All Forum Posts by: Seth Williams

Hey Josh - welcome. I've got a few friends that live in the SLC area, that's a great city!

If you need to bounce ideas off of somebody, just let me know. I'm always happy to help out if/when I can.

I agree with James Vermillion and Brian Hoyt (and everybody else for that matter). A college education is a privilege and a great experience that not everybody has the chance to do. If you've got the opportunity to obtain an asset that you can take with you for the rest of your life - you should do it.

I always get a little bothered when I hear people downgrade the benefits of a college degree. Seems like it's usually coming from those who never went through it from start to finish (either by choice or circumstance).

Will it guarantee your success? Of course not.

Will it deeply enhance your knowledge, academic intelligence, conventional wisdom and communication skills (to name just a few)? Absolutely.

Given how indispensable these benefits are, I'd say that staying in school is a no-brainer.

Thanks for the link Jerry Puckett. That was helpful to read through and get some other opinions. Just what I was looking for.

I can certainly see how letters in envelopes would present better for those who take the time to open them... but I still don't follow how a postcard (which literally MUST be glanced at before trashing) would be read less often than a letter in an envelope (which can be trashed without even opening it).

Again, I must be missing something totally obvious - as everyone else in that thread seems to see what I don't. Maybe I'll have to try letters in envelopes a few more times and see if it does any better for me.

I guess it's all just theory at the end of the day. I know it's easy for me to mistakenly think that I understand my recipients' behavior (when I really have no idea what's going on in their heads, who reads what, what exactly stands out to people, what each person's motivation is, etc.). I guess the only "actual proof" of what works would be the ongoing response rate.

Thanks for sharing your version Jason Grosso. It'd be interesting to see some other examples out there.

Brian Stone, the process is to:

1. Get a list (which can come from a variety of sources),
2. Sort through the list (get rid of redundancies, bogus addresses, and recipients that you don't want to mail to),
3. Mail to that list (using one of the many options you have at your disposal)

Personally, I wouldn't spent too much time worrying about company letter head at this point. Focus on creating a compelling message and a call to action - the substance of your message will go a lot further than a nice logo.

Does this make sense?

This is actually a huge topic with a lot of facets to it (kind of hard to sum up in one post on the forum).

Let me know if you need more direction. I'm not the foremost expert, but I can at least tell you what I would do.

Just out of curiosity - why do people use letters in envelopes at all? Do these actually pull in a better response rate than a simple postcard?

I've been using the very basic 4.25 x 6 yellow postcards (with plain, black ink) for almost all of my mailings for the past five years, and I don't think I've ever gotten a response rate of less than 5% (at least, none that I can remember). What kind of response rates are you all getting with letters?

I keep reading about how everybody else is putting more into this than I am, which makes me feel like I must be missing something.

Don't the "letters in envelopes" require more paper, ink and postage (i.e. - a higher cost) to hit the same number of people? It seems like you could mail to a much larger list for the same cost if you just used postcards (which in most cases, can't be thrown away without the recipient at least glancing at your message for a split second).

School me! I'd love to hear some other perspectives on this.

Thanks for telling me now Bill Gulley! :)

The property actually had some issues with it (about 80% of the area didn't perc and wasn't buildable), so it wasn't as amazing as you might think. It was still a great deal for my end buyer - but $45K (while under market) wasn't as far off as you might think.

Douglas Rath, rather than spending all of your time on due diligence, I'd say your first order of business is to find out whether or not the property owner is willing to sell at the price you need.

Before you start doing any "homework", I think you'll find that it's VERY helpful to know whether or not you're actually talking to motivated seller.

If you want to get results as quickly as possible, be very honest and direct with everybody you talk to. One of your first questions should be, "Are you willing to sell your property for less than 50% of market value?"

If they say "No" (and many of them will), then get off the phone and move on. If they say "Yes" - then you know you're dealing with someone who warrants more of your time.

Due diligence is an important part of the process, but things need to happen in the right sequence. The last thing we want to do is waste time researching deals that we don't even have a shot at.

In 2011, I bought a 12 acre parcel of vacant land on Lake Huron (456 feet of beach frontage) free and clear for $4,527. The previous owner had some delinquent taxes on the property and many years of bad memories associated with it, which was part of why she was willing to let it go for such a ludicrously low price.

I sold it a few months later for just shy of $45,000.

Considering how much time I had invested into the deal, I was getting paid a couple thousand dollars per hour on the transaction.

Hey Serge S.,

I've done a number of owner financed deals in the past - they can be a pretty nice way to multiply your profits over the long term.

I used an attorney on my first deal (to make sure my documentation was legit) and once I knew what I was doing, I just used that same template over and over again.

In my experience, most attorneys will tell you that you NEED to use them to draft documents for each specific deal (and in turn, you'll be paying them thousands to do this). If you have deep pockets and if you stand to make a huge profit from the deal - this is worth considering. Personally, I chose NOT to go this route and it hasn't hurt me one bit.

If this is your first and only financed deal, I am not aware of any issues you'd have to worry about with the SAFE Act.

If you're looking for templates to start off with, you can check out USlegal. I'm not sure if they have a Note with a Deed of Trust - but I know they do have a Contract for Deed that is specific to AZ:

http://www.uslegalforms.com/contractfordeed/arizona-contract-for-deed.htm?auslf=landmarkhq

I've always used the Contract for Deed (aka - Land Contract) template for my owner financed deals. There are some minor drawbacks, but overall - it's been a good/appropriate tool for me.

If I can help you out in any other way, let me know.

Good luck!

Some lower-traffic websites that you could consider are backpage.com and kijiji.com. These avenues aren't nearly a big of a deal as craigslist or postlets, but they are still worth trying. I've sold a few properties via these websites in the past - so I know they're good for something.