All Forum Posts by: Brad F.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment.

Purchase price: $130,000
Cash invested: $72,000
Sale price: $299,000

The actual home and design was fairly easy. However being in a new market was taken advantage of by the local contractors. I had to switch contractors mid project, which didn't actually help. We went over budget by $33,000 by having to pay 2 separate companies twice. Even with my experience, I couldn't have foreseen the deception ahead of time. Lesson Learned!

@Tony Marcelle After reading your post I feel you would be a great candidate for working with Probate sellers. These sellers are in a much motivated, and emotional state.  A simple turn, burn and cash offer isn't how you help these people.  There are so many different ways you can help these sellers, from estate sales, helping them find other homes, and simply being an educated resource. These sellers are 90% of the time appointed by the state as the Personal Representative suddenly. So, to compound a death in the family, and to manage an estate sale, greedy Heirs, and the fear of making the right choice need that extra special attention.   Check out (alltheleads.com) to check for your county.  You will be competing with Realtors, but that's an easy objection handler! 

When I first started... I could only afford to send out 200 mailers.  Instead of using Yellow letters printed handwritten letters, I cut a yellow steno pad paper into thirds and hand wrote each letter.  Additionally, I used pastel envelope (now a standard) and kept my veribage short and sweet.  I received 6 calls and closed 3 transactions.  Using the capital I made from those closing invested in larger yellow letter campaigns, and incrementally increase my budget from there. 

In the beginning, you just need to do something. Don't' over think it. Take action. Stop overanalyzing.  

Cheers, 

Brad

@Keyoka Smith When you say law office does that mean Escrow office?  If not, I'd recommend going through a title company as they have a full team dedicated to protecting us for these specific issues.  I am sorry that I do not have an answer for this specific question.  But, this is the exact type of question I would refer to my escrow officer, regardless if I even had common knowledge. 

If at the end of the day you cannot obtain a solid answer to your question, I would not move forward until you know for sure what can happen, or at a minimum request an extension to the due diligence period to research further.

 I know the old phrase high-risk high reward, but being cautious is also a good way to not lose money. 

There will always be another house. 

Good luck! 

@Josh Chamberlin   Hi Josh, 

I do apologize for my late response.  My take on CRM's having used many of them over the course of my sales careers.  

There are a few things to consider when choosing a CRM in my opinion: 

Budget:  This being one of the primaries, however in the very competitive realm of software integrations, these prices have decreased considerably in some cases.  

On the lower end budgets, I have used in the past: zoho.com, sugar.com, and Podio.com.  These sites are easily integrable with other programs such as Mail Chimp, Gmail, Call Rail Etc.  As in all circumstances, the more integrations you choose their plan price increase as well. 

If you are looking for a Retail program and budget is still a factor, consider Kunversion, or Brivity for a Real Estate specific program.  Kunvesion is a lead generation machine and was one of my favorite all-encompassing systems.  Brivity, however, started out as primarily for transaction management,  but now offers a variety of CRM, lead gen, and autonomations as well. 

If budget isn't an issue, I'd highly recommend Boomtown!  Not only is there customer service stellar, their system is extremely user-friendly.  I loved that site and company! 

After the budget, I would take the time to decide what your goals are for the CRM.  Contact management, lead generation, integrations, IDX, autonomations, conversion, contact management etc.  I mean, all CRM's do pretty much the same thing, the issue is how complicated they are to set up, and manage in my opinion. 

For now, I use two: ReiPro for my rehab, fix and flip management, and Hubspot.  Hubspot is AMAZING! In the world of online marketing, that company is the BEST in my opinion.  They have a FREE CRM, (with integrations that cost more) and integrate with literally everything, and if it doesn't they have Zaps (zapier.com for the rest. 

It has been a few months, so what did you end up going with? 

And yes, I'd love to discuss how we can work together. 

Best,

Brad 

@Brady Hastings   Send me a county outside of Madison, and a few zip codes you're looking for plus: 

House price, size, etc.  

Because when I pulled up Rexburg, Idaho, there was only one.  4012 W 5200 S ( Kyle Bowen) $169,000 Auction Date Jan. 1st. 2019 

Sounds like everyone on Rexburg pays their mortgage one time ;) 

@Brady Hastings   Thank you for the reply. There are a few options you can go about this depending on the budget.  The least expensive route is by building a list with a local title company.  However, there are a few other automated sites that we use like CoreLogic.  However, I have been using REIpro https://www.myreipro.com/  This company has a great lead base program with a Leadpro interface.  This program allows you to create custom lists for: Vacant homes, Absentee owners, Pre-foreclosures, bank owned, Trusts, High Equity, Low Equity, Upside down. Free & Clear, Cash buyers, and a Craig's list bot.  The app lets you customize your fields, and automatically sends out branded postcards just like Yellow letters.  At present they do not offer a "handwritten letter" option, but I have found this to be a great work around having to submit and/or correspond with a title company's marketing rep.  

Hopefully, this adds some value for you.. 

Cheers, 

Brad 

The best direct mail lists are:

1. Tax Delinquent List – criteria: 2 years behind, are still the homeowner
2. Code Violation List – no criteria
3. Equity List – Absentee Owner, Owner Occupied and Global (all) – criteria: over 45 years old owner, last sale date between 1990 and 3 years ago.
4. Inheritance List – USLeadList
5. Evictions – no criteria
6. Yard Sale/Garage Sale List – tenants sell before they move
7. Probate – 
8. Arrest Record List – list of people recently arrested

These are the lists.  Methods go as such. 

1. Pick a farm and stick with it for 6 months minimum. 
2. Postcards, or handwritten. It's all a numbers game, so it depends on your backend. Postcards are cheapest but offer the lowest ROI for conversions, and lower quality. However with a solid lead scrubber or ISA postcards are awesome. Handwritten, or yellow letter handwritten is Ok. Some feel it's a bait and switch, BUT the overall lead quality is much higher at a higher cost.
3. Do stop mailing.  Choose a budget you can afford as mentioned for 6 months or more.  Trust me, sellers will keep these cards/mailers for 6, 8 or even 12 months before they call back.  It's all about timing for them, and for you.  Just do not give up.  Trust me your competitors are giving up after their first 30-60 days. 
4. Have a solid tracking system. A/B test all the time. I use Call rail for number capture and track verbiage of letters to specific call rail numbers.  Using the content and format that returned the highest lead ratio.  These phone numbers should also correspond to your farm(city, county etc)  TRACKING TRACKING TRACKING!  Oh, did I mention Tracking??  LOL 
5. CRM to input into.  I have used them all, Kunversion, Boomtown, Real Geeks, Top Agent, Podio, Reimobile, Reiflow, and have landed on my favorite all-inclusive.  REIPro.  The best $150.00 a month I've spent. A true all in one program. It's Podio, MailChimp, yellow letter, biggerpocket proforma app, training, zapier, text, marketing super engine, wrapped into one.  

Lastly,  the best method is the one that you take action on.  I have personally started my first mailer campaign with $200 a month, and closed 3 wholesale deals with it. It's not the budget, its your system that is what will make you successful with mailers.  This strategy will get expensive if you do not offer enough attention to your systems.  I know this from personal experience.  I have failed, and failed and failed again, and it wasn't until I started truly tracking the numbers that things started to take off for me. 

I believe there are a million right ways to accomplish a single task.  Do what works for you!  This is what works for me.  

Cheers...

I just saw this @Tarl Yarber    This is a Great topic and one that we are currently trying to navigate.  You seem to always read my mind :) 

Disclaimer: First off I am NOT selling this or have any affiliation with this product whatsoever.  

After years of trying to streamline my underwriting process and creating countless google spreadsheets, building apps, and paying thousands of dollars for CRM programs have found a solution that works for me. 

Podio is obviously the investors and wholesalers choice for CRM's as for its inexpensive monthly costs and easily customizable features.  However, this program has never solved ALL my needs as a wholesaler and flipper. To date have used Lead Propeller, Brivity, Top Producer, Kunversion, Boomtown, Real Geeks, and Investor Carrot.  They all seem to have one primary function that is GREAT, yet leaving all other less to desire.   

I needed an all-encompassing system without paying thousands of dollars. REI Flow http://reiflow.com/. 

Not all of us have access to a local MLS, and as I found after I sent my license back lost my access as well. I have since had to depend on the schedule of realtors to "get back to me" when looking for a quick value and max offer price for a home. With REI flow they have the entire workflow figured out just as my investor mind did. The price is $49 a month and a $149 set up fee!! WHAT?? The owner Scott is always available and can assist in customizing the platform at any time. My favorite feature is the "work up." With Zillow continually changing their licensing agreements, and even with Zapier never could get the app working right has created a feature that pulls ALL the data of a home from Zillow and local public information. The settings allow the user to customize the formulas to best suit our baseline terms and requirements.

The system also has performed contracts, automated, offer letters, comps, signatures, all without the need to add apps like globiflow.  No offense against globiflow! They are an excellent company. It was just another added expense.  

Again I am not here to promote, so do your due diligence, but I wanted to share at a minimum my favorite function.  I have been able to reduce going back and forth from a variety of applications and serve all my needs on one platform!  

Anyway, I merely wanted to share... 

The property currently sits as 3 lots (Lot 50-52). 

The lots have now been confirmed with the city of Portland.
PLA has been submitted.

The 2 buildable lots are $165,000/lot.

The Home is $235K

To buy the project as a whole - $499,900

The link will take you to a drive where we have provided lot confirmation documents and other documents completed by the city to ensure a smooth buying process.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j9mak1MX-R...

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