All Forum Posts by: Don Crandell

Brandon, Thank you for your reply,

What I landed up doing was to call the assessors office after sending them an email and they were able to give me the rehabbers address and name. I did an internet search of the company trying to find out any more information, none there.I have the company name and address, they work out of their home (my goal also), which they bought in 2000 for $765K and is now worth $2M according to Zillow, they definitely know what they are doing.

My suggestion is a simple one, go out and act like potential renters tour a few homes around the same age as yours and renting for about the same price. Keep your search to around 1/2 to 1 mile away.

Compare your house to your competitions houses and only upgrade that which falls short of your competitions.  Spend as little as possible.

Vanessa,

I am in the same boat as you and here are my ideas for myself which may also help answer your questions.

First listen to the following podcasts until you have a complete understanding of the direct mailing scheme. Podcast #2, #12, #18, #21,#22, #27, #42, and #81.

From listening to the podcasts I know that some people will keep every piece of mail you send, so you need to vary the type of correspondence you send. One seller had all of the direct mailing cards and letters rubber banded together when the wholesaler came over to their house.

You need to have the same basic message but not the same wording, you have to make it personal to the seller…….they are not just a number, but a person to you.

You need to find out what their pain point is. Why they need to sell their house and how you can relieve their pain

It is a matter of timing and keeping your correspondence handy to the sellers.

If your mailings are on attractive paper it may create a memory point for them. A schedule might be, yellow letter, post card, attractive envelope and paper, post card, yellow letter. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Postcards should be something that they will want to stick on their refrigerator door and keep, cute cartoon, message of happiness, vintage art, kittens, puppies, blah blah blah. NOTHING religious, NOTHING sexual, NOTHING political, NOTHING that would bother people in the least way.

What size envelope? Not business size, It should be in an invitation size envelope with the back flap tucked in instead of being glued shut, no return address on the outside of the envelope, they have to think the letter is from aunt Grace or someone they know. That is why yellow letters are hand written or font fake hand written.

Mailings are more about timing than anything else, so I think you need to mail out something to your sellers every 3-4 weeks and update your mailing list every 6 months.

Who ever does respond to your direct mailing campaign make sure you make the conversation all about them. Ask plenty of open ended questions and dig into their lives without being creepy about it. I would suggest reading the book Conversationally speaking by Alan Garner, if you are unsure about open ended questions and want to know how to control a conversation. Your goal is to find out their pain point (why they want to sell) and to be their friend or be the person they need in order to eliminate the pain.

You WILL make some people mad, that’s just part of the whole deal, if they say they want to be taken off of your list, remove them. After all they have just saved you on unnecessary postage.

The above are just some thoughts I have about my own campaign, I am open to any criticism or comments.

Thanks Doug, if all else fails I'll try the buying agents name and info, that's all zillow shows./DC

The fire that got me motivated in the direction of a rehabbing business was a project that sold a few months ago. It was a townhouse which had it's garage burn down and was subsequently foreclosed on. The property was bought for $97K, then fixed and sold for $240K. Now to my question, can I get the mailing address and the name of the investor from the assessor office. I would not be looking for the current owner, but the previous owners information. I would like to pick this persons brain to figure out how they are getting such good deals.

Karen you are having a lot of work done by contractors that you are quite capable of doing yourself, that is if you want to keep costs down. I have 25 years of construction experience and know that about 50% of the work performed by contractors and sub contractors can be handled by determined homeowners, but you have to know your limitations.

Get rid of your fear of electricity and learn that being shocked is not that big of a deal. Here I am ONLY talking about replacing switches, outlets and installing fans and lights. I am NOT talking about wiring a circuit breaker panel, or doing a drop from the power line. I have been shocked well over 1,000 times and am still alive. 

A woman can hang drywall as well as a man, although you may need some help hanging ceilings and staircases. Leave the tapping and texturing to the experts, but you can do the painting easily yourself.

Go fishing around Home Depot, they have cost breakdowns for everything, an example is $80.00 (Southern California prices as of last month) to remove and replace a toilet. You will need a wrench, a wax ring and a little muscle to save yourself $80.00. These costs add up over a job.

To find a good contractor, drive around your community and find contractors working on other peoples property. You want to find contractors doing remodeling work, find out who owns the home and talk to the home owners. Find at least 3 different contractors this way, find out who their subcontractors are. Test your limitations and know what you really can't do and leave that work to the experts.

With all of this said, at some point you will have to balance your time with your money. Are you better off paying someone a few thousand dollars and getting the job done faster or are you better off taking more time to finish the job.

Thanks Jon, I believe that more than anything I'm going to have to be a student of finance and really develop an understanding of loans and money./DC

If you watch the video that goes along with the story you can't help but notice that the Everetts house is two things in one. Firstly it is a half finished project, take note of the steps that need to be refinished, the un-historic interior. In the construction industry we call this a remuddled home. The Everetts have tried to turn a historic home into a modern home and want top dollar for it. Their home is an example of what not to do.

Is is possible to buy a wholesale home through normal financing channels, FHA, Conventional loans ect. If so what costs would be involved.

My plan is to fix my current home, sell it (I'll profit around $100K, not enough to buy and fix a home for cash), move into another fixer, have it fixed, sell it, wash and repeat.

My short term goals are to go from 1 fixer a year to 4 fixers a year. I live in Riverside County, California.

None of these homes have insulation and their electrical systems are knob and tube, they have plaster walls so you will be playing chase the cracks as long as you own them. The buyers are a rare and select group of people, so you will have the rehabbed home up for sale for several months or years and your work had better be historically correct and perfect. 

I love old craftsman homes, but the idea of buying one for rehab purposes is crazy, there is so much that can be going on behind the plaster and shiplap that it can drive you into the poorhouse. The same goes for these old mansions just too much hidden behind the walls that can be or go wrong. On the bright side their parts may be worth more than the whole, 100 year old mantles and staircases can be sold for good money, the same goes for the old growth timber that was used to build the home. They may have hardwood floors that can be pulled up and sold. The windows and frames, the niches, blah blah blah.

https://www.toledolegalnews.com/realestate/details/id/146464

I would suggest that before anybody was to buy a 100 year old home that they watch Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelly Long around ten times and then put in their offer.