All Forum Posts by: Doug Pretorius

@Craig Shute As I approach my 15th year in this business I like to keep things simple. I want properties that I can turn into cash flow with the least amount of time and effort. So...

1) I buy 3 bedroom homes in move-in condition = no reno + minimum time on market.
2) I'll pay what the owner owes as long as they don't owe more than the house is worth and their mortgage has good terms = no price negotiation + no down payment + no new mortgage.

I know plenty of people like to pay cash and negotiate and rehab, and they are rewarded well no question, but personally I can't be bothered with all of that. Give me a seller who will hand over the keys if I can just make their payments go away, and a buyer who needs a little time to qualify any day of the week.

My entire business can be summed up in 6 words:

Take Over Payments

Rent to Own

And those aren't cliche slogans, those are the actual marketing messages for sellers and buyers.

@Bob Bowling you have some serious issues dude!

I've gone door-to-door for all sorts of reasons and it's definitely still effective. Early evenings are best, neighborhoods that are 20+ years old are best, people are rarely rude. Considering you, as an investor, are not trying to sell anything you will be much more welcome than the average door-knocker.

1. About 3 years.

2. No more than a few hours a week.

3. An acquaintance was a tired landlord, so I took over his payments.

4. Neighboring city.

5. On and off for 14 years. Way over 100.

6. Not really active now.

When calling FSBOs I do about 20-25 an hour, but my script is very brief. I don't bother trying to build rapport, I just start right out with my qualifying question:

"Do you need to sell for what you owe?"

That lets me get off the phone in about 10 seconds 9 times out of 10. I probably lose some leads that could be warmed up, but IMO I more than make up for that in volume.

@Iverem Rose There's a 4.5 year old cold calling thread on the agentsonline forum, the consensus seems to be that 5-7pm weekdays is the best time to reach people, but that 8-11am is the best time for you--the person making the calls--for exactly the reason Michael mentioned, you need to do it when your energy is highest.

The guy who started that thread claims to be making over 100 dials per hour and contacting (speaking to an adult) 200 people each morning, Monday-Friday. He works a section of Toronto with 50,000 numbers, so he's calling through the entire area about every 6 months.

He looks for motivated sellers who MUST sell in the next 30 days and are willing to sell at a price that will guarantee a sale in that time. And finally he's making about $500k a year in commissions.

Hope you find that info helpful. Obviously cold calling is a lot of hard work, but apparently it's very profitable too. Very low start up costs and overhead too.

@Danny Di I would go with a lease option or sub2. If you're in a city you'll find dozens of FSBOs willing to finance the deal to you on terms better than you can get from any bank.

I see you're in Ontario, which city? I'm in Kitchener-Waterloo.

@Brian Gibbons Not that much different really. All of the things you listed are about the same here. One of the biggest things to keep in mind in Canada is that mortgages have to be 'renewed', typically every 5 years. Basically all that means is that the interest rate is renegotiated, sometimes in your favor, sometimes in the bank's (depends on current rates). So long-term sub2s, installment sales or lease options are less viable.

@John Hartnett Obviously a cash offer is more attractive, but how much that benefits you depends on the seller's motivation. Yesterday I made a multiple choice offer to a seller.

1. Take over payments - seller didn't want that because he's got $100k in equity.

2. Lease option assignment - seller doesn't want to be a landlord.

3. All cash - seller discounted only $5k.

So in this case it didn't matter what I offered, the seller just isn't motivated enough.

Like Grant said, 2 separate contracts. I also have the seller sign my assignment contract acknowledging how much money I'm making, who I'm assigning the deal to, and that they both agree not to hold me liable for anything that goes on between them after I'm out of the deal.

@Zerrick Currie, but you're NOT a virtual birddog. You're a web designer and SEO who happens to be building a real estate site for someone else. You could just as easily be building a website about teeth whitening products.

Now if you built a real estate site to generate leads for YOURSELF that you were going to sell on to someone. Then maybe you could call yourself a real estate virtual birddog.