All Forum Posts by: Kris Lippi

I am selling a lead who filled out a "Cash Buyer Wanted" form on a lead generating website. Full name, email, phone and address.

4 bed, 2 bath, 1600 sqft located in Mexico, Missouri 65265. First $100 gets it and will only sell to one person.

Thanks Jason! this is exactly what I'm looking for. A couple followup questions for you.

1) "My realtor has a network of buyers at all times" - Do you think your Realtor would not show your flip to their buyers if they did not have the listing?

2) "and a network of other realtors with buyers" - Do you think your house would not be exposed to these realtors and buyers without being listed with your realtor?

Also, I just wanted to say, these are selfish questions to help me and provide value to my customers, not to change your mind about listing with your realtor.

@Brian Pulaski Thanks! I hope you don't mind if I dig a little deeper. What is your track record and experience with flat fee mls listings vs full service listings? 

While talking with a local flipper over the holidays, we got on the topic of profit from flips. One of the points he was making is that Realtors take away a significant part of his profit. His main points were that he has to find the property, buy the property, rehab the property, take all the risk and then he has to pay a commission in order sell it, which can be almost as much as he makes on the deal.

I was able to sell him on my company that offers flat fee mls listings and now have him onboard as a repeat customer for 2018. So my wheels started turning that I should be targeting flippers in order to grow my customer base. I wanted to conduct some research before doing that and figured this would be a great forum.

For anyone who flips multiple properties, how do you sell your flips?

1. I list with a Realtor that I have a relationship with and value their service
2. I list with a Realtor but don't see the value
3. I sell them FSBO off the MLS (craigslist, zillow, etc)
4. I use flat fee mls listings.

For the 4 options above, can you let me know which one applies to you and why you choose that route when you sell your flip?

Hi Mia - you need to have your license with a broker that has their license in both states or two separate brokers, one in each state.

Find a quality flat fee real estate broker. They understand that not everyone needs or wants the white glove concierge service a listing agent gives you. They will list your house on the MLS, so you can sell on your own and save the listing agents commission.

I don't like postcards, people throw those in the trash all the time. I like letters with handwritten font addressing. When you do that, at the very least, it will get opened.

Stay away from generic talking about yourself type of stuff. Just let them know you are a realtor in their area and you can help them. Mention that prices are rising any their home may be worth more than they thought. 

Then direct them to your automated home value website. You will have to get one created first. There are a ton of them. If they run a report, you get their address and email or more if they put all the info down.

I do what I described above and get responses everytime. I put this picture at the bottom of the letter.

1+2) Low ball offers can be problematic if you take the approach of just submitting as many as possible and seeing what sticks. You are going to burn your agent out because while it is not necessarily that hard to submit an offer, it does take time and effort. That adds up when done over and over. It's not that it is annoying, it's just not the best plan and your agent needs to focus on activities that make money, consistently.

Additionally, I would probably try to talk a buyer out of low balling houses that just came on the market. Even bank owned properties. It seems the banks are pricing close to what they want and do adjustments about every 30 days until it sells around the asking price. 

But, lowballing a home that has been on the market for 90+ days and is vacant, estate/probate or distressed in some way can be a sweet spot.

2) Doing an ARV for every single property you want to lowball will get annoying if you expect a report and analysis. Again, this takes time and effort.

If they know the market well and can just give a range based on sqft, bed, bath, etc. That's doable. I do that for a couple investors all the time. But they also know the market and just want to double check their thoughts.

A good solution would be for your realtor to give you a dump of all sold comps in the area you are looking for property. You can get both an excel format and report with pictures. 

Ask you agent to meet with you for an hour and show you how to do a few ARV's. If your market changes rapidly, have them send you updated sold data every month or so.

This way you can start figuring out ARV by yourself and you will be in a better position to work with your agent more productively.

I guarantee if you do those 2 things, your relationship with your agent will be solid.

1) Form a plan around submitting low ball offers

2) Get sold data from your agent and figure out ARV on your own.

@John C. I see you are from Tolland. A huge mess right now is the bad concrete in that area. There is going to be plenty of opportunity for investors who want to tackle that remediation process.

Hi @Pat McCandless - deals can be found on the MLS. Especially if you have cash but that is not 100% necessary. I see a lot of flips houses hitting the market and when I look back at the transaction history I see that the flipper purchased off the MLS for a discount.

The trick is to find "motivated" sellers on the MLS. Usually people are not motivated when their house first hits the market. They think it is going to sell for a lot of money! So look for houses that have been on the market for at least 90 days and ignore what it is listed for. You can have a MLS alert setup for this. Then start looking for a few things.

1. Vacant home (you can tell from pictures)
2. Probate or estate in description
3. Houses that need work

I feel like people start freaking out around the 90 day mark and may start to entertain offers they previously would have denied. If you have cash or hard money and can offer a quick close they will start thinking they can get rid of it and be done with the house.

Not everyone is paying attention to this type of house that is still on the market but over 90 days old. They don't have the time to sift through all the other houses to find a possible deal.

Hope that helps some for you.