All Forum Posts by: Paul Wakim

I am on the hunt for a tech-savvy direct mailing company do you have any recommendations? 

I am looking for a company that I can send property info to each day or each week through an automated process. After receiving the contact info for the properties we would like to mail, ideally, the mail house would process our order and send the mail out as soon as possible. 

My software churns out new prospective properties each day and the goal is to send them mail as soon as possible after they hit our system. Through an automated system like the one I described above we hope to make this process completely seamless and systematized so mail goes out each day of the week. 

We can build the technology integration with the mail house as needed. 

Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

Thank you in advance! 

Thank you for taking the time to consider our open position for inside sales.

About Our Company:

My business partner and I started our real estate technology company in late 2019 with the goal to accurately predict real estate transactions before they occur, specifically before anyone else has contacted the homeowner. Our practices have changed slightly in the past 6 months or so but at our core we are a lead, identification, outreach/marketing, and qualification company lead by and built on an unmatched technology platform. 

About the Position:

We are hiring for an integral part of our team, the Lead Manager position. Lead Managers are responsible for all marketing channels in a metro. They drive all leads to the point at which the homeowner must be called. They build and operate a high quality, high throughput lead funnel while adhering to strict ethical standards.

As a lead manager, you will be responsible for working with our team for a minimum of 35hrs / week. We expect you to utilize our technology and existing marketing processes to qualify property owners as sellers who are motivated to have a meaningful conversation with us. 

Day to day responsibilities:

• - Texting and chatting with homeowners that have just been semi-qualified by a Lead Associate to determine if our services can be of use to them
• - Working with the Market Manager to schedule calls to homeowners
• - Monitoring and responding (via direct messages, text messages, call scheduling) to all activity (e.g. post comments, direct messages) on the metro’s social media page(s)
• - Creating items in Podio for anything worthy or pursuit observed on any channel (e.g. a Facebook direct message, a call rail voicemail, etc.)
• - Scheduling and conducting appropriate follow-ups for all leads

Looking Forward:

We have large goals to be the premier qualified lead source in the real estate space and having a strong team is equally if not of greater importance than the strength of our technology. 

The technology has been successfully built. The marketing channels and processes are working and churning out leads. We are ready to grow our team to handle the machine we've built.

Please contact us if you feel you are the right fit. First impressions are everything so please provide us with any info you think is necessary. 

Thank you! We look forward to hearing from you. 

Hey Mike, I had a freelancer code a simple python program for me that will do this automatically. It will work sooooo much better if you have a unique identifying number for each property like its parcel ID. Message me and I will connect you to them if you want. 

If you do have a unique Id number for each property like a parcel ID number or tax ID number you can always use excel. Its super easy to do with some simple forumlas. 

@Mindi Rosser This is one area I really know well. Please let me know if you have any questions! 

I am going to use only Facebook and Instagram and based on the performance of the different ad placements refine my strategy. Sometimes it turns out that Instagram is not a great place to post the ads.  But time will tell. 

I've considered reaching out to homeowners on linked in but never thought of using their ad platform. I could be wrong but what I've heard about LinkedIn ads is that they are expensive and low quality. 

For my photography business, we use a chrome extension called DuxSoup to automatically connect with potential clients to build the business. We have had some great success with this extension! 

Hey everyone,

Let me first warn you that this is a long post but I'm sure you'll find it interesting and I hope to hear what you think. If anyone has any questions please post them in this thread. Ill be happy to help!

I have been working on something very interesting for the past 2/3 months that I think would really be beneficial for any investor to have access to and I'll tell you exactly how I did it.

To start, I am about to close my first 3 wholesale deals and they all came from lists I had to pay for. Not only are the general list providers we all hear about and use expensive they also provide lists that are so-so when it comes to quality. For example, I purchased a list from List Source a few months back and at least 30% of the mailers were returned.

I'm sure someone has a way around this or a way to improve their rate of returned mail but I don't want to spend the money to figure out how to optimize someone else's list.

SO, I decided to make my own.

Now let me preface the rest of this post with the fact I am VERY VERY VERY lucky to have access to all the data I used for these lists. There is absolutely no guarantee you will have the same luck in your city. However, if you live in a larger metro area where there is publically available data I think you'll be able to follow what I've done and get monthly updated high-quality lists just like I did.

So here is what I did and what we made!

I worked with a FANTASTIC developer from upwork to aggregate all the valuable public data on distressed properties into a program that cross-references all those separate data sources and finds the matching data from each list. And... it auto updates each month when the county puts out new data! Do you follow me?

For example, I have access to all the properties in my area that are currently going through mortgage foreclosure, tax foreclosure, probate, marked as vacant, marked as high grass or any other code violation. Additionally, my county provides general property data in easy to use files showing things such as # of bedrooms and bathrooms, the general condition of the property, last market sale date and price, zoning, etc. Based on the unique ID # used to identify each property we cross-referenced each list against the others to find the correlations.

The result is lists of houses that fit at least one of the criteria or all of them or anything in between.

So I have these great lists but then the next problem was getting the owners mailing address and name...

We then created an additional part of the application that scrapes tax assessment sites for that info and imports it directly into the database with all the other info. Same developer... needless to say... he's a beast!

At this point, I'm pretty excited because I now have a computer program that not only automatically gathers data on distressed properties, updates monthly (automatically), but it also gives me the mailing info I need and formatted correctly to be sent directly to the printer I use for mailings.

So I obviously had to pay for this application to be built and I'm going to have to pay monthly for it to be hosted in the cloud so I can access it from anywhere. But, now I do not have to worry about paying for lists and I don't have to wonder if the data is up to date. A huge problem I've had with list providers in the past few months is letters coming back that say the person the letter is addressed to has moved and no longer lives at that address. This problem is eliminated with my access to the "last market sale date" data. I just filter out the houses that have sold recently.

There are a few potential holes in my plan. First and foremost, the organization that compiles all the data into easily digestible files for my developer to work with could stop providing the data out of nowhere. If that happens I'm back to square one trying to outsmart List Source to find the best combination of home criteria for my next mailing. Another potential problem is the list may update each month but it could be a very small number of new leads to mail.

However, I did my initial export of the data and have a list of over 45,000 houses to start mailing. My guess is that assuming the quality of the list is maintained I will be mailing those initial houses and any new ones for a long time before the well is tapped.

I'm sure there are other downsides if you can think of them let me know!

As an added benefit I have been making contacts in the industry by talking to everyone I possibly can. One of the contacts I made was so impressed by this program that he offered to fund the monthly printing/mailing fees in exchange for first access to deals in the areas where he focuses his business.

Finally, the last cool thing I am going to do is use my extensive knowledge of social media advertising and web design to ensure I'm in front of these distressed owners by not only getting into their mailbox but also their social feeds. See, with access to so much data for a specific property you can tell the social media platforms to show ads directly to those individuals on the mailing list and no one else. THEN, you can tell the social platforms to find other people outside your lists who are very similar to the individuals on your list, thus expanding the audience of people seeing your ads far beyond your initial list.

Needless to say, I'm excited to see how this goes. I will be posting updates if that's something that interests people.

Like I said above, if you have any questions or if you find any holes in this plan please reply to this thread. Also, I will be happy to help anyone set up a similar program in their city if you want. Keep in mind though this took A LOT of work and could all crash and burn. But hey, no one can ever say I didn't try!

Hey everyone, 

Let me first warn you that this is a long post but I'm sure you'll find it interesting and I hope to hear what you think. If anyone has any questions please post them in this thread. Ill be happy to help!

I have been working on something very interesting for the past 2/3 months that I think would really be beneficial for any investor to have access to and I'll tell you exactly how I did it.

To start, I am about to close my first 3 wholesale deals and they all came from lists I had to pay for. Not only are the general list providers we all hear about and use expensive they also provide lists that are so-so when it comes to quality. For example, I purchased a list from List Source a few months back and at least 30% of the mailers were returned.

I'm sure someone has a way around this or a way to improve their rate of returned mail but I don't want to spend the money to figure out how to optimize someone else's list. 

SO, I decided to make my own. 

Now let me preface the rest of this post with the fact I am VERY VERY VERY lucky to have access to all the data I used for these lists. There is absolutely no guarantee you will have the same luck in your city. However, if you live in a larger metro area where there is publically available data I think you'll be able to follow what I've done and get monthly updated high-quality lists just like I did.

So here is what I did and what we made!

I worked with a FANTASTIC developer from upwork to aggregate all the valuable public data on distressed properties into a program that cross-references all those separate data sources and finds the matching data from each list. And... it auto updates each month when the county puts out new data! Do you follow me?

For example, I have access to all the properties in my area that are currently going through mortgage foreclosure, tax foreclosure, probate, marked as vacant, marked as high grass or any other code violation. Additionally, my county provides general property data in easy to use files showing things such as # of bedrooms and bathrooms, the general condition of the property, last market sale date and price, zoning, etc. Based on the unique ID # used to identify each property we cross-referenced each list against the others to find the correlations.

The result is lists of houses that fit at least one of the criteria or all of them or anything in between. 

So I have these great lists but then the next problem was getting the owners mailing address and name... 

We then created an additional part of the application that scrapes tax assessment sites for that info and imports it directly into the database with all the other info. Same developer... needless to say... he's a beast!

At this point, I'm pretty excited because I now have a computer program that not only automatically gathers data on distressed properties, updates monthly (automatically), but it also gives me the mailing info I need and formatted correctly to be sent directly to the printer I use for mailings. 

So I obviously had to pay for this application to be built and I'm going to have to pay monthly for it to be hosted in the cloud so I can access it from anywhere. But, now I do not have to worry about paying for lists and I don't have to wonder if the data is up to date. A huge problem I've had with list providers in the past few months is letters coming back that say the person the letter is addressed to has moved and no longer lives at that address. This problem is eliminated with my access to the "last market sale date" data. I just filter out the houses that have sold recently. 

There are a few potential holes in my plan. First and foremost, the organization that compiles all the data into easily digestible files for my developer to work with could stop providing the data out of nowhere. If that happens I'm back to square one trying to outsmart List Source to find the best combination of home criteria for my next mailing. Another potential problem is the list may update each month but it could be a very small number of new leads to mail. 

However, I did my initial export of the data and have a list of over 45,000 houses to start mailing. My guess is that assuming the quality of the list is maintained I will be mailing those initial houses and any new ones for a long time before the well is tapped. 

I'm sure there are other downsides if you can think of them let me know!

As an added benefit I have been making contacts in the industry by talking to everyone I possibly can. One of the contacts I made was so impressed by this program that he offered to fund the monthly printing/mailing fees in exchange for first access to deals in the areas where he focuses his business. 

Finally, the last cool thing I am going to do is use my extensive knowledge of social media advertising and web design to ensure I'm in front of these distressed owners by not only getting into their mailbox but also their social feeds. See, with access to so much data for a specific property you can tell the social media platforms to show ads directly to those individuals on the mailing list and no one else. THEN, you can tell the social platforms to find other people outside your lists who are very similar to the individuals on your list, thus expanding the audience of people seeing your ads far beyond your initial list.  

Needless to say, I'm excited to see how this goes. I will be posting updates if that's something that interests people. 

Like I said above, if you have any questions or if you find any holes in this plan please reply to this thread. Also, I will be happy to help anyone set up a similar program in their city if you want. Keep in mind though this took A LOT of work and could all crash and burn. But hey, no one can ever say I didn't try!  

@Will Pritchett thank you for the info.

Once you have the note stating the amount those individuals are owed how does that note get places in first lien position? It seems obvious that it  is first position but what legalities must be satisfied in order or the lien to be on the house and not just a personal loan? Is it simply that the note documents state that the loan is secured by the subject property? 

Do you have a preferred rate of return you give to your investors?

What kind of deals are you funding with their money? 

If you have multiple investors in on one deal how do you choose who gets the first, second, third etc. lien position? 

Do you have any recommendations for material I can read up on to get more info? 

Thank you again. 

Hello everyone,

I am grateful to have stumbled upon the situation I am currently in but I certainly need some guidance. A few family friends want to do deals with me by giving me money, so private financing. 

Those of you who have taken on outside money to purchase properties, how was your "entity" structured to protect yourself and your investors? 

Do you have those investors put a lien on the property? 

Do you have them lend directly to the legal entity? 

How do you keep a paper trail of the money lent? If I get a commitment from one family member for $1 million and end up using $400,000 is there a logical way to keep track of that beyond contracts lawyers draw up for us? 

Maybe I'm missing something but I do not know the answer so any help is greatly appreciated. 

I just want to have a legal and concrete structure built for anyone that wants to give me their hard earned money that protects everyone and gives us the biggest tax benefit. 

Thank you in advance! 

@Lissette Deleon I have run and helped run the social media marketing campaigns for a few agents and have put together proposals for many others. What @Grant Rothenburger & @Richard D. said is 100% right. I know agents that have very strong followings and generate leads all year long from their pages. Most of these successful agents spent a significant amount of money on ads and few took the time to post consistently and grow organically. Grant's advice was spot on but few agents let alone people/businesses in want to take the time to create content. Additionally, even if you do decide to spend the money and run ads on social media you still have to have some quality content. 

Long story short, content is massively important!

I can go into all the details in another post if you'd like but if you do decide to run ads you want to follow the basic framework of casting a very wide net across your market and slowly narrowing down to an audience of people who will convert from your ads. This strategy has worked time and time again, granted its much more complicated than that but it really works if you have the time and money to spend on advertising. 

@Casity Kao Fortunately I have a few developers and builders interested. This specific property should turn out really nicely. Thank you for your help.