All Forum Posts by: Zachary Baldwin

Where do you find your deals? What types of areas do you target? Or what kind of criteria do you look for with homeowners? @Josh Caldwelll 

My wife and I are looking at investment properties in Nashville and the middle Tennessee area. We have come across some bank owned properties that are being foreclosed in the classifieds of newspapers - most of which can be found through auction.com or hubzu.com. Has anyone had any experience with either of these sites? Or auctions on the courthouse steps? My gut tells me that the deals are made with lenders before these properties hit the courthouse steps, but I may just be cynical.

@William Allen this makes perfect sense. Thanks for explaining it in more detail.

So, what would people be targeting higher equity percentages for?

 @Sandra Holt this was really useful info. I appreciate you offering it up. It made sense and I'm making adjustments. Hopefully I will see better results.

@William Allen this makes sense. I am open to anything, but think one of my target audiences will be original owners to house built in the 70s or 80s that are now at the point where they need to downsize. So according to that model, I would need to look for ownership with higher equity -- would the 75% range be too high?

@William Allen & @Chaz Reid - this may be a stupid question, but do you mind sharing your strategies on your percentages of equity targeted?

@John M. whats the best way to try and get in touch with the owner? Is it crazy to use whitepages.com to get a phone number and call? Or would strictly mailing bet better?

@William Allen , I appreciate the response. I haven't used listsource yet (but have heard it was highly recommended), but do you know if you can sort by Absentee Owners or Probates (or any other factor that would improve the owner's chances of selling)? It seems like those kinds of owners would put me in a better situation to negotiate...but then again I don't want to miss anyone.

What you said about the picture makes sense. We are targeting somewhat affluent (but by no means the wealthiest parts of town), older neighborhoods, so I want to appeal to that audience. (And to get more specific, I'm trying to find "time capsule" houses built in the 70s where the original owner is getting to the point of downsizing.)

What kind of area are you targeting for direct mail for your primary residence?

@Chaz Reid this makes sense. What types of properties have you landed using bandit signs? I'm targeting a relatively small area (maybe 500 houses at the most?), so I feel like I can run through some different techniques and see what works without encountering a HUGE expense (if that makes sense). I've heard that direct mail should be sent repeatedly at 4-6 week cycle and that success rates come at a significantly higher rate once you get to someone the fourth or fifth time. Have you heard or experienced the same?

What are examples of successful direct mail marketing that are used for personal investment? For instance, my family and I would like to invest in a certain area of town. How would we best market ourselves to find properties that are not currently on the market? Should we include a picture of our family and more information about ourselves to make the marketing more personal?

I have identified some foreclosure properties I am interested in purchasing in the Middle Tennessee area. I know there are different circumstances surrounding each type of these properties, but are there successful strategies in obtaining these properties before they hit auction at the courthouse steps?

Would love to come to the meeting @Devan Mcclish and @Fene Cartlidge but I have prior commitments. Hopefully I will be able to catch the next one.