All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I think that level of personalization is a stroke of brilliance. 

The only "issue" is the fact that you and your wife have a company that is real estate investment focused.  So, saying you need the home for your growing family may come off as disingenuous.  I would go with as few words as possible.

If I were to go "overkill" I'd re-take the photos and have my wife take the lead.  

"My husband and I have a small local real estate company but we're also looking for a home for our growing family. We thought your home may be a great fit for my husband (name), child 1 (name) child 2 (name).

If you are interested in selling it, give me a call at 12345678 or, you can e-mail me at..."  

Women tend to be more approachable than men in general I've found.  So, if I were looking to squeeze every bit of juice out of this campaign, this is how I'd do it.  

But, again, the photo / personalization is pure gold. 

 Found a similar deal in my area.  The build date should be of concern.  CHINESE DRYWALL!  Can take up $90k to remediate for the average 3 bedroom home.

Make sure there is no Chinese Drywall as it's not good for your health... Not good for exiting.  

I miss the "hood."  I grew up in the "hood"  in an area where there was a de facto line of demarcation between rich and poor folks in Harlem. That said, let me chime in.  Here are some "rules" for white folks who invest in the "hood."  As I see them.

1.  Hire a property manger.  Even if you are house hacking. You never want your property manager to ever meet with you to discuss anything about the property, while at the property. Why? Because you'll be evicting people at some point.  You don't want someone who is being evicted to make YOU a target for retribution.  I'm black, and I'd still do this.

2. Go talk to tenants.  Have conversations with them in advance of moving there. You don't want to be greeted with contempt and suspicion.  You want to be seen as a new neighbor / friend and not an "invader."  Again, you're not thinking about buying or land lording them, you're thinking about becoming a neighbor. The more convos you have and the more respect you treat people with, you'll earn a "hood card." Your "hood card" is basically like a get out of jail free card.  I've seen countless times where black folks will step in to protect a white person they deem to be "cool" (hood card carriers) from being a target.

3. The car you drive should be half as nice as the nicest car you see in the area.  

4. Don't run around acting afraid.  You draw attention to yourself when you do everything in your power to avoid being seen.  Ducking around corners, sneaking in to get home, etc.  I've seen people become victims strictly off the fact that they were acting afraid and outward displays of being afraid of black folks can be viewed as "racist."   If you're viewed as racist, you're a target.  I've seen it happen growing up. Sad but true. Guy sees a group of black guys, then darts across the street to avoid walking past them.  He's now identified himself as a target vs. walking by with a smile and nod.  

I hope my 2 cents helps.

Hello all,

After doing a ton of research, it seems to me that real estate investing gurus and their "subject to" teachings are going to turn good people (ignorant people) into felons.  Just because someone is ignorant, doesn't make them a horrible human being. It seems to me that good and perhaps slightly desperate folks are drinking the "subject to" Kool-Aid. 

They're teaching people to "acquire" property using "subject to" and cash flow it via lease options.  I've consumed copious amounts of  content on the subject - free and paid.  

I notice these folks conveniently ignore what can go wrong when Bob pays your lease option fee, first month, and security, then loses his job 12 months later.  They don't tell you what to do then, and that depending on the state and the number of these deals you have running, you're instantly a felon when you fail to make payments and the home is foreclosed on.  

They don't tell you that you cannot evict Bob because he has equitable interests in the title and it can take 120 days or more, plus legal fees, plus repairs, plus MORTGAGE payments, to finally get him out of there.

I was sitting here planning to lease option my primary residence and I wrote down my "doomsday scenarios" and realized that I have to spend more money than I thought for legal help to understand and / or mitigate the risks...  

I'm wondering how this subject to --> lease option business has not been exposed for what it is - a minefield rigged against those who are bad at risk management. What are you guys' thoughts? 

Hello all,

As I ponder lease optioning my primary residence, I'm weighing all risks as I see them and I was hoping to get some help understanding how to think about, deal with, and plan for the following scenarios.

1.  Option Expires Worthless

Buyer / tenant is unable to finalize the sale for whatever reason.  Do you evict them?  Do you offer them the ability to rent from you as a normal tenant (w/o option)?  From a LEGAL perspective, what are your options? My desired outcome would be to have them exit the property as fast as possible if they are unable to finalize the sale.

2.  Buyer / Tenant Falls on Hard Times

51 Leading economic forecasters were surveyed and 45 of them said we should expect a recession in either 2020 or 2021. Thus, folks will inevitably lose jobs.  If someone loses their job and is not able to continue to make payments while under the lease option, how do you remove them from the property? How long does it take?  I know that you cannot EVICT someone from a property who has an interest in the title (in Nevada).  I've seen info online referring to the buyer / tenant being foreclosed on and there subsequently being an auction... do I really have to foreclose on my property and put it up for auction? 

That aside, as I dig deeper, and delve further down the rabbit hole, it seems to me that this "acquire subject to and lease option" stuff is an REI Trojan horse. It seems like someone with the best intentions in the world can get caught up in a situation where that "lease option" on that house they bought "subject to" goes bad, and now they're looking at a potential felony (depending on the state) if they don't keep up the payments. On top of that, the legal fees and time it takes to clear the property...

Thoughts? Thanks!

@Melissa Ward

My experience tells me that the most effective PPC campaigns start with keyword selection - and by extension, keyword elimination.  Levels of motivation can be gauged from keywords. Example; "sell house fast" is a keyword that is bid up to as high as $70 in Google. People are paying because there's enough profit to be made at the end of the funnel. That actually inspired my post.  The people who are buying traffic on Google are buying the attention of people who are typing in very specific problems into Google, and they are able to turn these problems into solutions.  

 To me, if you only have $10,000 AND you know as much about direct mail as you know about PPC (if you're brand new to both), it makes total sense to buy HIGH INTENT clicks.  You're accelerating your education by constantly putting yourself in position to talk to people with problems, much faster, and on a much more consistent basis.  You can start getting leads in 2 days on Google, and in 2 months in direct mail.  In terms of time lost, that's pretty pricey to me.  However, I do understand many starting out do not have $10,000 to invest in marketing and have to start with maybe $2,000 and mail 300 people 7-10 times. That makes TOTAL sense. 

Facebook lead stuff is awesome. I view Facebook as a "follow up tool" - place a pixel on your site and re-target them if they not converted into a deal.  

All that aside, I was just curious how people thought about this.  To me, it's a no brainer. If you've got $10k, buy clicks at an average cost of $10 per click, so long as they are HIGH intent (highly motivated), get a 15-20% conversion rate as most folks are not going to give you their info right away, and convert more of them via Facebook and Google Re-marketing.

Hello all,

Very simple question. You're brand new to REI. You've done a bunch of reading and listened to a bunch of podcasts. You're ready to dive in and you have $10,000 to invest in marketing. This is the first time in your entire life that you've ever invested 5 figures into anything with so much uncertainty.

If you were forced to pick one; direct mail, or Google PPC - which one are you picking? Why?

The keyword to this hypothetical is "forced."  You have two options; PPC or direct mail? Which one?

Really interested in hearing you guys' feedback as I ponder this exact decision.  

Hello all,

I have been active on the wholesale side of things lately, but have not had a mortgage since 2013 when I exited my first live in flip.  

I did not intend to "live in flip" - it just kinda happened.  I bought a house.  Put $20k into it, got another job offer 2 years later, had to sell the house.  It all worked out great.  I made some money.  If I only I knew what the heck I was doing....

Nonetheless,  I am being offered a $0 down mortgage - rather aggressively by my bank.  Clearly, this is a trap that many people will unfortunately find themselves in.  

I've been content to wholesale, stow away cash, and keep a strong credit profile for when things bottom out but a "brain fart" popped in my head.  

Does getting a home under contract for significantly below market value and financing it using a $0 down mortgage make sense? 

 On paper it makes sense to me... $400k home, $300k contract, $300k mortgage, $100k worth of equity built in, which I surmise is enough cushion to weather the next storm.  

A lot of dumb ideas have made sense to me on paper and I was hoping to get the opinions of those who are more experienced in taking title to properties on this.

Thank you!