All Forum Posts by: Brett Russell

@Miles Stanley, the reason they're gonna sell to you is because you are going to help take care of their issue.  So, you're either paying off that mortgage or taking over payments ("subject to" transaction).

@Dennis Brody, I would say if you are actually considering ALL expenses and still showing cash flow of $200+/month for only $6-10K down, you should definitely pursue that further.  

@Will Bert, that's something you'll have to decide for yourself.  What are your goals?  Without knowing the method you are talking about, we can't really comment on that method, but you should weigh it against your goals.  If you want to acquire equity, then pay down the mortgage however you want.  If you want to acquire more properties, then pay only the minimum and use cashflow to save up for more properties.

In my mind, unless you are already at your goal number of properties, then you should only pay down the mortgage more quickly if the mortgage interest rate is higher than the ROI you can get with another property (or other investment).

@Marcus Mccluster, there are a few different issues with wholesaling REOs (search the forums), but in my mind, the biggest one is this: an REO is a bank owned property that you are now seeing because it is listed on the MLS. All of your end buyers should easily be able to find the exact same property and negotiate it themselves so what would you bring to the transaction to deserve a wholesale fee? Focus on off market properties.

@Marcus Coleman, www.city-data.com has a lot of what you are asking about.

@Trae Swofford, I think what you are referring to is that financing is different above 4 units.  You would very likely have to get commercial financing.

@Starlite Harrell

I'm a bit confused: your post is titled "wholesaling" but you are asking about lenders... the idea with wholesaling is that you don't need to get a loan for the property because you are just turning it over to someone else.

Perhaps you are talking about transactional funding?  Network with other investors to see who they are using.

If you are looking into private lenders for the future, they are, by definition, people you already know from your sphere of influence, so talk to everyone about what you do.

@Antonio Coleman, as I thought I explained, I have no intention of using a national number... the question was whether an area code from one county over was acceptable (still pretty local) or if it was really that important to have the area code match the property.

@Michael Quarles, I don't know for sure what your response means.  I presume you are saying "yes" to the 3 lists in 3 counties means you need 9 numbers, but what about the other part?  I know you recommend sending out 6 different mail pieces, so does each mail piece get a different number?  And, therefore, to mail to those 3 lists in 3 counties are you recommending getting 54 numbers?  Seems a bit over the top.

What are other experienced marketers doing?

@Michael Quarles , thanks for your response.  I certainly trust your knowledge and experience in this area.  Is the reasoning that people are less likely to want to do business with "outsiders"?

My issue is that people commute regularly between these 3 counties, so it's not like they aren't familiar with my area code.  But mostly it could get very costly.  If I have 3 sources of my list and am sending to 3 different area codes, then I need 9 numbers just for that.  

And that's not even considering if I should be changing the number each time I mail a different piece?  If my first mail piece was a yellow letter and now I'm sending a postcard, do I change all the numbers-- and now need 18 numbers-- or do I keep one number throughout the whole campaign?

Okay, I think I may be overthinking this: 

Because I want to be able to track the effectiveness of different marketing campaigns I plan to use different phone numbers, but my issue is that I will be marketing to at least 3 different area code (all within about an hour of each other).  

So, is is okay if all of my local numbers are in my area code or do people recommend having the local phone number in a marketing piece match the area code of where the property is?  

Obviously I wouldn't want to use an out of state area code but is an area code from a neighboring county okay?