All Forum Posts by: May Emery

@Brian Flack You can work with a list broker to get advise on a list and have your questions answered - and spend a lot less money to boot!. Home Market Value is usually a model that takes the assessed value, sales in the area and a lot of other factors to make a good educated guess at what the home is worth if it went up for sale. 

As far as price, it should be included along with property type and loan to value (equity) for 7 - 8 cents per lead.

I agree that you have to find the right VA. You need someone who understands how to flow with the conversation.

Start with conversation - some simple questions will give you a lot of insight on how to proceed.

Why are you thinking of selling?

Do you have plans for where you will live next? What's your time frame? 

Have you talked to anyone else about selling to them (always know your competition)

From there, you can start asking specifics on the property.

@Joseph Cameron A lot of investors find that it can be better to look for "off market” deals. These are homeowners who haven’t taken the time and made the investment to fix up their homes before putting it on the market.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Mailing is probably the best way to find your own off-market deals. These are people who share motivational characteristics of people ready to sell, but haven't yet done all the work they think they need to list property. The best way to find them is to send out mailers.

Some good lists to target are Absentee Owners with Equity, Seniors with Long-time Ownership and Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores. New Jersey is pretty competitive so you probably don't want to mail exclusively to Absentee Owners because your will only be one of many offers that they are getting.

You can work with a list broker to optimize your list for your area. From there, there are a lot of companies that can help with the printing and mailing. Be sure that you highlight that "selling your house can be easier than you think" with the advantages of working directly with you instead of the more traditional route.

@Thomas Berardi  A lot of investors find that it can be effective to look for "off market” deals. These are homeowners who haven’t taken the time and made the investment to fix up their homes before putting it on the market.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Mailing is probably the best way to find your own off-market deals. These are people who share motivational characteristics of people ready to sell, but haven't yet done all the work they think they need to list property. The best way to find them is to send out mailers.

Some good lists to target are Absentee Owners with Equity, Seniors with Long-time Ownership and Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores.

You can work with a list broker to optimize your list for your area. From there, there are a lot of companies that can help with the printing and mailing. Be sure that you highlight that "selling your house can be easier than you think" with the advantages of working directly with you instead of the more traditional route.

Good luck!

Having been in sales for a long time, I can say that some of the best deals are the ones you walk away from - because now you have the time and energy to devote to something much more profitable.

@Jessica Holman I agree that you need to be client focused. Are you mailing to a purchased list? or drive-by list you created?

In any case, consider that most people think that selling their house takes a lot of work. Focus on "Selling your house will be easier than you think". Then list the ways you make ti easy. 

no open houses with strangers looking everywhere in your house.

No fix up  or clean up -  We don't care if the roof leaks....

no commission to a real estate agent

I wrote a blog that focuses on letters to seniors - "Seniors with 15+ year ownership" is is good list. The same points I make with Seniors will also work for Low Financial Stabilty and many other types of owners.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/11806/84376-your-letter-to-seniors-offer-them-something-they-care-about

You can work with a list broker to find a good list for your market. 

@Joseph Porturica Mail is a good avenue to contact sellers. However, Dallas is a very competitive market and chances are the Absentee list you get will consist of people that many other investors have mailed to. You can read about people getting 10-20 offers a month in some markets.

You should consider mailing to people who aren’t on every other investor’s radar. Absentee Owners have been too popular for too long.  It's hard to stand out.

There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.

Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.

Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.

Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance. They won’t be expecting the same money as their neighbors with the shiny new kitchen and fresh paint.

A list broker can help you sort out a good list for your area.

@Account Closed It depends on your definition of skip trace. Do you have the homeowner contact info with their mailing address and you want to add the phone? or a list of property addresses that you want to find the owner info? Those are 2 different services that get called the same thing.

@DQ Beverly Mail can be effective in almost every market. The key is to find a list of motivated sellers that isn't getting used by almost every other investor in your market. Absentee Owners have been popular for a long time, and are apparently still somewhat effective (people are still mailing to them) but they are getting multiple offers to buy their home. It's hard to stand out.

There are some new owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.

Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.

Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.

Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance. They won’t be expecting the same money as their neighbors with the shiny new kitchen and fresh paint.

A List Broker can help you sort out the best list for your area.

@Benjamin Nwankwo You are right about the typical lists getting used by a lot of investors.

You should consider mailing to people who aren’t on every other investor’s radar. Absentee Owners have been popular for a long time, and are apparently still somewhat effective (people are still mailing to them) but they are getting multiple offers to buy their home. It's hard to stand out.

There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.

Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.

Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.

Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance. They won’t be expecting the same money as their neighbors with the shiny new kitchen and fresh paint.

A List Broker can help you find the hidden gems for your mailing.