since we're late in the appreciation cycle here in San Diego, an incorrect application of gentrification logic would lead people to think all areas in San Diego will become nice 'eventually' -> Definitely not the case!

2) Show me your numbers and I'll show you actual costs like CapEX / vacancy / etc. that makes your Cap Rate look bad compared to the risk your taking

3) If we just had a crash and you asked this same question - I would give you a very different answer.

Just my opinion. I'm investing in the midwest with absolutely awesome cash flow until San Diego finishes this cycle before re-deploying here.

For the best direct mail service that will get you qualified leads to convert into deals for your real estate investing business, choose REsimpli for your mailing needs! Our professionally designed mailers are proven to work effectively. Our user-friendly software allows customization of your direct mail campaign with a few simple clicks. We've also included built in analytics that our software provides that will give you the information to make the right decisions with your marketing. With first class postcards as low as 40 cents, yellow-letters and business letters as low as 50 cents with no hidden fees, you know it is a great investment to get more deals. Prices include everything: printing, stuffing the envelope, packing, mailing, and postage. Analytics for your campaign can be accessed directly from your REsimpli dashboard.

Free mentoring and support is available as well - our customer service is simply unbeatable! We even provide a free CRM to increase your conversion rates and other useful mods! Your success is our success.

Our customers keep coming back to REsimpli.com for their mailings because:

REsimpli - Tools to Simplify Real Estate Investing

Come test it out and just upload your list with a few clicks and execute your professional and expertly run direct mail marketing campaign with unparalleled customer service. If you need a list, we can help with that as well.

Additional Pricing info:

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

$0.55 for 200-1,000

$0.50 for more than 1,000

Don't just take our word for it, come check us out and see the many glowing testimonials we have and our customer blogs where they share tips on how they use our direct mail to succeed in their investing as well.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software tailored for real estate investors is live at REsimpli.com. Our software includes built in seller-intake scripts to help you manage your marketing leads and use our automated system for follow-up. Using our reliable CRM will increase the amount of deals you get from your marketing and mailings because it supports more efficient and consistent follow-up. It'll remind you to follow-up on the different deals in your pipeline, and help you ask the right questions to the sellers.

Check it out here at:

https://resimpli.com/

There will always be a free version of our software. However, more advanced capabilities are being added in future releases as well and we'll eventually charge a small subscription for the superuser version.

Current features include:

- Intake script that contains questions to ask sellers of properties in order to capture accurate information for follow-up

- Ability to schedule and track appointments to enable efficient follow-up for responses and reminders to follow-up

- Full Google API functionality for fast and easy sign-up

- Full Zillow API functionality - just pop in an address and it'll auto-populate the data for the property for you using the Zillow database

- Google street view functionality so you can virtually walk around the potential home and it places a pin where your house is so you can tell where it is in relation to other properties on the street as you virtually walk it.

Don't wait, try it for free now, and improve your closing rate by using a system that works! Why not improve your bottom line? If you want a higher conversion rate for your direct mail and other real estate marketing campaigns, then come check out the REsimpli CRM to close more deals. It'll help you schedule and conduct improved follow-up with your sellers, which will increase your profits as you land more deals. Consistent and reliable communication is critical in our business and having an effective system will save you time, headache and increase your closing rate. It'll also help you ask all the right questions to sellers so you won't drop the ball and miss out on crucial information about your property you're buying.

For the best direct mail product on the market that will get you solid leads to convert into deals for your real estate investing business, choose REsimpli for your mailers. Our professionally designed products are proven to work effectively. You can use our user-friendly software that allows customization of your direct mail campaign with a few simple clicks. We've also included built in analytics that our software provides that will give you the information to make the right decisions with your marketing. We have first class postcards as low as 40 cents, yellow-letters and business letters as low as 50 cents. Price includes everything: printing, stuffing the envelope, packing, mailing, and postage. Analytics for your campaign can be accessed directly from your REsimpli dashboard.

Also there's free mentoring and support is available as well - our customer service is simply unbeatable! We even provide a free CRM to increase your conversion rates and other useful mods! Your success is our success.

Our customers keep coming back to REsimpli.com for their direct mail because:

REsimpli - Tools to Simplify Real Estate Investing

Upload your list with a few clicks and execute your professional and expertly run direct mail marketing campaign with unparalleled customer service. If you need a list, we can help with that as well.

Additional Pricing info:

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

$0.55 for 200-1,000

$0.50 for more than 1,000

Don't just take our word for it, come check us out and see the many glowing testimonials we have and our customer blogs where they share tips on how they use our direct mail to succeed in their investing as well.

I can coach you on how to use direct mail effectively to increase your deal flow in your real estate pipeline. Learn what works and what to avoid that will kill your response and conversion rates. If you need some help getting started, I can provide some guidance and send you a direct mail game plan, checklist of things to prepare to increase your chances of success, scripts on how to talk to different types of sellers, software to use for your real estate investing including customer relationship management (CRM) software, templates for your direct mail, contracts, calculators, etc.

If you want coaching, shoot a message with information on where you are in the process with your direct mail. It's important to say where you are so I can provide the right advice for your situation.

I've coached many new wholesalers/flippers to successfully start their marketing or increase their deal flow. Although this is free, I don't just coach anyone. I've helped a lot of people so I can tell who the time-waster talkers are and see who are the ones that take action to get results.

Come check out the useful protips in the REsimpli blog written by other successful real estate investors using our direct mail:

https://resimpli.com/resimpliblog/

The posts are written by experienced real estate investors that use the REresimpli direct mail service and other modules, like our CRM, to pull down big deals for their wholesaling, flips or turn-key businesses. They are active members here on the BiggerPockets forums so you can also network with them and check out their businesses/profiles.

So don't wait and miss out on the treasure trove of real estate investing and direct mail knowledge that will help you with your marketing funnel for your real estate investing. There are real estate and marketing tips and info on how to scale up their businesses, etc.

Keep on investing in yourself! Always grow and learn to achieve even greater success!

Knowledge is how you improve and grow your business.

REsimpli has developed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software tailored for real estate investors. This includes built in seller-intake scripts to help you manage your marketing leads and have an automated system for follow-up. Our reliable CRM will increase the amount of deals you get from your marketing and mailings because it supports more efficient and consistent follow-up. It'll remind you to follow-up to on the different deals in your pipeline, and help you ask the right questions to the sellers.

Check it out here at:

https://dashboard.resimpli.com/

There will always be a free version of our software. However, more advanced capabilities are being added in future releases as well and we'll eventually charge a small subscription for the superuser version.

Current features include:

- Intake script that contains questions to ask sellers of properties in order to capture accurate information for follow-up

- Ability to schedule and track appointments to enable efficient follow-up for responses and reminders to follow-up

- Full Google API functionality for fast and easy sign-up

- Full Zillow API functionality - just pop in an address and it'll auto-populate the data for the property for you using the Zillow database

- Google street view functionality so you can virtually walk around the potential home and it places a pin where your house is so you can tell where it is in relation to other properties on the street as you virtually walk it.

Act now and improve your closing rate by using a system that works! It'll improve your bottom line. If you want a higher conversion rate for your direct mail and other real estate marketing campaigns, then come check out the REsimpli CRM to close more deals. It'll help you schedule and conduct improved follow-up with your sellers, which will increase your profits as you land more deals. Reliable communication is imperative in our business and having a system is essential and will save you time, headache and increase your closing rate. It'll also help you ask all the right questions to sellers so you won't drop the ball and miss out on crucial information about your property you're buying.

For the best direct mail service on the market that will get you solid leads to convert into deals for your real estate investing business, you should choose REsimpli for your mailers. Our professionally designed products are proven to work! Use our user-friendly software that allows customization of your direct mail campaign with a few simple clicks. We've also included built in analytics that our software provides that will give you the information to make the right decisions with your marketing. We have first class postcards as low as 40 cents, yellow-letters and business letters as low as 50 cents. Price includes everything: printing, stuffing the envelope, packing, mailing, and postage. Analytics for your campaign can be accessed directly from your REsimpli dashboard.

Not to mention the free coaching and support is available as well - our customer service is simply unbeatable! We even provide a free CRM to increase your conversion rates and other useful mods! Your success is our success.

Our customers keep choosing REsimpli.com for their direct mail due to:

REsimpli - Tools to Simplify Real Estate Investing

Upload your list with a few clicks and execute your professional and expertly run direct mail marketing campaign with unparalleled customer service. If you need a list, we can help with that as well.

Additional Pricing info:

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

$0.55 for 200-1,000

$0.50 for more than 1,000

Don't just take our word for it, come check us out and see the many glowing testimonials we have and our customer blogs where they share tips on how they use our direct mail to succeed in their investing as well.