Need Help with Out of State Owner Mailing!

[Steve Dussault]

I recently sent a letter to the out of state owners in my county. It's been about 4 weeks and so far I have 32 responses out of 544 letters sent. The letters were hand addressed/stamped and this is a 5.9% response rate - so far so good.

Unfortunately, almost all of the owners have properties in move-in condition and they want 105% of fair market value for their properties. Some of them sound fairly motivated, but not nearly enough to take an investor offer. I had two people with no mortgages and houses that needed repairs, but even these people wanted way more than what it would take to make it a deal for me.

Any other people doing out of state owner mailings that can share experiences and what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks,
Steve

[Don Konipol]

Almost all asking prices are at market or above. Unfortunately, good deals are not advertised as good deals. I have found that good deals are built through negotiation.

Let me give you an example. I was contacted by the owner of an auto repair facility who knew of my interest in these type properties and asked if I was interested in purchasing. I asked him what his asking price was - he told me $500,000.00. I looked at his property and decided it was worth maybe $325,000.00, retail, so I told him he was way over priced. He said he knew that, but owed so much debt that he could not sell for less!

Make a long story short, I did a lien search and found out he actually had $900,000.00 plus in liens against the property! I met with him and told him his only way out was bankruptcy. He agreed to file bankruptcy and provide me with the details.

I kept following up with the bankruptcy trustee, and finally the bankruptcy trustee was ready to accept offers. It was at this point that I informed th trustee of the environmental problem I had found - a fact that the trustee would now have to disclose to all bidders.

I ended up purchasing the property for $125K, spent $3,500 on environmental cleanup, leased it at $3000 per month, and sold it 3 months later for $350K! All with a $500K asking price.

So ignore asking prices, followup on good properties, and make offers that benefit YOU. You only need one out of 20 to accept your offer, but if your waiting for the seller to offer a bargain you may wait a long time.