All Forum Posts by: Becky Watkins

John, did you live in the duplex?

For the past 10 months, my goal has been to wholesale to cover expenses of education and marketing, and to save up the capital to have a down payment for a fourplex. I'm getting impatient now because I'm getting a very low response to the yellow letters. The farthest I've gotten are callbacks, all of which have been under water. I don't know how to short sale, and as I understand it, it's not for wholesale. Where I have experience is property management, but I do not have the funds for a downpayment. I only have about $10k so far. 3.5% of $600k is $21k, and it would take me two years to save up that additional $10k. That's not even counting reserves.

I'm getting desperate because my husband says we can't start a family until we cash flow at least $2400/mo. I have no idea how much property it will take to obtain that goal. So at this point I'll take any suggestions. I went down to part time to be able to spend more time writing letters and looking for properties. I keep wondering if I should give up and go back to working full time with overtime so we can save more faster. Or if I should persevere because there ARE people getting deals, and I just need to find out what I'm doing wrong.

My method right now is to write to houses in preforeclosure in local zip codes trending up. I followup after a month when possible, but most of the auction dates are three weeks max from filing date, so most of the time properties have a new owner by the time I follow up. Taking the time to weed out houses whose amount of default is higher than estimated value, I only have time to send out about 50 letters a week. I was sending out as much as 50 a day, but getting so many return to senders and owners under water, I started filtering as mentioned above. Even with the supposedly high response rate that yellow letters get, I reckon this is going to take a while to get a deal.

For anyone else who invests in California, do you find wholesale a viable option? Is buy and hold SFR better? Is 4plex as good as SFR? How does one even go about finding a fourplex to buy?

My husband wants to skip right into apartment buildings, but we don't have the cash for a downpayment. Is owner financing something to realistically hope for? We have three years experience in apartment management (38 units), just no capital.

Any tips on finding a mentor? I don't want to spend the cash we currently have on a guru.

My post is long and questions vague, but I'll take any tips, answers, and advice that any of you have. I read as much articles as I can, but try to spend the majority of my free time looking for and writing to potential motivated sellers. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help out.

Ok I guess I'll keep trying to wholesale to raise the capital for a downpayment. I'm just getting impatient because after a year, the farthest we've gotten in a deal is a call from a letter. The only people who have been interesting in selling were those who can only short sale or are already on the MLS. Thanks.

Regarding the 2%/1.7%, what does that mean? And which one is the better deal?

I have been trying to wholesale for almost a year now so that I can have enough cash for a downpayment. I still don't have that, and now I'm reading above that the cash buyers will be more powerful competition. And I've read other places that fourplexes are overpriced and don't provide as much relative cash flow as SFR. I'm stuck trying to figure out what to do, because I'm getting a low response rate to my yellow letters, and not one deal yet (everyone who has actually called said they are working with the bank on a refi or can only short sale). Is fourplex a good way to go with an FHA? Even though I don't have experience (we do have three years experience in managing apartments) in real estate investing, should I try to use private/hard money? I only have about $10k cash from our personal fund.

Thanks. Is FC Radar foreclosureradar.com? What is LPS?

I was looking up the addresses of some properties I was going to follow up on that I've previously sent two yellow letters too. I noticed that while they still come up as preforeclosure, the auction date has already passed. This wasn't one or two, but a couple dozen.

My question is do I give up once the auction date has passed? One person had called from the second letter and said they were working on a refi with the bank, and that the auction date was postponed (my source didn't reflect that).

And where there was no auction date listed, I was counting 60 days from the date of filing, but some have the auction date only 30 days or less after the filing date.

I don't want to waste my time writing letters to dead ends. Help?

I have been sending to all owners and borrowers, to the property address and the mailing address, if different. A couple hundred properties, but still only a couple responses, no deals. They never leave a message and don't answer when I call back.

I have a few questions:
1) If there is a mailing address, should I still be sending to the property address?
2) I have been spacing the followups a month apart, but I've been using notice of default lists, so should I decrease that to a week or two?
3) Do I give up after the auction date or continue to send letters?
4) I always hear to just put my phone number. Is this because phone is better or because the people suggesting it are probably just used to the phone themselves? I'm personally better at email.
5) If it says "(no mail) 123 main st, city zip" under mailing address, should I not send a letter to them at all?

Anything else? I don't know what I'm missing, not getting any calls on my letters. I know I need to make sure I'm sending out letters everyday, but I want to make sure I'm using my time wisely and not sending too many copies (property & mailing address) or to addresses where it's too late (auction already happened), etc.

I've only gotten a few calls out of a 100 letters, none of which led anywhere. I have tweaked my methods and rearranged my schedule (to have more time to work on these) since though so I am hopeful for better results

Thanks. I had another question, for anyone.

If there are two owners, should I write to the first name, to both combined, or write two letters?

I'm sending yellow letters based on preforeclosures and I often find properties where the owner is not the same name as the borrower. Who should I address the letter to?

Also sometimes a different mailing address is provided. I have been sending the letters to that address instead of the property. Should I be sending to both?