All Forum Posts by: Andrew DeLorenzo

A truly sound "proofed" wall is going to set you back a few thousand dollars. In addition to what a normal wall takes to build wall rated for sound is typically double rocked with brackets with rubber feet screwed into studs that attach to horizontal track for the drywall, sound dampening insulation, any electrical will need to be reworked into boxes that extend that far, then sound caulk all the way around the edges of the wall and electrical boxes. Thats money you wont see a return on. 

Sounds like after this first property you need to find owners who would do seller financing unless you are looking to add partners. If I were in your position I would work on building up your network in this new market and I would do it through your list. Approach the people on your list more casually than standard marketing and try to get to know them and pull some wisdom nuggets from their brain bucket, try to add value to their business and cultivate a mentor/ mentee relationship and see where it goes. The street cred will go a long way when they eventually go a long way if they want to sell to you with owner financing or know someone who does.  

I used PropStream for about a year and recently parted ways. 

PropStream was good with property, title, and tax data. They also offer a cheap and efficient way to skiptrace and send post cards, you can even design your own with their creator. Ultimately it was the customer service and poor quality of my post cards that caused me to leave. I have my own designs and after uploading them and sending them out for a few rounds of marketing I eventually received some un-deliverables and they were barely legible along with their being major defects during printing. When I brought this to their attention no attempt was made to correct it and I decided to unsubscribe. 

@Lindsay Buchanan, I've got whiplash from the speed of that response, very helpful.

Sounds like AHJ is closing the door on STRs and opening a window to incentivize investors to come up with a solution to the workforce housing problem. Has there been any elaboration on the incentive program? 

Any updates here? I've been shopping the area here and there after visiting a year ago, I know that South Lake Tahoe has banned STR.

It's been a while but this lead is still very much alive, I speak with them about once every 6 weeks. They are motivated to sell and move into a rental that is more manageable but assisted living is off the table. The problem is the couple and their son whom is also their live in caregiver are having trouble finding an affordable place to live. Is anyone aware of any government assistance they may qualify for? They seemingly are living off of their retirement and will be netting plenty in the sale.

@Jake Soper I've been outsourcing my postcards for some time and do far the only positive I've seen is a spike in website traffic but I'll continue to mail them. I'm going to try hand written envelope with text letter and a business card in house for 3 rounds of marketing to a couple of my driving for dollars lists and see how it goes, I'll keep everyone posted. 

Since my original post I've gotten set up with precanceled stamps, mail merge on excel, and a nifty paper folding machine. Were pumping out letters over here.

@Bob E. 7 quality leads in a week from ringless voicemail? That's insane, what kind of conversion rate is that?

 I have been using Zillow to screen my tenants and it gets most of the basic stuff out of the way, criminal history, credit score, rental history, a few basic questions, and has great visibility. You definitely want to come up with your own questionnaire to help get a feel for who they are and how they will be as a tenant. I wouldn’t just ask about their credit score or any of the sensitive subjects, they probably don’t want to talk about it anyway and frankly I don’t want to have the conversation. In conclusion, use a screening service to prequalify them and then move on to step two of having them fill out your own application. Show them the respect of including your requirements in the ad so that they don't spend $30 on the screening when they know that they won’t qualify. 

As far as denying them, it’s usually just “ I’m sorry but you don’t meet our  _______ requirement.”  And that’s the end of it. 

Hope this helps.

@Scott Braden @Dan V. @Rachel H. Thank you for your responses, I would honestly be willing to forward these leads to some one else. If you know anyone in the market feel free have them contact me.

@Account Closed Thanks for the response.

I looked into this a bit and it seems with bulk mail we've got a few options but precanceled stamps seem to be the the most popular option vs the postage meter, does anyone have any input here? 

Thanks