All Forum Posts by: Rick Versace

@Joey Hamaoui I pay them by hour because I am usually asking for more than just phone numbers. I test them out and limit them to 1 hour to begin with to see how productive they are. If they are good then I tell them to check back in every 3 hours or so. If they aren't productive it's not a big deal because I only had them working for 1 hour @ $5-6 an hour. 

@Joey Hamaoui Glad your found it helpful! In regard to the phone numbers, I simply task a virtual assistant via Upwork.com with finding the phone number and let them use whatever means available to them. I usually get pretty good results and I have not asked them what they used to find the phone numbers. Hope this helps!

@Robert Freeborn Every county is different. I have been able to get lists from some areas, and nothing from others. I outsource my direct mail campaigns because I simply do not have the time to do it in house. The company I use, Rocket Print, is who I have been using primarily to build my lists more recently and they do a pretty good job of giving legitimate, detailed information. 

@Trent K. I also use direct mail campaigns, but I have developed an additional strategy that has been very beneficial in the past. When putting together a mailing list, I try to get as much information as possible. Usually I am able to get your basic details (Company/Owner name, Property Name, Owner Address, Property Address, # of Units) when purchasing a list from a database.

Once I have a solid list with solid properties in areas I am focused on, I will post a Data Entry job on a website like Upwork or Elance to obtain additional contact information for each listing. Usually I will give them a time frame, say 3 hours, and ask them to research each listing and find me a number of different details for each listing (Phone Number, Email, Mortgage Info, etc.). After the three hours is up I check their work, and if they were productive, I have them work for another 3 hours and so on. I have been able to build lists of thousands of direct contact information other than mailing addresses with this method.

This has helped me in a number of ways:

1. I can now use a website like Mailchimp or Constant Contact to put together my "E-Mailing Campaigns" and send information more regularly and not incur the same costs as I would if I were sending out as many direct mailers.

2. I can pin point my prime targets and call, email, mail the owner until I am able to get in touch with them. 

3. The mortgage information and other research allows me to put together a more detailed email/marketing letter when approaching owners. This is huge when taking @Cody L. 's approach and trying to refine your marketing material to get the owners attention. 

That being said, I love @Cody L.'s strategy of having an offer ready to go to show them you are serious.

I hope this helps! 

Hi Robert - Happy to help! I personally have not found any deals on Zillow or Loopnet for multifamily. In my experience, these properties have already been looked at by a number of different people, and typically do not present very many opportunities. That being said, I have heard of people finding "diamonds in the rough" so it is one strategy.

We focus on larger multifamily properties and our best resource to date has been by old fashioned calling up brokers in the area we are interested in and building a relationship with them. It may take some time, and consistent follow up, until they begin sending you any potential properties that work, but once they see you are a serious investor they will send you opportunities. From a broker standpoint, they just want to qualify you first and make sure you are going to close, so make sure you can "talk the talk" when calling them otherwise they may think of you as inexperienced and be less likely to work with you. Once you can have a number of brokers feeding you pocket listings, which may take some time, you are in good shape.

Another strategy we have used with success has been direct mailing to property owners. There are a number of companies you can use to help you develop lists and send the mailings out. This is a good way to reach out to owners directly and reach them before they get to the point of speaking to a broker. This saves them money and can usually result in a better deal for yourself.

I hope this helps! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Rick 

@Quang Tran That's great that you have someone like minded to help you get going. I have always found working with people who are equally as enthusiastic as I am makes the process that much more enjoyable! That being said, partnering with ONLY someone who has little experience such as yourself can be difficult to get much further than you are now. I would recommend trying to meet and work with some experienced real estate investors, either by going to local Real estate investing networking events in your area, or by continuing to build relationships on BP.

Working with experienced investors helps with a number of things:

- You can learn from their past mistakes, opposed to making your own and learning from them the hard way

- They will have relationships already built which will give you more leverage to get your deals done. (Brokers, Investors, Contractors, etc.)

- When working with different lending institutions, often times they will want to see that someone involved has experience investing in a similar type of venture. By partnering with someone who has been there, done that, you can use their experience while you are still working on building up your own.

I don't think it is a bad idea to continue working with your roommate, but I would encourage both of you to try to build relationships with more seasoned real estate investors. Partner with experienced people on your first few deals to build a track record, learn as much as possible, then start taking down deals yourself!

@Jeremiah T. I live in South Florida and invest in multifamily properties in different cities around the country because of the lack of opportunities in our direct vicinity. I will outline a few of our strategies below to try to keep this post from getting too wordy:

Determining which markets to invest in:

We focus on markets that are showing early signs of population and economic growth. For example, Jacksonville, FL and Dallas-Fort Worth, TX have been areas of major growth over the past 2-3 years. If you are able to find a market that is at the early stages of this growth, it is a great way to mitigate your risk by purchasing at the beginning of the cycle.

Finding Properties:

We use a number of different strategies depending on the market, but some of which include direct mail, building relationships with other real estate investors in the area, building relationships with brokers in the area, and calling property owners directly to see if they are interested in selling.

Managing Properties:

Someone mentioned this earlier, but building a great team is our number one priority when starting in a new market. This includes:

- Property Management Company - Know which companies specialize in which types of properties (Larger or smaller, A-C props, etc.) 

- General Contractors - Multiple options

- Accountant (This is helpful if you are in different states where taxes are different from your own)

- Real Estate Broker - Multiple

- Lending Relationships - Local banks can often be much more flexible in regards to terms. 

- Other real estate investors in the area - It always helps to have another set of eyes / boots on the ground that can help you out if you need someone to oversee a project.

I hope this helps! Good luck! 

@Quang Tran I can't weigh in whether you should/shouldn't finish college. In regards to whether you should get involved in real estate investing or not due to your financial position, I would say start as early as possible! There are plenty of ways you can get into investing with little or no money at all. Brandon's book gives a lot of great example's. A few of which I utilize for most of my deals are through partnering with other people, or syndication. Syndication is a bit more involved, but if you are able to find a great deal in a great market, I am confident that you would be able to find an partner that would be willing to work with you to get the deal closed. You could most likely find someone on Bigger Pockets if you had a great deal. Again, there are a number of different ways and I would highly recommend Brandon Turner's book to open your eyes to all the possibilities - but don't get caught up in researching and trying to learn about REI for too long. Obviously you want to be as prepared as possible, but the only way to make anything happen and to have any success it to pull the trigger and try to get a deal done! Good luck in getting started. Feel free to reach out directly if you want to talk some more.

@Joel Owens Thanks for spelling out what you are looking for in regards to buyers and your "depth chart" so to speak. I think that is definitley helpful for people to know when they are reaching out to brokers for the first time in a given market.

Something I have considered in the past (and chime in on what your thoughts are) is that it may be beneficial to go directly to the selller's broker, opposed to letting another broker be a middle man on the deal. Not to say you should cut somebody out of the deal if you have a relationship with that broker, but in my experience the fewer lines of communication between the Buyer and the Seller the quicker the deal tends to move.