All Forum Posts by: Ray Lai

@Tanner McKinley

Agree with my friend Bob. 

I loved college and had a blast. I went there though to make sure I could earn a great paycheck to fund my investments, not because I wanted to work forever for the corporate sector or for the man. I busted my balls to get into the #1 program in the country so I am biased. If you go to a top school or program that has produced marketable graduates that can get a high paying job, by all means get that degree and earn a W-2 and start househacking to get your foot in real estate.

If you hate school or go to a ****** school or major in a useless major, you might as well get directly into the business by networking your way in and getting a job as a property manager onsite for a mid-sized company (large ones won't want ya) or become a realtor. It depends on your personality and skills though, don't take blanket advice on the internet. Assess who you are and what you love.

It's funny that everyday people say they are so motivated and hard-working and then quit after posting a few posts on BP. Everyone thinks highly of themselves, but feel have the tenacity and the ability to persevere despite setbacks.

W-2 from a good education is a safe way to start but what level of risk are you willing to take? What kinda person are you?

@Matt Anderson

Welcome to BP!

Agree with several of the posters. I think you can be smart and look for off-market properties at a discount while deploying BARRRR to build instant equity. Seller-financing and other creative financing strategies work with that, but it's harder. You typically have to pick between getting a steep discount by offering 'cash' or getting an off-market property for closer to market value but getting seller financing. Regardless, do a little more research and expand your options before making a decision. At least you're in a good spot with your first investment.

@Xavier Xthrax

Adrien told you the truth. Why don't you start with 2000 addresses rather than 20k and make sure you build the correct follow-up system and practice the skillset of talking to sellers and listening for distress and motivation rather than go that big? 20k mailings is something the big boys do after perfecting their systems and ensuring they have all the people on their team to process that kinda volume. 

@Eric Mukai

It takes a LOT more mail in a competitive market to the tune of around $2500 in mailings to yield a profitable deal in super competitive markets. In secondary markets, our investors are picking up deals in their first couple of mailings, in the competitive markets a lot take 4+ mailings over a longer period of time because the markets are saturated with mailings and it takes a lot more sustainment for the letter to arrive at the right time for the seller to act. Newbies often start and quit in competitive markets because they can't sustain.

@Ryan Substad

That make sense, with the $10k profit you pulled you can easily do a large scale campaign and flip the juiciest and wholesale the rest. If you want a checklist of items you should prepare prior to your DM campaign or scripts on how to talk to sellers once your phones are ringing, I can hook you up.

Managing multiple flips is completely different than having the team you worked with already on your first flip. You need better processes and monitoring. It's Ok to build your trusted team and get some more deals coming your way and cherry pick the best and sell the rest.

@Matt Foster

Instead of "I'm very sorry for your loss..." it would be more effective if you put "We've helped other executors in the past by purchasing the properties at a fair price." or something along those lines (solution selling). 

2nd paragraph can be changed as well and merged to the first to further solution sell. "There is a long list of things that the executor must accomplish, however I can at least assist in the disposition of the real estate to alleviate some of your burden."

3rd and 4th paragraph are fine. However they can be improved to be more succinct with something like "We can buy properties as is, and clear out the possessions as well with no need for repairs or deal with other problems on your behalf."

Less is more when communicating. Succinct letters to the point have higher response rates. Attempting to build emotional bonds via mail doesn't work as well as solution selling.

@Nina Ibrahimbegovic

Deals aren't something that you should be analyzing hundreds quickly. Deals will make or break you. Not only do you need to verify and vet the inputs (people will lie and tell you pro forma numbers, always look for the trailing 12 and don't use rosy projections). Once you've actually done some deals, then it gets quicker and easier. I see that you're a normal member or you could use BP's calculators. I can hook you up with free software to analyze flipping and rehab deals but it's not made to analyze 100s of deals fast. It's for one deal at a time, and it includes projections into the future based on different assumptions that you can tweak.

@Jay Hinrichs

Did you read the rest of the post? That agent was trying to take advantage of him and there was no due diligence. Tried to sell him a crappy multi 6 hours aways and misrepresented the other property thinking he wouldn't check it out, basically trying to screw him over. Then asking a retainer fee on top of that, seriously?

@Solomon Ganz

Better idea is to get your license and work on the weekends and eventually if it takes too much time, then make the switch. That way you'll know whether you have the skills it takes to succeed or not as an agent. You might love it, or hate it. Rather than rely on the advice of random strangers with different backgrounds telling you whether they succeeded or not, why not give it a shot yourself? The real estate license is one of the easiest professional licenses to get, just join a solid brokerage that will train you well and start off doing some rent-placements to build a client base because 'real' realtors don't like doing those.

@Jesse R.

The answer is, 'it depends' on your situation - your time, your goals, your budget. If you are a new investor that is cash strapped, then printing and doing your own mailing may make sense if you know how to get deals on postage and materials and have lots of time to spare. 

If you're an investor with even a moderate amount of savings or are cash flow positive with at least $400/month, it makes much more sense to create your list yourself and use a service that you can upload the list and they create professional postcards/letters for you. Good services will offer you proofs, coaching, and other tips that you wouldn't know. If you did it yourself, there is a common mistake that most newbies make that costs them thousands. 

You also have to think long term as well when it comes to scalability. Doing things in-house does make sense if you're going to train and hire people and do 20000+ mailings a month.

If you want free templates to do your own mailings, a checklist of things you need to prepare BEFORE you start mailing, or scripts on how to process calls from the sellers, just shoot me a PM and I'm happy to share.

Best of luck.