All Forum Posts by: Joe Davalos

Whitepages and the like are not accurate for phone numbers. Find a good skip tracer most want at least 50 leads submitted and you will get back about 80 percent with numbers and 60 to 70 percent of those numbers maybe working. At least that is what I find. I ask for phone numbers and addresses which cost more. I pay 40 to 60 dollars depending on the number of hits the skip tracer gets. If I submit a list and they get a lot of hits I will pay more but that's what I want. Good data I believe the skip Tracers tap into credit bureaus which have the most up to date info on a person. I chase a lot of older folks and many haven't been active for a while as far as credit is concerned. Your numbers might be higher Tony Battle is a member here and does a good job. His prices are reasonable

I work on any type of distressed list. 

City liens, code violations, driving for dollars appointment of lender trustees within deed records. List source with owners over 45 years in age with at least 60 percent in equity. In regards to the appointment of trustees most banks will file a change or substitute a trustee notification if someone loan is in or going  into foreclosure.  Some get foreclosed others don't but most have issues with making their mortgage payments. Maybe it's an estate or a divorced. 

I have a goal of 10k mailing a month once I get my business that was once on life support back on the road to recovery.   I am in intensive care soon to get back on track  maybe I will only get to 5000 but it beats 800 that I used to do when I got around to it that slowly Diminished my not very well qualified leads down to nothing. The lack of business  was scarier than Freddie Kruger vs Jason Holloween spooktacluar 16. Scared the crap out of me. Took about 3 months to see results though but I kept at it. Glad I did 

Postcards are more cost effective and the seller will at least glance over the postcard. I think either one works if you do it consistently. More importantly is your list How distressed are they? property tax issues code citations city mowing the grass and billing the owner. Filing liens on their property. Also on your first mailing go first class. You want those cards that don't get delivered. You can hunt the seller down at times You will be of a few investors who have taken that additional step. Many send bulk they keep sending mailing to bad addresses and not know it. I get a ton of return mail and I research each and everyone. If I find them I update my list If I can't I remove them completely. If I have a return and they are distressed I will try to call them. Anyway good luck. Keep positive outlook and visualize your goals and take action. I struggled for months with nothing but bad calls with sellers that had no serous interest In selling. I revised my list and now I am working with good possibilities of future business. Making an offer tonight had one accepted yesterday. Keep fighting the good fight.

If your going to get a website make sure it looks professional and is easy to navigate. Anything less don't waste your money. As far as I can tell in a competitive market you would need a monthly budget of at least 5k. If you have a budget direct mail driving for dollars and skip tracing to me are the way to go. If you have a good source of qualified leads I feel you would have a greater probability of landing a deal with mail driving and calling versus a limited budget to target web leads Some people will say direct mail is dead doesn't work. The past 3 years I would buy 6 to 8 houses with only about 10k in mailers for the year. This year that fell off completely. I believed as well direct mail wasn't working the world has changed marketing has changed. I spent a grand on a website that looks good but I realized I don't have enough marketing money to get on page 1 towards the top. What to do. I joined BP and listened to a ton of podcasts. It then hit me it wasn't direct mail that wasn't working it was me. I got back to work. It does take time though to get back on track and for the first few months good calls were few and far between. I made adjustments and Recently that has picked up. I have found the more work I have to put into obtaining the lead the better qualified the lead can be. It takes more time to research city liens than it does to buy a list from list source. The city lien list has more motivated sellers though. They don't have time to cut the grass house is vacant vagrants are kicking in the doors and the city is riding their butt and sending them a bill. I am not a big player in this market but I listen to big players especially on their podcasts and take the advice they give I did just buy two houses from sellers that called my office wanting to list. I gave them the option of closing quick selling as is no inspections guaranteed sale. Both said yes. I do own the office and I am the broker so i didn't cut anyone out. Also I gave the sellers a market analysis on what it would sell for if they decided to list. They wanted easy fast and to get on with lives. 1 seller called the moving company as soon as we signed contract. 7 days later we were closing and they were moving that day. She couldn't believe how smooth everything went and when we asked her if she pleased with our service she said yes and became emotional I can't believe how easy this was she said. Win win Good luck do work hard and don't discount the law of attraction. Focus focus Focus I wouldn't have bought those 2 houses if I hadn't been laser focused on this REI world of ours.

You negotiate terms with your PML that you can live with. Have a plan in place to pay it off. If refi is not a possibility then sell for a profit Map out a plan with the end in sight. Stick to your plan snd Keep your word. Find out well in advance if your project is even a candidate for refi. If not can you buy fix and sell. If numbers don't work walk away before not after.

I have been doing direct mail for s while in house but soon will use a mail house to handle since my numbers are rising direct marketing works especially a good distress property list. Mail every month for 6 months. Your first mailing should be first class since you get the return mail. Do some detective work try to find the correct party and their location hunt em down reach out to them. Those bad addresses are gold.

PM me I will send you contact info. Very reasonable 

You can also google Pinpoint Private Investigations Tony Battle he's in South Dakota. 

Skip Tracers could help you. Free and 20 bucks a month sites have old not very reliable data. A skip tracer will access credit bureau data. @Tony battle is a member here and offers that service. I have used him and I am pleased

Look up Alamo Real Estate Investors Alamo REIA They have meet ups a couple of times a month. Free to members

If you have the time build your own. List source data is never 100 percent. It's easier to work with but it appears you want a very specific list of property type. Give it to a mail house after our first mailing. Add to it as you go along. Mail once every month for no less than 6 months