All Forum Posts by: Chrissy Parsons

@Barrett A.  A couple things pop out to me.

The first thing I would change is the equity. Instead of specifying a $$ amount, use Loan to Value to get a percentage. ($35k is a good amount on an $80k house, but peanuts on a $500,000 house) Here is an article that that discusses how to use Loan to Value (LTV) for equity in a list.

You might also include a home market value.  Do you want the Million dollar homes in addition to the very low end? In most markets you want to be in the "average" range.

I don't see that you included any motivating factors. Is this going to EVERY homeowner that fits this criteria? You might consider things like absentee owners, seniors with long time ownership (20+ years) and homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores.

I agree with that $2000 is a lot for an 11,000 name list. It should be less than half that - unless I am missing something.

@John Arias Since you plan to do some mailing, I'd suggest that you work with a mailing list broker to get the lists that you want. In the process, you can learn some statistics about the counties. 

For example, this shows how many absentee owners there are in each Northern NJ county. 

High equity, single and multifamily, home value $50-400,000

This is a breakout by home value:

It's possible to get the breakout by county as well. Since this is a competitive area, you might consider other off-market lists as well

.

@Will G. Consider another group of sellers. Rather than focusing on people with income property, look at some of the motivated owner occupied markets. 

Think about the Seniors with Long-Time Ownership come to mind. As I mentioned before, they are often ready to downsize or transition to assistance. They probably won't be looking for top dollar because of a lack of updates and recent maintenance. Even better - they haven't been getting offers every other day from investors.

In Blount county there's about 1450 homeowners; age 60-89, 20+year ownership, single family homes valued between $50 and $250,000 and the top 700 or so people with the top Financial Stability Scores (FSS) taken off.

You might want to adjust your message a bit when you do your mailing. Here's a link to some suggestions for the approach that can be effective.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10944/74462-you-want-to-buy-their-home-but-how-do-you-get-the-attention-of-senio 

@Jeff Lee - how are you getting the leads to make your offers?

 If you are finding off-market deals with a mail campaign, your list will probably have a home value range included that you can look up when someone calls. You can also have a conversation with the owner to learn about their motivation.

How long have they lived there?

Have they done any remodeling?

WHY DID THEY CALL YOU? 

Have they thought about where they want to live?

I'm not sure about this one - but it makes sense that you could ask what they think their house is worth. If they say what a neighbor got, ask how the houses compare.

There's a lot of Driving for Dollars to find homes you might want to buy - then research the owners. However, to get a good campaign going, you will need more leads than you are likely to find driving around.

Think about working with a mailing list broker to get suggestions on the types of lists that would be effective for your area. This way you can find people who haven't put their home on the market yet - but share motivating factors.

@Brianna Salas One of the big rules in direct mail is that you DON'T indicate that you have any personal knowledge of the person based on the list you are mailing to.

 A good way to get someone defensive is to let them know that you are contacting them because they are in distress. 

Instead list some of the challenges of ownership - why they might want to get out (unexpected expenses, taxes, maintenance) and how you can help (quick, cash, as-is, don't have to fix up to have strangers walk through your home)

You should consider working with a list broker to find some off-market seller leads. Seniors with Long-Term Ownership and Low Financial Stability Scores is a good one. You will be reaching people before the bankruptcy cogs start grinding.

I have a blog that talks about the type of message that you might want to send.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10944/74462-you-want-to-buy-their-home-but-how-do-you-get-the-attention-of-senio

@Daniel Scruggs GoBig Printing is very reputable and have a lot of choices for letters and postcards. 

You might consider working with a list broker to mix a couple lists rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. 

If I'm not mistaken, Delaware County, PA is pretty competitive when it comes to investors mailing to Absentee owners. You don't want to send all your letters to people who are already getting offers from other investors.

@Jeremy Taggart You might consider working with a list broker rather than an online system where you have to figure out everything on your own. 

I wrote a blog here that explains LTV. I hope this helps.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10944/74960-hi...

Depending on your area counties, there may or may not be good reporting on the loan information to allow a compiler to calculate the LTV. It can often help to include unknown LTV and a purchase/transfer/sale date of 5-10+ years.

@Account Closed

Condo's are often notorious for poor construction. Many investors want to stay away from them. You also need to look at the condo docs to see what restrictions you run into.

How are you finding your leads and where are you looking? Blount and Knox counties? Seniors with Long-Time Ownership can be a good target market as they are often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.  Because they might have missed a few updates to the interior and maybe fallen behind on maintenance, they might not be expecting top dollar.