All Forum Posts by: Trevor Kowitz

I am looking for an available rental in the Los Angeles area for a friend and his family who are moving out that way and needs to be in a house by September 5th.

The requirements are that it is a minimum of a 3 bedroom and has a garage for his car and motorcycle.

This property needs to be within 45 minutes of his work which is on Melrose between Fairfax and N Labrea.

Looking for something in the 1800-2000/month range.

I currently have a 34 unit apartment complex for sale (Wholesale deal) in the Tampa Bay area.

The property is 95% occupied with no deferred maintenance, and has a 10.49 Cap rate.

If anyone is interested, please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to send over some more information.

Regards,

Trevor Kowitz

Shirley Dufrenne Honestly your letter is fine. It does not need to be long. You have to remember that you have seconds to get your point across, so a few sentences will do the trick.

Make sure to use blue ink, it has more of an original look to it. There are so many weird tricks and the psychology of direct mail, I just know what I have found to be effective for me.

Odd question for you, I saw you are out of the Philadelphia area as well, do you belong to DIG?

Hi Richard Harris,

I'm always happy to give a pointer or 2 to help out. is there anything in particular you are having trouble with or have questions on how to do?

Trevor

My name is Trevor Kowitz. I have been investing in Real Estate for 10 years now. I got my start in 2003 at the age of 22 in the Tampa Bay area. I started in this business with $300 to my name and since that time have been able to successfully complete over 275 transactions.

I got my start in real estate by wholesaling houses, which is still a passion of mine today. To me, the location and negotiation of a deal is the best part. I specialize in thinking outside of the box and solving the problem that the property owner may have, utilizing various creative financing techniques.

Aside from wholesaling, I was able to build a decent size portfolio of rentals consisting of 40 single-family homes and a 6-unit apartment building, as well as fixing and flipping homes.

I currently reside in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and am focused on building a portfolio within the surrounding counties. I still actively wholesale properties, so please do not hesitate to let me know what you are looking for and where. I would be happy to help locate what you are looking for.

I would like to connect with, network and help as many people as possible

Gary Parker my target has always been absentee owners. I pull my list by the following criteria

1) absentee owner
2) Settlement date (you want this to be at least 24 months ago or longer, which will hopefully allow for some equity to have built in the property)
3) minimum of 3 bedrooms
4) square footage of at least 1000 sq ft
5) target a specific zip code, neighborhood or radius of a current property deal you are working. If you are wholesaling and have a bunch of people looking in a specific area you could use that to target there as well seeing as you already have buyers lined up for there.

I have used the same letter that I posted above for 10 years, and while I can't guarantee you what kind of response you will get, I can tell you I have consistently gotten between 10-20% response every time I mail. My goal is 100 letters a week. I answer all phone calls myself, so I do not want to overwhelm myself with calls.

A lot of people choose to automate the system, but personally I believe that it is the personal touch that makes the difference. All my letters are hand written, I either write my letters or pay someone to write them. I answer all the phone calls and emails personally.

My belief is this, you are making this look personal and giving it that touch, that is what they are expecting and why they are call YOU versus the other 52 people who sent them a letter. Why run the ball to the 1 yard line turn around and sit down?

While I am a business and my company buys houses, I want the perception that it is just me and we are going to be friends not just people who did a business transaction together. I want you to think of me next time, and refer people to me because of that personal touch.

This letter also works with any other type of campaign, i.e. foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, probate, owner occupied in any market.

It's gotta be handwritten, blue ink on white copy paper.

Sorry for the long winded answer to your question

Trevor

Shirley,

I have been using handwritten direct mail for my marketing for 10 years know. I hand write the envelopes and letter, and have not tried to reinvent the wheel when it comes to effective marketing.

I can tell you from my personal experience that any time I have tried to change that, hand written envelope printed letter or any variation my response has gone down.

Set a goal each week on how many you want to send out, then divide that by days and you will know how many you need to do daily.

Also, your letter does not need to be a long one. This is the exact letter I have used for 10 years:

Dear (first name of property owner),

Would you be interested in selling your property located at (insert property address) to me? If so, please contact me at (insert phone number). I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

Trevor Kowitz

P.s. my email address is (insert email)

I do this on white copy paper with blue ink. If you can afford to hire someone to write them then that is another way to get it done.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Trevor

Brian,

another question for you. When you mention your yellow letters, who's letter are you using? Is it one from a Guru? Is it short or long? Is it handwritten or printed?

I would be happy to share with you what I do and what has been effective for over 10 years.

Regards,

Trevor

Brian Pellerin,

I have been doing direct mail marketing for 10 years, utilizing handwritten letters. I can only tell you what I do and what has been effective for me.

When you get your lists, I would ask the list company to sort the list for you by the following criteria:

Full name (LEMONS WALKER E & CAROLYN COX MUNROE)
First name (WALKER)
Last name (LEMONS)

I do this for 3 reasons:

1. By getting the full name criteria, you will get company names as well as any other missing names from public records.
2. I can sort my list by last name and eliminate any duplicates.
3. Sorting my list by last name allows me to set my list up to start my campaign starting with last name that begin with Z (Everyone starts with "A" and very rarely make it to "Z") so I get a great response.

As far as addressing the envelope, you can honestly just pick either name and send it to them, i.e. Walker Lemons. You do not need to address it to both. The more personal you make it look the better chance you have of getting your letter opened.

Your example of the Living Trust as owner of the property, I would simply address it to The Martin Thomas Living Trust and the letter addressed, Dear Sirs. This is the way that I address all that are company owned. You could also simply address it to Martin Thomas. You may get a call back that he has passed etc etc and just apologize and ask if they are interested in selling the property, if there is anything you can do to be of assistance, please do not hesitate to let you know, etc etc.

Over all, the simple answer is to just pick a name and mail to that person.

Hope this helps!

The absolute most important thing you need to do is build rapport, which is not always easy to do. You will find that sellers will always have their guard up because they think you are there to try and "steal" the house. Come at them easy, especially when you talk on the phone, its as simple as "could you give me some information about the property? basic stuff bedrooms/bathrooms that kind of thing"

If you take a strictly business approach with things, then thats how the seller will approach it, but if you ask questions, get to know them and make a friend out of them, they are much more willing to work with you typically.

When meeting with the seller face to face and walking through the property for the first time I always start with "why would you ever want to sell a lovely house like this?" This will give you the WHY.

Walk through the house, make small talk. notice pictures or hobbies and comment on them, find the common ground. Once you establish that, you can move on to, "well Jim, what are you looking for if you were to sell this place?"

Once you know how much they are looking for, I will typically then say something along the lines of "let me ask you, other than all cash is there something else I could do that would make you happy?" With this, you are opening the door to see if they would consider doing something creative, such as owner financing or selling the property subject to the existing mortgage.

Let them know that no matter what you come up with, "my goal is to make sure it is a win-win situation for everyone involved, but more so I want you to be happy with what we agree on because you never know when our paths will cross again." That particular line will usually set most people at ease and they will agree with you.

Make a friend and the rest is easy.