All Forum Posts by: Ed Tamayo

@Bernard Young My short answer would be yes. It is very unlikely that you would be able to wholesale it in a week but the tax auction deadline is not the end of those leads. If the taxes are paid, this is still a very good tax delinquency lead; and if the taxes are not paid the owner still has the right to redeem and you could wholesale that. May I ask you how much are you paying to skip trace your tax delinquent leads? Feel free to message me if you prefer. Thanks.

@Curtis Worth

"@Ed Mayo what website do you use for yellow letters or do you do them yourself?"

I either do them myself or use Expresscopy.  I use expresscopy if I have a relevant graphic specific to the location because they can do postcards better than I can. Letters, with envelopes, I do it myself. Keep in mind that I send small numbers - Today I am sending 62 letters and is kind of a high number for me) . This time, I am addressing the letters by hand but this is something I have never done.

I have also used direct mail for selling properties.  In one occasion, my real estate agent offered to take 2 points of her commission because I found the buyer through direct mail. (This was land with an 8 % commision.)

"Yellow letters are an unnecessary gimmic that most pros don't use once they understand the other items listed above, but every form of marketing works to some degree."

I have to voice my disagreement  with this statement.  While there are other ways to drum up business, yellow letters do work very well and is a tool used by professionals.  Millions of dollars in transactions start every day with a yellow letter.  I personally have used them and I just a couple of weeks ago I had the chance to make an offer in a house with an after repair value of $400K after sending only 40 letters!.  (Granted, I target very specific properties, but the model could not work without the yellow letters). 

Expensify is hands down the best receipt handling application i have ever seen. 

"I am new to this, but have found that my niche for my first deal would be better suited in purchasing Tax Liens. The payoff is great and little downside, as long as I do my due diligence, which I am doing.

What I am asking is if anyone here has experience approaching a home owner in Tax Lien Default, ready to lose their homes to auction. I found a good deal that I can move on, and would like to approach the home owner prior to the auction and possibly make them some money as well."

I have purchased properties before the tax sale. I do it by first making some basic selection out of the tax sale list and then sending letters to the owners. I don't do the due diligence unless I get a positive response from the property owner.   All the properties I have purchased this way have worked out well. 

What I say is around the lines of  "you may be aware of not but the the county has listed your property for a tax sale, you can still avoid the tax sale if you pay the taxes before the deadline but if you rather just sale this property, I would like to have the opportunity to buy it from you".

I have also considered using the line "I'll buy it from you before you loose it to the tax sale" but I decided against it as it is deceptive and could be seen that way.  

The current tenant at the White house is not keen in paying taxes so is possible that property taxes are not being paid and it could be auctioned off in a tax sale by the city of Washington DC. The next tax sale starts tomorrow, July 17th, so I'd suggest to  whoever wants to buy it to check it out. You might be able to buy it for pennies on the dollar.  Now, the only caveat might be that since the tenant has a history of filing for bankruptcy he might try to do it again and that could put a bump on the road to take ownership of The White House. 

Hi,

I live in Georgia and I am considering buying a house to flip in Spartanburg, South Carolina, this would be my first deal there and I need a referral for a real Estate agent in the area. Would anybody please give a name or two of real estate agents in the area that  are active and work with investors?  In the past, I had had mixed results with just calling agents with listings in my area of interest, hence my asking on this forum. Please message me directly with names as is probably not a good idea to put names on the forum.  Any pointers will be appreciated.

Georgia is a "lawyer state" for closings. That means that any real state transaction has to be done with a lawyer. The state sets the closing fee at $450 (or whereabouts) but I have seen attorneys add other fees, with some of them, in my view, being redundant charges, like title examination. Those added fees go from 0 to $200 and more.  You may consider also buying title insurance which for an empty lot would be around $150.  The chances of you being charged what the law says will increase if you ask the lawyers office how much will your total bill be BEFORE you commit to doing the closing with them. Like anything else, shopping around pays off

I find the posts of a particular individual as misleading advertising and I would like to block him from the posts I see. Is that possible ?

Everything and I mean everything that ANY body can teach can be learned here and reading a couple of $30 books. As said before take the 25k and invest them. With 25k and credit you can flip a house that will sale for 125k. Even if you manage to loose the 25k on your first flip you will be way better off than paying for training.