All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Jamel Mccurry The most effective voicemail I've used for getting someone to call back is to be really open ended. "Hey, my name is Brian. I live a few houses down from your building on "Main St.".  Could you give me a call back as soon as you get this? I just had a quick question for you."  

It almost gets them concerned that something is wrong.  I've tried other ways where just openly say I'm looking for another building to buy in the neighborhood but no one ever returns the call.

I don't use a voicemail mail system for call backs.  Its just my cell phone number and I answer it if I'm able to.  If I can't its just my normal voicemail greeting and I return there call as soon as I can.   My goal is not to sound like a company or anything.  The people I talk to legitimately think I'm a neighbor that lives near their building and am just interesting in getting another one.  

@Kyle Doney I've never had to do that.  I just copy and paste the tax mailing address, hit search, click their name and then their number shows up.  It probably takes 10-15 seconds for each one

@Ryan R. Thanks Ryan.  I'll definitely keep cycling back through.  

@Kevin Page  I am calling between 5pm and 7pm.  So far I haven't done too many 2nd calls.  I plan to cycle back around after I get through everything though. I have just been using 411.com or whitepages.com to look up numbers.

A lot of people looking for deals that use this site seems to use direct mail.  There are many ways to find deals.  I've always cold called and gone to foreclosure auctions but the overwhelming concensus on this site says direct mail is the best.  Is it true that it works that much better than every other method? 

Cold calling and foreclosure auctions are very low cost methods and direct mail seems to be very expensive.  Everyone says it takes repetition and 5-7 sends to really kick in. It just seems like you have to spend a ton of money to get a deal. Does it really pay off?

Also, it seems if everyone is doing direct mail it would make it less effective because it becomes deluded.  Does that seem to be true?

Micah - 

1. Two family- Bought for $55k putting $30k into it. Should sell anywhere between $160k - $180k. This one was a killer deal.

2. Two family- Bought for $120k. Put $5k in. Should also sell for $160-$180k. Both are in same neighborhood.  This one isn't that great of a spread but since it needed next to no work I decided to do it. I had it on the market 2 weeks after I closed. All I did was have a guy install new floors and finish painting the unit.  Everything else was in great shape. Just put it on the market the other day.

Sometimes they are more educated and sometimes not.  There have been a lot of people who just own that one property and they bought it a long time ago. They don't seem to know the current market rates and anything. The other bonus with multi-family is that a lot of people rent them out for a lot lower than market.  I've done deals in the past where I bought it, put new tenants in for much higher rent, and then sold it. No rehab or anything.

I have my real estate license and there is a service called "Realist". I use that to pull the records.  If you don't have your license the company that owns realist also owns listsource.com which seems to be the most popular one to use.  Realquest.com is also good.

You will have to pay for the lists though

I have started cold calling absentee owners of buildings that have 2 units and up.  I'll pick a neighborhood or zip code, pull the tax records of all the non owner occupied multi-families, look up phone numbers for everyone and then start calling. 

My script

Me: Hello, my name is Brian. I was calling about your building at "123 Main st.".

Owner: Yes, what about it?

Me: I live in the neighborhood, I own some rental property as well.  I just recently sold a building in (other neighborhood) and was looking for something to buy a little closer to home.  I thought I'd give you a call to see if you had any interest in selling it. 

I've made a almost 900 phone calls.  Of those phone calls, the vast majority don't answer. Ill leave a message and move on to the next one. I've gotten 26 appointments, 3 under contract and of those 3 I've closed on 2. 

I'm looking for some input and ways to improve. Ask me questions and critique 

I currently live in a duplex where I live in one half and rent out the other. It is financed through an FHA loan. I have about 5% equity in it.

Goal: get the next 2-4 family .

Original plan: improve, raise rents and refinance to 20% equity conventional loan and hopefully get some cash out to use as down payment on next one.

I bought a duplex with rents that were waaaay too low and had to finish rehabbing one side. I lived in the non rehabbed side and completed it overtime and literally doubled the rent on the other unit. When I bought it it was rented at $750. It's a 2000 sq ft 3 bd 2 Ba with granite level finishes. As soon as their lease expired I rented it for $1,500.

I finished the rehab, started working on refinancing, and hit a road block. There are literally not comps for a 2 family like this in the area. The appraisers saw a couple comps for 2-families half the size that are run down and give me a number slightly higher. I've talked to 3 different appraisers now who all say the same thing.

So if I can't refinance at 20% I need to look for other ways to get the next building. Here are my hurdles:

- I can only have 1 FHA loan with less than 20% down. I have $10k to put down. Potential properties range from $150-250k

- thought about refinancing my current duplex as individual units. Comps on the units as condos appraise out MUCH higher than as a two family. Lenders kept saying it wouldn't work though

-I can get a conventional loan with less than 20% down but only a single family :(

What ways can I finance the next one? Any suggestions?

For those of you owning or managing 100+ units: How do you calculate your maintenance budget?

I've heard a lot of people say $50/unit. Example - 200 units. $10,000/month for materials and labor. So if you have a maintenance guy on staff that gets paid $4K/mo you have $6,000 to cover all materials for general maintenance and materials for turnovers.

Is this how most of you do it or not?

Duplex for $160k. Needs about $40k in rehab. Is it possible to come up with an arrangement with the seller to agree to their $160k but pay $200k then after closing have the seller give me the $40k back and I use that for the rehab? Obviously I would back it up with a contract make sure I can trust them on it first. Only other thing is making sure it would appraise out at $200k. It's enough under market that it could fly. I assume if the bank knew about it they might have some rule against it. Thoughts?