All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Abbott

Hello all!

Around the end of July I began my quest to start a real estate investing business for myself to eventually escape a day-to-day job that wasn't fulfilling to me. Since then I have been exploring every avenue of the deal finding process but to no avail. My biggest contribution was a direct mailing campaign where I targeted absentee and owners with 40% in their home. This strategy got me a couple of calls and finally a lead at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately the lead dried up, and the motivated seller wanted market price for a property that needed a TON of work. 

So here I am today, listening to Tony Robins and Grant Cardone, trying to stay motivated and "trust the process." I am now reaching out the the BP community. Wholesaling is my way into investing as a new real estate entrepreneur. I am more motivated and driven than ever to take the necessary steps to make the deals happen and scale! With that being said, I fear that I have been putting all of my eggs in the wrong basket and may be venturing down a path of no return. 

So what questions do I pose to the legendary BP community? Honestly, I don't know anymore! With the world epidemic going on and networking at a sudden halt, how does someone get started in an investing career, specifically a wholesale, in this market climate. While I know that asking for mentors in this section of the forums in not appropriate, I do ask for help. Guidance. A direction. I know that this process works, but am unsure that I am working the process correctly, effectively, and efficiently. 

If there is one thing I could ask of a great community such as BP, it would be to provide an inspired, young, motivated entrepreneur the guidance to go and make 1 deal happen. Once I prove this concept with one deal, I will be full steam ahead!

Thank you all, I appreciate all of the help the BP community has given me, 

Hello BiggerPockets Community,

I have once again returned to this fruitful forum to inquire about an upcoming project that I am eager to get underway. Myself and a partner of mine have decided to look into developing a government subsidized senior living facility for those ages 60+ (not to be confused with assisted living). The only problem, neither one of us have any experience in real estate development, let alone developing a larger multifamily facility. 

I have come here to the forums in hopes to find a knowledgeable party who might be interested in helping me get on the right track to success. My goal over these next few weeks is to outline a flowchart showing all necessary steps to take to get this ball rolling in the right direction as we hope to have this project completely underway by the start of the new year. 

If any of you have any information, experience, or helpful resources that can better help me understand how this development process works I would greatly appreciate either a post here or a private conversation.

I look forward to learning about all of your experiences and am excited to begin turning this project idea into a reality!

Thank you all,

Hello BP Community!

I hope all are staying well, and sane during these trying times.

I come here today with part two of my real estate investing adventure. Last post, I touched on my process, my goals, and my current state. After 2 months of mailings I am here today with, get ready, no deal? 

I decided to continue to push my current direct mail strategy (listed in another one of my forum posts). I have been using postcards and mailing to a very specific list using a list source list. After my first mailings I received a 1% response rate. For this mailing I decided to triple the amount of mailing, now getting into the thousands, and my response rate declined... around 1%... Yes, I did not get a single call from this mailing. 

I come to you all today with any tips, motivation, and advice that you can give. Should I continue this route, being that it is so expensive? Or should I seek other opportunities. 

I hope these posts will one day help, influence, and inspire others to begin this journey. But first, I need to prove that it works! 

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Best,

@Melissa McRay Johnson Thank you for the post! "Professional, but personable" - I really like that. The biggest thing I was concerned about was coming across as a "threat" or someone who looks like they are there to make money off of you. Like i mentioned in regards to my response before, I will probably be performing a split test of the two types of mailers to see which one yields the best/highest quality response. 

I wanted to include more like "I am a local investor" or even a picture like you mentioned but postcard real estate is eaten up so fast! Also yes, the back of the card has a few lines of wording stating something like "No commissions, No Fees, No Hassle" and another "Give me a call at ###". 

As far as branding goes I really like "EZ Property Solutions" and want that to become a known name for my area. Maybe even add a motto later on along the lines of "Sell your house the EZ Way!"  

I may try and see if I can squeeze a photo of myself on there. 

I think a big problem I face is the bad reputation that these types of mailers have gotten from poor wholesalers. While I may wholesale a deal here or there the main goal for these mailers is for me to buy the house as my own investment. Maybe in the future I will modify the generic postcard to make it something very personable and down to earth, just explaining who I am and what I do. 

I really appreciate the response Melissa! The BiggerPockets community has been such a great help to me over the past few weeks! 

Best,

@Account Closed Great idea! On my next mailing I will perform a split test and see which one returns the best results. Apparently, from what I've read/heard, yellowletters gets a better response rate but a lower quality of leads while postcards get a poorer response ready but higher quality. Doing a mixture of the two could provide me with good practice for negotiation while also pulling in leads with great potential. 

I will keep this forum updated with my findings for all of those who are interested in the results! 

Thank you so much for the input! Marketing is definitely not my strong suit...

Best

 

@Account Closed

@Account Closed Thank you for the response! The photo above is of the front of the post card. I had originally decided to put the name of my company "EZ Property Solutions" on the front of the post card but am now thinking that this could be a bad idea. The last thing I want to do is give someone the impression of a big company wanting to purchase their house. 

For future mailings I am considering something maybe a little less flashy and a little more personable. Something as simple as:

"Hello, 

I am interested in purchasing property in the "city name" area and was reaching out to see if you or anyone you know had any property for sale. If you know of anything please give me a call at "phone number.

Thank you,

Jonathan" 

I was thinking of doing something like this with yellow letters to get that hand written look. All in all, I am just looking for something that would be scalable as I intend to add quite a few properties to my portfolio in a short amount of time. 

Thanks again,

Jonathan

Hello again BiggerPockets community and fellow real estate investors,

At the beginning of this month I launched my official real estate investing business/side venture. I have been taking as many tips from wholesalers as I can. While I am considering wholesaling a few properties, the main goal is to use wholesaling strategies to find great deals for buy and holds. 

From all of the success stories I heard on the podcast and read on the forums, I decided that direct mail, despite the cost, would be the best strategy for me to pursue. I work full time and do not have a ton of time to explore other deal finding strategies right now. Well, at the start of this month I sent out to around 500 properties a postcard with the name of my business, and the typical "We buy houses, we pay cash, we close fast" in bold letters. So as the letters went out I waited, and waited, but to no avail. All I received was one guy kindly asking me to "drop dead" and another wanting to sell me their 1920 rental house (money pit) for a crazy price.

Did I do something drastically wrong? I know that it takes a few mailings before people typically see results but wow, .3% is not good. While I am far from giving up, I am wondering whether or not the mailing should be altered (yellow letters/another means of advertisement). Below I will list the criteria that I used in purchasing my list from listsource:

- 10 mile radius around where I am looking to invest (great investment properties here!)

- Have at least 40% equity in their property

- Property has not been sold in the past 3 years

- Only SFR's, duplexes, or triplexes

- I also limited the assessed value to under 200k (just personal preference)

- Finally I only targeted owner occupied homes excluding corporate owned. 

Let me know if there is something I missed, something else I should do, or any other tips you all have for me to get this campaign up and running. Money is not an issue for advertising but of course I want to be sure my dollars are being put to use in the most effect way. 

Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you all! Help a newbie out! 

Best,

Jonathan Abbott

Hello BiggerPockets Community and fellow Real Estate Addicts! 

My name is Jonathan Abbott. I am a recent college graduate in finance and economics (yay for a piece of paper) and reside in the good ole state of North Carolina. Since graduation in May, a corona-graduate, I was "lucky" enough to land a very well paying job here around the Raleigh-Durham area. Over the past few months, all of my worst fears and expectations of the day-to-day grind have proven true. But before I get to that I want to tell you all about myself and my purpose here on the BiggerPockets forums.

Real Estate has always been a passion of mine. My father, back in the 08 crash, saw an opportunity in real estate and begun building his business from the ground up. In doing so, he allowed me to watch, help, and learn from his mistakes, achievements, and see the overall outcome over the past 12-ish years. Today he has a nicely sized portfolio of high cash flow SFR's and still enjoys the occasional flip on the side. For me, witnessing this sparked a kind of entrepreneurship bug inside of me, molding me into becoming a passive income hungry individual. But what did I do? I went to college. And what does college teach you? How to work for your money, not take risk, and never make mistakes... Now I do not mean to devalue education, as it has opened my eyes to many concepts and helped me become a lifelong learner, but certain aspects about the process just do not resonate with me.

So now, after earning my degrees I did what any college graduate would do. I went out and got the 9-5 job and began climbing that corporate ladder. Two months in, I have realized that this strategy of success is simply not for me. The lack of control and inability to move up at the speed I desire just will not work. 

I guess that's enough of me blabbering on about how I came here today and time for me to explain my plans for the near future with both my BiggerPockets involvement and my future real estate endeavors. Over the past month I have started a marketing campaign in my area and am beginning to scale up to hit more people. I will be implementing wholesaling techniques as to acquire a portfolio of cash-flowing properties. Over the next few months I will be frequently updated this forum with my progress, what I've learned, and any deals that come across my desk. That being said I would also love to network with local real estate investors in the Raleigh area to learn more about the opportunities in this market. I implore any and all of you to post with your words of encouragement, wisdom, or simply to make a new connection. 

To close, I am excited to begin this journey and am even more excited to be able to share it with other like-minded individuals in hopes that I might build connections or even inspire others. 

Hello BiggerPockets and hello real estate investing! 

- Jonathan Abbott

Good evening fellow Real Estate Investors! 

I come to the forums today seeking any information, opinions, and possibly experience in the field of fractional ownership as an investment! 

You see, my family owns a beach house and then divides it upon ourselves throughout the year. Recently, we have found ourselves using the property only a few weeks a year. Definitely not enough to justify the expenses that go along with owning such a high end vacation property. I recently stumbled upon a listing offering 4 weeks on a rotating schedule every year for a very reasonable price, around the value of 1/13th of the property with a small premium attached. At first I was thinking this just seems like another timeshare scam wrapped up into a different, more deceiving package but after speaking with the agent they assured me that after purchasing the fractional share, I would be deeded 1/13th of the property. Now this deal did attach a very small monthly payment to cover the HOA between all owners.

I come to the biggerpockets community to pick your brain on not only purchasing one of these for myself, but instead using this fractional ownership as a new investment opportunity. The opportunity grants those who couldn't normally afford such a highly priced property a chance to get in on some of that luxury. Yes, I am aware that this option might not be for everyone, especially those who like the freedom of choosing which weeks they intend to use the property, but it may cater to those who consistently visit the same place a few times a year and would like to own their own place without the normally enormous upfront cost. 

Let me know what you all think! Be honest! 

Thank you all and Happy New Years! 

- Jonathan

  

Thank you to all who have answered! I have learned a lot from you all and will definitely up my game here in the future! From what I have researched and read I think pre-foreclosures might be good place for me to start as those home owners are very motivated! Have any of you had any personal experience wholesaling a home in pre-foreclosure? If so any tips or insightful knowledge you could pass down? Thanks again, I really do appreciate all of your help! 

- Jonathan