All Forum Posts by: April Crossley

@Brendan Bruno  a super fast way to find cash buyers is to attend auctions, sheriff sale and tax sales in your area. Get the business card of everyone buying. Tell them you are a local investor finding deals and you are looking for cash buyers to close on them.  No need for a lengthy conversation, just get their business card (everyone that is buying at these sales) and add them to an email list. Great, quick way to build cash buyers. THAT and for rent ads and placing an ad on craigslist :) Hope that helps! 

HI Alexandra! Welcome to the rental world. In my area I find Zillow works best and it pushes it out to a WHOLE bunch of websites for free- including hot pads,Trulia etc. So just one post on zillow puts in on multiple websites. Zillow will also give you a link you can put on craigslist. I don't post on craigslist much anymore because I find people are a little leery of it because there are so many scams on there.  If I have a lower income property I will also advertise it in the newspaper as I find a lot of people looking might not necessarily have internet. But this will obviously vary depending on what location you live in. 

Welcome Adam! I'm not super far from you. York has a very friendly meetup group if you haven't been there yet, I would attend :) I went to a meeting there a few months ago and everyone was really nice! 

I organize the largest local meetup group in Berks County- Reading, PA. I HIGHLY recommend you touch base with people in our group prior to investing there. The returns look great on paper-- but as with anything.. stuff that cheap comes with its risks. HIgh turnover, high vacancy, difficult tenant population.. the list goes on. YES I own stuff in Reading so I am speaking from experience. Side note as well-- some of the agents and investors LOVE people from NY and NJ and will intentionally market to them to sell a "deal" that isn't really a deal but looks like a deal to an out of state investor.  A lot of people will outright say when they can't sell something: market it to NY and NJ buyers. SOoooo.. buyer beware! The best thing you can do is know the neighborhoods and get yourself to Berks to connect with good people at the local meetup groups. 

wow.. I wish you were in my area! If I were you I would go to every meetup group within an hour of where you live and ask the experienced investors what you can do to help them with their day to day tasks. SO many tasks can be delegated in exchange for learning and/or partnering on deals! Sending direct mail, marketing on craigslist, helping them get their websites up and running, looking at houses for them and sending them pictures and info... the list goes on : ) 

You do need money to do marketing, but there are cheap methods of marketing that can be done. But as far as bringing money to a deal-- you do not need to bring money to a deal. I don't recommend buying rentals if you don't have 2 pennies to even rub together, but you can flip houses with no money by partnering with a more experienced investor and doing a joint venture. Everyone is SO hungry for deals right now, that if you can find deals-- and you can network at a local REI meeting with serious investors-- that deal will get done and you will make money w/out needing any of your own money. HIre a mentor? You can-- yes it will cost you. It basically fast tracks you to what you need to know. Or you can just focus on reading everything you can about finding deals and go to REI meetings to connect with people that will JV.. and just find deals. It really isn't any more complex than that. People just like to make it super complex. My first deal-- I had zero money. I wasn't even marketing. A wholesaler from an REI meeting brought it to me and I took it right to a more experienced investor and we did a JV. I had no money in it... at all. Don't get discouraged. Looking into thrifty ways to find deal :) And people to partner on them with. Not everything has to be a 50/50 split. If a newbie brought me a deal and said-- will you work this deal with me so I can learn and we can do a 70/30 split.... hell yeah I would do it. Tis better to make something than nothing.

Fastest way- meet with a local real estate agent or title agent and ask them for a copy of an estimate of closing costs to buy and closing cost to sell and ask them what the typical fees are. Property taxes can be found on the tax assessors website and most public record websites. Everyone has to eat lunch-- offer to take a realtor to lunch and pick their brain or take them lunch to their office in exchange for a 15 minute meeting. Know all your costs! Too many people use guru estimates of closing costs (10% of X for selling and 5% for buying or whatever) and closing costs vary so much by area you REALLY need to figure out what your exact costs are for your area or you could be losing out on deals for over estimating.. or paying too much by under estimating. 

@Benjamin Blackburn every area is different. In our area you can find probate leads numerous ways but the fastest is to go to the courthouse every week and pull the latest files. Some areas this info is on-line.  We do NOT send a typical we buy houses letter.  We send a letter offering our condolences and explaining how we can help them. We send the letter right away and mail multiple times. The reason we do this is because if the file is at the courthouse, the family had to already go in, sit down with an attorney and fill out all the paperwork to make that file happen. So they are well on their way to dealing with the situation.  My tips would be to send a nicer than usual mailing piece, offer your condolences and how you can help them.  And like any other list... mail to them multiple times. Be HELPFUL to them. Include a list of things they can do to keep a vacant property secure.  Then mail a second piece with a list of local contractor resources in case they need that.  PROVIDE VALUE! THIS will set you apart. :) 

1st- totally jealous this list is on-line! haha! We have to dig like crazy to get it.  We mail 6 times, every 4 weeks.

@Michael Wilson lots of way:  Car magnets- SUPER CHEAP.  Door hangers you can order from vista print- super cheap. Sticky notes to put on doors of ****** houses- super cheap.  Hanging flyers in laundromats - super cheap.  Also hang them on every grocery store bulletin board in your area. See if you can have a tri-fold pamphlet made to put at the local court office where evictions are handled. 

This should give you a good start :) Craigslist sucks in my area too. SATURATED with investors advertising there.