All Forum Posts by: Todd Hutcheson

FlFlipper who did you use for your real estate attorney in Orlando?

Are you a member of CFRI, just had the meeting tonight?

I don't think Richard could possibly be more wrong.

How could someone living in Michigan that inherited a house in Florida possibly find you based on any of Richards' ideas.

However, if they went to Google and put in "sell orlando home fast" they would find possibly as many as 3 of my listings on the first page.

The best websites are ones you build yourself and do the seo work on yourself, If you do not have the time for that, then type in sell home fast in google and look at all the listings on the right, these people sell their leads in your area.

I also have a service [REMOVED] where you get all the leads

They are not complex websites, just designed to get traffic.

Not sure where you are located, but the 30% discount is not good enough in my area, Orlando, to wholesale any longer.

The experienced investors are wanting a larger discount, usually 35 to 40%.

I pay all closing costs in my contract with the seller and assign my contract, so the end buyer always pays the closing costs.

The other reason it is no longer valid is the hard money lenders are not lending that amount any longer. Most of them are lending 60 to 65% and want money down.

The biggest change in this market is that the Hard Money lenders are gone or changed their models.

Most require good credit and some money down.

You can always wholesale. The question is at what discount. In my area in Florida it is difficult to wholesale if it is not at least a 40% discount.

I think this is the best time to wholesale from a risk standpoint, but the hardest time in the last 7 years that I have been wholesaling.

I used to be able to sell a property in 2 hours, now you need at least a week to let the market see your house.

Constant contact is one of the few that do not. They charge only by the number of your list.

I was vacationing in DC last year and heard a lady talking that was very interesting.

The city of Baltimore has a list of abandoned homes that you can download from their website. Now that is a goldmine to mail. Even if you do not live in Baltimore, it is certainly within driving distance. If I lived up there I would be mailing this list every 6 weeks with a letter. Not a Postcard.

Also, do you make it easy for them to respond in your postcard? Do you have an 800 number, web site and email address? All paramount if dealing with absentee owners.

The problem with mailing now is competition in the mail box. Catalogues, and Christmas cards.

I was the number one direct mail salesman in Orlando before getting into real estate.

I would say start on January 10th when everyone is back in town.

I agree with Glen, start small. But do not expect to get great results unless you have a great letter. If you mail 100 pieces, you might get two calls. (unless you do a yellow letter, then you will get lots of calls but very little motivation)

I think GoDaddy is the best place. You can get a 5 page web site for FREE (for one year) if you buy the domain name there. It is only $5.95 per month I think if you do not want advertisements. They only put advertisements for themselves on the two I have so I do not mind this. It is called their Web Site Tonight, and is very, very easy to build. It is all what you see is what you get. ( but you can add html, that you steal off other sites, don't steal the words, just the formatting. You can do this by right clicking on a web page and then hitting "View Page Source").
This will also show you what your competitors are using for their keywords and tags.

Make sure you concentrate on key words, Title and Description when building your web site. You can check out an example of one I built there at http://www.sellsanantoniohomefast.com. It is very simplistic but very effective.

Make sure you register your domain for at least 6 years, because the search engines give more juice for this.

I believe a regular web site is paramount if you are doing marketing to probate, foreclosures or out of town owners. A blog is great for traffic, but I would not point marketing efforts there.
I get over 60% of my business from the internet, however the number of leads is going down lately. I think because people are canceling web access.
Just a cool note. I bought a house last year from a guy who went to my web site at the library, wrote down all the questions I asked on my form, went home and wrote me a letter. I bought a house that appraised for 182 for 65K.
That will pay for every web site I have for a long time.

I am buying remotely for now. If all goes well, then moving somewhere in NC.

I hope to meet some people to wholesale homes to in Greensboro High Point Winston-Salem area.

I just recently decided to start buying homes in Greensboro NC.

I have been wholesaling in Orlando for years but tired of this market.