All Forum Posts by: Jeff Amore

I had a meeting with a property owner yesterday on a small single family property that he's owned for about 20 years. My intention is to wholesale the property and I had a contractor there as well who will be providing the estimate. The home, although extremely small (576 sq feet) sits on a very nice .3 acre corner lot. Here's the challenge.... ARV on the property is $70k-$75k and initial rehab estimate is $20k-$25k. It's a 2/1, almost certainly a rental for an investor more so than a flip. Rent after rehab would be $800-$850/mo (previous tenant paid $750/mo). My thinking is to make an offer of $22k, but the owner took out a loan against the property last year for $35k. My questions... Should that loan impact my offer? Who is responsible for making sure the loan is paid off? Current seller? Buyer? Also, is there a way to leverage the property (the .3 acre lot) to make a better offer? The lot is big enough to put another modular or mobile home there (not unusual in this area) but can you put two residential buildings on one lot? Are there zoning considerations? That could make the whole thing more attractive to a potential investor and could impact my offer. Thoughts? Feedback? Advice? All welcomed!

Also, make sure to check with an attorney to make sure it's legal in Oklahoma. It's always good to have an attorney on standby to answer questions for you. Good luck!

Thanks @Major Robertson that's exactly the kind of info I need. If anyone else has any opinions or information, feel free to add on!

Over the past few weeks I've created a Facebook business page, a Twitter account for my business, and a website. 

Now my question is, what is the best way to make those things work for me? I've spent a lot of time, especially on my website, on SEO trying to get traffic, and it's clear to me that I just don't know enough to do it effectively and efficiently myself. About how much does it cost, on average, to pay someone to help with SEO, site content, and tying this together with social media? I see lots of folks on fiverr.com claiming to be able to help in these areas at extremely reasonable rates, but it almost seems too inexpensive to be any good. Like most people starting out, I don't have much to spend, but I feel like if I don't get some help, I'll never get the leads I need. If anyone has any recommendations, they'd be welcomed.

Thanks!

A little north in the Lehigh Valley there is an REI meetup on the first Tuesday of every month. If anyone is interested I can supply more details. It's normally a good group of about 40-50 investors with a speaker every month and it's free to attend.

A little update from me, if anyone is interested. I sent out my first batch of direct mail last week. It was 500 postcards sent to out of state owners with at least 50% equity. I got the list from listsource (thanks for the recommendation @Devin Morgan), however, I haven't received any calls yet. I'm guessing a) it may still be a little too soon to judge and b) this probably isn't the best time of year to send a direct mailing. I also may have screwed up by designing my own postcard on vistaprint. I may do that differently next time and find a more tried and true postcard. The cost of the mailing list, the postcards, and having them sent for me through vistaprint totaled about $300.

I was also able to get my website up and running.... at least it was until bluehost, my hosting company, went down. It's definitely a work in progress as I've never created a website before or used Wordpress. Feel free to check it out and provide feedback (whenever it comes back up). The address is www.japropertyinvest.com. Now the challenge, as @Andy Cross mentioned, is getting traffic. I've been through several articles about SEO and marketing, but I think I may need to talk to a professional to help me further. If anyone has any helpful hints, feel free to let me know. I'd prefer not to have to pay someone, but that may be what it takes.

Hi @Account Closed check meetup.com and you'll find some local meetings. Good luck!

Jeff

Hi @Brad Ratushny,

I realize you probably don't need this info anymore, but for future reference.... Matt Michaelson owns MDM Handyman Service and might be a good fit for something like this. Also, Mike Scheidler with MAS Construction is great.

Thanks!

Jeff

The video is on finding cash buyers. I think what Tarek is looking for is how to find motivated sellers. Perhaps there are videos on youtube about that as well.

@Todd Toback ,

For me, it's finding the motivated sellers in an efficient manner. As of now, I'm just placing ads online, which I know isn't enough. I'm in the midst of trying to create a website to bring in some leads as well, but that's taking some time. I'd like to do a direct mail campaign, but have no idea how to get a targeted list of potential motivated sellers (absentee owners, vacant properties, pre-foreclosures, etc.). I think I have enough contacts on the backend of this to be successful (contractors, realtors, cash buyers, etc.).... then again, I won't know for sure until I get that far. If anyone has any direction, I'd love to hear it!