All Forum Posts by: Joe Davalos

I would have to suspect someone receiving 89 letters is in a time sensitive distressed situation or a highly targeted easily accessible lead that just hit the radar. Or possibly in an area where through the manipulation of our city government has deemed it historic and buyer demand that has increased the ARV value and is now through the roof Purely speculation on my part though. The less enlightened investor seeing that 88 other speculators are mailing as well would say why bother. What are the odds. Not good maybe not maybe so Let's take for example the seller that is on a distressed list but doesn't have to act now. At the moment she doesn't want to part with the house she inherited that she grew up in. To many fond memories. A few months go by and reality necessity and common sense sets in How many of those 89 investors are still mailing monthly since the seller received those initial letters let's say 4 months down the road. I would venture to say very few I also started cold calling recently. With a few almost but no direct contracts yet. I will continue because it produces results If I was on a limited budget say 200 a month I would cold call a highly probable seller list. This would take time and research. How many triggers does this seller have as far as distressed factors or motivators. If I had a budget of 1000 a month or more I would do both most importantly keep sellers on a drip campaign of 6 months. As soon as I can I would reinvest some profit and grow that list Everything done properly works and nothing doesn't

The best list is the one you create yourself. Find properties in some sort of distress. Add them to your list and mail them. Here in town once or twice a month lawsuit notices are posted for tax delinquencies. They are in the local newspaper That would be a good addition to your distress list. That's just one of many examples of a distress criteria that you can grow your list from. I started creating my list in June of this year. I have about 1800 on that list. It takes work. A list from list source takes a few minutes but just because someone has a rent house doesn't make them motivated. Now a rent house that's vacant where the city code inspectors are all over them like white on rice is a different matter. Also be sure and go direct mail the first mailing. When you get returns investigate the house further and see if you can locate the seller or heirs. Takes some work. Looking at a house tomorrow morning. First post card went to his mother. She passed away I didn't know until I received the post card returned. Did a little detective work and located her son. After first mailing go bulk and hire a mail house to send mail for you. Delegate automate. I believe direct mail works. If it didn't the big dogs wouldn't be doing it with massive numbers and great results.

Depends on how much work you want to put in. If it's first class mail you will get the return mail and that is where real work begins. You can track owners that no one is contacting due to bad address. If not first class mail for the envelopes and letters you might consider using a postcard for first mailing going first class. It would be less expensive but you would get return mail I haven't done the math but I get at least 10 percent return mail. I can hunt down owner or heirs about 30 to 40 percent of the time. I like to use a combination of purchased and then my own list of distressed properties. Either way good luck.

Originally posted by @Miguel Jauregui:

Originally posted by @Michael Halow:

Awesome! So I will design and build this software and distribute it here for everyone to use. I'll just charge a small one-time fee to help cover what it cost me to get it built. That being said can I get a list of features you guys would want it to have? Please be as detailed as possible. @Joe Davalos @Adrien C. @Adrian Silva @Miguel Jauregui Tag anyone else you know with this problem so they can chime in on the features! Thanks Guys! 

 Sorry about the late reply. I think what I'd want is pretty basic. The date of the import, contact info for the owner (and the persona who inherited the property if probate), a mailing address if it's different, the name of the original list for quick referral, and some kind of a way to track which mailings said contact has been part of. 

 Basically the same info as @ Miguel Jauregui.  To whom to where and which subject property. Also what is lead source. Probate, city liens,code violations etc. dates of sent mailings number of times sent. 

Over the last few months I've read about our market heading for a price correction. Forbes in July 2017 listed San Antonio as the number 1 overvalued city in the US and our neighbors in Austin as number 2. Just yesterday at a national REO conference Five Star the president and CEO of Five Star Ed Delgado called out San Antonio and a handful of other cities to pay attention to in 2018 regarding regional or micro bubbles Is it time to panic. No it's a time to pay attention yes. I for one will not change my goals for 2018. I will buy houses at a better price point to offset any market correction. I do not have a crystal ball but i doubt it will be as severe as 1988 or 2008. I have been an investor and realtor since the early 80s I lived through both housing crashes and did well the first crash buying and selling REOs and did extremely well the second crash selling a little over fifteen hundred REOs during 2008 through 2012 as a REO listing broker. If anything I am going to increase my marketing as real estate is also psychological and news outlets like to exaggerate so some sellers should become more realistic when it comes to values if market corrects itself. If it happens it happens and if it doesn't it doesn't. The strong will survive regardless

Sounds like your on your way to greatness. The numbers worked for all 2 questions. I have read the most important component of a wholesaling business is a good buyers list. Naturally you have to have inventory to sell What do you feel the most important aspect of your business is? What is the one thing you will not do again? Even something minor that you found was not cost effective or produced no results. Once again I am glad to see you making it happen and on the road to greatness. May your future success become contagious to all those you know and love

This is a common problem. I have same issue since I work distressed properties and they can be on various lists from month To month. I use excel but it's limited and not fail proof I would pay a reasonable monthly fee if the software was out there. It would save a small fortune on direct mail and time.

I personally feel you should go first class on the first mailing and then the most cost effective method should be utilized on the subsequent mailings. I personally like to work with the returned mail and investigate. Since I am working every day to find new leads it's not possible for me to check upfront to see if I have a good probability of hitting the right address based on public data on the first mailing When I get the returned postcard I utilize different methods to see where did the owner go. Down the block or through the pearly gates. If I think he's met his maker I will start looking for family members. On more than half I get another address maybe a relative and it's sent out first class again. If anyone knows a way to get those returned address back to you without first class please reply to this post. Perhaps a mailing house could provide for less if so great. I know without a doubt that for bulk or standard or whatever the mail houses do to send it for you that you could not do it for less than they can unless your sending a handful. I know from experience it's not cost effective to do it yourself

Sounds good. @Roger Covin. San Antonio is a competitive market but the returns are high.  After I regrouped in May  I went a few months w no good leads at all. Recently I have been out on 2 appointments last week and have one under contract. Went out on 2 yesterday and made an offer. So keep up the good fight   Send me a PM and if you like I will send you an email on how to find the list for code violations put out by the city. 

Danny Johnson has some podcasts that cover this topic about direct mail and lists. I actually go to YouTube and listen while I'm driving. Episode 46 is fantastic. He interviews a wholesaler with a great attitude and has a super story on how he got started. The person being interviewed has been in the business 3 years and is killing it I have listened to this Episode about 5 times already. I had the pleasure of meeting Danny Johnson years ago as I am on a smaller scale now still an REO agent. He bought a few houses from me way back then during the foreclosure tsunami . He's a genuine guy a very successful house flipper and his podcasts and video interviews are all about providing info and helping others in this REI business check out episode 41 and episode 46. It's worth your time and a wealth information is to be had. After you listen to 41 and 46 go to episode 1 and keep listening. When my REO business dried up and I hadn't bought any houses for a while I just listened to the podcasts to keep my mind open to the possibilities of making it in this business. It was therapeutic and changed the way I approached this business I can't emphasize enough how beneficial his podcasts are.