​Generating Business from Door Knocking and Driving for $

[Austin Mudd]

I'm working with a cash buyer and we're finding that we're not able to compete successfully on the MLS in San Diego. We're putting in up to 4-6 offers a week through fixer opportunities that come through us through realtors but haven't closed on anything in the past month. At best, we're the backup or the deal doesn't look as good as it initially did.

It seems like some people are finding success with door knocking and marketing to houses. I’ve read up on what some people suggest here, but it’s always a good idea to continue to look for feedback. I’ll describe some of what I’m doing and some problems I’m having.

Door Knocking:

I've hit about 50 doors so far over the course of the last week. I'll work this between 2-6:30. I have access to weekly lists of Probates, Divorces, Notice of Trustee Sales, Notice of Defaults, Expired, and FSBOs. I don't bother with Exp or FSBO.

NOD - Seems to be the best lead generator so far. I usually will approach saying I was looking at the house for sale down the street or around the corner but was wanting to see if you're interested in a cash offer. Always, "No", so then I say that I'm aware this address was delivered a notice of default and that I work with homeowners going through the foreclosure/probate/divorce process.

Always, I'm trying to reiterate some of these facts for both NOD and NOT approaches:

• It doesn’t cost anything to talk to me, we work with other realtors/attorneys/other RE professionals to help find solutions
• If the owner has equity in their house, they can sell their house (to investors like us who pay in cash). If the lender finishes the foreclosure and it goes to auction, you’re likely to get nothing other than your credit getting slammed
• Even if you’re doing a load mod or working one out, you’re still at risk to be foreclosed on - Do you have a Plan B or C? I’m here to ensure you have a Plan B so we can avoid an auction sale.

NOT - Haven't gained a solid lead yet. It seems like this is the sort of rejection i'm seeing from NOT and NOD

• Homeowner has just been saving their mortgage pmts and is working out a loan mod/other solution
• Family or other people are helping to pay so it will be taken care of
• Working out a loan mod or have already gone through that process and secured it
• Not interested

I try to stay there as long as I can and portray that I’m looking for solutions. But almost most of everyone is willing to take my card, but they refuse to give me their contact info and they state they will call if they need to talk.

Probate - Haven’t hit more than one or two, but noticed they’re already listed/sold.

Divorce- Hard ones to do, tough to approach at the door, and seem like there’s a TON in SD. I’m unsure how to properly approach, so I usually say “I was looking at a property in the neighborhood to purchase… are you interested in selling” (Paraphrased). I usually will then directly tell them I saw the address under a divorce filing. I’d say most of the people I’ve talked to so far are foreign and don’t speak english or there’s some sort of other reason for not being interested (ex husband paying for ex wife to stay, working things out with attorneys already, etc). I’m beginning to think it’s not worth my time to visit this list, since I’d rather focus on NODs or NOTs.

Driving for $

I’m writing houses that look like they’re in bad shape down and classifying them A B or C quality leads. A’s being the worst (boarded up windows, house looks like it’s rotting, the front door is inaccessible, etc). C being the property just looks ugly, might be worth a look. Probably have about 100 address written down.

Problems (and workflow) and questions:

• Trouble keeping track of all of this information. This is my workflow
  • Take the lists of Pro, DIV, Exp, NOD, NOT, etc and import them into a master spreadsheet (requires some column readjustment from csv files)
  • Pivot the data, filter only for owner occupant, SFR NOD, NOT, Pro, Div and import them into Road Warrior (good app)
  • Pick a neighborhood in SD and use road warrior to pick my leads (I can ‘check in’ to each lead and write a note
  • In my master list, input that i’ve visited the house, and if i should add it to a Do not contact, watchlist, or follow up (just realized I should also add my notes into this, which I haven’t done)
  • Add the houses from my Driving for $$ into another list
• Spreadsheets are hell to manage databases, do you guys have suggestions on how I can make it easier to follow up with people?
• What should be doing with those homes I’ve left my business card or 2) added my by Driving $ list. Should I be sending mail? Skip tracing?

Some successful leads so far:

It seems like NODs are the most successful as I said earlier. A few people I approached were renters and may or may not have been aware of the foreclosure. A few people gave me their number or the owner’s number so I can reach out and get in contact. One lead, the son had to speak to me (grandma spoke to english) and he knew that his dad was having trouble paying the mortgage, so I will follow up and try to contact the dad through him.

This post was sort of longer than I thought it would be, but I haven’t come across any deeper door knocking threads on BP other than “is knocking pre foreclosures a good way of knocking?” threads.