All Forum Posts by: Sharon Vornholt

@Josh Miles - I would personally never contact someone by phone unless they have first contacted me as a result of my direct mail.  I think it's a common sense approach; they have lost a mom, a dad or someone else close to them in most cases.  These folks sell on their own timetable; in other words when they are finally ready to move forward.

The one thing that holds most folks back is cleaning out the house. I always offer to do this if that will help them move forward.  The executor and/or the heirs will often spend months or even a year going through the personal belongings in the home.  Most of them will get to a point where they lock the door and walk out of the house and be unable to finish the job.  It is just too overwhelming.  So offer to do that for them if they need help.

If you plan to rehab the house or keep it for a rental you would need to hire someone to do this so just figure that into your offer. The same is true if you will be wholesaling the house. Just put that cost into your repair estimates.  I hope this helps.

Sharon

Lafi

@Lafi S. and @Chas -  Probate investing is one of my favorite niches of all.  Good luck.

I agree; just be yourself. It's OK that you are just there to learn.  Hand out cards anyway; get known.  When you are ready, those contacts will come in handy.

Sharon

@Brooke Robinson - The best advice I can give you is to take the plunge and network. Introduce yourself to at least 5 or 6 people at each meeting.  Go with business cards.  (If you don't have those, you can get reasonably priced cards from Vista Print).

The biggest thing that almost everyone does wrong is to sit there (in their comfort zone) and not meet people.  I was guilty of that in the beginning.  

Here is what you need to remember. You are there to learn but even more importantly you are there to network. There are buyers, sellers and private money lenders in that group. I bought and sold my first few properties at my local REIA. Some of my best cash buyers came from my REIA. Good luck.

Sharon

Hi everyone -

I love this thread, and thanks @Karen Margrave for inviting me in.  I rarely get any flack from sellers. The only time I have had someone do that to me it was a male contractor or another investor that just happened to be male.  I usually stop them dead in their tracks by telling them I owned and operated a home inspection company for 17 years. 

I will say this; by and large it is a pretty even playing field today in most ways. It certainly wasn't like that when I started over 15 years ago. It was very much an "old boy's club". They pretended everything was equal at my REIA but in reality, they only left the door part of the way open for the women.

LOL @Brie Schmidt . Things like that have the same effect on me.  

Sharon

There are a number of list sources.  You can Google them.

Sharon

@Jay Luke -  A lot of marketers mix it up.  I think @Michael Quarles will tell you that.  I also know folks that send the same mail piece out time and time again that have success.

The type of mail piece wont' matter a bit if you don't mail (it) consistently and that's really the bottom line.   It's critical that you mail consistently.  Michael's company is the one I use and they have choices when it comes to mail pieces if you want to test your market.n Good luck. 

Sharon 

You will find your most motivated sellers when it is a property that needs a lot of updating or repairs, or the heirs just want quick cash.

The folks that inherit really nice houses will list them on the MLS. These are 2 very different groups of sellers. You are looking for executors that have houses that need work. They are your low hanging fruit.

Sharon

@Jeremy Prunty - yellowletters.com.  You can upload your list and they will mail your PC's.

I'm not sure what you mean by "stay shallow" @Erin Elam . As soon as we get the information, we look up information on the tax assessor's site. Once we have determined that there is a property and it is one we would be interested in, we start mailing to them.

I hope that helps.

Sharon