All Forum Posts by: Matthieu Miser

@Zach Wilson I'm a software engineer/data analyst. Let's connect. I might be able to come up with an easy way to keep track of your mailings and results. A lot of times there's an easy solution that doesn't involve paying tons of money.

@Brady Hanks Thanks for your response, I sent you a request!

I'm in Provo, Utah and the market is (very) hot right now, so I'm looking for alternative ways to find deals. Most of the threads I've found on door-knocking have focused on how to talk to potential sellers.

I spent most of my college years doing both door-to-door and business-to-business sales, and I'm pretty familiar with all of the techniques for approaching a cold lead, building rapport, overcoming objections, getting rejected, asking for the close, etc. 

Rather than advice on talking to sellers, I'm wondering if y'all have any insights on high-level strategies. For example, here are some approaches I'm considering:

• Buy/build a list of absentee owners and drive around knocking on the owners' doors.
• Knock doors of people who own tax-delinquent properties in my county
• Drive neighborhoods. Look for poorly-maintained properties. Knock the door to see if it's an owner-occupant interested in selling. If it's not owner-occupied, skip trace to find and contact the owner.
• Drive neighborhoods, find poorly maintained properties, then ask the neighbors if they know if anybody lives there, etc.

What do y'all think of these techniques? Are any of them bad ideas? Are there any ideas I should be including in this list?

Thanks!

Sent you a connection request!

I've been lurking around this forum for a few years and I'm finally looking to get into the game. I'm hoping to get some insights from y'all on what I might be able to bring to the table to potential partners/mentors on my first few deals. I don't have any real estate experience, although I do have a decent amount of book knowledge on the topic.

In my day job, I help companies improve profitability by using artificial intelligence, natural-language processing, and statistical models to sift through big data (yes, ALL the buzz words). For example, I might look at a client's data and develop an algorithm to discover factors that influence whether or not a lead converts to a paying customer.

I have a few ideas as to how I might be able to contribute in the real estate field; however, I'd love to hear your insights! Here are some of my ideas:

• - Analyzing direct-mail campaigns for flippers/wholesalers to determine the demographic/property attributes that are most likely to sell for an under-market price.
• - Analyze marketing pieces to determine language patterns/formats most likely to result in leads.
• - Analyze MLS data to automatically identify under-priced properties.
• - Determine the likelihood that a tenant will default on their lease, or that the lease will end in an eviction.

These are just some ideas. I mainly want to ask you. If you had a data scientist on your team, what would you ask him/her to do for you? Do you think data science is a valuable skill for a new investor like me? Or do you think I will need to focus on developing other skills if I want to break into the real estate world?

Looking forward to hearing your insights! Thanks in advance!

So I'm new to the game (meaning I haven't done my first deal yet) and I'm looking to rehab/wholesale deals in the Provo, Utah market.  I come from a sales background so I'm used to trying to get complete strangers to do business with me.  However, I would like your opinions on the best way to approach this deal.

In other words, these are my main questions about the following deal:

- What information should I gather before making the first call to the owners of the home?

- Have you got any advice on the best way to approach the potential sellers?

- Are there any pitfalls I should watch out for in this particular deal?

THE DEAL (this is where the SWAT team comes in):

So the house I'm looking at is a single-story, single-family home in a B/B+ neigborhood with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1700 square feet.  It was owned by a family I knew who sold the home to a woman in her 50s.  The woman died of cancer 3 weeks after moving in (this was a few months ago).  Ever since her death it hasn't looked like anyone is taking care of the home.  The grass is overgrown with a ton of weeds in a fairly clean-cut neighborhood.  

The property really caught my attention a couple days ago when about 15 police cars and a bunch of dudes with assault rifles showed up and raided the home.  I'm guessing that if the property wasn't distressed before, it is now.

I haven't got much info on who currently owns the home.  I did a reverse address lookup on whitepages.com and found what I assume are the deceased owner's kids.  The Zillow Zestimate for the home is $325,000.

So, like I said above, I'm hoping to get some advice on what info I need to gather before cold-calling the possible owners, as well as any pitfalls I should watch out for.

Thanks guys!
 

@Justin Koopmans Great advice!  I actually just signed on for a summer sales job, and since I have very few expenses I'm going to invest most of my money in real estate.  It's true that even if I do no-money-down partnerships, I'll still want to have some cash set aside for lawyer's fees etc.

I'm really pumped to get started.  The sales job I'm doing actually keeps me in Utah, so if you want to meet up and talk about the market, I'd be down.  I'm curious to know the best way to find deals in the housing shortage we're having right now.

@Steven Bond Thanks for the reply, I'd love to chat.

@Dane Hill I'd love to chat about the market, I'll PM you.

@Theresa White That sounds like a wonderful plan.  I love France and the French language!  Thanks for the encouragement.  I really like Germany too, I don't speak the language, but there is so much history, not to mention just a beautiful country all around.

@Jacob Anderson it's a great place to be!

@Nick Vondrachek For sure, we should meet up when you get down here!  I'm already scouting out deals.