All Forum Posts by: Chris Feltus

Brian Hoyt

Great question. It depends on the type of investor I am shopping for. Some place higher priority on cash flow, while others are more interested in a buy and hold approach. When retail real estate values turn around individual school ratings are a critically important component.

To answer your question, yes I do take into account individual schools. Here in DFW you can determine the quality of the school from the database available from the Texas Education Agency here http://www.tea.state.tx.us/. It is important to look at the individual school ratings, because as you said, school districts can be very large each subdivision is assigned particular schools within the district. However, please note the TEA is changing their rating system entirely for 2013, and I am not sure what will replace it at this time.

I created map queried from the database to help pinpoint areas to invest for buy and hold investors. Since you are in Arlington, perhaps this will be of additional value to you.

E = Exemplary
R = Academically Recognized
A = Academically Acceptable
L = Academically unacceptable
X = Null Values (for example very small schools or private schools that are not rated)

Hopefully this will help generate some ideas and resources for you Brian.

Thomas Blue

Does it specifically need to be "median" value for households? www.zip-codes.com queries information from the US Census Bureau and generates a report on your specified zip codes. Assuming there is an adequate sample size in your zip code, median and average value for households tend to be similar and do not deviate too much.

Here is an example of the information there:

If you want median household value specifically you may need to get the data from US Census Berueau American Fact Finder found here which is also free: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

You can get select median value as a specific variable if im not mistaken, if not you can quickly determine it yourself by opening the database in excel.

Lastly, you might consider using the Tax Assessed Values to find areas worth investing in. Typically this information is available for free from your counties Central Appraisal District as well.

Hope that helps

In addition to what Jerry recommended, you could also take a look at Property Analyzer Pro. The comps all come from the major North Texas MLS, NTREIS. These are the same comps I would have available to me using my real estate license.

Access to the web based software is $49.50 per month, but I do believe they offer additional discounts if you do an annual subscription.

Link: http://www.4closure.info/property-analyzer-pro.aspx

Do not use programs such as redfin, trulia or zillow to run comps. They are based on an algorithm. Its a decent assessment to gauge how the area or subdivision is performing, but not for pricing individual comps. Do a search here on bigger pockets for more in depth discussions.

David Hiatt great question.

If you have decided on postcards for your primary direct mailer piece in targeting absentee-owners, its all about consistency and putting yourself in front of these potential sellers.

You will likely want to mail to each group, 4-5 times a year. By approaching your mailing list in this manner it allows them to become familiar with the service you offer. In addition, the initial post card you send them might catch them at a time where they are not prepared to sell. Then on consecutive mailings, throughout the year, something may have changed in their life, a trigger event etc. where they are now ready to sell the property. It is not uncommon to hear of individuals who have sold a house off a post card TWO YEARS later. Like Sharon said in her most recent blog post, you want to be the last investor standing so to speak. Can check out her post here, its a good read.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/12/04/how-to-use-direct-mail-successfully-in-your-business/

With that being said I like to keep it simple with postcards. We buy houses or Sell your house this month/week as the title. Perhaps a picture of you or your wife, but try not to get a "Realtor picture" it might turn some people off.

Additionally, show them the how your service benefits them. For instance: cash offer, close in 30 days or less, we handle repairs and cover closing costs etc. In my opinion, I wouldn't waste too much space telling an elaborate story or anything. You should be mailing to MOTIVATED SELLERS to begin with. You cant create urgency or motivation, if they are interested they will call. Having something fancy is probably not likely to bring in more qualified calls. It might increase total calls. For instance, calling out of curiosity, but they will likely not be qualified.

I hope this has been of some help David, hopefully some more experienced wholesalers will chime in as well.

Karen M.

Thats a great question. I used to work as an analyst for a land developer, perhaps my experience will be help generate some ideas for you. I am very data driven I enjoy querying databases and producing maps from the results, this question is my forte. I put together this quick guide hopefully you will find it of some use.
Please note the illustration for the steps below.

1. Download the database from your local Central Appraisal District or Tax Assessor. Make sure to differentiate how your county delineates between vacant commercial or residential zoned land, depending on your needs. Most counties provide metadata (basically basic information on how to interpret the database, how the data was obtained etc) from the same location you downloaded the database. If there is no metadata provided, contact the admin for the database they are usually willing to help. Its also worth noting some databases are updated more frequently than others, in my case Tarrant county updates their database once a month.

2. Query the data. In my case, vacant tracts are listed as C6 in the state use code inside the database. Once you know what to look for you can perform a simple query or filter on the database to show only vacant parcels. This step does not require advance computer knowledge.

3. Once you have queried the data and have the results desired, you can create a map of the database. This step requires more advance computer knowledge. For instance, in the image below red parcels are color coded for vacant, yellow is developed.

Illustration for aforementioned steps

Bring a locksmith to the property. Just make sure you have some form of consent from the owner and their contact information. They can get you in and out quickly with a lock pick gun.

But many times that is unnecessary as the owner will let me know "the back door is unlocked" or something to that effect.

As a wholesaler, in the process of establishing my business, I wanted to market to my “back yard”, in my case: Arlington, sections of Fort Worth & Mansfield. These areas are in close enough proximity to minimize drive time, which is an important factor for me at this time until I decide to expand.

From there you need to establish what variables fit your criteria for where you want to buy. Items such as: Months of supply housing inventory, square footage, rent rates, tax assessed values, school districts, crime, DOM, year built etc. are all variables that can all assist you in finding your target market area. In my case, looking to wholesale high equity houses, you want to find the median house value in your market area, and play at or below that level. For example a 3/2/2 brick house with an after repair value of $120,000. Emphasis on the aforementioned variables can change greatly depending on what your exit strategy is as well. For instance, your target market area will change if your exit strategy is owner finance versus a retail flip.

Once I established the big picture of my target markets, I began to break it down even further by zip code and subdivision utilizing various software and database programs. This helped to pinpoint exact subdivisions within my target market area.

For Example: This is a map I produced as a byproduct of database queries and software that shows specific subdivisions within Arlington. The map color codes the subdivisions by median tax assessed value.

Shannon Xerri

As others have pointed out, the first place to check is your local tax assessor/ central appraisal district. It appears you have already done this, next I would attempt the following.

Talk to neighbors. This is great way to find additional information regarding the owner of the house. Often they can provide you with a direct number. The neighbors are happy to talk with you and provide information on the distressed property next door that is dragging their property values down with it.

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. Use this information to conduct individual searches on the grantors and see what you can find on google. The format for your google search might look something like this "[subject property address] [name of person your searching for] [local phone area codes]. "123 Main Street John Smith 817-"

If all else fails you can utilize a skip trace service such as: TLO.com, usa-people-search.com zabasearch.com just to name a few.

Tristan Chicklowski

Its great that you are taking action, but you should be taking these calls live. You typically are not the only mail piece they have received. And if the seller is truly motivated they may not even leave a voice mail before they move on to call the next mail piece in their box. For someone that is motivated, it’s like a plumbing leak in your house. You just want to get someone out there as quick as you can to solve the problem. Even if it’s late at night and they are going to charge time and a half.

First and foremost get comfortable with your script of choice before the call start coming in. This is a comfortable conversation with someone you have never met. You want to be able to build a rapport with them on the phone that transfers to the house on your appointment. It’s difficult to build rapport if you sound like a scripted robot going one by one down your list. Most importantly, sit back and relax and listen and adapt whatever call list you choose to your own style. Listening is crucial and always look for something that you can share with the person to build rapport with such as a: story, an experience, a hobby. There are many routes to your answer to find seller motivation; you just have to ask the right questions.

“So, what made you call today?” Just be quite and listen. Listen to what it is about their life or situation at that current time that is making them call you right now. Listen and write it down, and don’t interrupt with questions until they are finished telling you their story about why they are calling.

“Tell me a little bit about the house” Don’t want to get into overly detailed questions over the phone. You will come across as a know it all. If during this reply they don’t receive basic information such as: number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage, central heat and air you should ask them. Even though you can find this information on the tax rolls, they can be inaccurate.

If they haven’t told you yet, or even if they have, ask them the question “why do you want to sell the house”. They will start to reveal some of their inner secrets. You will find most of the people that will sell you their house have more than one motivation. The motivation isn't just their grandmother died, maybe there are 10 heirs, the person on the phone is ultimately responsible for it all and its becoming a headache for them. Up top when you ask what made you call they may tell you about a payment behind, but on this question they may tell you about a divorce (2 motivating factors), that’s why you want to ask questions like this.

“When Do you want to sell” or “When are you looking to move”.Let them tell you more about themselves and their story, get additional insight.

“Where are they in the process? Have they talked to other investors, have they tried to work with realtor?” If they haven’t listed with a realtor ask them why not. This will give you more insight. It will show they know the house needs repairs, and realtor will not be able to sell it because of the repairs.

Even if they told you a little bit about repairs in the above question, I still ask them since we buy homes as is are there any major repair issues before I come out? Here they may talk to you about the roof and already having a bid of 10k. If you’re not that experienced yet it would be wise to have a roofing contractor or two meet you out on the property or may use this information later in negotiations.

“Is anyone part owner”. Want to make sure when you go on appointment to have decision makers present. Easier to get all parties on board in person, where you can explain and answer any questions regarding the full details of your offer and the conditions.

Tell them a little bit about how you work and what you do. Make sure to set expectations, let them know you are discount home buyers, not retail buyers, you offer time and convenience for a discounted sale. Close quick, pay cash, don’t have to mess with realtors or repairs or appraisals. If that sounds good schedule an appointment.

You may notice I didn't put this in a list fashion. It’s good to have a general chronological order of where to take the conversation, but you never want to force it, which is why I avoided that format.

Regarding what they owe on the property, if you are going to ask that, even if they owe a bit on the property, my mentor has had people bring over $15,000 to the closing table because they were that motivated to get rid of the house. Alternatively you can do a quick title search on the property and reverse amortize the loan and see what other liens there may be to have an idea of how much equity is built into the property.

I hope that has been helpful
Some general key words to listen for: Must Sell, Need to Sell, Wanted to sell the house yesterday or anything to that effect.

Best of luck, you will do great.

Brian Beadle

Depending on how your tax rolls are structured, the next step may be to access the public records for your county.

I had a similar situation. I Found a property that was clearly vacant: broken mailbox, terribly overgrown, code taped to the front door etc. The property had no history in the tax rolls, and no sales data available. Sometimes the tax roll information and public records are not in sync for whatever reason. Since your county is using a GIS database, there is further room for error, speaking from experience as a former GIS analyst. The tax rolls might display no data, while the public records may have something available.

I was able to locate the deed of trust for the property from public records. This revealed all parties involved. With this information you can then contact the grantors by being creative with google searches. For example “[subject property address] [name of person your searching for] [local phone area codes].

This would read “123 Main Street John Smith 817-“ when entered into google search.

In the below example you will notice one of the grantors has POA or Power of Attorney. This can be another great way to locate the owner of the property. Through a google search, I found a PDF file for a company she worked for that contained contact information. I was able to get in touch with her and get the contact information needed.

If you are unable to find the grantors with the above methods, the last resort would be utilizing a skip trace service.

EDIT: I would also suggest you perform a title search on a given subject property and make sure there is enough equity for your needs before going to the trouble of locating the grantors.