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Question

Hello BP Community,

I'm having some issues and  I need help to solve my situation! If anyone can help me; I will greatly appreciate it. First, of all I finally found a realtor that is willing to work with me and it wasn't a easy task that was my first hurdle I had to overcome.  We agree that she will provide me with a weekly expired listing and in returned I will give her a $ 500.00 fee when I close on a transaction. What my problem is that I'm getting my listings every week, but I'm only getting about average between 13-20 and that is not nearly enough for me to get where I need to be. I given her my criteria,but I'm thinking I need to make some adjustments. Here is my criteria tell me what you think.

Criteria

listings that expired within 30 days

homes 2007-2014

1,200-2,500 sq feet

3,4,5 bedroom 2,3 bathroom

price range nothing pass 250,000

Please tell me what is a better marketing rate: post card or yellow letters

thanks,

Brian Gibbons · Answer

@Lakeesha Romero

Low equity pretty houses are great! Use lease options, wraps and sub2

But get your license so you can LIST too

Free and clear houses on installment sale acquisition and buy and hold

JV with the seller on a minor rehab vs 70 percent  of ARV less repairs, make 10k a house

Using private lenders for funding acquit ions to avoid due on sale clauses

Using cash and credit partners for JV deals will give you great leverage

Good luck!

Jim Pellerin · Answer

In addition to expired listings why not look at old listings? I like going after listings that have been on the market for more that 120 days. You will find lots of motivation in these types of listings.

Todd Plambeck · Answer

Personally, I would get all the expired listings and dump them into a spreadsheet.  You can then filter out what you don't like.  You'll probably be able to see patterns emerging as far as age, location, size, etc.  Without knowing what you are trying to accomplish it's hard to give a better answer.  A seven year and newer old house is probably going to sell the vast majority of the time because it's not going to need any updating and hasn't developed any issues yet, so very few expired.

Lakeesha Romero · Answer

Hi BP Community,

To answer your question the reason why I wanted to target seller with little to no equity I figure the seller would be highly motivated to sell their home on a term deal basics. Putting their home on the mls and it expired because the seller want more than the house is worth. If the sellers only have about 10,000 of equity into the property and trying to sell the property the traditional way between realtor commissions, costing cost fees, the sellers will have to come out of pockets and will have nothing leave.  The seller might be in a desperate situation and need to get rid of the properties due to financial distress or relocation or etc. My objective is to do term deals not wholesaling in this situations. Thank you Bill Gulley and Brent Coombs for your advice. To answer your question Brent, yes I will broaden my criteria and add older homes with lots of equity and need repairs. I know lease option are not for newbies that why i ask tons of questions. Can anyone give me some suggestion on where I can learn more, books,podcast, anything will help. thanks

Ned Carey · Answer

Well there are no easy answers to marketing.  One of my favorite marketing quote is

I don't know why you would limit yourself to listing that expired in the last 30 days or homes built in 2007 to 2014. I would want older homes that are more likely to need repairs.

Jerry W. · Answer

I have no experience in this area, but why are you limiting your criteria to houses after 2006?  Why is that your cut off date?  You have not told us what you are doing.  Are trying to wholesale?  Are you trying to buy some buy and hold rentals?  Flip?  My concern is that expired listings may be good things to check on for rentals, but for yellow letters you will probably not get a great discount on price since they were given figures when they listed.  You might try going back to 1979 on houses since there is at least no lead based paint warnings.  Personally I would not limit myself to such a short time frame on when the house was built.  Good luck.

Brent Coombs · Answer

@Bill Gulley, thanks. To me, all of Lakeesha's listed strategies seem not for the faint-hearted. @Lakeesha Romero, you said: "What I was told is to find newer homes with little to no equity and minimal repairs". Based on the suggestions here, are you now adding: older homes with lots/total equity and many needed repairs, that have expired off the MLS for more than 30 days ie. what @Todd Plambeck said? Cheers...

Bill Gulley · Answer

Because she mentioned buying with seller financing, sub-to and wraps, you're right, no equity isn't a playground for a wholesaler.

And no, sandwich leases aren't for newbies. :)

Brent Coombs · Answer

@Bill Gulley, I'll ask you, because you seem quite laid back about @Lakeesha Romero's strategy. Why would any wholesaler specifically target Sellers who have low equity? It sounds like the sort of thing that Guru's might present in their "Any real estate can be a deal" subject RE301 - in order to suck wannabes into their up-sell. "Sandwich lease options" blah blah blah! Is that suitable stuff for beginners with no cash and no Buyers? (That's a general question, not reflecting on Lakeesha). Where on earth do wholesalers find these Buyers if Agents can't find them? What added value can beginners easily bring to this low-equity table? Thanks Bill. Cheers...

Bill Gulley · Answer

I suggest you go back in the past to 1979 as Jerry mentioned.

You certainly can have an installment contract on older homes.

The newer homes with low equity is playing more to the fact that investors won't have cash to pay into equity, but that can also be financed, not every deal, but more than you may think. It's an assumption, not a rule.

Go deeper as suggested, expired listings, you can go back a year and some may still be interested in selling.

Much of this you can do yourself, just watch the public side of the MLS, it should have the listing date or the date it hit the market. Get your target area, take notes on good properties, listings are 90 to 120 days usually. Most MLS systems have a feature the public can store listings they are interested in. Learn to use that.

It takes time to build your library of possible buys, start now and in a few months you won't need a Realtor. Organize by date listed, you can then see when a listing might expire or has expired, those that are no longer listed were sold or expired. Sold can probably be looked up at the recorder's office or tax assessor in a new name.

What were you going to pay the Realtor if you didn't buy anything? :)

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