All Forum Posts by: Bobby Valcin

I am in a position where I don't have a lot of time, but have the resources to pay for some wholesale marketing. I have taken a close look at REI Vault and it seems like it would be a good fit for what I'm looking for, however, the price point is fairly high. I'm interested to know if anyone has had experience with them or maybe have some recommendations for options that will produce similar results at a lower price point.

REI Vault basically does the marketing (direct mail, PPC, Facebook), fields the calls, and even sets appointments with leads with their top tier package. It averages out to about $10-$12 an hour. Then there is the marketing cost on top of that. Their minimum requirement is $1000-$1500 if I'm not mistaken. So I would be looking at $3000-$3500 a month.

Alternatively, I'm thinking I might be able to find some options for each type of marketing (Facebook, Direct Mail, etc) and pay those companies separately at a lower cost potentially. 

There were some recent changes with the brokerage that I'm hanging my license with. To make a long story short I'm going to be required the pay MLS dues or my license will go to inactive. I was mainly using it for referrals.

Since the situation came about it made wonder if it could be useful for finding leads a little bit easier on my own (i.e. vacancies, expired listing, running comps, etc). I know a lot of info is available for free, but that info tends to be inaccurate, inconsistent and can be tedious to obtain, especially if I decide to start reaching to agents with old listings to make offers.

Another consideration is becoming one of the prized investor friendly agents that seem so coveted. The cost for the access is about $800 a year.

I would love hear your thoughts, especially if you have personally found value with having a license without using it for sales and rental as the focal point.

Wow, that is cheap. That seems like a pretty significant time commitment to shop around, pick up machines, drop them off, etc. Do you have system in place that allows you to do those things quickly?

I find myself thinking that it is probably good to do some appliances used and some new depending on the type of appliance. A used fridge vs a new fridge seems to have the biggest gap from what I've seen. At what price differential would you pull the trigger on doing new instead of used? 

I'm a property manager in Palm Beach County and I've grown increasingly frustrated with the costs associated with appliance repairs in recent months. This is causing me to reconsider only using used appliances in our units and switching to installing new appliances if the price is right. I'm wondering at what point from a price perspective does it make sense to go with new vs used? We can usually get used stoves for about $200-$220 including delivery, install, and removal of the old stove. A new stove seems to be in the $400-$450 range just doing a quick search online. The price difference seems to be the same when it comes to dishwashers and microwaves, but much greater when it comes to refrigerators.  

I just want to get some thoughts from BP and maybe some strategies that others have found to work well when it comes to appliances. 

@Tracy R. I’m happy for you. You probably did better than most agents would have done anyway. Most will not care about the quality of the tenants much is you (the landlord) do. I like that idea of making them have to call. I hope the tenancy goes well and I’m very encouraged by your results.

We are on track on attempting to do the same thing the first quarter of next year. I would like to get your thoughts on the area you are in and other surrounding areas. My oldest daughter will be at kindergarten age around the time we would be moving.

Do you plan on repeating the process or are you going to stay put for the long haul?

@Tracy R. Good to hear Tracy. That is a good way to weed people out for sure. If they are too lazy to call you then they probably aren’t truly interested. Hopefully that person pans out.

Quick question. Did you decide not to list it with an agent to avoid paying the commissions?

@Tracy R. Good stuff. Hopefully it rents soon. I’m counting on you to make this work so I can replicate what you are doing, lol.

@Tracy R. Just remember that renting it furnished will significantly limit amount of people that will be interested. I don’t say that to discourage you, that is based on my experience doing property management for the last five years.

@Tracy R. I appreciate you taking the time to keep me in the loop. If you could generate enough income to where you are living free that would be so great. Those numbers would be exactly what I'm looking to accomplish. Keep me posted. Hopefully, the person you mentioned ends up being a taker.