All Forum Posts by: Van Blackman

Hi @Jon Collins!

Here's a quick tip to avoid a potentially costly disaster with your letter campaigns:

Whatever strategy you go with, whatever area you target, whatever frequency you decide to send your letter campaign, KEEP GOING and DO NOT STOP. The costliest thing you can do in a letter campaign is to only send them out for 4 months and then stop because you received 0 results. Please keep sending them. Tweak your strategy if you have to, but do not give up. I'm in the Chicago market now, and have been sending 1,000 letters per week for the last 4 months or so, and these letter leads are FINALLY starting to produce some SOLID deals for my buyers. I'm not sure the best company to get them through (I get mine through my organization), but the last thing I would recommend is for you to start sending letters, only to get frustrated and stop. Don't throw away 4 months of money when month 5 could have made all of that previous time's money back AND THEN SOME.

Here are some more tips, in case you're looking for them:

1. Be sure to target houses with specific criteria, in specific areas that you know your buyers will purchase in. Start off by visiting your local REIA groups. Meet with investors and make a list of where they are buying (usually the same areas will continuously surface) and also make connections (find YOUR buyers there!!)

2. Another note on criteria - target "absentee" owners if you can. These are houses in which the owners are currently living elsewhere. Sometimes these homes are vacant, and sometimes they're occupied by tenants, either way, there is a much higher probability of them wanting to sell if they don't currently live there.

Hope that helps! Contact me if you have more questions. I'd be happy to help.

Best,

Van

I agree with @Account Closed. Everything is negotiable. If the seller is asking for $100k, be sure to go in a little lower. I would offer $90k and see if they can meet you half way. Of course, if $100k is truly the lowest they can go, don't pass up the deal. If the seller is in trouble, and that's their bottom line, do your best to help out as much if you can. If you can get it lower however, you can sell it a little lower. This is important when you're starting out because at this stage in the game, you need to build a good reputation for selling quality deals. You'll be known as the ethical wholesaler with great opportunities. You will have zero issue selling your deals. That's BIG. This is a relationship business first and foremost. Never forget that. 

Also, be sure to look into the rental figures that this deal could bring in. What could this house rent for in decent shape? What can your investor cash flow if they buy and hold? If an investor thinks the deal is a little tight, it could always turn into a rental play depending on the area. 

All in all, good job! Get the deal under contract and do your best to move it. Success breeds success. The more experience you accrue, the easier it gets.

Hope that helps! Feel free to reach out to me for anything if you have other questions!

Best,

Van

Hi @Matthew Charron!

In conjunction with the money you'll be putting out for marketing, I would recommend you take a little time, effort, capital and invest that towards an actual real estate license in your state, if you don't have one already. That will do a few things for you:

1. First, it will give you access to your local MLS. If you don't have access to that, you'll most likely be relying on Zillow, Realist, or any other website that will provide some* market information for you to use when trying to evaluate your deals. If you're licensed, you'll be able to access the MLS anytime you want and you'll know exactly what is active, pending, and sold in ANY subdivision. This will help tremendously.

2. Second, with MLS access, you'll have access to ALL of the other agents in your area. Call them, build relationships with them, and have them bring YOU deals! I've been very successful with this.

3. Third, if you have access to the MLS, you can buy houses off of the MLS. You might not always find the best deals there, and it certainly shouldn't be your only source, but it will get you started.

4. Lastly, it will set you apart from a lot of other wholesalers out there that are NOT licensed. You would be amazed how far something as little as that will take you. You're more credible because of it. You'll want every leg-up you can get. It's too competitive out there.

*BONUS* - if you have an active license, other agents do not have to accompany you to their listings. You can go without them. That will save EVERYONE time. 

Hope this helps! Would be happy to answer any other questions if you have them.

Let me know if you're ever looking for deals in Chicago!

Best,

Van

Investors,

Glad to be here on BP!

My company, NetWorth Realty, is a nationwide wholesale brokerage! We buy off-market homes in as-is condition and re-sell them to local investors in 15 markets across the United States for rental and flip purposes. The company has recently opened its newest office in Oakbrook Terrace, IL and will be serving the entire Chicagoland investor community by facilitating the acquisition of distressed single family properties for your rental or flip portfolio.

All of our deals are analyzed by local, licensed real estate professionals to ensure that you have an accurate estimate of a conservative & likely re-sale value after repairs. Our property leads are then walked and evaluated by rehab experts in order to determine a very realistic rehab budget. Every opportunity is carefully and meticulously assessed by our team before they are distributed to you. The only decision you'll need to make is: "Is this the right house for me?"

No strings, no baggage. All of our deals our free of charge. There are zero membership fees. 

Call me here to find out how you can become apart of our exclusive investor list. You have NOTHING to lose!

Looking forward to working with you!

Thanks,

Van Blackman

NetWorth Realty of Chicago, LLC

713.301.7630

@Carlos Coppin Jr

Fidelity National Title, Kevin Giltmier - I've heard a lot of good things about these guys!

Let me know if you need anything else. I'd be happy to help!

Thanks,

Van

Welcome @Mike B.!

Good luck! And be sure to let me know if you need anything! I'd be happy to help!

Best,

Van

Nice work @George Flannick!

I'm definitely planning on being there on the 24th!

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Best,

Van

@Frank Pilipauskas no worries! I'm happy to help!

@Tammy Phelps yes, those are all good pieces of advice! However, I have found that by asking to be on everyone's buyers list is somewhat of a double-edged sword. Yes, you'll be seeing more deals than you're accustomed to, but you're going to be competing with a lot of buyers, some of which you may have more experience than you, and the liklihood of you finding a "great" deal is slim.

The best deals are the off-market deals that you find. Knock on doors, talk to neighbors, start a marketing campaign. That's where the money is!

@Peter Halliday also a very good strategy!

Hi @Frank Pilipauskas!

Do you have a RE license? If so, having MLS access is really all that you would need. If not, I've heard some of my associates are using Realtor.com to access the same information.

All you need to do is simply "map search" any area you'd like to do some research on, and then thumb through photos of the recently sold comps. You'll be able to tell by the look and feel of those properties' interiors if they were done by investors or not.

Then you can go to the Cook County Assessor's Website (or whatever county you're searching in), search the address of that particular house and you can find the tax record with the owner information on it. Sometimes you'll come across individual investors who do 1-5 per year, and other times you'll come across larger LLC's that do 1-5 per month.

With MFR, not sure if it would be the exact same process, but I doubt it would by MUCH different.

Give that a try!

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help!

Thanks,

Van

SFR Investors in Chicago:

I have a house that I'm looking to sell in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood of Chicago. It is a 2 story brick bungalow with a basement that needs a bit of work! We're selling it for $59,900 and it's worth $179,900.

Be sure to let me know if you have any questions, interest, or want access. I have photos and comps if you'd like to see how I came up with my numbers.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Best,

Van

713.301.7630

[email protected]