All Forum Posts by: Bob Okenwa

@Rob Drum

If there is a significant price difference in the top 20% and top 1% of rehabs, then you may want to shoot for the top of the mountain if the cost of doing so generates a return that is better than what you spent to get there.

@Account Closed

That's not a bad way to start. To focus your efforts, try to find properties with some sort of financial distress behind it. Money is the biggest motivator in real estate and if you can find someone who's problem can be solved by money, then you're in business. People facing foreclosure or absentee landlords who are looking to cash out tend to be motivated more than others. But Rome was not built in a day and neither was a successful marketing campaign. Usually people on BP that say that have success market to people with some sort of financial problem and they offer to be the solution to that problem. Find the people who need a reason to sell other than a junky-looking home and you should see an increase in response. Put yourself in their shoes: if you were happy with your home even if it was a bit run-down, you wouldn't pay any attention to someone wanting to buy your home. If you were facing foreclosure and were 2 years behind on property taxes or a few months back on your mortgage payment, then that direct mail letter can be your ticket out of dire straits. Always market to a specific demographic. There's a reason you see a ton of beer commercials during football games and a ton of toy commercials on the Disney channel.

@Account Closed

From what I've read from others, there is no one-size-fits-all method to direct mail. Some people swear by postcards, some say yellow letters, and some say both. I can see how postcards look to much like junk mail advertisements and I'd just throw it away without really paying attention to it if it were me. But I'd definitely open a letter and at least read what was on it before throwing it away lol. But you're going to want to make sure your message is directed at the right crowd and is short and sweet. You're probably going to have to experiment with each campaign and keep stats on how well they work. My question to you is: Did you just find 600 houses you thought fit your criteria and send them all letters or are the properties and/or owners distressed in some way? Back taxes, foreclosure, absentee owner, probate, etc.

Every market is different so to expect large returns across the US is somewhat unrealistic. In Ohio, I'm sure one can purchase a house for less than what a brand new car sells for whereas LA, SF, San Jose etc. have a median home price of over 500k. The equity just isn't as abundant when you can get a house for 30k and sell it for 150k. Apples and oranges basically.

@Chris Walters

I believe homeadvisor.com and homewyse.com can you give you ballpark figures on what things cost, but I haven't seen anything specific for Canada. Guess you can just do an exchange rate on what the sites give you. Just take it with a grain of salt as everyone's true costs will differ for a variety of reasons. To be honest, you'd be best served reading J Scott's Book on Estimating Rehab costs. Being able to quickly determine your own costs will serve you very well in the long run.

@Jeremy Hazelwood

By no means am I an expert in Columbus real estate, but I reviewed your property and took a look at Google Maps and can see some of the issues that @Brandon Battle has spoken of. I checked the recent comps in the area and none of them have seem to have been sold on your side of High St. With such a major barrier such as a 4 lane street/mini-highway there, I can see why the comps are located on the other side since that side has SFR's and your side seems to be loaded with commercial buildings/businesses. I know a flipper out here in AZ who mentioned he budgets about 30% off ARV by being on a busy street. He sold a house for 162k while houses 2 streets over in a quieter area sold for around 230k. Doing this from your original list price of 475k puts you at a list of 332k, which is in line with the Zestimate (I don't care for that number as being accurate, but a lot of buyers swear by it). So with the busy street discount and being surrounded by commercial, you put yourself in a tough spot. The finishes look great but the bigger problems are the surrounding businesses and busy street. Google Maps has High St. as a yellow street which indicates a major thoroughfare. Being on the wrong side of it puts you in a totally different location in the eyes of most buyers and your stale listing reflects that. All in all I think your design aesthetic is very tasteful and the house flows extremely well, but location, location, location is always king. I like to remind people that the house isn't where the value lies, but it is the actual land that appreciates over time.

I'm pretty sure you'll have to take the classes again out here.

@Anthony Pimentel

You're going to want to look in Central Phoenix and the West Phoenix to find homes under 200k. There are also some 200k homes in Mesa as well, but the vast majority of such properties lies west of the I-17 freeway.

I don't believe you can get an online real estate license in the state of Arizona. Requirements can be found below.

http://www.re.state.az.us/Lic/QualifyObtainLicFaqs...

@Marcel B.

Glad to help. Let me know if you have any further questions. Quick tip: The fastest way to boost your score is to get your credit utilization down. I am unsure of where you lay at this point in terms of utilization or cash, but if you have the money to spare, this option is the quickest and easiest. To achieve the highest scores you will need your utilization under 10%. Since FICO monitors how well you manage debt, completely paying every credit card down to $0 will actually results in a loss of points. You're going to want to have a 1%-9&% utilization rate. Sounds counterproductive, but trust me it works.  And since you'll only need your credit score to shine for a short amount of time, you can pay everything off after you secure a loan if you choose.