All Forum Posts by: David Lee Hall, III

@Nathan Gesner thank you. Process server was what I was blanking on. 

I found a couple. $25 here for serving

@Jeremy H.

In terms of lists a lot depends on what is available in your target area. Probate is popular but expensive - these lists are generally pulled manually. If you can get code violations those are usually strong. Unfortunately in my market code enforcement does not provide lists. Additionally, with probate, understand when someone dies the benefactors get dozens of messages - you are a vulture on the line here. A better route is to target attorneys. Send wedding style letters that say confidential to the attorneys- this gets it to their desk not their secretary. Once you close a deal or two through an attorney you end up in the pipeline for when they get distressed homes. One of the guys in REIA here just does this method (I don't personally).
My call rate on DMM campaigns (that are list, not driving for dollars based) are so low because I do not mail on motivation. I just blanket house configuration and location for my reliable buyers. It is a shotgun approach for about 25 zip codes as opposed to targeting distress. It has the lowest return rate because of this. For about every 1,000 postcards we send we get about 4 calls. Remember there is *no* distress here, it is simply location based. We close on about 1 in 12 of those. So to close 1 house a month on my non-distressed DMM campaign we are currently running I need to send out about 3,000 postcards. At 61c a postcard I know my budget needs to be $1,800. As my usual assignment fee would be $4,000-$6,000, I know for $1,800 I can profit $2,200-$4,200. Obviously if you aren't in rust belt America moving $125,000 ARV houses you may be getting 5x what I do on profit, but the nice thing is you can easily track lead and lag metrics. We get more leads on SEO and pay per click, but put in more money there as well. When breaking it out by lead source though, each lead is roughly (within $10-15 for all types) the same cost when we use better lists. For the non-motivated DMM list they usually come in about 2.5x more than web leads but that is because there is no motivation. Overall we usually run about $2,200 per closing on advertising spend across all methods. Billboards is something I would like to get back into as we 3x'ed our lead inflow with a limited campaign a few years ago during the 90 day run. I am curious if they would still be as effective.

All methods work. End of story. It is really what you are comfortable with and how much you want to spend.

1) Buying a list and cold calling: cheap but time intensive. Can be outsourced overseas. But in my area there is a lot of racism with older sellers and not being local or having and accent has almost killed many deals I had to save by coming in as the local yocal. You also have no idea of motivation usually.

2) SEO: You know you are getting a motivated seller because they sought you out. This can be pricey to maintain a high ranking on popular keywords and you never know when Google may change their algorithms. Easy to start getting into with sites like Lead Propeller or Carrot or Realeflow. But to be a star you need regular management and updates. 

3) Pay per click: Don’t sweat native SEO and pay for ad space at the top of native rankings. It seems (our experience) people don’t seem to care if it is an ad or native. Can be pricey but unlike DMM you know the person has some motivation.

4) Facebook: Can be cost effective and gives you tons of tools to target people specifically. We don’t do much here but I know wholesalers that only market this route. 

Side note: For all online intake you need a way to follow up QUICKLY. The chance of getting in touch with the person drops off ridiculously fast from when they fill out all your forms.

5) Direct Mail: Tried and true. Only as good as your copy and your list. Repetition works. We had someone get 52 letters from us once before calling (and selling). Average is 5-7. I know some people with good campaigns get 3-4% response rates (so 30-40 calls per letter). Ours is rather horrible at around 0.3%. So you can easily see the difference in targeting.

6) Bird dogs: Guys that get paid to tell you when they find homes that meet your criteria.

7) Networking: This is probably the all time king and covers so much. From going to your local REIA to telling your mailman you will give them a finders fee if they let you know about any vacant homes on their route and you buy it. The more people that know you buy homes the more opportunities just show up at no cost.

8) Driving for dollars: This one is great for finding those houses that obviously are ugly. Peeling paint? High grass? Shrubs not trimmed? Shingle missing? All have distress and lack of care. Now what you do with that house is the question. You can put a door hanger on their door or a flyer in their mailbox if you are non confrontational and then add them to a DMM campaign. Like to talk to people? Go knock on the door. Somewhere in the middle - skip trace the owner and hand off to a VA to cold call.

9) Awareness marketing: Billboards, TV, Radio - these can be great but you need to be careful because you can drive people to competition accidentally. How? Say you have a billboard that says “Sell Fast in San Antonio to Bob” - someone could just remember ““Sell Fast in San Antonio” and if you are not paying for pay per click or in the top 3 on SEO then you likely just sold the guys house to  a competitor.

@Nathan Gesner

Had my contractor look at it that is licensed to handle the sewer issue. Problem is this is rust belt territory. It is a $40-50k house on an alley on a 1/3 size lot. Damage is $60-80k for repairs. Either the neighbor is going to buy it or it will be turned over to the city for demo. Not worth a $450-500/mo rental to fix. I could talk to my insurance and see if they would accept a claim, but given the value/repair #, it might be considered a loss. That call will happen Wednesday. 

 Have you ever worked in corporate? 🤣

@Chris Seveney
For $400 in fines you could hire a mowing service for half the season! 

@Nathan Gesner
Not enough deposit for this $h!t! (literally) 

So I have a land contract in place (being cancelled due to terms violation) on a low-end cape cod. No big deal other than tenants like to not pay. It was a rental prior to the land contract. 

When it was a rental, the tenants had a history of flushing hygiene products and clogging the sewer. I had it thoroughly snaked by a pro who found multiple clogs and removed them. No problems in 3+ years since. 

Well evidently there was a backup. So instead of perhaps calling a plumber, land contract husband, who is a GC, decided he would tend to it. Now this might now have been an issue, except he went on vacation for 3 weeks leaving his dogs inside. So the neighbor called animal control. I gave permission to enter. Aside from the filth (they usually were organized but always had a stray soda can or Hi-C container laying around from the kids) they evidently fell off the wagon since last fall when I was last inside. Roaches and filth everywhere. But the kicker, husband decided to dig up the sewer?!?! 

So code enforcement was called (and me). So now the house is not inhabitable because there is no sewer. Lovely! 

Having a conversation yesterday with a friend about notices, etc. In the past I have posted pay or quit myself. He doesn’t want to do this. For the love of Pete I know there is a service you can call that will post notices for you (officially, not like paying your neighbor’s kid) but I completely blanked on what the service is called so he could look one up to find it. If anyone could be so kind as to fill the gapping hole between my ears it would be appreciated.

@Jerryll Noorden

I did not say SEO doesn’t work. I do know how it works. I have run it previously for my former IT services company. Today in my market we get about 70 leads a month off of SEO and pay per click at about $8k spend. (I would have to pull reports to get breakdown, which isn’t happening on my phone) What I did say is that it takes work, and has drawbacks, and I recommend a balanced approach across multiple channels. 

I don’t remember the dates exactly but around 7 years ago Google changed their algorithms for SEO. This through everything for a loop. Rankings changed drastically over night. You can’t control the tech behind SEO which is why I recommend a diversified approach. 

It is the same reason I recommend a balanced investing approach. If all you have are Short term rentals and some jag off takes hotel lobby donations and either makes them illegal or highly taxed, now your portfolio is bust, but balancing between multiple exit strategies would allow you the ability to ride out hiccups. 

This should also be spelled out in plain english in your contract with the seller having the title company named and a hold harmless to that title company should something go sideways.