All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Charles

@Matthew Claxton

@Matthew Claxton

Only you can decide if it's worth the money. The mastery program is how we got our start in real estate and helped my wife transition to a full time realtor, so it was worth it for us. I would suggest that if you can't afford to pay whatever the cost is nowadays assuming that you never make a dime in real estate, it might not be a good idea. I would also suggest getting an understanding for your local market. Unless the curriculum has changed, the main focus is on buying properties at a discount and flipping them. IMHO, their strategies may or may not work too well depending on your local market conditions. 

@Sarkis Gezalyan

I think the issue you're going to run into in Southern California is the "buy houses cheap" part. Not really much reason for a homeowner to sell at a discount in this market when they can most likely get the most money by listing their home. 

@Marc Sinnott

Since you are a broker, I would give them a seller net sheet (or whatever your office calls them) to show how much they can pocket if they list their house with you and I would also present them a cash offer for you to buy directly.If you explain the pros and cons of each, maybe you can find a win-win where you help them reach their goals and you're able to either earn a commission or buy/wholesale a house.

In my experience with our Southern California market (Ventura County) over the past few years, homeowners may seem "motivated" until they see the price. My guess is they want an offer and an easy out, but not an offer at 70% or 80% ARV (or whatever number is being used to analyze a deal).

We've only done 1 flip, which was 2.5 or 3 years ago.  And maybe the only reason we got that one was the owner used to be a real estate investor, so he knew we were buying it to make a profit.  He was older and lived out of state, so he wasn't interested in doing anything with it other than selling it directly. 

In my experience, it's going to be real tough to find deals here in the current market. Not much reason for homeowners to sell to an investor at a discount when they can list with a realtor and most likely get a much higher price. 

@Michael M.

We attended the auction at the Sheraton 3 or 4 years ago.  Mainly to see how it worked and to try and network.  Our intent was not to purchase anything, as we weren't (and still aren't) comfortable buying a property without viewing the inside. My understanding from talking to some people at the local REIAs is that there are 4 or 5 main players who buy most of the "deals" from the auctions.  When they see new people trying to bid, it sounds like they work in cahoots to try and bid the price up so the new person ends up overpaying and then not buying anything more in the future.  

We stopped looking at bank owned properties about 2 or 3 years ago.  My wife's a realtor, and from what she was hearing from the banks, they have specific guidelines for pricing properties and when to do price reductions.  It did not appear feasible that we were going to get anything at the price we were looking for in this seller's market. 

@Gabriel Fairman

I'll send you a PM.  Maybe we can talk and see if we can come up with anything. 

@Storm S.

@Storm S.I believe @Jeff Greenberg still syndicates, but my understanding is he looks mostly out of state. 

@Damien Reedy

I would intend a local REIA and understand what your local market is doing. If you're indeed in Southern California and are looking to do a wholesale deal very soon, you might be setting your expectations up for failure.

@David Iniguez

I stopped doing direct mail a couple of years ago, but when I was using Rebogateway, you didn’t pay per list (if I remember correctly). I remember paying the monthly subscription and then you get access to all of the lists that they provide.

I also remember running into some type of issue with the tax delinquent list. I think it had something to do with most homeowners eventually paying back the taxes, whether they missed the payment or were just late. In my county, I think the best way would be to get the records straight from the county so that you can see who actually hasn’t paid in several years and is in real danger of losing their home.

Lastly, I would be cautious with direct mail in Southern California if you’re having financial issues. The reason we stopped doing direct mail was because our response rate was less than 0.25% (we were sending about 2000 a month). And when we did get leads, there wasn’t much reason to sell to us at a deep discount when they could list with a realtor and get closer to what they were looking for. 

@May Emery 

Thanks for the feedback. We were mailing to absentee owner, NOD, divorce, eviction, and a couple more, if i remember correctly.

We have many direct mail templates and they cover all of the bullet points you mention. 

I understand what you are saying, but to us it's not worth the time, money, or effort to use direct mail in this market looking for a needle in the haystack.  Until the market changes, i'd rather spend the advertising dollars on my wife's realtor business.