All Forum Posts by: Cody Lee

Hi Jackson, 

A good place to start is getting a Purchase and Sales agreement and an Assignment agreement. Real estate attorneys can often draft these for you or you can research online to find resources for those.

For sales approach and mindset, I personally recommend John Martinez with Midwest Revenue Group. You can find a lot of his sales videos and articles for free. There's a TON of gold in his words.

For generating leads through sweat equity, I recommend going to the county's courthouse to find Probate, Divorce, and Eviction leads. Some counties have the information available online and others require you to go into the courthouse. It's a good idea to call the courthouse and see what options are available for getting these records. 

Many times, these records are completely free!

Once you're in Florida, driving for dollars is one of the best way to get leads on a slim marketing budget. You'll probably want to find properties that appear to be vacant or in disrepair. In general, you may want to avoid newer developments and affluent neighborhoods as these typically won't be a good use of your time. Also be sure to chat with the neighbors if they're around and ask them to spill the beans about the property. You'll find people love to chat about their neighbors and you may get really helpful information!

Once you have your leads, you can look up ownership information and mailing addresses by utilizing the tax assessor's office. Many TA offices have a property search portal online but you may need to go into the TA office to get this information.

You can search online to get the property owners' phone numbers and email addresses for free in a lot of cases. This is especially useful because it will allow you to cold call which often has a better response rate than direct mail.

If you have a marketing budget of a few hundred bucks or so, you can also pay for marketing lists and skip tracing services. This process is a lot quicker and can often be more accurate than doing it yourself, but there is that upfront cost on your end.

Remember that the vast majority of people you contact won't lead to a deal. You'll get many no's for every yes. Just make sure the numbers work and then put together an agreement with the seller.

If you comped the property correctly, estimated rehab costs accurately, and left enough room for a healthy profit margin for you and the end buyer, then it should be a deal.

Hi Michael,

I found my first deal by cold calling Probate leads. I pulled these directly from the county courthouse. A clerk will be able to help you with this. Usually they'll direct you to the records room but sometimes they have them online so it's a good idea to call before you go.

Divorces, Vacants, Inherited, and Tax Delinquent properties also worked well. Although a lot of it was just a numbers game. We found deals from lists of High Equity Seniors, Absentee owners, and code violations too.

Driving for dollars was also a big deal-getter for us.

Regardless of lead type, cold calling and texting was by far the most successful medium we used to get deals, followed by PPC and SEO.
Direct mail wasn't as profitable for us but the method that got us the best response rate was hand-addressed envelopes with professional typed letters.

Double posted.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence wholesale investment in Hayward.

Purchase price: $250,000

Sale price: $375,000

House was built on a brick foundation and needed updating throughout the house. Tenants in house were given agreeable terms and we found a buyer within a month.

@Hans Christopher Struzyna Love it, thanks Hans!

@Michael Strachan We're looking for agents who will help us analyze and market the properties we buy. Ideally, we're looking for agents that have experience with assignments, double closes, pocket listings, and as-is cash sales.

Bay Area* Although I wouldn't mind meeting some great folks at the Bar Area too :)

Hi Bigger Pockets! We just opened a new branch in San Jose and are brand new to the Bay Area. 

Does anyone have recommendations for investor-friendly agents or contractors? Thank you for looking and have a great day!

Sounds like a pretty good deal. Good luck, Colten!

I'd recommend contacting your local county's courthouse to see if you can access probate records there.

Once you have access, here are some useful pieces of information you should try to find out:

-executor's/personal representative's mailing address and phone number if listed on probate document

-if the decedent owned real property

-the probate attorney handling the estate

The decedent is the person who passed away. If they owned real property, then figure out who the executor/personal representative is.

The executor is court appointed to handle the affairs of the decedent's estate. They often have the power to sell the property on the estate's behalf.

I've had a lot of success with cold calling executors. If a phone number isn't listed on the probate document, you can try to skiptrace them or mail them.

I use the same purchase and sales agreement I use for any other transaction. The probate attorney handling the estate may require certain terminology to be included in the agreement.

For example, since the homeowner/decedent has passed away, the executor is typically the one who needs to sign in the seller's place. The probate attorney might require the seller to read as "Personal Representative, [executor's name]" instead of just "[executor's name]".

I'd recommend checking with a local probate attorney to verify that this information is true for your area.