All Forum Posts by: Brad Couch

@Justin Reed hey Justin, would love to chat about how you pull your data for direct mail instead of d4$. 
thanks

@Grigory Pekarsky I would be very interested to hear what the small change was that increased your response rate from 2% to 15%. 

Just putting it out there. Investway is great for investors in the DFW / North Texas market who don't have access to the MLS. Their real-time MLS comps show time on market, original asking price, pics, and are mappable. You can search the MLS by $/sqft, price drop, etc. They have a comp analyzer tool with proprietary valuations, so I can compare the comps with their automated valuations. They just lowered their price to $39/m so it's a great place to start your research. www.investway.com

Hello @Andy V., I know that the NTAREI monthly meeting is happening Thursday, April 16 (from 6:30 - 9pm I believe). $25 to attend?? Just google NTAREI and check the website for details. And the Dallas REIA is meeting as well on Thursday (topic is multi-family focus group). If you have never been to one of their meetings, you can go to their website and get a coupon for your first visit for free. There are probably several more REI meetups going on, check out the meetups website to see. If you need any more details, PM me and will see what I can do. Glad to have you in Dallas, hope you enjoy your stay!!

Welcome to BP!!! This is truly a great place to learn and meet new people (as you are finding out). I really enjoy and have learned a ton listening to the podcasts, as well as gaining some inspiration!! I wish you well on your new journey in REI.

-Brad

Hello @Rhondalette W., hope you have had a great and productive week!! I just wanted to let you know that I did go to the NTAREI training seminar last night (it wasn't their regular monthly meeting) and I enjoyed it. There were more experienced REI's there and the speaker was great. The training was on Negotiating and Salesmanship, and what to do when you get a call from your marketing. I am also planning on attending the regular monthly meeting next Thursday too, so I will update you again as to how that one goes.

Welcome to BP @Douglas Brill!! I am in Dallas and also new to REI. I have learned so much here on BP, reading forums and blogs, and also listening to the podcasts (which are great). Great to have you here and best of luck to you on your new journey!!

Good luck,

Brad

Thank you all very much for the welcome, @Michael S., @Mark Lopez, @Tresa Green, @Jared Lichtin, @Billy Cones, @Larry Fried, @Dmitriy Fomichenko. (I hope that I did that right!!)

Thank you too @Rhondalette W., the first "reia" that I went to was actually a Meetup. It was the Roddy Roundup that meets in Farmers Branch. It was a good first meeting for me, it was free, no hard selling, and the speaker (Roddy Jr.) was very informative. As far as the networking, it did seem like it was mostly beginners there (except for a few real estate agents). All in all it was a good first meeting. I am going to try the NTAREI this week in hopes of meeting some seasoned investors to talk with (I have heard from some research that it does draw a more experienced group, partly because it is not free). I will update you after I go as to how it was.

Thank you for the welcome @Paul Timmins and for the tips!! I have purchased and read one of J. Scotts books (Book on Flipping Houses), it was great. I will check out the other one and the BP Rewind very soon as well. Would you mind telling me a little bit more about what you mean when you say that I don't have to own a property to control it? I would greatly appreciate it, and thank you again for the tips!!

Hello all - I have been soaking up tons of info here on BP for a couple months now and have listened to many of the podcasts and would like to start by thanking BP and all of you investors for taking the time to teach, help, and advise all of us beginners. This community is incredible!! I have learned so much and am ready to jump in and change my and my family's life through real estate. I still am working a full time job but have been spending every extra moment possible reading and learning all that I can. I can say without any doubt that this is what I want to do, this is what I am going to do!!

 I have always loved the idea of flipping (rehabbing) and have recently learned about wholesaling (and loving it as well). Planning to start with wholesaling, and once I have some cash reserves saved up, start keeping the good ones for rehabbing myself. And eventually get in to some buy and hold. Still learning but am focusing all on wholesaling right now until I have it mastered.

I also started driving for dollars and looking up the properties I've found on the county appraisal site. Now I am getting everything in order and prepared to start sending mailers (planning on starting with handwritten yellow letters). I guess I should wrap this up, I apologize for the length of this post.

I can't wait to start talking with all the BP community, and to start meeting with some fellow Dallas people!! I am going to my second reia this upcoming Thursday, going to check out the NTAREI (if anyone in dfw area will be attending, please let me know so we can meet and talk). Thank you for taking the time to read my intro and any advice is greatly appreciated!

Hello all,

I am in Dallas, Tx. and am new to real estate investing and wholesaling. I have been driving4$$'s after work and on weekends and have been putting together a list. I have been making a list with FSBO's, houses with For Rent signs out front, and also all of the distressed and/or vacant looking properties. I then look up the distressed and vacants on the county tax appraisal website and have been finding quite a few absentee owner houses, some are out of state and some are local. I am ready to start sending letters and am going to start with handwritting yellow letters. My first question is should I be writing a different letter to the absentee owners, FSBO's, and for rents (landlords)? How long should I wait until I send the second round of letters, and should they be different from the first mailer? And lastly (for now anyway), one of the absentee owners that I found is an 88 year old guy who also has 5 other properties. I have looked at 2 so far and both seem distressed. Is there a more personalized letter I should send him, or just keep it the same as the rest? Should I find his phone # and call him or start with a letter? Sorry for all the questions but I have a couple more, where do I find how much equity there are in these properties or do I just find out when I get a call back? I guess right now I would like to get as many calls as possible even if they are not super motivated, so I can practice talking to the sellers, but still would be nice to get as much info as possible to be more prepared for the calls. I will stop rambling.

Thank you in advance for any responses/answers.