All Forum Posts by: Scott Ficek

John-
I think I understand what an estoppel letter is, but I have never used one. Can you explain further? Do you have a sample you could post somewhere?

I agree with John. I would search Google for tenant screening in your area and find a reputable company. Like John, I tell every prospective tenant on the phone that I will do a search on credit, criminal, and rental history. I get probably 10% of the calls that will tell me they have past problems and the conversation ends there. (I get another 10% that tell me everything should be fine and the report shows they have lots of problems in their past-that they claim they didn't know about).

That sounds great. Even after 5 years and almost 30 units, I am learning new things all the time! I will drop you a PM with my cell number and email (if I post it here, the spammers will find it!).

Sysflow-
Hopefully you are still tracking this thread as I know it was from June. Could you share what you feel were some of the top things that you did to drive leads to your website?

I had (frankly still have) the same questions/concerns as you. As an ex-coprorate technology guy, I wrote my first website myself. I then looked around and went to Top Producer for one of their template driven sites.

The pros and cons you listed are correct. I love their quick development time and access to lots of add-ons (such as IDX, contact pages, and even blogs) that I would have had to build manually. On the downside, the templates can be a little restrictive, but they (Top Producer) do allow you to manually edit the HTML, which allows you to be more flexible.

I believe I can do maybe 75% of the customization on the template site as I can on a handwritten site, but in 1/4-1/2 the time. My wife keeps telling me that Realtors should be out talking to people and not writing websites (can't say I disagree).

Lastly, I have yet to test how my site succeeds in search engine optimization long term. I may need to go back to a custom site if I can't get to page 1 on Google.

If I understand your questions correctly, I would think you could offer a professional, trustworthy place for them to refer business. Just like most professionals that help people (attorneys, accountants, financial planners), attorneys often have clients that need more than they offer.

What if an estate attorney needs to liquidate a house left after someone dies? What if a tax attorney advises his investor client to sell some properties to lessen his tax burden or pay off tax liens?

Keep in mind that all referrals reflect highly on the person doing the referring. If they see you as professional and trustworthy, they will refer you. If the client has a good experience, they look good. The opposite is also true!

See where I am going with that line of thinking? That help?

I have registered several dozen domains at GoDaddy.com. They are one of the largest companies that survived the dotcom bust. I have always been very impressed by their customer service and willingness to help.

I did forward a domain that I bought and hosted at GoDaddy.com to Top Producer recently. Using GoDaddy's admin site, it was a breeze. Keep in mind that GoDaddy is still my registar, but I pointed and hosted the site somewhere else. No reason at this point to move the registration.

Give us an example of what you might like to do in the future with the domain.

Here is a manual put together by a successful BPO agent in Seattle. I bought it and read it. It discussed both how to get BPO business and how to do the business. It was a little light on depth of how-to, but it might give you a starting point for compiling your own manual, though.

http://www.nicoleocean.com/products.htm

It is somewhat strange. On the one hand, we had this big disaster and we have just about every news organization in the country here. On the other, most people are just going about their regular business like nothing is going on.

I live about 2 miles from that bridge and go across it about 4-5 times per week to get to my properties on the other side of the river. It is the main artery though Minnneapolis. It is scary to think that it could have been me or anyone I know/loved that could have been on it.

Give me a shout when you get to Minneapolis and let's get a cup of coffee. I would enjoy hearing about what you are looking to do.

As the realtor, I have looked on Craigs list several times for anyone looking for a realtor and never seen anything.

Have you asked your mortgage broker who s/he would recommend? I would even go onto Realtor.com and search for multi-family properties for sale in your area and see who the listing broker seems to be on many of them. I also agree that your REIA is a good source to find a realtor or at least ask the other participants who they have use (or would not use!).