All Forum Posts by: Aaron Foster

Call me for more info. 713-714-6678

GOLF COURSE HOME with incredible views! OVER-UPGRADED!! Chef quality kitchen with granite counters, SS Frigidaire fridge included, SS Bosch gas stove & food warmers included, recently upgraded cabinetry, soft-close pot drawers, butler's pantry with mounted wine rack, themed lighting, high-end woodflooring, front double bevel glass doors, recent hardi-plank, dual pane windows, foundation bolstered life warranty, high end carpeting, and more! Master balcony with water golf course views. GREAT VALUE ON EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY!! Don't miss out!! $1000 BTSA

4-Plex for sale $450k, worth $750k needs $80k-$100k work. Houston, (Rice Military Area)!

 Selling cash only! No loans!

Message me if you interested and you have cash or call me at 713-714-6678 Willing pay a realtor or fee on this.

Oh yeah, the county appraisal sites like hcad and fbcad are useful as well

I find owners of vacant homes all the time, and I'm a newbie. The main two ways that I do it are "driving for dollars", and direct mail marketing.

Driving for dollars means that I set aside an hour or so, and I drive around a neighborhood near my community. I look for signs that a home is vacant, such as high grass, excessive trash or disrepair, code violation signs, etc. When I see a house that fits the criteria, I go check out the house and verify that it's vacant, and I record the address. I may even take a couple snapshots. Then I proceed to find the owner. This can be a bit tricky, but it's worth the work. I use a combination of whitepages.com (reverse address lookup) and zabasearch.com. I won't go through how to skip trace, but I will say that if you can't find the owner directly, you can usually find someone related to them. When you tell them you are interested in buying their home, they are usually pretty forthcoming with contact info.

Direct mail marketing means that I purchase a list of absentee owners from listsource.com or a similar site, and I mail to them saying that I am interested in buying their home. Usually about half of my absentee owner callbacks are for vacant homes.

There are definitely more in depth discussions on direct mail marketing, purchasing mailing lists, driving for dollars, and skip tracing throughout this site, so keep searching! It is wisdom which seeks wisdom.

I am, as far as I know, the only person in contact with the owner of a vacant, distressed property. She definitely owes more on the house than what it would be worth in its current condition. I do not have the funds or the expertise to complete a short sale, but I feel like it is possible for me to monetize this lead.

So far, I put out a vague craigslist ad that does not reveal the property address, but it does include a few cell phone pics and a brief description of what I know about the home so far. Several people have called and left me messages wanting to know about the property.

I am not really sure what I can or should do, but I hope that someone will agree to pay me a "bird dog" fee, should they determine this to be a good deal. However, I still face the strategic dilemma of which buyer do I pass this info to, and how do I ensure that I get paid? I'm just winging it here, so any input is very much appreciated.

While driving for dollars, I came across a boarded up house in a decent neighborhood with code violations. After a bit of digging, I was on the phone with the owner of the home, who lives in an apartment in another city. I did not speak with her long, but it seems that she owes more on the home than what it is worth.

I am not very familiar with short sales. I vaguely recall reading that you need to establish a business entity in order to submit an offer to a bank. I have also read that an individual may refer this type of deal to a real estate agent for an agreed fee. I am very interested in how to go about this, not only so I can try to get this lady's house sold, but also so that I can more effectively monetize my direct mail marketing.

In summary, do I need to have an LLC to submit a short sale offer to a bank? And can anyone tell me how they would go about selling leads to real estate agents?

Yes, the 70k figure is the ARV. I am not familiar with listing agreements. Will that be a major obstacle? It's not major motivation, but I think its worth making an offer on if the listing won't be a problem.

I put out a small direct mail campaign last month, which has produced about a dozen leads. I targeted high equity out of state absentee owners in my area. Most of them do not seem to have the motivation that I seek. However, I have received a lead that I believe may be worth looking at.

The home is a 2/2 worth about 70k. It has been listed for a few weeks at 75k, and I believe they recently dropped the price to 65k. The kitchen cabinets are in poor shape, the a/c unit is frozen, garage door is in poor condition, all the floors need work, and it needs new paint. This is only what I know from phone conversations and internet pictures. I also ran comps, and at 65k, he will need to put a lot of work into the house to sell it at that price.

The seller lives in California, and I get the feeling he just doesn't want to do the work and spend the money associated with selling the home. He is an investor, and he bought the house cash. I do not know what he bought it for, or how much cash he wants to accept. However, I have thoroughly explained to him that whatever cash offer I would make to him would take closing and holding costs, repairs, and my profit margin into consideration, and he seemed to be all game for bypassing his realtor and accepting an offer from myself.

The home has a property manager who can show the home. I am not very confident about estimating repair costs, but I believe that if I can get an accurate assessment, I can be more confident about making and presenting my offer.

I will be researching how to estimate repair costs, and I will try to get the seller to let me know a ballpark figure of what he would accept before I go look at the house. If anyone has any advice on how I should approach this, it would be very much appreciated. Also, I am specifically looking for a writing by Michael Quarles called "How to Determine the Value of a Property in About an Hour", so if anyone knows how I can acquire that, I would appreciate it as well. Thanks for reading!

Hi Jennifer,

Um, basically I got all my info by asking questions on this site. Look up Michael Quarles and Jerry Puckett. Mr. Quarles's yellow letters website has an immense amount of free information and training. Mr. Puckett is really good with marketing, and he is awesome about sharing his knowledge and helping newbies. He is actually featured on a recent podcast about wholesaling. I highly suggest you check it out. I got my mailing list from listsource.com. I chose that site because it is suggested quite often on this site. My suggestion to you is..... If you have a question, ask it. If you dont get a good answer, ask a more specific question. The forums on this site are an absolute wealth of information. Pretty much anything you need to know you can find here. Mind you, i have not completed a deal yet, so i feel strange making suggestions to you when there are so many much more experienced people to talk to. Nevertheless, hope I could help and good luck to you too!