All Forum Posts by: Dustin Little

I received a phone call from a sweet old lady who for selfless family reasons left her home behind and moved a whole state away.  In order to take care of her grandson she needed to stop paying on her home in order to pay her rent, she ended up filing for bankruptcy etc, etc.  So, I originally was informed the bankruptcy cleared her of mortgage and the house was hers.  Apparently, her lawyer was wrong for telling her this.  She and I spoke with the loan servicing company and she is behind $53k and has a payoff of 120k or so.  The house is worth 130k.  She is starting the HAMP process and she is planning on giving me a lease option when it is complete, I will then sublease the house creating a win, win situation.

My question to the BP community,

Is the HAMP the best option or would conducting a short sale be better?  Additionally, I don't know any real estate agents to refer her to and from my understanding that is about all I could do if the short sale path was her best option.  I want to make sure she is taken care of, and of course make a few bucks myself.  I don't want to simple tell her to find a real estate agent and ask about a short sale option.

Is there something else that I am unaware of that could create a win, win scenario?

Thanks everyone for any assistance.

Little bit of an update, I have been receiving lots of calls mostly tire kickers but, today I received a very interesting call that I has a lot of potential and I hope in the next couple weeks I am able to give a success story....Wish me luck.

I called a title company and you should ask for customer service, you will simply ask them if they can put together a list for you and they will say yes or no and if it is free or not.  After that I just gave them my criteria.

zipcodes/cities, equity %, VA, conventional, absentees, etc.

The manager I spoke to was very helpful and emailed me half of what I asked for on a Friday afternoon. I am expecting the other half on Monday.

Good luck.

P/S if the first title company you call is not helpful just call another until you get a good one.

Awesome Kevin! Did you have a print shop do your cards? I've been printing my own letters and have been thinking about do postcards, but I have not settled on who to have do them for me.

BTW - I called one title company and got a list of 3000 properties inside my demographic the same day. List source would have cost $800 but I got it free. Message me for the contact if you are interested. You are right I had to scrub the LLCs but those are potential buyers so I just moved them to a new list.

Good luck!

@Brandon Turner thanks Brandon, it would not have happened without BP

@Mike Sumsky Great advice, I have not worked any Short Sales and have no knowledge of how they work otherwise I may have pursued it. So, now I'll know they have potential.

@D'Aydra, Glad to be able to motivate you and anyone else. It is what little I am able to offer back to the BP community, for now anyway.

This link is how to use Mail Merge, the built in feature to Microsoft Word.

https://support.office.com/en-sg/article/Use-mail-...

With a list I purchased from Listsource.com, or you can use any list you create in Excel, I merge the data to fill fields in my Word doc.

I will check out Kall 8, Vumber has a couple features I like.

I forgot to mention I am conducting my campaign in the Lacey and Olympia Washington Area. Also, my plung was thanks to the Meetup in Lakewood last Friday. Thanks everyone for being so supportive and motivating.

On Tuesday, this week I began mailing to my lists. I have two list: List one 805 addresses, absentee owners in my zip code; List two 1200 addresses, owner 1 age 45+, equity 30%+, two zip codes (not mine but nearby). I kept the list small and wanted the homes to be nearby, having a newborn and a two year limits my time what I save in driving is priceless. I started by mailing in batches 25-50 letters or postcards each day alternating between the lists. I created my own font using my handwriting ($10, very easy) and auto fill my seller's names and addresses into a letter I typed in Word. I then print how many I need that day and if I'm doing t letters I use the same font and red ink to print the envelopes. I don't need to hand write anything including the signature, I also do not need to copy and paste anything. Mail merger allows the excel list of sellers to be auto filled into the Word docs. As great as companies like YellowLetter.com are this saves me about $0.20 per letter. Until I get going and start answering more calls at higher volumes I'll continue using my current system. When the money starts coming in and I have better use for my time I will likely outsource the letters.

Two days after mailing my first batch I received a three calls. One was already listed on the MLS as a short sale, one was an experienced landlord who does not seem to be a motivated seller, and the other is also an investor who purchased the house a month ago as a foreclosure. So, I am up to three calls that led no where other than developing my screening skills. But, I am super excited to be receiving calls it is starting to feel like a business and I WILL sign my first deal within a month.

I am using Vumber.com, I am military and have an out of state area code so I wanted a local number and I also got an 877 number. Postcards get the 877 and letters get the local 253.

Well I just wanted to share a few of my experiences with everyone, hopefully it encourages anyone who is hesitatant to get started to go do something, anything.  I was telling my dad about what I am doing and because he is short on funds but highly motivated he is using cardboard to post bandit signs, Good Luck Dad!