where to start in looking for motivated sellers

Question

i started buying and attending real estate seminars and books since 2013 but uptown now I have not started my business. I need help to know how to contact these foreclosure home owners wanting to give away their hones in exchange of saving their credit scores. I started mailing letters telling them about my business but nobody is still calling me. I need to make appointments to be able to start my business. I have studied and watched everything about foreclosure but I am still afraid.

Josh Caldwell · Answer

Simple, first off take a q tip and poke the part of your brain that is afraid until it goes away.  Fear sucks, get rid of it.

Second, you need a list of people who are in pre-foreclosure.  Also known as a notice of default list. You can buy these from list brokers.  In many cases you can also get this from your county courthouse with a little effort it is all public record.

Now with that list in hand, start sending out hand written letters, saying I want to buy your house located at 123 main st, please call me.

make no attempt to look professional here, no business cards, no web sites, no letter head. People get scared if you look too much like a shark.  Just approach as a normal person looking to buy there house and go from there

to your success

Josh

Account Closed · Answer

Don't let fear be an issue. Think about it, if you send 500 yellow letters at 1$ each and get only 10 calls.  You are paying 50$ per call.  Keep in mind that you still need to follow-up with more letters the following week.  You can see how it adds up to your costs pretty quick.  Your money is on the line here so don't let some random person intimidate you from getting it back and earning your deserved fee for helping him/her.

If you close 1 deal your assignment fee can cover all your marketing costs + a descent, if not a great profit.  You help the seller, you help the neighborhood from depreciating, you help the bank from loosing money, you help the buyer finding a good deal.  To me that's enough reasons to keep moving forward.

Remember...

ALWAYS answer the phone and create a follow-up system for your letters and people that call you (that's where money is made).

Ceci Spencer · Answer

New to Investing.  Thanks for great advice.

Maria sa Receno · Answer

Thank you Josh, Brian and Alberto, I really needed a helping hand to be brave and fearful.  I know if I want to be successful in this line of business I have to be brave and optimistic.  The first deal is the hardest but after that I know everything will be fine. Thanks again. You will hear from me after my first deal.

Brian P. · Answer

Maria

This is for you as well as all the other newbies. Fear kills more things that could have been then anything else. After your first hundred you will be feeling slightly better, after 200 even better and so on until you understand. The people you are trying to help are angry, frustrated, ashamed and humiliated, most will still be decent when contacted by you and this will be the norm but this home was once a step toward their dreams and all was well with the world back then.

I personally didn't like letters,  I liked my first contact to be at the door, which for me was a very fearful thing, I also feared making or returning phone calls. What changed was my attitude of I was there to help if I could, if only to direct them to someone else if need be but my first goal was to help and not a deal or nothing.

I remember one of my first doors almost made me quit foreclosures instantly. I was 19 years old and the guy opened the door with an axe in his hands and very angry. My fear response surprised me, I said ok George I see the axe but I didn't see any cherry trees on my way to the door, I looked at his yard as I said it. The guy looked surprised then started to laugh. He said look people have been bothering me and my wife with tons of mail and phone calls and people leaving things on my door and bothering me at all hours of the day and night but everything is ok now, the guy at the bank said he filed some paperwork that gives me 3 months to try and work things out before the bank will contact me again. I said I don't know about that, I'm the fuller brush man, paused then said just kidding then said that is true but the next contact you will get is a notice of trustee sale and they will sell the house at a foreclosure sale and that day someone else, not you will own the house.

How about you give me a couple of minutes and I will explain what is going on. His wife joined us to listen and then I said let me tell you why I am here and we made a deal. I made $500 but this was when you could buy a home in the S.F.bay area for $15,000. After it was done I asked if I could keep in contact with them because when this part of your life is over you may want to take advantage of getting a house again at a discount and I can show you how to do that?  You are not alone, there are over x foreclosures every year in the Bay Area and sooner or later most dust themselves off and get on their feet and start over again on where they wanted to go and they get there. I think you two have what it takes to do it.

Maria sa Receno · Answer

Thanks Josh, I will to try to poke that part of my brain. You made me laugh anyway, I promise not to procrastinate. I will do what you told me. Thanks again.

You made me feel brave.

where to start in looking for motivated sellers

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