All Forum Posts by: Chris Lipumano

The research consisted of using google maps to check out the neighborhood, street and location of property and redfin to see if it was listed. I would not do this with my absentee owner list.

I've eased up on doing this for the last few months and now realize I just need to mail to these homeowners. Thanks guys!

@John Fossetti Thanks for the reply! I'm starting to find out how time consuming it is working my list of prospects when it comes to finding out their physical address and researching the property on google maps and redfin. Although I'm now understanding that the more targeted the better. I'm worried that thinning my list down will reduce my chances of landing a deal but I should be more focused on my mailing frequency and be confident in my mailing list.

@Will B. I'll definitely have to start digging into tax delinquents more. My favorite part of this business is the research and satisfaction of when putting in the time and work you find what you're looking for.

Can I get your take on Pre-foreclosures? Do you mail to them?

@Will B. I appreciate all your help. I like your suggestion on only mailing post cards to the absentee owners because the price to mail is way more affordable than yellow letters. I'll also be able to hit my whole list with post cards in reference to my budget.

Hopefully your buddy's friend was able to let all them know he's not interested in selling or else his kitchen will be filled with letters again in a month or so, yikes!

Congrats on your perfect storm deal! That's a great profit on a purchase price of $7,500.

Have you tried zip letters? Do you have any good tips on tax delinquent properties?

Its going to take some time to plan/map out my direct mail campaign but I've got a better idea now. Thanks again!

@Will B. Very true about the competitiveness here in SD. I do have other options as who to mail to (code violations,driving for dollars prospects, preforeclosures and probate) but I have a total list of 2500 absentee owners that I'm hoping I won't have to give up.

@Lamar Cannon I have not yet used zip letters but like the price to mail and their look. Have you had any experience with them?

Hey Everyone,

In the past year I have mailed yellow letters and postcards but was not successful (a few calls but no deals) because of the lack of consistency with the mailing.

I am setting up a campaign I will make sure I will stick to. I'm looking at a budget of $800-$1000 a month for the next 6 months. I plan on mailing every 5 weeks. I also plan to mail in this order Yellow letter, post card, zip letter, post card, yellow letter and yellow letter. Is this a good idea or should I just stick to all yellow letters for each 5 weeks?

I sent a mailing out in the beginning of August to around 1,000 absentee owners and only got a few calls. This is the list I'm going to continue to mail to since I've already mailed to them once and do not want to start over again, right?

I do have a regular calendar I mark up but a big wall calendar will definitely help better. Thanks Sharon!

This is a great thread because of all the incredible responses and encouraging words from experienced and active investors which is a big reason why I visit this site everyday.

I definitely understand your frustration Amanda but its just a part of the business that everyone must go through.

I can tell you that my biggest mistake in direct mail that I finally understand is I failed to set up a monthly budget for it. I have also mailed thousands of batches of postcards and yellow letters but was never consistent with it. The past year I have mailed maybe 5 times and some of the mailings weren't even to the same list of people. This is something you do not want to ever do because its like starting all over again.

Right now for direct mail I am setting up a monthly budget that I will stick too and will be sending out to the same list every 3-4 weeks for the next 7 months. During this time I will make sure to create a database of the calls and will be following up with each and every call I receive. But even if this campaign doesn't work out, I will learn from it tweak it and try again.

I have 50 we buy houses bandit signs that I have no idea what to do with because I decided not to go that route. They'll be collecting dust in my garage until I figure out what to do with them. I do also have 50 blank bandit signs that I will most likely use to market my deals.

"Why am I not successful in this business?" is a question I ask myself every time I get discouraged. I find myself going back to what am I doing to market myself? Who am I marketing to? Are they motivated? How many leads am I receiving a day, week and month? How many sellers am I meeting with? How many offers am I making a day, week and month? Am I following up?

If you have the understanding that its a numbers game and you will have to get through and dig through tons and tons of dirt to get to gold. That it takes consistent and persistent action and understand your "why" of why you want to be successful and know that you're providing a service to people that need help and have problems that need to be solved then you should be just fine =). Just continue to push harder than anyone else and believe in your business than anyone else even if friends and family don't.

Its easy to see that you and your husband are well on your way of achieving your goals in real estate investing just do not give up and keep moving forward.

I have dedicated the past 6 years to learning real estate without a deal closed. I have gotten extremely close and let one slip through my hands but was my own fault because I didn't understand my market enough. You can check my previous posts. Also with the calls I get I am getting more comfortable whether its tire kickers, home owners and agents. I see that I truly enjoy talking real estate and have found out this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Quitting is not an option for me and can see same goes for you too.

I just realized on redfin that the property with the eviction notice and slight construction was foreclosed in May. Anyone know if it would be to late to work something out with the homeowner at this point? I'm thinking first thing Tuesday morning is dig into the property records and try to find out exactly how far the process is with this foreclosure.

Hey Everyone,

I was very close last night to putting up bandit signs in 2 zip codes I'm interested in. I was going to spread out 50 signs last night around 2am and pick them up Monday night because of the holiday weekend. I have been reading bandit sign discussions here on bigger pockets and decided to withhold my bandit sign marketing for a while or not even do it. That's a loss of around 120 bucks but what do you guys think I should do with all the bandit signs if I don't decide to use them?

Any whooo back to the topic at hand. This morning I got ready for work a little early and had about 20 minutes to spare before heading to work so I drove around my little neighborhood and found 2 properties that were definitely vacant.

One property had a (Eviction restoration notice) and broken window but looking inside I noticed there was some construction/rehabbing going on it wasn't extensive work but repair is being in order. The eviction notice also had a plaintiff name and a defendant name listed. I'm guessing the plaintiff must be the property owner? I definitely need to get to researching because the notice was back in the beginning of July.

The other property I noticed had a lockbox on it and checking redfin on both properties they're not mls listed and properties were bought around 1996 and 2000.

I want to mention the app I have on my phone called Homesnap. This app is amazing when 'driving for cash'/'cruisin for cash' because you can snap a pick of a house and it will locate it and give info on the property. But the option I love is the (stealth) option where the app will gps pinpoint your location and will give you a list of about 5 houses that you are surrounded by.

My goal is to start walking neighborhoods maybe even to my dog with me with my phone and app and then start researching and creating lists for direct mail or find the owners number and call them. What does the Bigger Pockets family think?

Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe labor day!!