All Forum Posts by: Dan MacDonald

Lynn, that's exactly the service I'm looking for. One of my colleagues uses them and she showed me one of her recent pieces yesterday -- that's when I came on here to find out if anyone knew of other providers. GoBig would get the job done, but I don't love their stuff.

Kris and Bill, I agree wholeheartedly with the benefits of email marketing. With that said, I also agree with Patrick that a hard copy piece leaves a longer lasting and more valuable impression with the recipient.

I wouldn't send this newsletter to anyone who gives me a business card, but I would send it to my sphere of influence and to a select group of past/present/potential clients. For a group of people whose referrals are worth 10s - 100s of thousands to me annually, I'm happy to spend a few extra hundred per month to help me stay top of mind.

Patrick, thanks for sending the link to that magazine. I haven't had a chance to look at it closely yet but I will this week.

I've also sent some inquiries around my office. I'll let you all know if I hear of anything else that looks worth considering.

Hey Patrick,

If you think it was a good piece, I'd be interested in talking with the guy. Please do send me the name if you can find it.

I've got about 100 people I'd like to send the newsletters to each month. I'm figuring this will cost me a couple hundred a month.

Do you have any cost-effective strategies for staying in front of your past clients? Ones that you think might be better than newsletters?

Hi @Eleena_D,

I'm actually looking for a hard copy newsletter to be mailed to my clients monthly. I'm looking for one that's pre-written and can also be shipped for me. Basically, I'm looking to cut a check and have my clients receive a newsletter in the mail from me each month for the next year.

I've seen some newsletters by googling around the content is OK, but I'm wondering if anyone has found anyone who makes a really good one.

Dear fellow realtors,

Can anyone recommend a monthly newsletter provider?

I'd like to start sending newsletters to my clients as a way to stay in touch with them, and I understand that there are a lot of companies who offer this service in a "set it and forget it" fashion, but can anyone recommend a specific provider that they like?

Thanks very much for your feedback.

Dan

Well, it was easy for me but I may have gotten a bit lucky. I met a broker during a networking break at a REIA meeting, took her out to lunch to chat about investing, then kept in touch with her thereafter. A few months went by and I decided I wanted to get licensed, so I called her and asked if I could hang my license with her. She said 'of course!' and gave me a generous deal.

I've since discovered that almost any brokerage in our area will take on new agents, without any minimum production requirements, but they'll likely attach monthly fees and take a healthy cut of your initial commissions each year.

So, I guess in summary, you'll have no trouble finding a broker who will let you hang your license with them, but depending on what kind of a deal you're hoping to get, it may take a good bit of interviewing and negotiating before you find something you're happy with.

Sam,

Check out www.moseley.org.

I completed the 60 hour coursework online through Moseley. Theoretically, you could have this part done in a few days. I think it cost around $200.

I ended up hanging my license with an independent broker who I met at a REIA meeting.

Dan

There's one tonight at 7pm in Fairfax city. It's the first meet up of BP members in this area.

@John Rubino and @Roger Lin are hosting

I received a lead yesterday from a homeowner in Baltimore who just wants to get rid of her property. She and her husband split, she's moved back in with her parents, and she wants to be done with the house. The one trick is that it's a short sale so it needs third party approval.

The house is in the Morrell Park section of Baltimore (zip is 21230). It's a 3/1, has 840 sq ft, and it's a brick, interior row house (in very good condition based on the pictures).

The challenge for me is evaluating the comps. They seem to be all over the place.

She says the bank has already given the green light for a sale at $29k, but I'm having a hard time determining if that's even a good price.

If there are any Baltimore experts who can share some insights it would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

Thanks for your thoughts. This is exactly what I was looking for. Saved me an hour long drive and probably an hour's worth of phone calls and emails.

I'm going to scrap this one and move on.

Hey everyone,

Before I describe the situation, I'll tell you a little bit about me. I am completely new to real estate and real estate investing. I've never even bought a personal residence. I feel like I've done enough "educating" at this point though and I'm ready to start learning-by-doing. I started my efforts this week by calling homeowners who posted ads on Craigslist to see if I could find anyone really motivated. After a few phone calls and a few emails, I think I found one. And his property is a mobile home.

I've set up an appointment with him to view it on Saturday, but I wanted to get your thoughts on the situation beforehand so I go in with a good strategy (and avoid any major mistakes).

Here are the facts:

location: Virginia (40 miles south of DC. Near Quantico, which is where many of the park's residents work/worked)
Home description: 2bd/1ba, kitchen, living room, parking for two, shed/storage garage in back yard
condition: needs work (his last tenant beat the place up -- tore up carpet, broke window, stole fridge, maybe other problems too)
rent: $400/mo (to be clear, this home does NOT come with land. The owner pays $400/mo to the park manager to keep the home on the lot)

He claims that he has been able to rent the home for $1,000/mo before. That seems hard to believe, but I've not been able to get any professional opinions yet.

Situation: The owner is pretty strapped. He doesn't have the cash to fix the place up to re-rent it, so he needs to sell it "as-is." He's working a few jobs to make ends meat, but his bills are mounting and needs to sell this thing.

His ad listed the price/terms as follows:

$60,000 purchase price, 10% down, $500/mo thereafter until the home is paid off (no interest)

When I got him on the phone, he told me he was offering $0 down, no payments for first 3 months, and $200-$300/mo thereafter (this was unprovoked by me, I didn't even ask him to confirm the price).

So my question to the community is really pretty simple: WHAT DO I DO??

My initial thought was do some kind of rent-to-own, where I pay the lot rent of $400/mo, his monthly payment of approx $300/mo, then try to rent it for $900-$1,000/mo and keep the difference.

But then when i really think about it, I don't want to be dealing with this home and its tenants (or this guy) for an extended period of time. It's an hour away from where I live and it just seems like it'll eventually be more work than it would be worth for that kind of arrangement.

So what about wholesaling it or rehabbing it? Does anyone have thoughts on this? Do rehabbers buy mobile homes from wholesalers?

In terms of next steps, any thoughts on the following issues would be sincerely appreciated.

1. Valuation (how do I estimate the ARV of this place)
2. Negotiating the deal (what do you think the best negotiating strategy here is? He's asking what seems like a high price ($60k) but also offering very good terms ($0 down, low monthly payment, no interest). Maybe if I offer him all cash, I could get a great deal?
3. exit strategy (what would I do with this thing??). I'd love to find a way to make a quick buck and NOT tie my money up in it long term.

I know this is a long post, but I felt like I needed to communicate all of this to give you guys a clear picture.

Any and all thoughts are welcome. I'm sure there are things I've completely neglected to consider which I'm hoping someone will point out!

Look forward to hearing what people have to say.

Thank you,
Dan