I develop my own fairly sophisticated software programs for direct mail, texting, emails and telemarketing. Everything comes with a hefty price in cash and time and my results have not been so good.
We did telemarketing for 3 day (24 hours), dialed, dialed, dialed and talked to only two people and the conversation had nothing to do with real estate. I couldn't see dialing for a 4th day.
We sent about 400,000 emails and even with software the management of the email lists requires a lot of time. We did not get 1 lead. What we did was illegal since email recipients have to Opt-In before you send an email and that law defeats the purpose to contact homeowners you don't know to discuss their foreclosure. About 25% of all emails are returned. So, if you don't want to re-send the bad emails and get busted for spamming it takes a lot of time to remove every bad email address. There is canned software that removes bad email addresses, but canned software does not work with my software.
We do 80,000 direct mail letters every year and the cost is about 80 cents per letter (or $64,000 per year) when you consider the paper, envelope, label and stamp. The direct mail list requires maintenance every time a letter is returned so you can save money on the next mailing.
Almost every property I purchased for discounted prices was found by visiting real estate brokers' offices, telling them what I am looking for and every once in a while I hit a jackpot.
The next most-simple method was purchasing at live foreclosure auctions, but you need to be super careful to make sure you are getting a clear title.
I purchased a few properties from brokers who didn't know poop from Shinola like a $1.4 million 14-unit apartment building for $825,000. The broker I left a business card with called me on the phone and asked me how much a property was worth. He said he had a 14-unit property in Gardena California on Vermont Avenue for sale and I said, "you mean the property on the corner of 161st and Vermont" and he asked me how I knew. I told him I looked at so many properties I knew the property was the only 14-unit on Vermont Avenue in Gardena. I already knew the property was worth $1.4 million because properties were selling for $100k per door and the property was only 15-years old. So, I told him it was worth $800k and he called me the next day and said the seller would take $825k. I had a vacation house in the desert for sale for $300k. A woman offered me $200k cash. I took the $100k loss, but make $600k the same day by putting $20k in escrow for the 14-unit building.
Never ever listen to a broker's advice even if you madly love him because brokers are not you. They have their own fallacies and agendas. A 28-unit apartment building was for sale for $2,250,000. I told the broker to offer $1.9 million and he said the offer was too low and refused. I went to my broker who I already purchased several properties from and he said the offer was too low and he refused, at first. Then, I told him I would go to another broker and he made the offer. The seller came back with $1,950,000 and I saved $300,000 by not listening to professionals' advice. Then I got $50,000 back for repairs and $18,000 for security deposits making the total savings and money coming into my pocket $368,000
Since this discussion is about looking for properties, I will say what I say almost every day. Don't be anxious to blow your wad of cash to buy a property. Learn to hold onto your cash until a goldmine pops up even if it takes several years to find a property because if you keep looking you will always find properties 10 times better than properties you found earlier.
My business model is to double my investment capital every year. For example, this is very possible when you put $200k down on a property that is worth $200k more than purchase price the day you close escrow, or within one year after you purchased the property at a discount, plus rental income plus appreciation.
How you find properties is important, but what properties you buy is more-critical to maximize your return.
