All Forum Posts by: Tim Bishop

@Mike T.

Thanks for sharing that! It's great to hear from someone else having success with land!

I had a similar experience after trying traditional methods for almost a year.  I had been reading @Seth Williams blog (retipster.com) for a while and decided to give it a shot.  I copied everything as closely as I could right down to his voicemail script and postcard format... physical mailbox provider... everything, spend a few hundred on a list and postage and... I bought a property for 50 dollars on campaign number one (about 120 postcards).  I think anyone who is just getting started or hasn't really gained a ton of momentum using other methods should read every post on Seth's Blog and decide for yourself... If you don't do this you are doing yourself a big disservice... I haven't found a single source of the kind of free high quality instruction his blog offers on the subject.  Before I switched over to tax delinquent mailers I had only been able to pull of a few marginal wholesale deals.  I made more in my first few months doing land than I did the previous year while targeting sfr's... My mailers average a 10% response rate and that's only counting voicemails as a response... I don't babysit my phone like I did for houses because I'm the only one who sent them a letter... competition is very low.  The time I spent per deal is a fraction of a percent less than what it took me to pull of the wholesale deals... My wife was able to quit her job (mine is next)... I could go on!

Try this link.

http://www.bradleyco.net/resources/5/General/2006%20IRC%20Span%20Charts.pdf

As far as services go, most people with this problem hire it out on Fivr or Craigslist.

If you don't figure it out, send it to me and I'll take a look.  I find my deals by filtering the nastiest, worst lists from counties using the most convoluted software to keep track of delinquent taxes, keeps competition down.

If there's more detail than you've mentioned probably.

With just the data that you mentioned in your question.... The best way would be to look at way the property address is written.  Land would probably be listed without a street number.  It might say "TDD Hwy 155" instead of 120 Hwy 155" or "0 Hwy 155" or just "Hwy 155".  Pull 10-20 that you think you should filter, and 10-20 that look like keepers and spot check them.  If you've got a relatively accurate sorting method, you'll know.

Is there more to the list like property value, appraised value, use codes etc?

Is the parcel you are looking at listed?

Try finding a small lender to work with first, if you can find one, you can always make an offer with owner financing... the worst they can say is no (which is more likely than yes).  Come up with the biggest down payment you can, offer the shortest term you can, and offer the highest interest rate that you're comfortable with.  Don't count on getting a discount even if they are ok with the terms.

Outside of that you could use another property to secure the loan or get an unsecured loan.

Welcome to bp!

I'm with you on land vs houses!  I'm doing deals like those in TX and loving it.

Glad you stopped in!

In general, land loans are not as easy to find as a residential loan.  That's the biggest difference.

Your intended use will have a lot to do with what type of loan you can find.  Start calling smaller banks in the area you intend to buy in and they can tell you more about it than I can.  Also start looking for owner finance... It's much more common for land than houses.

I've tried agent pro and the quality of data for the area I was looking at was useless.  Listsource is probably the best way to pull a quick, cheap accurate list... and I think it'd be hard for anyone to argue that agent pro is better for that purpose.

I've used listsource to build an offer letter campaign but my primary lists are tax delinquent lists directly from the county.  It's a TON more work and a big learning curve but the response rate is hard to beat if you've got the time and are good with excel.  It's a good way to get an edge especially if you're willing to work in the suburban areas that are slightly less saturated anyways.

Welcome to the site!  @Eric Villarreal

If you're looking to team up, I'd suggest attending a few real estate meetups.