All Forum Posts by: Brian L.

Michael Quarles, what do you mean by "paradigm shift"?

Quick update:

Spent the morning following up leads. I texted 8 missed calls asking them if they would like to sell. Most have responded that they own the properties outright and when they sell, are looking for retail prices.

The out of state landlord seems to be interesting. My "mentor" following up as this has some potential. Will keep you updated.

Jerry Puckett.... thanks, great advice as usual. I've been using your spreadsheet, but would like to connect on how you use it. It's definitely built for speed... my crm has too much bells and whistles.

So, I had a few more calls this afternoon. I did a better job controlling the conversation. A couple unmotivated sellers and one guy who called me every name under the sun. lol.

One call in particular went well. An out of state landlord who wants out. Property worth 320k and mtg is 270k. We will see how it turns out.

Absentee Out of state
Last recording date > 6 years ago
SFR
Exclude Corporate owned

So, it's been a wild couple days. I received 15 calls so far out of 324 YL's for a 4.6% response rate. Very happy with that and I'm sure I'll get more today. That said, I'm awful on the phone. It's harder than I thought. Was a little down last night but am looking to get back into it today.

So, a few questions/comments:
1. I am getting a lot of callers offering me very inflated house prices. For example, one guy offered me his house for 280k and the least he would consider is "265k". It looks like he listed his house last year for 200k and removed the listing. I can't see any reason why his house is worth more than 200k.

So, what do I do with people like this? Do I even call them back and tell them what I think I can pay? Obviously would be much lower.

2. I am also getting a lot of people who don't claim to know or want to give up specifics on their house. One guy didn't know the mortgage amount. Another guys told me to check the # of BR's and baths online. What's my response?

Something like this? "Listen, I'm a serious investor and can pay cash for your house, close quickly and take care of closing costs. BUT, I need to know exactly what I am potentially buying to make an offer to you. Without knowing, I can't make an offer. Is this fair to you?"

This makes sense to me now, but I definitely didn't control the conversations. Or should I say something differently.

3. I am very inefficient. I am spending a ton of time figuring out what a property is worth. I am also spending a lot of time trying to get my CRM to work, but it's not built for speed. Will likely revert to a lead spreadsheet. I think a CRM makes sense longer term, but I have too many moving pieces that I am trying to figure out all at once.

4. My "mentor" wants me to cough up a bigger % of deals for him to do more hand holding. Not sure it's worth it. I have no problem splitting deals with him, but more than that? I think I can find someone else. I offered him to keep 100% of short sales and split wholesales 50/50. I have no interest in short sales at this point.

5. Because I am trying to figure out comps, working leads, figuring out my processes, managing my team, etc; I am not able to work every lead. Currentl, I am only working the ones I can pick up or that they leave a VM. I will go back and eventually call the ones that didn't leave VM.

That's it. Thanks for all the help, folks!

Welcome! Lots of great info here, but I would check out Tri State Mixer in the NYC area.

Made my first offer today on seller #3 (tired landlord).

He had a 2br 1.5bth 1450sq ft house in CNJ. Looks like all the 3/2's are selling for +/- 50k. He is currently renting it out. His property is across the street from a cemetary though.

So I figured:
The difference between 3/2 and a 2/1.5 is about 10k. Sight unseen, I'm figuring 10k in rehab costs considering it already has a tenant. So, I offered him 20k.

His response? "Wasn't looking to sell it, but would at 60k."

What did I learn? I need to understand ARV much better. Once I made the offer, I was quickly able to determine whether or not he was really a seller. Also, I need to make lots of offers.

On to the next one.......

I think I can get a realtor onboard by offering shortsales. Maybe you guys can help me come up with a better pitch?

That said, I probably need to know ballpark of what a property may be worth in the meantime. How is the best way to get to a ballpark price?

Dev Horn, makes sense to me, though I also see the argument to not include it. For now, I won't include it, but may test in the future.

My first mail drop was Saturday 5/18 (thanks Jerry Puckett!). Yesterday, I was in Boston for a conference for my regular day job. It is very infrequent that I travel for work. However, it just happened to be the day that my mail was delivered. So, I missed a lot of calls and am playing catchup. That said, I've had a number of responses.

Here's my stats so far (and I'm pretty sure that not everyone has received my initial mailing yet):

9 calls out of 324 dropped (2.7% response rate).
5 Voicemails

I am pretty ecstatic about this. Here's the voicemails that I've connected with so far:

1. Spoke to the property manager of the property. His friend is the owner. She owes ~315k and house is worth 330k. She hasn't paid mortgage in 2 years. I know nothing about short sales and am trying to get up to speed quickly. The interesting part is that the property manager is a friend of the owner. The owner just wants out and he is doing her a favor. The PM is a CPA and he told me that he sees a lot of motivated sellers via his practice. If I can help his friend out, he wants to show me leads directly.

2. Seller # 2 is carrying 2 mortgages. One in NJ and one out of state. He is living out of state. He opened a business a few months ago and needs cash as his business is struggling. he offered the house to me at 260k, but I need to figure out what it is worth.

3. Seller # 3 is a tired landlord. Doesn't want to own house anymore. Not clear to me that he is really motivated, but wants me to come back with a number.

4. Lady called me to tell me that she was going to sue me for harassment. lol. Said that she will sell her house for 500k when houses are going for 200-250k.

5. Haven''t connected yet with # 5.

So, I've learned that I know much less than I thought. What is really holding me back right now is that I cannot come up with good comps on Zillow. Maybe it's me or maybe Zillow isn't great, or maybe a combination of the two. Either way, I am dead right now because I can't even get a decent ballpark number. I know that I need a realtor on my team to feed me comps longer term, but can anyone help me with ballpark comps on these properties in the meantime? I don't want to waste leads.

Thanks everyone!

I agree with you Tim.

Btw, wix only has advertisements if you get the free one. I paid for the "premium" site which removes the ads, amongst other things. You are right though, if you can't pay for a decent website, how can you afford a house?