The story and process of sourcing my first off market deal!

[Collin Schwartz]

After speaking to many brokers and listening to numerous experts on BP I realized that if I wanted to accelerate my growth I was going to have to source deals on my own to start. The following is what I did to find and eventually close on my 1st off market property.

To source the leads, I chose to purchase a list of multi-family properties from listsource.com. I filtered to criteria such as specific zip codes and length of ownership. The list cost me about $60 and included about 300 names.

After receiving my list I began to look through the properties one by one on both google maps and the county assessors website. I would then color code it red, yellow, or green and green+. Red meant the property did not fit my criteria, yellow meant that the property was possible worth further inspection, green was indication that I needed to include those people in my direct mail list, and Green+ meant I should take the extra step and try locating their phone number.

I started with the Green+ and began searching online for phone numbers, I used both the assessors site and reverse lookup websites which allowed me to identify peoples phone numbers. Most of the numbers were disconnected but I was able to find a few legitimate numbers.

Next was the hardest part… Actually picking up the phone and dialing. (I have to give credit to @Jay Hinrichs as he suggested calling investors rather than mailing them.)

My first call and sure enough a lady answered. I stumbled through my speech

Me: “Hi are you the owner of 123 Main st?”

Owner: Yes

Me: “Ok great. My name is Collin Schwartz, I am a local real estate investor and was wondering have you considered selling your property?”

Owner: “How did you get my number???!”

Me: “I found your number on the County Assessors website.” Sensing some hesitation I explained that I was not a real estate agent or associated with any larger company, eg. telemarketer.

Owner: “OK”

Me: “Are you interested in selling?”

Owner: long pause… “Actually my husband and I were just talking about selling.”

Me: Smiling from ear to ear “That’s great! Do you have a price in mind?”

Owner: “Yes $158k”

Me: The price I was running my numbers at was $150k "Sounds good, since you have not met me yet could I provide you a pre-approval form from my bank and a LOI so that you have additional confidence in my legitimacy?"

Owner: “Yes that would be great, here is my email and cell phone numbers for me and my husband……………..”

Later that night I spoke to my lender and he was able to prepare a pre-approval letter early that following morning. I included a LOI for $154k in the email as well.

The rest of the process ran very smooth as I offered stake in the deal to a gentleman who was mentoring me at the time. My soon to be partner owned and managed about 60 units at the time and had his real estate license. I was able to get him in on a great property and I was able to have someone with the know-how guide me through the off-market process. Win-Win!

The list that I purchased has ended up landing me four deals so far, three duplexes and multiple lots of land steeply discounted. Well worth the sixty bucks I spent on the leads!