All Forum Posts by: Ray Lai

@Sean Yang

I'm surprised you posted this, didn't this set off your spidey sense? Not only should you not waste a minute more of your time with that 'agent', you should share their information so that everyone knows not to do business with such a slimey sleezeball. Wow.

@Ed Potter

Welcome to BP. Wholesaling is legal in Michigan as long as you don't commit fraud by saying you're buying in cash and secretly doing an assignment. Since you're pursuing a double-close strategy, that's a safe option. Why don't you go hang out at your local REIA and make friends. Make sure you have the right contracts before you starting your marketing.

@Ryan Substad

Congrats on getting started, first flip is the toughest :)

What's your bottleneck in your business? Is it finding deals, or having the crew to work the deals. If it's finding deals, you can pursue other avenues like DM. If it's finding more crews to do the work, then you can continue using that company and bid less.

@Jonathan Davis

Bryan gave you excellent advice. Sounds like you went in blind without a checklist or scripts so that you have no idea what to say when a seller calls you. Can send you some scripts or a checklist. 

Also, just because a seller asks for an unreasonable amount right away, doesn't mean the deal is dead if you know how to talk and educate them. The moment you asked for seller-financing you did indeed lose your credibility.

@Matt Foster

Would be happy to take a look at your letter and the envelope to see what's turning people off. Based on what you described, something is wrong indeed. I can come up with a list of conjectures but looking at the actual material would be the occam's razor approach. It's most likely either the letter or the list itself.

Postcards as low as 40 cents yellow-letters and business letters as low as 50 cents. The prices include printing, stuffing envelope, packing, mailing.

Why choose reSimpli.com for your direct mail?

You're only a few clicks away from a professional and well run direct mail marketing campaign.

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

@Nicholas Armstrong

Here's all the ways you can try to locate owners

1) Ask neighbors - why? Cheapest and easy to do while you are D4D

2) Anywho or any free online service but these often have outdated info and low probability of success but still free

3) County tax assessor's office to see if they have the owner's address - takes time and not very accurate

4) Putting "Address Service Requested" and mailing to that address if they have a mailbox - cost of a letter and first class stamp

5) Skiptracing (costs money though) - $5-10 (findtheseller, privateeye, TLO, etc.)

6) Full stalker mode - "Drew out his entire family tree from Intelius" lol @ Lloyd Stanton, it worked for him but I've never done it

7) Stick a sign on their property saying you want to buy the home 

@Cody Evans

*thumbs up* I like it. Sending you the scripts and ping me when you run into snags.

@Cody Evans

Your approach works to get your first deal, but once you get a deal going you should consider the opportunity cost of your time. Is your time worth $10/hr, $100/hr, or $1000/hr? If you build scalable processes, you can eventually make your time worth more. Good luck with your approach! Hand delivering notes once a month is only do-able with a small list. You don't want to be penny wise, pound foolish but if you are strapped for cash, your approach will work. Factor in the depreciation of your car as well.

@Ryan Battista

1) I'd buy a high equity absentee list and mail those consistently. Those are the largest lists and you are bound to get deals from those

2) Simultaneously I would do the legwork to create my own list for probate and tax delinquents and start mailing to those. Those are more motivated, but smaller in quantity.

3) I'd make sure I have all my ducks in a row for the surge of calls that are going to come from doing so much DM. Not having the systems in place, and not knowing what to say or process the call would be a waste of marketing dollars. If you want a game plan, let me know. In the meantime here are some questions to ask yourself. If you can answer Yes to all these questions, then you should start. If not, you should do more preparation to increase your odds of success.

- Do you have the system built in place for your funnel: ready to answer that number without letting it go to voicemail, have a website landing page to capture the lead if you include a link in your DM.

- Do you want to maximize your response rate? Get a area code that is familiar to the people you're mailing to if you want to increase their comfort

- Are you familiar with the questions to ask a seller to see if they are distressed or not?

- Do you have buyers ready in that area for when you close a deal?

- Do you have someone in person that that isn't just boots on the ground, but understands rehab costs so they can get a proper rehab estimate so you know whether it's a deal or not?

- Do you have access to MLS or comps to know the ARV of the property you're buying?

- Do you have the contracts in place for them to sign when you close the deal?

- Do you have a title company or escrow lawyer (state dependent) to help finalize the paperwork?

Those are just a couple of things to get ready prior to starting your campaign. I'd highly recommend getting a real estate license as well.

4) Did you do research on the DM providers to ensure you're getting the best service, best product, and best price for your mailings?

5) There's some advanced things you can try since you're able to do a good quantity with your funds, like using different phone numbers for different types of mailings and numbers in the campaign to track your response rates.

Dug up an old message chain between us, messaged you again since we played phone tag about a month ago.

Regards,

Ray