All Forum Posts by: Todd Brittingham

Darcy this is common with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD properties. They want homeowners purchasing the homes, and as such the waiting period has been installed. I don't know any way around this, and I believe the fines are pretty large if you decide to bend the truth, and I wouldn't recommend it. There are enough deals out there...you just need to be proactive.

Chris,

This post is an illustration of the up hill battle reputable Turnkey companies face. The fact of the matter is that there are a number of investors out there who have been burned by the fly-by-night turnkey companies, and they are left holding the bag a couple years down the road as Jon has indicated.

This makes it very difficult for folks like you and I. All I can say is that the turn-key company must stick to fundamental systems built into their method of investing because at the end of the day that is all we are selling. We are selling a system for investing in cash flow real estate to investors who otherwise would not have the ability to invest in such real estate. Reasons for this might include lack of knowledge, motiviation, or the location where they live.

To answer your original question, I would say that the turn-key provider must provide all aspects of property investing: locating, evaluating, purchasing, rehabbing, tenanting, and managing. If these services are not provided, then the investment is not turn-key...simple as that.

I thought of the same thing...they're like used car salesmen just waiting to reposess the home when the payments are skipped. The trouble is that these properties are in the worst neighborhoods, and this type of business model is doing nothing to revive these neighborhoods.

We've found a few things in our letter campaigns that seem to increase the response rate:

1. Keep the message short and sweet. Don't lie about your situation, but don't give all the details either. A simple message stating your name and that you are interested in purchasing their property will suffice (similar to what is above). This will leave them intrigued and may get them to call where you can explain the situation that you are an investor.

2. We have tested several different ways of sending...from me, from my wife, and from both of us. By a good margin the best response we get is when the letters come from my wife. I think it's probably just less intimidating for a homeowner to call a woman back than a man.

3. Hand write the letters or pay to have them hand written.

4. Hand write the envelopes or pay to have them hand written.

5. Include a return address.

6. Use decorative stamps rather than just a standard stamp.

Essentially, you are trying to build intrigue with the homeowner to get them to open the piece of mail rather than throwing it in the circular file...this is the reason for the decorative stamp, handwritten address and return address. Then you want to keep them intrigued with your vague message. All of this adds up to a better response rate and more calls.

Now, like Tony said above, most of the calls you receive will be a waste of time, but it's a numbers game, and if done consistently you will get deals.

Completely agree Chris. The notion that a website will cost you $5000 for a good looking site is ridiculous. I've developed my complete site, and you really don't have to be savvy with html to do this. The host I use has a full web-based interface, and it's really quite simple to use. I've gotten lots of feedback on the content and the setup of my site, and it's been a work in progress over the past year. Slowly it has been built into what it is.

Now one thing I'll point out is that having a website is only half the battle. You can't expect people to just show up at your doorstep because you have a website. You need to promote your website as much as you can through as many mediums as you can. We have a full scale marketing plant that includes SEO, facebook ads, google ads, published articles, youtube videos, blogs, social media...and the list goes on and on. If you're not prepared to market your website, then I wouldn't bother putting one together. If you are willing to do these things, then you will get results.

www.realinvestorwebsite.com offers a great package that I use. They give you up to 10 websites with your subscription. This allows you to have a main website and several sets of squeeze pages, listing sites, or whatever. It's very nice having the 10 websites because it gives you the ability to play around with different marketing techniques to drive traffic to your website.

To Aaron's point above, yes it requires some work, but a website along with a well thought out web marketing plan will open up doors that would be very difficult to open in the absence of a website. For example, we're selling most of our properties to international buyers...without our website, it would be virtually impossible to reach this customer base. The niche we operate in therefore requires the use of a website, and we're capitalizing on it very nicely.

@Aaron,

I completely disagree about your statements on education. While you may not put a lot of weight on it, it represents something that sets you apart as a person, and gives the lender a better description of you as a person. It takes discipline to follow through and obtain a degree. While you may be regretting your choice to spend a lot of money on a degree that perhaps you are not using, it still represents an accomplishment that took a great deal of dedication on your part to achieve. If nothing else, a degree adds to your character...

You should also consider adding information about yourself and your background. This can include:

1. Your Education
2. Your job history
3. Your experience as a real estate investor
4. Books you've read
5. Seminars/classes you've attended

Essentially you want to give the bank a complete look at you both financially and as a person.

I agree 100% with everything J Scott is saying. Anything you're repeating in your business you need to create a system for. This takes a bit more time up front, but you'll soon find yourself reaping the benefits of time saved down the road.

James I agree 110% with everything you're saying about checking up on the companies you work with. I can't tell you how many investors I've dealt with that have been burned by fly-by-night turnkey companies. This presents an up hill battle for reputable companies, but that's okay. I agree with your approach and I'd add the following things that should be asked:

1) References - you should ask for reference for past and current clients.

2) Does the company you're working with hold the same types of properties for their own portfolio? If not why?

3) Does the company you're working with actually own the properties they are selling, or are they peddling someone else's properties?

4) Another thing you can do to triangulate things is to have a 3rd party inspect the property for you. This is very powerful because if the 3rd party inspector and the company are saying two different things, then there is likely a problem.

5) We also recommend our buyers come to see the properties. In many cases this can be difficult (i.e. some of our buyers are in Australia), but we always keep an open door policy. The bottom line is that if you're looking to make a sizeable investment into some properties it's probably worth the investment in a plane ticket to come see the area and look at the properties. This also gives you a chance to meet with the team you're working with and evaluate them face to face.

I know there are a number of companies working out there that have burned people, but if you stick to the reputable companies and do your due dilligence, turnkey properties can be a very good option...especially if you live in an area where it is very difficult or impossible to find properties that will cash flow.