All Forum Posts by: Grant Sherrod

PLEASE ADVISE!!!

I am putting my first offer on a deal today. Does anyone know of an investor friendly title company in Chattanooga, TN familiar with assignments? Also, any words of wisdom from your experience in this matter would be HUGELY APPRECIATED!

Will do Steven! Thank you for the input. That really helps having a ballpark Idea of the percentages. 

Oh, I just realized I did my math backwards. Would 320 letters per month be worth the effort? I realize this is a terribly low buget, but It would be the starting point. My first deal would be put back into it. 

Rick H., Thank you very much, I have never thought of cross referencing lists to find higher motivation, that is a great idea! Thank you for all the tips! 

Hey everyone,

Over, the last month, I have been slowly but regularly building my (probate) list at the courthouse and and sending out my mailers after each trip (Thank you mail-merge!!!). I am beginning to see how this could get expensive after a while, at about $0.50 per stamp. To make this sustainable, I am considering taking the $200/mo cash-flow from my (only) rental property to invest in direct mail marketing to my leads. I would plan on starting out budgeting about $160/mo. for stamps and $40/mo. for paper ink, envelopes, etc. I would not need to buy a list since I have plenty of time every other week to go to the courthouse to continue getting the new leads. I feel that another benefit of building my own list is that my leads are as rock solid  as the administration documents.

Ok, enough of the back story. Are there any experienced (probate) wholesalers out there who could give me an idea of when this kind of small scale, but long term campaign could possibly pay off? Is it worth the effort if my budget can only allow sending out 80 letters per month? With this long-term view in mind, I also know that I have to be patient to get a real deal, so that I can build relationships where investors know that my deals aren't the type of junk that just give wholesalers a bad name. 

Any tips or other insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for all the posts! Still growing my lead list and mailing almost daily; Once the deals start coming in I'll reach out!

Hi Nathan,

The Secret City is a really cool place! It is full of affordable houses close to jobs (y-12, ORNL, whatever they call K-25 now, also has a hospital). Tons of outdoor recreation, too!

Matt,

My wife and I went to the last one. It was the first one we attended. There were lots of folks there and we did meet a few people. They had a really good presentation by a guest presenter on using airbnb to increase rental rates significantly. It was definitely worthwhile, if niche.

Jeannette,

You are very welcome, and same here on the REIA meeting!

David,

Good to hear it. If we com across any multi-families in our marketing efforts, I will definitely keep you in mind. Is there any specific criteria or part of town that you look for? It may not be what you're looking for since it is on the MLS, but I did notice a 6-plex that needs some work listed for only 85k at 827 Millard Lee Ln. Also, thanks for the clarification on the down payment, didn't know that there was a difference on multi-families.

Greg, 

Yes, we are holding the rental property that we have. What I mean by doing wholesaling is to do the marketing to get deals under contract then assign the contract to a cash buyer. Specifically with probate leads. That would really speed up paying off the house and eventually reaching our early retirement plan.

Jeanette,

Like Matt pointed out, you do not have to live in it at all with a conventional loan. My wife and I decided to go with the conventional loan because we didn't want to move out of the park house we are renting from my work at an extremely low rate (that is the big perk of my job, and it along with Dave Ramsey's teachings about handling money helped us save up for the 20% down). Also we bought a bank owned foreclosure. You can get decent deals on them, but they aren't always in perfect condition. Sometimes it can be hard to get an FHA loan on houses that aren't in perfect retail condition. Also with the full twenty percent down, you don't have to pay the Private Mortgage Insurance....... Hope this helps.

Matt,

Thanks for the link and for sharing the pro's of an FHA loan. I have thought about how house-hacking would be a really great idea, but it just doesn't work for my current situation. Also, my wife and I lived in a Duplex for a little while before the park house opened up, and I can see how it would be really nice to handpick (and screen) your neighbor!!! Have you been to any of the Chattanooga REIA meetings?

Hello, My name is Grant! I am a park ranger living in Chattanooga, where I have bought one rental property through conventional financing. The property cash flows well, but I would like to do some wholesale deals to get this property paid off and pay cash for the next ones. My end goal is to have enough passive income to retire by  age 40! I have been visiting and learning from Bigger Pockets for over a year.