All Forum Posts by: Shane Foster

Motivated sellers do not care about the shade of yellow paper or the color of the envelope. It just needs to stand out from out junk mail to get open and get read. Do not make something that is so simple into something difficult.  

Most success with the following:

Online:

SEO: A lot of keywords on various sites or mediums. 

PPC: long tail keywords

Social Media: Re-targeting old site visitors. 

Mail drop: every 6 times every 6 weeks. short yl, long yl, professional letter, postcard, short yl, professional letters

Probate, evictions, vacants, 2 or more years late on taxes.. and a few other list.

Hey Larry,

Absentees are getting pounded right now. The only people really having success in that field are the ones mailing in mass quantities. I suggest you really try focusing on these list below that require an more effort. (Does not mean absentee owners won't work, but I would hate to see you get discouraged really fast.) But to answer your question... listsource.com

1. Probate- get from county or state (just google what court handles these cases and call to find out)

2. Evictions

3. 2 or more years late on taxes, then run it through my software to find the vacants. Find who handles your the taxes and then file a Right To Know (if applicable)

4 60, 90 days late on mortgage

5. Notice of default (foreclosure).. constantly stay in their ear , from start to finish.

6. discharged/dismissed bankruptcy cases (get from pacer)

7.Tax lien sale- published in legal news papers when auctions come up

8. Divorce- get from court

9. 25+ years owned or more for owner occupants with equity (list-source)

10. Code Violations

11. Vacant properties (drive for dollars)

12. absentee owners 3-5 years owned (most landlords sale after the first 2 years, and with prices climbing its a perfect list)

13. inherited properties: some states do not require heirs to go through probate if the will was recorded prior to death. these properties are sold through under a special deed

14. Expired listings.

As for why I am selling this list, I am now longer in Pittsburgh area (moved to erie) and my assistant still pulls this list.  Like I said in the post, never marketed to it and don't plan on it.

Lol Rick thanks for the heads up, the funny thing is just 12 hours ago you were "voting" my post. My picture was deleted and did not notice it was gone. 

But hey bud, thank for feedback

I am selling the 2014 probate leads for Allegheny county (Pittsburgh, PA). The leads have the case date, case number, case type, descendant, descendant's address, executor, executor's mailing address. I ran the list through a service provider to get the most up to date addresses and to remove the non-deliverable leads. Total amount of leads 2773 leads. Price is $175.00 for the whole list.  I am only selling the list to 3-4 people tops. I have not marketed to this list and do not plan on it.

If you are interested in buying it please email me your NAME, COMPANY NAME, STREET ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, ZIP, AND PHONE NUMBER and I will send you the invoice. Email is in the signature. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE.

@Zamir Kazi :

1. You can get these list from a broker or yourself.  I personally get the list for myself and my clients through various outlets. Brokers and directly from the court house. 

2. As for your budget, that is up to you decided. Just remember the worst number in marketing is 1. You should figure out what you are comfortable in spending EACH AND EVERY MONTH and go from there. Stay positive, but brace yourself that you may not have overnight success. 

 Do not ignore online methods too. SEO will run you $750-$1500 a month for a legit company. The good news is seo in real estate is very easy in most markets. PPC can become costly. Most markets you are at $5-15 per click.. This is where good keyword research comes in. 

Until you become good on the phone, do not go crazy on the letters/postcards. Yes, this may surprise you since I do have a direct mail company. But sending out a ton of letters being new is just a huge waste of money. 250-500 letters per week will keep you busy (especially if you have a J.O.B.). Just stay consistent and follow up. You can shop around on here for providers. Also look into patlive.com for an answering service. They have the scripts to field you calls. Also helps when you are new since you will not have to deal with the "crazies". 

This is just a quick break down and does not mean anything, just giving you an idea of what you can do. Investigate each outlet and see what fits your criteria. You can always shoot me an email for. Just keep taking action at the end of the day.

As for your probate file, I am not to familiar with orange county's probate. I will have to ask my one friend who is in that market.

Good Luck,

Shane

And here is the list we focus on:

1. Probate- get from county or state (just google what court handles these cases and call to find out)

2. Evictions

3. 2 or more years late on taxes, then run it through my software to find the vacants. Find who handles your the taxes and then file a Right To Know (if applicable)

4 60, 90 days late on mortgage

5. Notice of default (foreclosure).. constantly stay in their ear , from start to finish.

6. discharged/dismissed bankruptcy cases (get from pacer)

7.Tax lien sale- published in legal news papers when auctions come up

8. Divorce- get from court

9. 25+ years owned or more for owner occupants with equity (list-source)

10. Code Violations

11. Vacant properties (drive for dollars)

12. absentee owners 3-5 years owned (most landlords sale after the first 2 years, and with prices climbing its a perfect list)

13. inherited properties: some states do not require heirs to go through probate if the will was recorded prior to death. these properties are sold through under a special deed

14. Expired listings.

What kind of budget are you working with. I use realeflow and love it very easy to use. 

If you are looking for something free, try podio. It is awesome and very easy to use. Our sales funnel looks like this:

1. Call comes in and goes to patlive (answersing service)

2. They email us and the lead gets generated in realeflow.

3. we call them back.

As for how many letters you should send, only you can answer that. Until you have a system of follow up, I would not send more than 500 per week. More than that will bog you down and you leads will be sitting there unanswered. Just remember to keep following up. Do not mail a list once. You should stay on it every 6 weeks.

You do not need to know "how" to do it, but you better know how much it cost to fix. The best investment you can make is buy the flip book off biggerpocket's. The cheat sheet/repair guide alone is worth it's weight in gold (though you will need to find your local cost, but it at least gives you an idea on a range).  here is a guide on how to inspect a house.

Do not let it hold you back. If your wholesaling, pay a general contract a few bucks to walk through your deal with you. If you are rehabbing, get three bids on each project. Go through the whole property and write down what you would want done if you were buying it for yourself and your family.