All Forum Posts by: Davey Wilde

What have you found are most effective methods for marketing to find motivated multi-family units? 

My team has been marketing/wholesaling SFR for the past 2-3 years and we recently decided to move into the multi-family arena. I would love to connect over phone or email with other people around the country who are having success finding motivated sellers.

My team currently sends direct mail to multi-family in the greater Seattle area.

Here's a few tidbits that have helped us. There's three pillars to all direct mail marketing:

1. How motivated is your list

2. What type of mail piece you use and what you say

3. How often and what time of the year you mail to them 

This may sound simple but hopefully it will give you a few ideas as you continue to send out direct mail. All three pillars work in unison and should compliment each other. For example, we once mailed to probate with a typed letter detailing how we could make selling their house easy and mailed to them right before property taxes were due. Each part of this campaign was intentional. Probate is a motivated list because a high percentage will end up selling their newly inherited property in the next year. We emphasized how little work they would need to do to the house for us to buy it because they were most likely burned out with the whole probate process. We mailed to them right before property taxes were due because this house would be top of mind at the moment they received our letter. 

Be intentional with each part of your direct mail campaign. Why did you pick ownership of 15+ years as your only criteria? Why would this group be motivated to sell? What time of year would this group be more motivated? After you answer these questions, your direct mail campaign will be easy to piece together. Feel free to give me a call if you want to bounce a few ideas off of me.

@Krisanne Heinze

My business partner and I specialize in finding multi-family and small apartments! I would be happy to chat with you more so we can start sending you off market deals we come across. I already sent you a PM but I wanted to post in this topic in case anybody else is looking for deals. 

@Robin Secord

I've used PatLive and was very happy with their service. They seem to be the most expensive company but if you expect 15-20 phone calls per week, it will be a great company to work with. We gave them a script to use which asked 20+ questions and they handled it great. We had them do most of the probing and here are a few of the questions:

1. How much are you asking for your house?

2. How much do you owe on mortgage?

3. Why are you selling?

4. Would you consider selling on terms?

These are normally handled by a key member of our team but Patlive seemed to do good at getting answers. Not all of the callers gave complete information but the motivated ones had no problem answering all of our questions! 

Thanks for all the responses and personal messages! I look forward to connecting with everybody.

I'm not terribly new to this site but I just started posting on threads recently. I've been wholesaling and rehabbing in Seattle for the past three years. My team just expanded our marketing to King/Snohomish/Pierce so feel free to contact me if you're looking for SFR rehabs or rental units. We currently have two properties under contract so call me directly if you're looking for properties right now.

Also, I'm always looking to network with newer investors or people looking to get started in investing. I had quite a bit of help from experienced investors when I first started and I'm more than happy to get coffee or chat with anybody that's looking to get started. Maybe you can learn from the mistakes we made and get a jump start in your investing career.

 You're buyers will respect you more if your just honest with them. Tell them you're a new wholesaler but you'd like to start sending them properties. Most of the investors will be more than happy to train you or teach you how to comp out properties using numbers that work for them. It's been much easier for us to build our buyers list when we have a property to market but I don't think it would be a bad idea to contact the big buyers in your area and network with them first.

Investors that buy properties through a wholesaler are trying to save time and money in marketing expenses. That's why majority use wholesaler's or the auctions to purchase deals. They don't have time to waste trying to market and find deals. Approach each buyer with this mentality that you're doing them a favor and all you need is a push in the right direction to start finding them properties. 

@Account Closed

You can offer to pay retail for the house "subject to" if they have a fixed 15/30 year mortgage and the rent is higher than the PITI payments each month. This means you will cash flow each month you own the property and it will also be paying down the mortgage so you can sell at a later time. Talk to an experienced investor or attorney in your area if you go this route.

If a house has been sitting on the market for several months, a lease option (rent to own) or owner financing would be the best route. Remember, if you agree to favorable terms with the seller, you can most likely sell the property on better terms and make a good profit without putting hardly any money into the deal.

@Jeff B.

I'd target zip codes with good schools (greatschools.com) that are close in proximity to where you live. I'm not sure how much investing experience you have but I always recommend marketing to your back yard first. This will make it easier for you to go make offers and scout the leads you get plus it's nice to have rentals only a few miles from your house so you can go look at them whenever you want. 

@Dee Miles Most of the houses we purchase come from our absentee out of state mailing so I don't meet with the sellers in person very often. All you need to do is email over the contract and have them sign it and send it back. Then take it to a title company and they can set up the account and contact the seller to let them know everything is moving forward.  DocuSign works great for being able to sign a contract on your smart phone with a swipe of your finger but they charge $30 per month for this service. The only time I've needed a mobile notary was for an elderly lady in another state who didn't have access to the internet... long story so I won't get into that. 

@Dev Horn If you plan to wholesale the house, why does it matter if you can't see the property before you put out an offer? You most likely have an inspection/feasibility time period that allows you to back out and get your earnest money out.