All Forum Posts by: Robin Maza

I think your local REIA's are a great place to start. Although there is a fee, you'll get access to established investors, many of whom love talking about the business.

I would check meetup.com and see what RE meetings are going on in your area. I'll be at the Broward REIA next Wednesday, feel free to buy me a drink for some real estate advice. Just kidding my advice is free! Hope to see you all there.

Welcome @Malcolm Allen!  I've been an investor for about 2 years now.  What are you more interested in, going full steam ahead as an agent or getting into investing?  Regardless of which one you should find many friendly people willing to give advice.  Message me if there's anything I can help with.  Good luck!

There are some costs and advantages to obtaining the licensing. As mentioned, there is time and money involved in obtaining and maintaining your license. Most states will then require you disclose your license on marketing. The obvious advantages have been mentioned already. I often view standard "we buy houses" investing to be about connecting with a motivated seller and helping them resolve their housing problem. Our marketing puts us in contact with motivated sellers, but often their property is in beautiful condition and they wish to sell for other reasons. In my experiece, I have not had a homeowner with a pristine SFH home willing to accept a 70% type investor offer. The right solution for these homeowners is to list on the MLS for an end user who will pay top dollar - and we openly advise homeowners that is their best strategy if they can wait it out a couple months. If you have a license, you can list the property on the MLS for them and collect commission. Of course, every business has different goals and strategies, but don't rule out being able to list properties that aren't typical investor deals.

@Thomas Varner  Hey Thomas welcome to BP!  I think your best bet would be to do some research on hard money loans.  Unfortunately with most all hard money lenders they would want you to bring some money to the table, as they usually wont fund 100 percent of your deal.  

Awesome job @Leor D..  Congrats on your positive cash flow and deciding to dig in and get some more information.   When I run my calculations on properties I'm considering renting, I usually calculate that I'll try to set aside 10 percent of the rent for maintenance and 5 percent for vacancy.  Although these dig into potential profits, the security and piece of mind they offer is great.  You never know when the condo association might hit you with a special assessment or if your tenant just suddenly decides to stop paying.  It's nice to have security in the event either of these situations comes out of nowhere.   I'm always available to answer any questions you might have just shoot me a message!

I'm not sure what you mean by "pre-approved at that purchase price."  Are you holding yourself out as needing traditional financing?  Wholesalers usually are not "pre-approved." A bank statement/letter of credit can verify you as a cash buyer. 

Earnest deposit varies.  We begin around $1,000 and adjust depending if its important to the home seller.  Some home sellers insist on a more substantial deposit, and we will negotiate it higher.  We rarely go above 5% of purchase price.

As far as "getting stuck with the contract"; real estate contracts can have inspection and finance contingencies.  In your situation, it's important those are in place as if you cannot secure financing for the double-close you can cancel your contract and return your deposit.

Welcome to the BP community!

Sounds good Jasmine. In terms of cost, just remember you can set up your equity filter (all filters) before buying the list. The list cost is per lead, so no need to buy a list with leads you are not interested in mailing. Lists grow stale in 4-6 months as homes are sold, so really no need to buy extra leads.

Jasmine Anderson Jasmine, if by free and clear you mean no mortgage, Listsource and other list providers allow you to choose equity/loan to value. That's really only a small piece of the puzzle for the list generation. We also use geography restriction (out-of-state); and last sale date restriction. Length of time at residence and distance from the property help create the necessary motivation and distress to generate a motivated home seller. We have closed deals with this list; but just like anything volume and consistency are necessary. Small volume and stop-and-start will make closing deals harder.

As @Sharon Vornholt noted, long-term consistency is critical.  We have been doing probate since January 2015, and our hottest leads come in after 6-months.  We recently closed a $20,000 deal after 8-months, and a $40,000 4-property package 2-years into probate.  We spend about $500.00 per month on our probate mailings.

But I share original posters concern about custom probate list becoming excessively long. I manage the volume by every 2 months doing the following: (1) check every property on the MLS, and if it's on MLS submit offer to agent if it is in distress, otherwise ignore; (2) look to see on the County Appraiser if the property was sold/transfer ownership, or has a new absentee address - and if it was sold, watch for the price: if it was for $100 or some other suspect amount, I treat this as if the owner is another family member dealing with the property and keep mailing. I haven't done this yet, but I am considering instituting skip tracing at the 16-month mark to reach the personal rep directly.

Additionally, we don't mail to properties with the personal rep living in the property.  We did this for 12-months, and didn't get a single call back.

We use white letter with business card.  In South Florida, very competitive, we consistently have been around a 1.25% response rate.

Also remember, it can take 8-12 months to get the call. Take another 8-12 months to get the deal. You need long-term mailing, long-term lead follow-up. This type of marketing isn't like widgets. I wish it were, my ROI calculations would be much more accurate.