All Forum Posts by: Jim Holub

@Kim Bayless How do I get the information for free?

@Jared Abbott I’ve been looking at DealMachine and other D4D apps and to me, it comes down to time investment and scalability. The process of D4D is the same whether you are using a spreadsheet or DM. You are paying a fairly high price for the convenience. Full disclosure I haven’t used the app. But this is the cost breakdown I’ve come up with:

DM

200 properties per deal:

Mailers (3 times each property)

3 * $.99 * 200 = $594

Skip Trace

$.99 * 200 = $198

Total/deal

$792

“DIY”

200 properties per deal:

Mailers (3 times each property)

3 * $.06 * 200 = $36

Skip Trace

$.12 * 200 = $24

Total/deal

$60

You can see that the DIY method is considerably cheaper, but I would guess you are probably going to spend at least 2-3 hours for every 200 prospects using the DIY method (not counting driving time which should be the same regardless of method). With deal machine, you can do the entire process right from the app and be done as soon as you finish driving. So my plan is to do the DIY method until I get my first few deals. Then take the profits from those deals and use them to purchase a D4D app like DealMachine or Propstream, to get more deals quicker. Then, once I no longer have the time to D4D’s, I can hire other people to do the driving and provide them with a D4D app to use to find even more deals for me. I think trying to scale up this way using a spreadsheet and manual methods is infeasible.

@Mindy Jensen signed up and really looking forward to starting!

@Jaquette Green I’m looking for my first deal too and personally there is no way I would consider this deal. Just a newbies opinion.

I’ve used The Motley Fool for stock picks and have been very happy with their service. They have a service called “Millionaireacres” that focuses on all aspects of real estate investing. I’m considering using this service. Wondering if anyone in the BP community has any experience with it.

I'm in the process of hiring a property manager. I've asked him to give me some references of landlords he is currently working with. He told me he doesn't give out their phone numbers but he would give them mine and ask them to call me. I'm suspicious. Any property managers out there who can weigh in on this?

Hey Larry. I'm in Brighton and just starting out in REI. I'm looking at purchasing a property to move into, and then renting out the house I'm in now.