All Forum Posts by: Doug Pretorius

@Christopher Phillips OK thanks.

@Christopher Phillips I understand what you're saying, but none of that applies to me. I'm an investor. Take everything you just said and turn it around 180 degrees.

I buy from motivated sellers. There are no competing buyers. And I don't make offers, I solve problems.

Now instead of rules let's talk reality. If I contact 10 sellers directly who have houses on the MLS I will get at least 1 who's interested in doing a deal with me. These are consistent results over the course of 18 years investing in real estate, across multiple locations, in both buyer and seller markets.

But if I contact 10 listing agents, 5 of them won't respond at all, 3 will just flat out say no without talking to the seller, and 2 will promise to present the offer to the seller but I'll never hear from them again.

It makes no difference if I do it verbally, written, or do handstands naked outside the real estate office.

How do you explain that discrepancy? I'll tell you. The seller's aren't hearing what I'm offering at all. I ran a test. 700 offers. ZERO response. Contacted the sellers directly, not ONE of them had received my offer through their listing agent.

So... back to my original question. Getting in touch with the sellers of MLS listed houses.

@Christopher Phillips And what happens when the listing agent refuses to present the offer?

Hey BP!

Does anyone have ideas they'd like to share on ways to get in contact with the owners of homes on the MLS? I've got 4 ways and they each have their pros and cons. If you have another way I'd love to hear it!

Method #1: Contact the Listing Agent

PROS

Relatively easy. Most agents (although not all) have their contact info on the listing. Or you can hire your own buyer's agent.

CONS
Agents are either hard or impossible to deal with.

Method #2: Knock on the Door or Personally Leave Your Contact Info

PROS

Very easy to do.
Gets the highest response.
Cheap.

CONS

How far are you willing to drive?
If the house is vacant your info might not reach the owner.
Not really scalable.

Method #3: Direct Mail

PROS

Very scalable.

CONS

Fairly expensive here in Canada.

Method #4: Cold Call

PROS

Cheap.
Easy.
Scalable.

CONS

Hard to get accurate phone numbers.

@Cate Maysles There's a simple solution. Become the house buying candidate, then you're exempt.

@London Elliott Yeah it's always good to know what they owe. It's usually good to just buy it for what they owe too!

@Cate Maysles Yeah, that's for realtors, because realtors are selling a service. Investors are buying. No where in the DNC law does it say anything about calling someone to buy anything.

@Andre Williams Sorry, I didn't realize you already had an out of state buyer, I thought you were looking for one. Sure that'll work!

@Andre Williams Wholetailing is selling it to the end buyer (the person who's going to live there) because they will pay more than an investor. But you still have to get a discount otherwise there's no money for you to make.

Contract for deed is where the seller agrees to take payments over time instead of cash upfront.

@Lemont Williams Unfortunately what you're trying to do is not really possible. You can't cash wholesale houses close to market value. Sure you want to help the sellers, but you're not helping the investor, and a deal has to be win-win. If a seller is unwilling or unable to sell at a wholesale price then they have to be willing and able to sell on wholesale terms.

Wholesale terms are things like selling subject to the existing mortgage remaining in place. Or doing a multi-year lease option at today's price.

Remember, you can't help every seller, you can only help the ones who are motivated to sell fast.