All Forum Posts by: Alvin Grier

Perhaps this has been discussed already on here, if so I apologize.  My question is simply, "Have you still been successfully wholesaling during the COVID-19 pandemic?"

I would think that with all the economic turmoil, it could increase the number of people out there that could benefit from a fast cash sale.  Traditionally most of my sellers have been via probate.

With that said, with the probate courts moving slow, and evictions right now being basically non-existent (due to widely shut-down courts) I've found it a little tricky figuring out what to do.

I called my probate list about a month into the COVID situation (to "test the waters"), and most people said they were frozen 'till the pandemic blew-over.  

With the country slowly opening up I'm thinking people's mindsets could be starting to change, especially considering the dire financial situation of so many right now.

But then again, since it's basically impossible to evict tenants right now, I'm thinking that could hurt wholesaling as very few of my cash buyers ever really want to buy with a pre-existing tenant, let-alone a non-performing pre-existing tenant.

Another reason I've been poking-about to figure out a way to continue wholesaling in this climate, is because a lot of the most successful people talk about thinking "bull" (market) when everyone else is thinking "bear" (market).  So I was thinking about applying that same mentality to this situation, and find creative means to press-forward when so many of my competitors are likely stopping or halting, due to the pandemic.

From a safety perspective, to emphasize social distancing, I was going to propose that either the current owners do a video walkthrough via a live video call with us, or that they let us get the keys to allow us to do the walkthrough alone.  I could take screenshots from the video call to create the photos that buyers like to see (electrical box, furnace, kitchen, roof, etc.)

In-Summary, my questions:

1. Have you still been successfully wholesaling amidst this pandemic?

if so,

2. What strategies have you implemented that've allowed you to thrive wholesaling during this time?

I've realized it's time to hire someone to handle our envelopes.

For the person we hire, the letters will be folded, and the envelopes will already be addressed when I hand these items over to them.

They'll just need to put the letters in the envelopes and stamp them.  I always use the "peel seal" envelopes, so they won't need to lick them or put water on them to seal them.

I'm going to post an ad for this, but I'm not sure how much to offer.  

They would be doing about 1,000-1,500 pieces per month.

I've seen people on this forum mentioning 75 cents to a dollar per piece, but I'm not sure how much to reduce the rate since they won't need to hand-address the envelopes.

Maybe 50 cents per piece?  At 1,000 pieces, that's nearly an extra $500 a month for someone, which could be huge.  

Maybe I answered my own question typing-out this post.  :-P

Thanks Kyle.  I had already put it in my schedule to watch her YouTube videos on the topic today as well.

Thanks!

Rick do you have any information or articles on your website about the most effective ways to approach probate marketing campaigns?

I need to boost our response rates and I'm open to trying and testing out some new ideas.

I understand that, Rick. But what I'm finding is that other close family members have heavy influence at times.

While the PR might want to sell it as-is for cash, other family members can sway the PR one way or the other.

And the best way I can think of to become a friendly face with some of these other people-of-influence is to reach out to them as well.

Of course I'm "assuming" that most of the other influential voices are in-the-mix are Interested Parties.

While it's certainly more expensive to contact both the PR and the Interested Parties, it's an investment that's worth it, if it increases the "per subject property response rate" even a percentage point, with real estate being such a high-ticket item.

Not saying you're wrong, I'm just stating my current mindset towards this.

I know Kent Clothier is able to single-out cash purchases with his "Find Cash Buyers" program.  

My hunch is that these list providers look for purchases with no mortgages to identify cash buys.

I think I'm going to ask a Realtor friend to cross-reference an export from Kent's program with what each property shows in Realcomp and see if I'm right.

Listsource told me that their equity range criterion is an estimate/calculation based on the date of purchase. 

I'm interested in obtaining a "100-to-100" percent equity list from them, where there is 100 percent equity in each property in the list. 

To me, by definition this should include:

1.  Properties purchased w/ mortgages that have subsequent mortgage discharges on record with the respective county, and..

2. Properties bought with cash.

My goal is to have confidence that the list I want (of properties with 100% equity) includes properties bought with cash.

So I understand how they identify properties that meet the first criteria; but what about the second one?

The only thing that makes sense to me, is that they single-out purchases where there's no coinciding mortgage on-record.

I asked Customer Support, and they say they're going to "research" this and let me know how they identify cash purchases.  

But I was just wondering if anyone on this forum might know the answer, in case I never hear back from them.

Thanks

Does anyone market to the "Interested Parties" in a probate case in-addition to the Personal Rep/Executor?

I was recently thinking that doing so could improve the response-per-subject property rate.

For example, I'd think that we'd have a better chance at getting a response about 123 Main St. if I'm consistently mailing 4 people (the Executor/PR plus the 3 Interested Parties), than if I was contacting the Executor alone.

I also think it could help you potentially develop rapport with multiple people that have influence on what ends up happening with the Decedent's property.

I've seen it over-and-over where the Executor likes our offer, and just wants to "get it over with," only to have other family members talk them out of accepting the cash offer.

Questions:

- Is it legal to reach out to the Interested Parties as well, or can you only contact the Executor alone?

- Have you found it more effective to market to the Interested Parties in-addition to the Executor?

Has anyone had any success marketing to people that are in redemption period?

I understand marketing campaigns, and the need to "stay the course" before you "throw-in-the-towel", but I'm considering dropping this campaign.

I've been doing it for about 6 months, with minimal results.  

We have been identifying properties with a big "spread" between the sold price from the Sheriff Sale and the ARV comps. Then we pursue them by direct mail and/or door knocking.

We offer to either list their property, or give them "cash for keys."  

Over the months, we got close to doing a cash for keys on two separate properties, however one of them had a second mortgage that was a deal-breaker (which I should've saw before deciding to market to them).  

The other one that fell through had a judgement filed against the homeowner right after we did the quit claim with the mortgagor and were about to close and redeem the property from the person that bought it at the sheriff sale.

That judgement terminated the mortgagor's (and therefore our) ability to redeem that property.

The response rate on our marketing campaigns has been extremely low; south of 1%, in fact.

Our campaigns include door knocking, leaving notes on doors, as well as mailing the property and new addresses of the owners (when applicable).  We reach out at multiple times throughout the redemption period, all the way to the end.

Part of me is beginning to think that foreclosure is such a touchy subject to many people, that many would rather just ignore taking any action, and just let the property go, even though our "cash for keys" and offers to list their properties give them a chance to make something good out of a bad situation.

Conversely,  somewhat seasoned marketer in me wants to stay the course, and keep altering our message until we improve our response rates; after-all, people have been successfully marketing to people in foreclosure and pre-foreclosure for years, which makes me think there is hope to ramp-up response rates.

Sorry for all the text, I'm thinking out loud a bit here.

Has anyone had any success marketing to mortgagors during the redemption period?  If not, what do you think about my method of thinking with this situation?  Thanks in advance

Listsource is only as reliable as the data provided to it from the counties. 

The way municipalities code apartment buildings varies greatly.

For example, Oakland county (Michigan) has a separate code for apartments, but Wayne county (Michigan) sweeps retail and apartments in together.  

This type of situation makes Listsource's data inaccurate.  I ran a search in Listsource for apartments with a last sales data greater than 10 years ago, and it came up with about 4 or 5 properties, which I KNOW isn't valid.

There might be other ways, but here's "a" way to get around this: 

1. Within the MLS, have someone run searches on the addresses of 10-20 properties that you know to be apartments, then take note of the Land Use Codes associated with them.

2. Run a realcomp search based on the land use codes for the city/cities you want to look for and filter by the last sales date (e.g. 10 year-plus)

3. Take that list, and pay someone (assuming you don't have the time to do it yourself) and manually look at each property from w/i Realcomp to see if helps you remove or keep that particular property using the info in any old or current listings.

You can also run google searches on each property in the list and look to see if there are any clues on the usage of the property which would help you purge/cleanse the list as well.

Hope that helps!