All Forum Posts by: Sage Jankowitz

I'm not a lawyer and it's always best to consult with one, but my understanding is: Once you have a property under you have what's called an equitable interest in the property and can therefore market the property however you so choose.

Hi Brian,

I really appreciate your advice and this is exactly what I needed. I've actually had some success with my direct marketing campaigns and I could see my leads just floating away...With these new insights I'm going in with a very different approach! Thanks again!!

I appreciate all your thoughts. I'm sending out a new mailer this week and I plan to implement many of these ideas when making future offers!

Every time I get a lead I screen it first over the phone. If the motivation and equity is there I'll set-up a time to meet the owner at their property with my GC. While my GC is estimating repairs I'll spend most of my time asking the homeowner open ended questions trying to gauge what other issues, if any, might play a factor in the deal.

After my GC has all the repairs together, I'll spend 15 minutes in my car with the GC and come back with an offer to the owner. I usually explain to the owner that this is the best price I can offer as a real estate investor and I'm not going any lower or higher on that price. After that I simply present my number.

I was wondering what sort of process most of you experienced investors use in following a lead from beginning to offer. When presenting your offer do you prefer to do it in a certain setting? Do you have a shpeel you give beforehand? If so, what is it? Is there anything I can do to increase the likelihood of my offers being accepted?

Two other incentives you could offer a GC just off the top of my head:

1. You're reguarly in contact with X amount of cash buying rehab investors who are always looking for new GC's.
2. Often I come across leads where they don't want to sell their property but they want to fix it up. Guess who I recommend as a GC?

I'm sure if you spent 15 minutes you could come up with a bunch more...

I'm a fairly new wholesaler with about six months experience and I ran into the same problem. About three months in I connected with an experienced general contractor who has worked on a number of rehabs for many successful investors in my area. He's looking to get into his own rehabs ASAP, so we came to an agreement: Anytime I find a qualified property he'll check it out with me and estimate repairs free of charge. He'll have first dibs on any property I get under contract, but if he doesn't want it or can't get the funding within a week, I open it up to anyone on my buyers list. It's win-win because he gets to look at qualified leads for free all the time and has first dibs on every property I come across. And I get free estimates and a wonderful education in the process.

I've learned quickly that it's all about forming partnerships and alliances to help one another out. Find out who you need on your team and then ask yourself, what can I do to help them? Offer your benefit to them first and then ask if they can help you (most newbies get this reversed). You'll have much more success then trying it the other way around!

Who's going to be the first to respond. I know you're out there!!

As I've mentioned in previous posts I sent out my first set of yellow letters. It was a small batch of 200 letters and I received over 20 responses. Obviously my letters have a terrific call to action and response rate, but the problem was my list -- absentee owners. Most were real estate investors who had no interest in selling their property for any significant discount.

I'm now gearing up for my next mailing of 200 letters and I want to test a new demographic. What list(s) have you boys and girls had the best results with??

Chris,

You could not have said it any better. I only wish I read your post before sending out my first mailer, but live and learn! To all the noobies out there -- listen to Chris on this one!!!

I recently sent out 200 yellow letters to absentee owners who owned homes outright and received 20 responses which was awesome, but because all were investors only 2-3 leads were work exploring further.

I'm going to send out a new batch of 200, this time focusing on owner occupants with high equity. I'll let you know how this one goes!

First off, congrats on getting the property under contract. PM me the details, I'd love to hear all about it!

Yellow letters are great in MA, there's no doubt about it. I've received 9-10% response rate after sending out 200, but most went nowhere and I'm going to focus on another group of motivated sellers outside of absentee owners. What type of list did you send out to?

Keep up the good work!!