All Forum Posts by: Justin McClelland

Hi @Shawn Bass, you may have a parcel divided per an Assessor petition. Here is an example for Cook County:

http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/assets/forms/divpetition.pdf

John W. I definitely suggest mailing the LLC's and Corp's. You never know when these owners may be fed up with the landlord game and thinking about getting out. And an advantage to dealing with such owners is that they're least likely to have any emotional attachment to the property as an owner-occupant might.

Andre Lindsey You don't necessarily have to start local with your deals. I have closed multiple deals virtually and have never been to a closing table in person.

To prepare for your closing, you may first have your buyer and seller sign the appropriate docs electronically. Send them a PDF via email or fax them. Once you have these docs back, send all to an attorney and title company that you want to handle your closing.

I'm sure there is a way to do virtual closings without an attorney representing you involved, but I prefer/suggest the involvement for the peace of mind and happily foot their fee. Be sure there is a large enough profit spread to foot the bill if you choose this route.

An attorney will be able to tell you exactly what pieces of documentation will be required for a closing and they'll correspond with all parties involved and schedule the (double) closing.

I think that as long as you don't just use them for the novelty of it, there may be some benefit.

For Example:
The worst kinds are ones that just drive the user to the homepage of a non-mobile optimized site. Versus: The better ones, would drive the user to a mobile friendly site with a call-to-action that is specifically targeted to users on their phones.

Carolina E I'm not certain I've heard of that before. I'm interpreting your mention of a 3rd party service, as a company that assists the property owner in some capacity to make payments? Please explain more about such a service.

Everyone else has chimed in with good info. And you are on the right track with getting more targeted with your mailing list. You want to be as targeted as you can get. Be creative.

1. Single Family Rental Property list = so-so
2. Single Family Rental Property list, that has been cross-referenced against a Section 8 complaint list, that's cross-referenced against a weed lien list = GOLD.

I just use that for an example, so hopefully you see what I mean.

And regarding your "chicken-scratch" handwriting. I say go with your handwriting versus your wife's (assuming hers is neat). The key is to stand out!

Wrinkle the letter up, put a life-saver candy in the envelope, etc (these are all proven methods of contrast marketing). Do whatever. Think of something new. Just go for it

The copy and appearance of the actual letter look fine. In my opinion, the most important part of your (yellow) letter campaign will be, 1) who you are mailing to and 2) getting the letter opened.

1. What target of people did you choose to mail your letters to? The more narrow and focused, the better.

2. I would suggest against using a handwritten font printed on the envelope. Try to go with actual handwriting if possible. Outsource it, or set aside a little time daily to write these yourself. Most, including myself can spot fonts from a mile away.

Remember that most (including me) open mail over the trash can. You have just a few seconds to make your piece make an impact. Cut no corners.

Like Wayne Brooks was hinting, it's not the best idea to do that. If the house is behind on payments and tomorrow a lease/option tenant is placed in the house, chances are it will not be a good outcome for the tenant.

Preforeclosure is a sign that the owner is in financial distress. Once they start receiving monthly rent payments from the property, there's a possibility that the income won't go towards satisfying the delinquent mortgage.

There's a high chance that the house will be foreclosed upon prior to the tenant having the option to buy.

I use Adobe Acrobat (not to be confused with Adobe Reader). It allows me to create PDFs and make them fillable. It's a lifesaver when you need to edit a PDF that is received. It keeps me from needing to print things out on a regular basis.

Tax Liens aren't a bad option if you want to earn a solid return on your money. I personally have been active in the state of Illinois for the past few years investing in them.

Larry Loftis has the best Tax Lien book, in my opinion. Have read it numerous times.

And years back I wrote a guest post on BP about tax liens. You can check it out here:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2009/10/29/tax-lien-certificate-money-tree/