All Forum Posts by: William R.

Anyone got any recommendations or advice for seeking out insurance for covering a 2 month rehab, and 6 months of holding for a property in Chicago? 

Not everyone has the type of budget required to get the 1000-4000 cards out the door ,especially starting up, and some of us need more deals, want to work a smaller market, or need to cut the expenses down somewhat.

Some people have plenty of time on their hands and If your phone isn't ringing, you need to have a mix of prospecting and marketing to maximize your time usage. 

If you have a small subdivision where if you can land a deal you know you will have a 10k-20k payday, its worth the small amount of time to allow people to put a face to the card or the website you have, and leave some information with them. You would be surprised how well people will receive you if you just introduce yourself, and I use that to lock out the other people marketing in my farm.

Once you get a good process down, it is scalable if you are willing to put the time in to find a door to door salesman and train him on the process. I had a guy who was knocking out 100 doors a week before he went to Los Angeles to be able to work the higher price points. 

Not attempting to hijack this wonderful thread though with a different strategy though, and I appreciate everything that has been shared.

I agree @Jon Klaus, one of the things I've put a few hours aside during the week is to kinda dig through my niched list (down to the subdivision) and pull those rows out of my spreadsheet and put into my phone call and door knock list. 

This way I may have a list of 2000, and I will have maybe 20 properties a week that I'm extremely interested in, and will make it my business to get a voice or belly to belly.

The exchange between postcard, letter, phone call, and at last resort door knock + hanger will get people to either tell me to leave them alone, follow up later, or lets talk.

I'm getting ready to launch another mail campaign, and was looking for tweaks to do to drive up that ever elusive response rate, and the thing I learned from this thread is to definitely be targeted on my mailing list for potential motivation upfront, and to combine multiple different strategies outside of mailers.

I'm surprised how many people shy away from the phone, or door knocking.... sometimes your fastest deals will come from you putting your feet on your farm area and getting in peoples faces and ears....

Welcome to BiggerPockets Suzanne!

Getting started is one of the most fun, but most frustrating periods of time at the same time. Surrounding yourself with good people will break that learning curve down tremendously.

Good "work"

@Joseph Zanazan Thank you for going above and beyond and giving a thorough answer to the question!

@Dion DePaoli Thank you and everyone else for your contributions as well. I love getting a more indepth, behind the curtain perspective of these types of transactions as it helps tremendously when you are in the pits.

I interviewed a short sale attorney today, and his negotiator which just left him supposedly just negotiated a situation where the bank paid the attorney 13k for the "attorney fee"....Typically I have seen agents cap out at 7% commissions, and the lawyer/negotiator taking down about 500-3000 a transaction.

I know this is another one of those it depends on the bank your dealing with, but anyone have any clue how the negotiator managed to take that 13k fee down from the short sale?

Also if the Real Estate agent also negotiates their own short sales, instead of taking on a 3rd party negotiator/attorney, can he ask for a part of the "attorney/negotiator" fee, raise his commission to compensate,etc?

I'm asking this as I'm weighing the pros and cons of finding another attorney to do my SSs or just taking on the grunt work myself....

Sounds like they would be great motivated sellers to pick up deals from....

Landlording, regardless of what people say, is not for the part time mom, or the guy who wants to make a fortune overnight. This is an actual business with professionals who handle various aspects that often time people think they are capable of doing with little education or experience. It's also not a business for people with little to no capital.

Maintenance and watching your expenses are a part of the game.

Successful landlords have systems in place to deal with problems that come up and they SCREEN tough as your tenant is essentially your business partner.

Another thing, you make your money when you buy correctly... applies even to landlording... certain areas and price points will attract certain tenant quality. I don't know if he took the proper precautions and tested the pressure on the water pipes before he purchased nor do we know if he just let this bill just pile up after watching a significant jump. When problems happen you need to problem solve and negotiate.

I know this is equivalent of asking someone to throw darts in complete darkness, but as I'm researching I'm finding that Banks/Investors have at least some initial approach when contemplating where to set their values at based upon the market. I'm generally able to get a 80-85% of market value with solid comps accepted rather frequently, but when I start to get below that I notice the approval rate either takes longer or it takes a bit of a fight (market dependant) to get within that magical 65-75% range.

Any experienced short sale investor/negotiator care to dialog on what you are experiencing, and some of the different ways you approach to maximize your chance at getting lower numbers?

I'm seeing homes that have PMI insurance on them, with higher taxes in stricter code enforcement municipalities seem to be more negotiable as well.

My former attorney has left the business, so I'm in need of a recommend as well...

Anyone got a lawyer willing to do LLC transfers, double closings, contract assignments, and subject 2/contract for deeds? (Chicagoland Area)

Also any good eviction attorney, Short Sale Attorney, Foreclosure Defense/Loan Modification Attorney recommendations with people who have done jobs for you or people close to you would be great!

thank you for all the hard work your putting in Joshua...this website has gone to a much higher level as of late!