All Forum Posts by: Danielle Cage

So I've put my business together and began the ball rolling towards my first buy, fix and flip purchase. I feel like things are moving a little slower and am wondering if there is anything else that I can/ should be doing. The action I have taken is listed below:

Direct mail - our second monthly direct mail letters will go out this week. They are being sent soley to high equity owners in our farm area, which consists of about 350 homes. *Should I expand this area or possibly send to a second list elsewhere?

Driving for dollars - I drive my farm area for dollars thoroughly 1x a week

REI club - I will be attending my first meet up this coming Thursday. I pushed that off because I was a bit shy about it, however am feeling confident about it at this point.

RE Agent - Up until Friday had a daily MLS search run by an REI friendly agent. She is switching offices, so I'm deciding if I want to go with her, or stay with the current brokerage and move to another agent. This will be decided by tomorrow and searches will pick back up by Tuesday.

Talking up my business - basically talking to everyone and anyone about this and spreading the word.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm very motivated (however taking careful precautions) and really want to have something in hand by the end of July!

Thanks!

Danielle

@Account Closed Hi Kathie, I will most certainly keep that in mind. The private lender is just an individual, so I doubt they are privy to any necessary rules. I'm thinking it will be best to work with an attorney and try to gain any info from an Illinois based HML. If nothing else, at least I'll learn what's necessary for a situation like this and be ready for it in the future.

@Jeff S. I appreciate your response Jeff. I think I will try some HMLs and see if I can utilize their knowledge and experience. I planned on using one before the Private Lender potential popped up, and most definitely will need one for future deals, so it would be a great opportunity to begin establishing a rapport. 

You are more than right in saying that the Private Lender may end up not bringing his money to the table, so I do have some HML's in mind as back ups.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

@Tony Cook Thanks Tony, I'll definitely give it a listen!

I live in Illinois and am looking to purchase, fix and flip properties. My brother, who lives on the West Coast, has become friendly with one of his neighbors and in passing mentioned my business. The neighbor proceeded to tell him that he has a chunk of cash sitting around not performing for him and would be interested in lending it out for deals.

I am very uncertain as to any rules/ regulations regarding private lending. I've done some searches here on BP, however am not finding anything mentioning this.

Does anyone have experience with this type of a situation? I'm fine with negotiating something that would be palatable for all parties involved. I just want to make sure that I follow any necessary rules.

Thanks!!

@Nick Fitzpatrick Got it! Unfortunately in my profession I'm not able to answer calls live... so I'll definitely be getting some kind of a service. Much continued luck!

@Nick Fitzpatrick Wow, congratulations on your deals! You are right, I need to be aggressive on this. When I first posted the thread I had my first calls. It was kind of like an "uh oh" moment. It was reality hitting that I really had things in motion. I'm over that now and ready for more calls/ leads. Unfortunately we are using a dedicated cell phone line and the phone numbers that called didn't show up with caller ID. Out of curiosity, did you answer your calls live or did you use a service to answer?

Thanks!

@Rick H. Yeah, I don't know why they wouldn't just leave a message asking me to buy their house? ;) Seriously though, this is a lesson learned. I work full time and don't have the capability to answer the calls as they come in live. With that said, a few others have mentioned using the live answering service, so I will definitely go that route for future mailings.

I don't feel as though I'll have a problem appearing confident with clients as I know the values in my farm area and I know what I can offer in the way of assisting them. Our company has our "narrative" down. Hopefully this will show through when speaking with callers, however if you have any pointers, I would love to hear them!

@Brad Woodall Yes, I did set up a website. I made it very simple, 3 pages... home page, about us and contact us. It needs a little updating to make it a bit sleeker, but it has a form, and points visitors to my company.

@Account Closed yep, I totally see your point. Honestly, I don't know how I missed it while researching all of this. I don't know how much these services cost, and I am on a somewhat limited budget, however I'm going to look into it before my next round of mailing. Considering the idea that missing one good lead could cost a deal, I'll do just about whatever it takes to get one in place.

One question... will using a service take away from our local investor "feel"? We are marketing ourselves as such.

Thanks!