All Forum Posts by: Alexander Schwartz

@Alexander Schwartz Sounds like an interesting property LOL! Obviously this one would be all about building something else on that land like you said.

Probably the best way to approach FSBOs for wholesale deals is to ask on the phone: "Would you sell for what you owe?" That leads to one of 3 possibilities:

1. They tell you to go pound sand. In this case you've saved yourself the drive.
2. They say yes because they don't have any equity. These can be wholesaled to sub2 investors or to buyers who can't qualify for a mortgage.
3. They say yes because the place is a dump and they want to get rid of it. These would be your 'traditional' wholesale deals.

Gotcha! Good idea to find the motivated ones and make it simple. And yeah... ill see if theres anyone i know that might be interested but its.... different!

Thank you

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Originally posted by @Doug Pretorius:

@Alexander Schwartz No reason to make it any more complicated than that. They want to sell, you want to buy, set up an appointment to check the place out.

Ha so i called, and THIS situation was actually complicated. Get this...

it was actually 3 acres but only an 820 sqft house (across the street are huge 250k houses with not quite 3 acres...haha) guy has had FSBO in his window for years he said. Is on septic and has a CAVE SYSTEM of some sort. Build in the 1940s by a tradesman with his extra lumber or something.

He said he can tell when RE seminars happen because he'll get 50 calls in one week all of a sudden. We had some common ground though.... seemed really nice.

But not sure if i can fill the potential of the land, because that's what your paying for in this property in the super safe suburban area right off the highway, not the tiny house on it. Maybe i can build 2 more houses on it! Maybe. Funny cause i had 4 numbers for his WIFE because i couldnt find any for him, but he picked up on the first number i dialed.

But yeah the thing is.. i feel like a lot of FSBO's want top dollar and when you call and meet up then offer 50k below what they wanted they'll feel like you wasted their time. Unless maybe you only focus on fsbos that are also in bad condition? Not sure... hm.

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Badass of you getting out there and taking action. Nice.

You want to get the seller under contract (i include something like "15 day inspection period - buyer has a right to walk away and keep emd for any reason .. in case something comes up or you can't find a buyer) and then use that time to find a buyer and put down any emd, then assign the contract to the buyer for the amount you advertised and you essentially keep the difference of the original contract price you got vs the new purchase price you advertised (has to be a good deal still of course)

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Originally posted by @Doug Pretorius:

@Mischa Lambright My favorite free/low cost sources are:

1. Calling FSBOs on craigslist, kijiji, zillow, fsbo etc.
2. Slapping a hand written sticky note on the door of listed homes saying: "I'd like to buy your house, please call."

Hey Doug, great tips! Ive foud some fsbos in my area from D4D and i want to call them. Any recommendation on what to say?

"Hey, calling about the house for sale on xyz, is this xyz? I'm interested in purchasing as is, can we schedule an appt?"

That simple you think or have you found a different approach works better? I also will most likely call a 'related' person. open with the same thing, and if they say its not xyz ill ask for their number since im innocently (AKA not a stalker haha) calling about the house for sale and trying to reach them.

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Originally posted by @Wes Short:

Hi Theodore, I used facebook ads briefly but did not see many results. I had the ad directing traffic to my website but did not end up getting any calls and it can also get expensive pretty quick based on your market, your keywords, and what strategies you choose. That being said I am definitely not an expert with facebook ads and in some markets it could be cheap enough to justify the leads it brings in. Do you have a website landing page already set up?

Hey, could you expand on your experience? This comment as it stands doesn't really provide enough info for a conclusion.

If you could include the type of ad you had, what the copy consisted of, your budget, how long you ran it for, who you targeted, etc. if that makes sense.

For all we know, your ad could've said "we buy houses" in comic sans rainbow colors and targeted males aged 18-24 in one zipcode who have "recently bought using a credit card online" ... which would most likely not generate any leads and be your reason for not getting good results even if you had a $20k landing page haha.

The ad itself, the copy, and the target audience will easily make or break a campaign.

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Property management will allow you to learn a lot and grow. You start out managing smaller assets and move up to commercial to make more money. Comm PM can make 90k+.

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Originally posted by @Wes Short:

For the estimating rehab costs question there is the 70% rule that you could look up here in BP but you can also find some flippers in the area and ask what they are normally wanting to make on a deal and work back from there. Estimating those rehab costs are definitely tough when starting out though, you could have the potential end buyer walk the property with you if the owner is ok with it or try and get in touch with a contractor. But it is tough until you get a better feel for the prices in your area.

Would you say a good workflow is like:

Talk to potential seller on phone and schedule appt -> see house and take pics -> go back to home/office and estimate repair costs and run the numbers -> meet up again asap and sign the contract if the #'s work and they accept the offer?

2 Votes

Originally posted by @Sean Dolan:

@Alexander Schwartz glad to hear you've found value. As for my contribution to the discussion, I hope my tone is coming across as intended. I'd have a beer with anyone on this forum. With over a decade in the digital marketing industry, and seeing way too much BS, I've become a bit of an empiricist.

Yeah i can see where both sides of this argument are coming from. In the end it's only providing more value for readers, soooo not against it :)

* i also have experience in PPC, and ive been doing research before i jump into it for motivated seller leads. crazy to hear some of the stuff people are concluding about facebook when they've probably done about 5% (just posting a generic ad and targeting a local audience with a bad fb page and unoptimized landing page and no follow up or retargeting etc)

1 Vote

This thread has been super valuable... and a bit entertaining! haha. Very awesome info from everyone.

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Originally posted by @David Ounanian:

@Alexander Schwartz would love to hear more about your story and wanted to throw another local event at you that I hope you can make....

St. Louis Investor Mastermind

PS I know exactly what you mean about other investors not wanting their territory stepped on. They may have a scarcity mindset which will ultimately limit their growth. There is an abundance of opportunity out there and no one has to lose for you to succeed.

Thanks for the invite, I'll try to check this out too! And yeah, i feel the same way. It's kinda the same in my self employed field. To think that you alone can take on all of the opportunities that are present is a little far fetched imo haha but I can understand the concern.

1 Vote

All Forum Posts by: Alexander Schwartz

Alexander Schwartz has started 7 posts and replied 35 times.

Post: How do you find motivated sellers?

Post: How do you find motivated sellers?

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Post: How do you find motivated sellers?

Post: Facebook ads to market

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Post: Can I wholesale from Zillow?

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Post: Investor carrot or lead propeller?

Post: Entrepreneur From Saint Louis!