All Forum Posts by: Lucas Machado

We have had pretty good success moving our properties quickly and top dollar using a realtor. Not saying there is a right/wrong, but 30-50 showings, 30-50 offers, not something I'm that interested in managing. I've also learned from good selling agents. Of course, 6% is significant so if you have the time to do it right flat-fee or even just marketing to local wholesalers with buyer lists. On "as-is" re-sales that weren't rehabbed, we've actually gotten higher offers off-market than on the MLS for what that's worth. If you're working 9 to 5pm or haven't sold a property FSBO before, a good realtor could be a good idea.

@Joshua Howaniec InvestorCarrot is a paid lead generation website, which is generally speaking feature rich for the vast majority of tasks you want to perform. Blogging, lead generation set-up, posting videos, sidebars. It's simple, and that's the beauty. Now, contrast that with creating a custom site: find a web programmer, hope he is pretty good and doesn't create spaghetti code, when something changes or breaks have to deal with that person again. I've often wondered if I switch off InvestorCarrot - would I quickly come to regret that the decision because I simply don't have the time to baby-sit a website (IC site also requires a fair amount of baby-sitting). Custom site also could run you anywhere from $500 to $5,000 depending who you talk to. Price tag of $1,000 to $2,000 seems pretty fair since the site would be pretty basic.

IC is fairy cheap at like $50 or so per month, they have excellent customer service. For example, I've been expanding to my YouTube channel quite a bit. I ran into a quirk where I just couldn't associate my website with my youtube channel - so I couldn't create "end pages" or "annotations" linking to my website and YouTube video testimonials. I spoke with IC - bam - 1 hour, they had a tutorial, it was linked up. Same issue with Facebook conversions - I tried over and over to get the Facebook conversions to come up on the Facebook tracking page. I eventually connected with a knowledgeable guy at IC and he went right into the website, fixed it up - bam - all connected. 

InvestorCarrot also has a weekly "mastermind" conference where you can go and ask questions. To be honest, it usually isn't something I necessarily hadn't learned before, but just sitting there for the mastermind forced me to re-consider various aspects (particularly my relevance score). I kind of knew in the back of my mind that needed to happen, but the conference really solidified it. I started changing my ads around, I went from relevance score 2 to 8 and 9. As a matter of perspective, 2 is awful and 8 to 9 is very strong (relevance score is essentially you need to pay more to get more of some action because FB views you're ad strategy as not engaging to the customer). I was pretty excited about my 8 to 9 scores and I'm applying the lessons I learned on those 8/9 across the rest of my FB marketing to track if it's an aberration but my initial reaction is the tailoring of the message, content, and audience made the difference. 

InvestorCarrot also has content packs you can post to your website and ways to modify them to make them city specific blogging articles. I don't really use though (I'd rather create unique content more aimed towards my entire marketing plan then copy and paste "hey 5 moving tips!"). Even though I don't use, I have seen websites that do use and currently rank higher than me for what that's worth. That said, I haven't necessarily been SEO consistent the last year and next 6-months I want to go all in on the SEO.

Given that I have staff ready to answer the phone essentially around the clock, I would like a LiveChat option. I've also seen some websites where the mouse scrolls in a certain direction (towards closing) it opens a pop-up. IC doesn't offer advanced features like that for what it's worth. I have requested, and I wouldn't say ignored, but not implemented. I did get an offer to provide some of my own coding, but if it's a wordpress site that doesn't use wordpress plug-ins - what's the point of wordpress?

@Joshua Howaniec InvestorCarrot is a paid lead generation website, which is generally speaking feature rich for the vast majority of tasks you want to perform. Blogging, lead generation set-up, posting videos, sidebars. It's simple, and that's the beauty. Now, contrast that with creating a custom site: find a web programmer, hope he is pretty good and doesn't create spaghetti code, when something changes or breaks have to deal with that person again. I've often wondered if I switch off InvestorCarrot - would I quickly come to regret that the decision because I simply don't have the time to baby-sit a website (IC site also requires a fair amount of baby-sitting). Custom site also could run you anywhere from $500 to $5,000 depending who you talk to. Price tag of $1,000 to $2,000 seems pretty fair since the site would be pretty basic.

IC is fairy cheap at like $50 or so per month, they have excellent customer service. For example, I've been expanding to my YouTube channel quite a bit. I ran into a quirk where I just couldn't associate my website with my youtube channel - so I couldn't create "end pages" or "annotations" linking to my website and YouTube video testimonials. I spoke with IC - bam - 1 hour, they had a tutorial, it was linked up. Same issue with Facebook conversions - I tried over and over to get the Facebook conversions to come up on the Facebook tracking page. I eventually connected with a knowledgeable guy at IC and he went right into the website, fixed it up - bam - all connected. 

InvestorCarrot also has a weekly "mastermind" conference where you can go and ask questions. To be honest, it usually isn't something I necessarily hadn't learned before, but just sitting there for the mastermind forced me to re-consider various aspects (particularly my relevance score). I kind of knew in the back of my mind that needed to happen, but the conference really solidified it. I started changing my ads around, I went from relevance score 2 to 8 and 9. As a matter of perspective, 2 is awful and 8 to 9 is very strong (relevance score is essentially you need to pay more to get more of some action because FB views you're ad strategy as not engaging to the customer). I was pretty excited about my 8 to 9 scores and I'm applying the lessons I learned on those 8/9 across the rest of my FB marketing to track if it's an aberration but my initial reaction is the tailoring of the message, content, and audience made the difference. 

InvestorCarrot also has content packs you can post to your website and ways to modify them to make them city specific blogging articles. I don't really use though (I'd rather create unique content more aimed towards my entire marketing plan then copy and paste "hey 5 moving tips!"). Even though I don't use, I have seen websites that do use and currently rank higher than me for what that's worth. That said, I haven't necessarily been SEO consistent the last year and next 6-months I want to go all in on the SEO.

Given that I have staff ready to answer the phone essentially around the clock, I would like a LiveChat option. I've also seen some websites where the mouse scrolls in a certain direction (towards closing) it opens a pop-up. IC doesn't offer advanced features like that for what it's worth. I have requested, and I wouldn't say ignored, but not implemented. I did get an offer to provide some of my own coding, but if it's a wordpress site that doesn't use wordpress plug-ins - what's the point of wordpress?

Photos make a huge difference. On the properties we've done, we've used professional photography (and really it's super cheap) and we have immediate offers and showings so much so that I sell properties with a realtor. No way I could handle that volume of offers/showings without more important work suffering. I know rentals are a bit different in that the renter less concerned with appeal/finishing than a buyer, but I would think the same principle would apply.

Regarding list source, it's effective to targeting absentee owners - I didn't think it could target landlords (even if it did, curious how "good" that data is since landlords come in and out in real time; particular the landlord who are very small scale who would be most likely to result in a deal).  When I skimmed listsource (I already had an account), I did not see a landlord category.

Your best chance to target "tired" landlords in your area is the eviction filings (unless there is another landlord engine, and perhaps there is). If they are filing for eviction, they aren't necessarily tired, but it's more likely than a general absentee list.

You don't even need to mail everyone. Don't mail corporations only regular homeowners. Don't mail regular homeowners that own anymore than 3 properties. Make sure the owner has owned the property for a good length of time - what number that is, could be debated, but I doubt people are selling for investor prices in 5 years or less. You can get this information by searching your county's eviction filings (usually online), then pulling the plaintiff's name/address up in the appraiser, then you have a targeted and hopefully more effective mailing list.

I know you don't want to look up leads in the property appraiser, but a relatively small quantity vs. the cost-savings of a larger mailing list. Of course, if you are only looking at one city perhaps it's narrow enough to mail every single absentee owner regardless.

One advantage about this method, in many cases landlords do not put their actual address on the appraiser - when you review their court filings see their real address. Gives a nice competitive advantage to individuals who are just printing standards lists.

Be careful for property managers. If you see any addresses on the appraiser or in the eviction filings that has an apartment number google it to make sure it's not a property manager.

Another interesting questions - it's such a small quantity that it's hard to "test" definitively. But why would tired landlords need to be absentee? If a person if filings an eviction in their actual home, and are living with the person they evict, that's pretty tiring. Not too sure about that. I've done those mailings, but it's such small quantity that hard to draw any conclusions.

@Adam Quinones did the community banks say why they wouldn't lend you the money? Is the issue that you are looking to buy a distressed property that needs repairs? If that's the reason, you don't need a broker, you just need to contact some hard money lenders. HML or private funding is where investors turn to when banks won't lend on their projects.

Welcome @Nick H.! The two biggest and closest REIAs for you will be BREIA (breia.com) and DREIA (dreia.org). There are many many other smaller networking groups/meetups as well. Hope to see you at one of the meetings!

It's a complex question, and depends how you are defining appreciation.  If you're just considering will it's value go up in the long term in the U.S.; most likely.  That's a matter of inflation - deflation can occur but obviously 1980 lower. Next question is will the real value increase; perhaps.  Another consideration - if you're using long-term financing at a decent, you're possibly gaining inflation/appreciation on money you haven't left in the property.

I would also ask what are you planning to do with the question of appreciation v. not appreciation. Somewhat dangerous game. Could lose your shirt in a flip/BRRR rental, or look like a genius. Unpredictable. I think the mind set on the market at the moment is we're in for a correction. Of course, a correction means opportunity and I think legitimate investors v. pretenders stand to do well once wild speculators (in my market, some of the purchases, there is no rationale for besides counting on 10% appreciation). Investors, or gamblers, pay over market value with a 0-day inspection never as much entering the property. Home flippers made great money the last couple years, having property with 10% more 8-12 months later.

When I've spoken with people age 50-60, who purchased properties back 20 years back and did a nice job caring for them, it does seem they have done well over the long term.

Also, perhaps if the lead broker/experienced agent might help with a first couple listings.

Although I'm not a licensed agent, I would be asking: (1) what type of lead flow will I receive, if any; (2) what is the expectation for floor time/work from home; (3) will the brokerage provide support services, i.e., paid marketing, professional photography, paid for various trainings/certifications that can put yourself in a better position to sell yourself.

Of course, you are a new agent so they are also carefully evaluating you.  It's not like you are walking in with a reputation/clients/experience.  So questions are great, just keep in mind negotiating limits.