All Forum Posts by: Jerry Gurley

I am curious what the community thinks about negotiating deals over the phone versus an in person visit.  I typically deal with vacant houses that have been inherited so when I go see the property I typically do not see the seller there.  In our expansion plans for next year I trying to decide if I should hire 1 or 2 experienced sales professionals who are used to handling sale transactions over the phone, building rapport etc.... Or should I focus on 1 to 2 experienced sales people who are used to getting face to face appointments and closing the purchase agreement in person?  The phone seems more efficient but in person seems more effective.  It also seems like over the phone sales people would be less expensive than in person sale professionals.

I took @rickharmon advice and subscribed to PI Mag.  A whole new world I had no idea all of those services were available.  I currently use TLO for missing heirs.  What would be a reasonable fee for a no find-no fee skip trace?  It looked like there were several other skip tracing software services but most were restricted to currently licensed PI.  What is a reasonable expectation on a find rate.  I hear some site claim an 80% locate rate, which seems way too high, based on my limited experience.

I found an online geneaology research company this morning. They charge $70.00 per hour. It took her 3 hours to find my dead guys 2 brothers and 1 sister. Now we don't have a deal yet, but I miles closer than I was 6 hours ago.

The digital subscription to PI Magazine is only $24 for the year, plus gives me access to previous issues, sounds like a deal.

Rick;

Thank you, I am very serious about this. We have completed 16 transactions over the past year. I only started focusing on vacant houses late last year. It has been the best business decision I have ever made. I know we don't have the kind of margins you do in California real estate. But we are routinely generating $30k to $50k profits per house. We find em, buy em, clean em up (but no rehab) and put them on MLS, usually gone in less than 10 days. I have read many of your posts and consider you one of my BiggerPockets heroes.

I will look for a PI magazine. I have already sent a few email to geneaology researchers to see what I can find.

Benjamin;

Thanks for the idea, I can't rely on luck. Someone knows how to find the heirs to these estates and I going to find that person.

Thanks

jerry

Thank you, I will do that.

In writing my reply it occurred to me, perhaps what I need is a geneology researcher?

It would if I had a name. If I had a name I could probably find them. All I have is the Estate of Joe Clark. The house is vacant. The neighbors say both Mr. and Mrs. Clark are deceased. They had no children. The taxes have not been paid in 7 years since they died. The yard is 4 feet tall. On the Accurint report the only connections it lists are him for her and her for him. So I don't know if they had any brothers or sisters. I don't know who the next of kin is, that is what I need to find out. Then I can skip trace them.

I am looking for suggestions for a private investigator to try to track down owners of vacant houses. I focus on vacant houses. When I find one I always door knock the neighbors to see if they know anything about the owners. I run reports through Accurint to locate them or friends or family. I review the county marriage and divorce records along with the grantee/grantor index. I have about 12 houses that I just can't anything on. They are behind in their taxes and the county can't find them either so they just appoint a Attorney Ad Litem. I am hopeful that a good PI has better skills and access to better data than I do. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank You

Just an update, we were able to find the gentlemen. I did find a skip tracer in the UK, but turned out not to need him. His fee was $130.00 by the way. In going through the house we found a family phone book that had phone numbers to his family in the UK. All of the numbers were disconnected except one, to a family friend. The friend gave us the number for his mother. We left a message and he called back the next day. He relinquished his life estate at no cost to us.