All Forum Posts by: Doug Pretorius

@Roy N. What is the definition of a "service"?

@Reggie Maggard There's no law against calling to BUY. The DNCL is meant to stop people from calling to SELL you things.

@Adolfo Cuellar As an investor in single famliy homes, I've found that trying to work with agents has been an exercise in futility. The only agents I've met who understood what I do, were investors themselves, doing the same kind of deals for their own portfolios. They had no interest in passing those deals on to me because they'd make a fraction of the amount of money. All the other agents have been impossible to educate.

That said. Agents do provide a very useful service to me. They do all the leg work of finding sellers, and when they can't sell the house and the seller becomes motivated, the time is right for me to step in and buy.

@John Baker I'm surprised no one else brought this up so here goes... please don't take this the wrong way, but real estate investing isn't the solution to your financial problems.

If your working 60 hours a week at any kind of job, your problem isn't income, your problem is spending. You have to get your spending under control before you can even think about taking on any investments. As has been pointed out, real estate takes time or money, and usually both.

Do you eat out? Stop.
Do you have more than 1 car? Sell them.
Do you have more than one phone? Get rid of them.
Do you have cable? Cancel it.
Do you have a big house? Downsize.

Cut out everything besides absolute necessities and get your spending down below your income and keep it there.

If you or your family refuse to be satisfied with the basics while you get things in order. Then it won't matter if you increase your income 100x with a massive real estate business. You'll just find ways to spend it all and be in the same position you're in now.

Sorry if this sounds harsh.

@Ryan Billingsley No I'm not license, just a plain old home buyer. And it's my understanding that agents can't pursue expired listings in Canada (or Ontario at least) due to privacy laws. Essentially, an agent has 'insider' information that a listing has expired, they can't use that knowledge to solicit them.

I'm currently only targeting FSBOs.

 Exactly. There are several ways to do it. I personally use a delayed-close purchase agreement. So a contract that I sign today might say that I will take possession and begin making payments on August 1st, while the purchase will be completed on or before July 31st 2020.

Another way to do it is to buy subject to the financing. In that case you would take title now, but the mortgage would remain in the seller's name until you refinance.

And a 3rd method is a wraparound mortgage, where you take title, and give the seller a mortgage that 'wraps around' their existing mortgage. This is a good option if you have a seller with a substantial amount of equity which they are willing to lend to you at a low interest rate.

People used to use lease options to accomplish the same thing, but so many ran into problems with only being a tenant that it's no longer a popular technique.

It sounds like you're targeting a good list for wholesale deals. While you might get payment take over deals from that list as well, I don't think it's the best list for that purpose. The best I've found are FSBOs and expired listings.

@Ryan Billingsley I do, although be aware that I do payment take over deals, not wholesaling so I can't speak to how successful you'll be at finding bargains from the FSBO pool.

The only downside I can think of with cold calling is that you're not coming from the same position of power as you do when answering or returning a call. But ultimately if the seller is motivated it won't matter to them how you got in touch.

What list are you mailing to?

@Ryan Billingsley Your numbers are almost identical to what I've experienced over the last 15 years. Roughly 1 deal per 50 real leads. I've noticed that this ratio stays consistent regardless of the method of drawing those leads. If you mail a loosely targeted list, you might get a 1% response but after 50 or so calls you'll likely have a deal. If you mail a tightly targeted list you might get a 10% response, but still get 1 deal in 50. I get the same result from cold calling as well. If I call 50 FSBOs for example, I'll likely end up with a deal.

@Deborah Squibb You definitely want to be licensed for what you're proposing. Marketing a property that you don't own, and have no principal interest in, for a commission. Is the very definition of brokering real estate.

However...if you want to test your marketing theories out you can do that without being licensed. You just can't get paid for your work.