What are we missing and/or doing wrong?

[Sam Craven]

My partner and I have reached a level of frustration as we work to get our RE business off the ground. We are not dejected and continue to push on but I am looking for some feedback, harsh or positive, on our business model and goals. We want to buy houses to renovate and flip. We will wholesale properties that do not fit our criteria but fit others well. We are frustrated because there is a lot of action by other investors all around us and we cant seem to find that one deal that fits our criteria. Goal is to be buying one house a month by December. (Goals should be high)

First off we have officially been in business since July 1 2012. That week we formed our LLC, and started sending our first round of 250 letters to high equity and NOO addresses to a total list of about 1200 properties. We started advertising in the local papers for sellers and craigslist for buyers. Our website is live and Blog has been started.

Fast forward to current (September) we have completed one wholesale deal (that came from the newspaper ad) and the direct mail has done nothing for us. The motivation does not seem to be there from the folks on our list. This month we will be sending letters to probate leads and people that have owned their house for over 25years or are over 65. Our very first list is getting hit a second time as of now and call volume has gone up, but motivation still is not prevalent. Leads are sent to a VM and we call them back. Each marketing campaign uses a unique number so we can track marketing results for each one.

Our networking and advertising has helped us build a buyers list of almost 400 unique emails of investors in the area.

We have aligned ourselves with agents in town that want to work with investors and have incentivized their working with us and sending us deals based on our criteria, drawn up guidelines, estimate sheets, profit potential spreadsheets for them to use and the 2 of the 4 that we have had our orientation meeting with are already sending us leads from the MLS that we are making offers on. We will be meeting with the other 2 in the next 2 weeks to have another meeting and get them familiar.

We have done the leg work and are approved with all the major hard money lenders in town and are on many wholesalers lists. We are active in the local investment clubs. I even started a local BP Houston meet up, though we haven’t met in a while. We have also vetted a few different contractors in the area that are ready to work with us and have considerable experience.

Our Criteria: Ideally have $30k or more in profit potential. Area statistics show we should be shopping in the $150-$250 ARV range, as the median home price falls here and right now they have low DOM in most areas. Not scared of foundation or roof and welcome the worst of the worst properties. We are more than willing to make less than $30k on a rehab if we can turn the property quickly and it does not require much rehab, but we aren't going to spend $30k to renovate a property only to make $10. We feel there is too much at risk.

This gives a good top down view of how we have progressed and are looking at our market, if anyone has any insight on something we may be missing please speak up! If you are willing to get on the phone I’m more than willing to trade that time for menial work of any kind in your business.