Attempting land flipping

[James Theron Erwin III]

I just listened to episode 39 of the podcast a few days ago and land flipping seems like a niche that would work well for me in my area and help me build more cash for other deals. I have a couple questions for starting out... First, is it better to set up a business phone number first through something like grasshopper or will it be fine for my first few attempts to use my own personal number? Second, Seth Williams mentioned using 2 different websites (1 for buying, and 1 for selling land). Is this necessary for just starting out or are the websites more for higher volume land flipping? Last, are there any links to a good form letter to send to the delinquent tax owners and how exactly are the offers made? Over the phone, through email? I remember Seth saying he had someone tear up his offer and mailing it back to him. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated! James III

[Seth Williams]

Hi @James Theron Erwin III

Thanks for checking out the podcast! Those are all good questions.

Personally, I wouldn't want to give out my personal number to a bunch of strangers...  so I would work on setting up a separate business number pretty early on. It's not the end of the world if you don't, but it's not a bad idea to keep some separation between your business and personal phone activity. At the very least, you might want to set up a free number with Google Voice for this.

Regarding the websites - no, these aren't and absolute necessity from Day 1 (I even know people who have been doing this for years, and they STILL don't have a website). So while it's not a "must", they can still be extremely helpful on a number of levels (saving you tons of time, giving yourself better credibility, making yourself "available" 24/7, weaving some other helpful technologies into your business, etc). But to answer your question...   you can certainly survive without it (i.e. - I wouldn't stall the process of getting started just because you don't have a website yet).

And yes, I've got some examples of postcards I can send you, and I can point you in the right direction on the offer-making process too. I'll send you a PM with some more direction on this.