All Forum Posts by: David Lecko

Hey @Joshua Howaniec I have noticed this in Marion County, too. Your source for the owner address is the county records, so those addresses should be correct... 

Occasionally I will get returned mail with "invalid address" even though the owner address matches the county record.

My next step is to use USPS's address verification to see if they will make any corrections to the address so I can re-send it.

If that fails I will do a google search for the owner name to find alternate contact methods (linkedin, facebook, maybe an address)

And lastly there is a skip tracing service called TLO by TransUnion that I have heard discussed a lot but I haven't tried myself, yet.

Why this happens is a mystery to me!

Hey @Reggie Enos! 

I agree with @Ray Lai's comment about driving for dollars and building your own list.

Also, I agree that certain target houses may receive mailers from other people. You might find that no matter if you purchase a list or build your own, you'll get additional calls after you send the 2nd, 3rd, 4th mailer (etc) to the same targeted owners the meet your criteria. Owners may not be ready to sell the first time they receive your mailer... if you are repeating mail you're more likely to reach the seller on the day they are ready to sell. :)

Hey @Sol G. and @Garrett Diegel happy to answer your questions!

Of the 73 houses I mailed to, I received 22 calls back total so far. I plan on getting more calls in the upcoming weeks and months because I send mail ever 21 days to most of these owners.

As of right now, my second mailer recently went out to these owners.

Of the 22 calls back, I have made 2 offers. There are 3 other conversations I've have that I expect to make offers on soon.

A few callers told me they didn't want to sell. I interpreted that as meaning they didn't want to sell "right now" so I put them on repeat-mail ever 180 days.

As for taking D4D home and continuing to market to these owners, I actually use a system I built that manages it all from my phone. There's more info in my signature if you're curious!

Hi @Priscilla Z., I love that you are looking for someone local. Plus, it's great that you have the duties already listed out. Those will come in handy for posting a job opening.

I've posted jobs on indeed.com with the setting: local applicants only. Craigslist was my secondary local posting option. 

Also, based on your comments: looking for someone who "loves being in front of a computer all day" and "possibly grow into a bigger position" are interesting. Hiring a college student and training them up could be an opportunity.

Florida Institute of Technology looks like it is near you and you could inquire with their career center about how to reach students with your opportunity. Their IT students could probably build automations for some of the tasks you laid out as well.

The following books have some hiring tips in general you might find interesting:

First, Break All the Rules: Hire for talent, rather than skill. Example talent: striving to grow and learn about real estate. Example skill: data mining. The book says it is better to hire the person with talent because you can teach them the skills. The book has sample talent interview questions as well.

Algorithms to Live By: Set aside x number of days to find an assistant (I'll say 30 days for this example). Refrain from hiring anyone until you have looked for 33% of the total allotted time and interviewed at least 33% of the serious applicants. Then, once you have observed what's out there, hire the next person who comes along that is the "best yet" for the job. At least, that's the most efficient way a computer would handle it ;-)

Hope this helps... please keep us posted! :-)

Hi Ty,

I agree with your advice @Kurt Pauley about driving for dollars. You drive around in your car/walk/roller blade/scooter/hover-board/bike and look for properties that look run down or vacant.

If these houses are vacant or run down looking, it is a good indicator the owner is losing some money every day they hold the property (paying taxes, possible mortgage, etc while receiving no income), making them more likely to sell for below market value.

Once you find these properties then you can send the owner mail offering to buy their property. 

Driving for dollars is a low-budget, high return marketing strategy because you are targeting specific properties rather than sending blanket direct mail campaigns which can cost thousands of dollars, and reach many people that aren't wanting to sell their property.

@Jordan Moorhead I am also house hacking currently. I have a 5 bedroom primary residence where my mortgage payment is x amount of dollars. I rent 3 of the additional bedrooms to friends for a flat fee. I pay a fee to house as well for living there, and I track the house income and expenses as a separate investment property. 

@Ty Meusburger when I sign into my BiggerPockets account, there is a Path to Profitability section that seems like a good way to learn and try out different strategies. It seems helpful, but I haven't looked into it in detail yet.

@Andre Wilson I meant to say captured 73 houses (not hours) meaning I wrote down their address, looked up the owners, and sent postcards to the owners in that time frame.

Hey Andre, I can help! You're pretty on point by targeting properties that look vacant or distressed. I also look for a mailbox overstuffed with mail and also overgrown grass, which indicate that nobody lives there (meaning the owner is loosing some money every day that he holds it). Check out the "Driving for Dollars Bible" by searching google. It's an editors choice blog from bigger pockets that provide a nice overview. I recently went "walking for dollars" in a neighborhood I really wanted to find a home in. I captured 73 hours in an hour and a half of walking or so. As for anything to watch out for: I usually won't send a postcard if the property was purchased in the last 6 months.

Thanks @Audrey Ezeh I will check out podcast #70

@Jay Hinrichs I think this is geographically near you and I saw that you were an active mortgage broker in the past. Would love to hear if you have any additional ideas.

Hey guys,

A friend of mine that I work with lives in Portland Oregon (technically in Hillsboro).

He wants to buy a $500k house, but is having trouble getting a loan because he had a foreclosure 4-5 years ago.

Now he has his act together and earns enough to buy a $500k house with a traditional mortgage (but he says the foreclosure on his record is holding him back)

I thought maybe this is a scenario where seller financing could be helpful.

Thoughts?

Amazing story.

I loved the questions you asked.

"Is there anything else you'd like to sell?"

Also your persistence paid off.

In the 5 months of mailing, how many times did you mail him?