Reintroduction and Contract Questions for San Antonio Investors

[Matthew Allen]

I should probably post on the new member board, but have some questions so I'll reintroduce myself here. Only a few days after my first new member post, my wife and I received a long-awaited email saying we could go pick up our 2 adopted sons after a 3-1/2 year wait. The last few months have been spent adjusting to life as a family of 6, with my sons learning a new language, culture, and what life is like in a family. In the last month we finally find ourselves able to breathe and dream again.

We got to work. I set a target area on the west side of San Antonio using a high equity (>50%), absentee owner list in a fast-moving area with slightly below median sales for our city. I sent my first mailing of about 450 letters, then I've been adding and mailing when I have opportunity to drive for dollars. I have received many more returned letters than leads, but I'm in it for the long haul (multiple mailings). We have built some parts of our team, lined up some financing (Hard Money Lender), and continue to learn as much as we can during the process. We're definitely new, but we're setting ourselves up to win at best and fail forward at worst.

I do have a question or two:

1) Contracts - Anyone have a sample of a Texas contract to go by in filling out my offers? I think I've got it set, but I would like to compare against someone that's done a bunch of deals.

2) Mailing Contracts - I've heard mention of buyers mailing a contract on every house they offer. I'm assuming that is qualified leads they've spoken with and made verbal offers on. Am I missing something on this? So far I've only made 2 verbal offers, mailed no contracts after the fact, but I'm just curious about this.

3) What's the point of the automated phone numbers? Drives me crazy to call other investor/sellers off of bandit signs or Craigslist ads and get their recorded system every time. Just a quick rant.

4) I'm looking for deals in San Antonio, so if you have any I would love to look into them and I'm willing to move quickly.