All Forum Posts by: Adrien C.

@Sean OToole exactly- the original poster said he wanted to buy a vacant list to send out mailers. So he's spending money to mail letters to people with undeliverable addresses. He'll find a month later that most of that mail is sitting back in his mailbox. Waste of money and time. Best case is purchase list and use other sources to find a different address to mail letter to. Plus- a good number of those houses are bank owned or in foreclosure process so then what? 

It's worth a try since you're not spending much. However be prepared that 2/3 of those folks purchased between 05-09 and are upside down. Many financed 100%. The ones who purchased earlier did refi's and home eq loans and pulled out their equity in cash. On top of that, the bank will add in back interest, legal fees, and everything else. So finding one with enough equity to wholesale will be challenging. If you have cash and rehab partners, it may be possible to find someone w enough equity where you pay the amount needed to bring current and take over payments (subject to). You do this long enough to rehab house and sell. Don't do it on a property you intend to keep as a rental. In that case, once it's fixed, refi w your own loan. So it's possible, but you'll weed through a lot of dead ends to find one. 

I sold insurance door to door for 8yrs so no big deal. It's not necessarily what you say but how you say it. "Hi, my name is Adrien and I help families here in TOWN. Are you so-so? Yes, great, you've been super hard to catch up with. I wanted to stop by because I'm interested in purchasing your property over on 123 Mian. Is that a property you'd be interested in selling?" 

I send out about 100 mailings to vacant properties each month. With all the return mail and following up in person- that's enough contacts to find a deal or 2 or 3. I send a personalized letter first. 

IMO- title companies are too busy to provide you with any lists. I spoke w a guy about a verified vacant list they sell. I never purchased it and I'm glad. Over 75% of mail I send to vacant houses in returned to me so buying a list isn't that valuable. The challenge is tracking down that owner. 

when you say flip- are you talking about flipping contracts as in wholesaling (my original interpretation) or flip as in fix n sell? 

Either way- I built up my wholesaling company for the price of $200 stamps. I combed FSBO on CL and a lot of driving. I'd mail an initial letter but if it was a local absentee owner or the mail was returned and I found them at another address- I'd go visit in person. Screw waiting for someone to call.

Looking at this from the other guy's perspective- what value do you bring him? He has a track record of flipping houses so he knows the game. Surely he can use his money to find the sellers, flip to an investor, and make everything. Not trying to be negative - trying to help you anticipate questions/objections he may have when you propose to him your offer. 

Yes, they should do their due diligence. I turn down properties all the time for a number of reasons- maybe they want retail price for something that needs too much work or the property is way upside down and they aren't motivated enough to short sale. I work closely with a realtor so I can refer him plenty of business that doesn't fit what I'm looking for. I'm not taking a "deal" just to make money if it doesn't help the seller with their situation. 

Dude, this is horrible advise. First of all, the bank has to agree to sell the house for less than is owed. And there is a long painful process with stacks of paperwork for this to happen. It's called a short sale and it's not the easiest property to wholesale especially if you are just getting started. As you said, the owner can bring the difference in cash to closing so the bank isn't left short handed but that's one heck of a motivated seller. 

Sometimes they may owe more than you gave them but that's their burden to bare.

This is a piss-poor attitude and will only screw people over. If your goal is to run a business and make money regardless of who you have to run over- great, keep doing what you're doing and watch your business fail. If your business is to help people, you'll see your business flourish. I can't imagine that you'll get a bunch of referral business doing what you suggested "yeah, this dude gave me a super low offer and I had to pay $20K at closing to sell my house. Yeah he made some cash himself, but he was a really nice guy- you should use him." 

Zig- help others get what they want in life and you'll receive everything you want. 

I have a 4 plex in Hammond for sale. PM for more details. 

If you're limited to mailing to one source, I would mail to the eviction list vs a general absentee owner. You can tailor the letter to fit their situation. Absentee owner mailing is spreading a large net hoping to catch something. From my absentee its, I get a lot of landlords who have been in the business 400 yrs and are ready to retire but they want retail for their property. Thats one reason I'm thinking about getting licensed so I can do something with these leads.