All Forum Posts by: Adrian Tilley

@Scott Scharl

What are the investment minimums?  Do you only accept accredited investors?

Hi,

I'm (re)starting direct mail, and have some questions about what and when to mail.  The lists I'm starting with are probates, code violations, and possibly delinquent taxes.  What type of pieces would you use and how frequently would you mail to each group?  Any particular message that works well?

For code violations, would you mail to all types of violations, or would you filter out some types?  It seems that some like weeds would be more productive than others, like destruction of city property.

For delinquent taxes, does it matter how delinquent they are?  Do you filter by property type/price/other criteria?

I also have a couple leads but am having a hard time finding the owners of property.  Any advice on search methods for missing owners, especially deceased owners?  If there is no probate filed and heirs are unknown, how do you locate?

Thank you in advance for your advice!

@Sebastian I.

You're going to have to look outside of metro Denver.  I think most people who want passive returns are looking outside of Colorado Springs, in Pueblo, and other smaller towns.

@Jerry Puckett

Hi Jerry,

I know this is an old post, but it's exactly the info I need.  Since Gerald didn't use the @, I don't imagine you ever got his questions.  Are you still mailing to code violations?  If so, what kind of response/success/conversion rate are you getting?

Thanks!

@Sebastian I.

I think the general thoughts will be that it's very tough in this market. You will need to have a unique way to find a property like this, they won't come up on the MLS.

 You need to stop listening to your agent for tax advice.  He/She is not qualified to give this advice, is probably doing this inappropriately, and appears to be incorrect.  As everyone has told you so far, you are probably better off waiting a few months to list and get an extra few tens of thousands when you sell.  You can't avoid the tax.

I'm a newer investor.  I have done some direct mailing to probates with decent responses but no deals.  My biggest hurdle was that I had very limited funds that my better half was ok with putting into marketing.  I have some business income (commission from selling a house) that I will receive in the next couple weeks.  I am going to start sending direct mail again (unless someone has a better plan for investing).  So I have two questions:

1. Is there any way to productively spend $10,000-$15,000 before the end of the year to avoid paying taxes?

2. What lists would you target first?  The best options I can foresee are driving for dollars, probates, maybe evictions?  Other suggestions?

thanks!

@Mike Nelson take what you can get from it, but it's become apparent that most of the stuff that's in there is made up according to the author that wrote it.  There have been a couple of good articles on that in the New Yorker, etc.

@Courtney Downtain I agree generally with what @Dmitriy Fomichenko said.  Whether you should convert to a roth now or leave it in a "traditional" 401k depends partly on what your tax rate is now and what you expect your tax rate to be in the future.  Convert if your taxes are lower now, wait if you expect your taxes to be lower later in life.  Of course everyone expect to be a millionaire later and have lots of taxes, but be realistic.  Talk to a CPA!

@Sandy Uhlmann

If it were me, I would redeem.  Basically any junior lien can pay off the senior lien including any interest, costs, attorneys' fees, etc to "buy them out".  If you're sure there's equity, that might be a good play.