All Forum Posts by: Chris Feltus

In addition to the suggestions Jerry Puckett mentioned, I would recommend using a blue pastel envelope. Out of the different combinations I have tried, this has the best response rate by far.

You certainly could. Its not my area of expertise, and your profile is not updated so I am not sure what specific avenue(s) you are after. If short sales and REOs are your cup of tea, by all means dig in.

Perhaps someone with expertise in that area will chime in.

If the property is an REO/Bank Owned, I personally discard it.

For the remaining entries in your list, simply pull them up on your Appraisal District website as you have done. There should be a data field that contains the owners property address, city, state and zipcode. Here is an example of this information from Tarrant CAD.

If the owner address contains no information, then you will need to dig further and do a bit of research to obtain what you are looking for. Here are some things you might try:

1. Talk to neighbors, this is a fantastic way to gain additional information on a given subject property. They are often anxious to help you get in touch with the owner since that vacant property on the lot is an eye sore and dragging down property values.

2. Check public records. If you can locate a deed of trust on the property you can contact each of the grantors listed. See illustration below. Google these individuals and dig around to see what the information might yield.

3. Do google searches for the owners name if you have that information available. For instance, I was able to locate information on an owner via a PDF for a company the individual worked for containing contact numbers.

4. If all else fails, you could consider utilizing a skip trace service such as TLO.com or accurint

Once you have their information, reach and out touch them with a marketing piece or phone call.

I hope that was helpful, best of luck.

Brian Stone Personally I use 5.5" x 4.25"

Niki Cunningham Welcome to the BP community Niki. My wife and I would love to eventually move back up to Denton, we both graduated up there several years back. With the college scene up there, a good rental is a hot commodity between UNT, TWU and other various community colleges in the area.

Best of luck to you and your real estate goals, see you around on the forums.

Brian Beadle What online software did you use for the sliding scale/panning pictures?

The short answer is yes.

There will always be:
Properties with Delinquent Taxes
Estate or Inheritance issues
Unwanted Rentals
Properties in need of Repair
Desirable houses where owner needs to move quickly (subject 2)
REOs

etc.

Perry Apawu Thats a great question Perry. You still have options, but its going to require you to drive the subdivisions in your area. Before you begin to drive the area you should do a little bit of research. Find out what the median home price is in your area, and target subdivisions on the lower end. Take note of any vacant and or distressed properties. Better yet, bring a camera with you and take a picture of the property. If the subject property has any notes taped to the doors or windows take note, such as code violations.

Once you have finished driving the neighborhoods that fit your criteria you will need to research them on the tax roles. Take note if the property is absentee owner or owner occupied. If the latter, I typically will not send a marketing piece to them. Remove the property from your list if its Bank Owned.

After completing your research you can then reach out to the owner and see if they have any interest in selling.

Here is the template for the letter I use for this type of lead. I send it in a hand written invitation style envelope. It receives a very high response rate.

If you have basic database skills utilizing Microsoft Access, its very easy to query the data yourself. As others have pointed out, if you are near a metro area it will be easier to obtain solid data compared to more rural areas. The data is usually stored in your counties tax or property appraisers website. If you are unable to find where this data is stored for your county from a simple google search use this website: http://www.netronline.com/

For instance I can query my counties database and find absentee owners that live out of state and own property in my target market area, property with 15 year + deed dates (rough estimate for potential equity), various tax exemptions such as age 65+ / veterans/ disabled etc, filter out bank owned properties, find estates that have not yet settled etc.

If you are not well versed in access or database queries, take some time and search around on google their are plenty of tutorials. It is well worth the investment of your time.

Brian Hoyt

I created the map utilizing various databases and a software package called ArcGIS. I use these interactive maps I create on a day to day basis for running my business. It helps me focus my energy on areas best suited for investment and helps direct my marketing dollars.

ArcGIS website: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis

If you have any additional questions, feel free to shoot me a private message. I don't want to derail the thread with specifics of the software. But be forewarned, you will need database skills (for basic use) and some computer programming skills utilizing python/VBA (for more advanced use).