All Forum Posts by: Ben Smith

Hey Seattle BP'ers,

I just accepted a position in Seattle and I'm looking for a 1 bedroom apartment preferably in West Seattle (where my new sales Territory is). I have a medium  sized dog (50 lbs, mostly whippet...he's a sweetheart) and also a cat, and also a girlfriend. A small house would be perfect but I realize that is probably too rare for what I'm looking to spend. 

I'm bricks as far as any background/credit run will show you...never been late on any payment of any kind. If you, or anyone you know might have something coming available in the next 4-8 weeks, and are sick and tired of junky tenants, please let me know. 

Bonuses include a fenced yard, washer/dryer. 

Ben Smith

Thanks for the responses everyone!

@Johnny Kang I chose pre-foreclosures with equity just because I figured there may be a sense of urgency to sell with some folks and also there may be a chance that they have equity and we could come to some kind of an agreement. No other reason really. I didn't want to start with absentee owners just because I figured a lot of people probably start there and they probably get the most mailers. 

The areas that I'm mailing to are more along the lines of B and C class neighborhoods.  I could try to dial in different areas with different mailers. Though with so few responses I think it would be hard to see a trend.

I also wanted to see what people might say about putting your website on mailers. I feel like I could miss out on leads from people that might "take a step forward" by going to my site but don't actually input any info when if their only option was to call me, I'd at least capture that response data.

Hello,

I have been mailing to a pre-foreclosure list for four months now and it's been less then exciting. 

I'm not going to quit this list until I get to at least 6 mailers but I am wondering what some more successful direct marketers have to say on the subject.

My first mailer was a big postcard (which was too big. I had to pay 1st class postage on them so it kind of defeated the purpose of starting small and cheap with a postcard to weed out the returns.) I don't think my message was clear enough because I got 0 responses and I mailed about 1200. 

My second mailer was a small (A4 I believe) bright blue envelope with a half sheet of yellow paper inside with a hand written font in blue ink saying that I buy houses. I got 8 responses from this one (0.82%) off 854 mailed.  I made 3 offers off of this mailer but no bites.

My third was a professional typed letter on letterhead and I have received 1 response (0.12%). 

I'm in the Tampa Bay area and it's pretty darn saturated with investors here so my list is probably getting quite a few letters other than mine. 

My main question is, when do you stop one list and start another one?....Or do you ever quit a list? I would imagine that with a pre-foreclosure list, at some point, all the names/addresses will be out of date.

Any input or constructive criticism is welcome.

Thanks,

Ben

Hello,

I am writing an offer to a seller that I think is a great candidate for a lease to purchase. He's been in the house for 10 years, his son was born there, etc, etc. He got a divorce and lost his job a few years ago and couldn't get caught up but hates the thought of not being in the house. 

I would love to keep this guy in his house and make some cash along the way.

I'm having trouble coming up with a number for his purchase option. Do you add a certain percentage to the value to account for appreciation?

I'm offering $70k. It's probably worth closer to $85k (with easy cosmetic work: paint, power wash, etc.) I just wonder what is fair and profitable for a purchase option price at the end of a 3 year lease.

Thank you in advance!

Ben

@Brian Eastman (Sorry about the delay. I thought this posted.)

Well that is definitely an eye opener. I can't believe that I haven't come across that fact before this! I've been looking into this, granted slowly, for a couple months. I don't think that it would be a very good idea for me then. I don't have enough in those accounts to purchase anything in its entirety.

Thank you so much for your help.

@Brian Eastman That is great info! So you're just saying that I can't invest my 401k $ in my company, rather it has to go straight towards a property correct? For example, a house for $100k could be split $90k from my LLC and $10k from my 401k as separate owners?

To your point about the contingency funds, do you mean if I have $15,000 in my 401k and I use all of it on an investment, I wouldn't have enough to pay fees, etc to the plan/custodian/manager...and those fees have to be paid by the plan so I'd need to keep some money in there for that? Or do you mean expenses on a rehab project for example, would need to be paid by the plan?

Thanks again for your help.

Thank you very much for your replies @Brian Eastman, @Mark Nolan, @Thomas Rutkowski. They were all helpful.

I apologize...I may have wrote too much previously.  My main question is this: Can you use ALL of the funds in a self-directed 401k or just a portion of them for an investment?

I have other capital in my LLC. This would just be a supplement to those funds for a project. I understand that I will need to put the gains from the 401k money back into the 401k. I just wanted to be able to use the money in those accounts for RE investing.

Hello All,

I've almost been getting more and more confused the deeper I go into the self directed Solo 401k/IRA information.

I have 3 accounts from my past employment that include a 401k, a Safe Harbor IRA, and money in a regular brokerage account that was a employee stock purchase plan. I'd like to put it all into one retirement account that I can invest in my LLC with.

Is there an option that gives me access to ALL of those monies? I feel like everything that I've read says that an IRA only gives you 60 day windows for a "loan" that is capped at 50% of the account balance and the 401k gives you a longer repayment period for a loan but is also capped at 50% of the balance. I thought that using a self directed account to invest in RE is actually the same as investing in stocks and bonds but I spoke with one SD custodian and he made it sound like the disbursements (for lack of a better word) from a self directed account is still actually just considered a loan and therefore still has to adhere to those regulations.

If anyone can give some clarity on the subject I'd be very grateful.

Ben

Hello,

Has anyone ever converted a carport into a garage? I'm looking at a property that is making sense so far but to get the ARV that I want/need, I need to convert the carport into a garage. I've been looking online but the information is quite varied. I'm not sure about possible underpinning and what would need to be present so that wouldn't be necessary. I'd be interested to hear how this process goes and things to look for and stay mindful of. (St. Petersburg, FL)

Thanks in advance to anyone with advice.

Ben

Hey BP,

I just got done looking at a house...TOTAL sh!@ storm. Not literally but darn close. I've been using $0.50/sq ft for basic room demo estimating (not kitchen or bath). I'm wondering if this would be an accurate number if I'm going to need to demo ceilings and floors. There is so much mold in the ceilings, and the floors all have to be replaced too (age). I got a number from a mold guy that I met at a REIA meeting and he said that I should be safe with using $10k-$12k for mold remediation. I'm wondering if I should use a higher per sq/ft number for my estimating on all the demo because it is more than just bad drywall and old floor coverings.

Thank you much,

Ben