All Forum Posts by: Brian H.

List looks great to me too, Roc. Might I recommend 2+ Bath? You'll find that many of your buyers are rehab'ers, and many rehab'ers don't like anything less than 2 BA - harder to retail quickly.

Otherwise, you're right on the money!

Hi Windie, I recommend going to www.listsource.com to snag a nice buyers list. Some might tell you to get a list of potential sellers, but they be wrong :) Buyers first, Sellers next.

I don't send buyers yellow letters. Some do, but since I'm interested in establishing an ongoing professional relationship with these individuals, I prefer to be more business-like. I'll just send a letter with my letterhead on white paper, black ink, normal font, cut and dried.

Once some of these buyers start calling, run them through a buyers script (should be an easy find on BP), then onto the next!

Once you've connected both ways with at minimum 10 qualified cash buyers in your market, then you can go hunt down your absentee-owner high equity list and hit them with the YL.

You would be amazed at what a good Office Suite is capable of. I've used LibreOffice and Microsoft, having very recently migrated back to Microsoft. @Will Barnard is right, there are 3 or 4 out there that I am aware of with varying levels of effectiveness. However, none quite fit exactly what I was looking for. So I also ended up going DIY, which by the way, takes a LOT longer than it looks like on paper to put into action. However, once the man-hours are put in, it is well worth the pain and anguish - ESPECIALLY if you have MLS access. It would take much more space than a post reply to detail what I did to put it together.

I truly believe you can only really put one of these things together yourself.

However, in the spirit of BP sharing I will give you a few pieces to cling to on your journey:

PDF
Mail-Merge
Excel Template

Oh man, called to the carpet!

@Christina R, I have *sheepishly* not finished that post yet. In fact, I've actually been learning a new way to do it since I recently built my first PC (sorry that was shameless), and now use the very FREE LibreOffice Suite instead of Microsoft Office. However, since I talked the talk, I will walk the walk. I'm happy to give the bare-knuckled antiquated version to you directly....through chat maybe? Do you use mIRC or any other chat platforms?

@Karen Margrave - You don't see any REO offers magically disappear before they get to the bank? Perhaps the bulk-buyers in your market have gotten a tight enough grip on the inventory to give the Asset Managers a breather.

@christina

@Christina R. , I'm putting the finishing touches on a blog post I'm calling "The Ultimate DIY Yellow Letter". It should be ready for prime time this evening. I am proud to say that I've managed to automate the system ALMOST such that you ordered it from a mailer company, but at a significant discount. @Joshua Dorkin I was actually planning on getting with you first - there are boatloads of YL posts, blogs, etc, that I tried to wade through so that I'm not duplicating. I got through the first 2-3 pages and realized that even though I had not yet seen a DIY YL Campaign like mine, I couldn't figure out a parameter to weed through the existing stuff.

Sooooo yeah, I'm just going to post it unless you guys have a preference otherwise.

Have a great day all!

@travis west my man! You're out in MY old stomping grounds my friend! I grew up in Spring just up the road a piece. Do me a favor and don't drive down spring cypress and tell my mom about my wicked laugh - she'll get concerned :)

No seriously, I know that area really well, and now that I'm back in the Great State, I want to get into some deals down where I'm comfortable. But of course I'm not QUITE as convenient as I'd like to be just yet, but working on it - still in San Antonio. What kind of investing do you like to get into?

Awesome to both of you, Tyrus I actually have a rental probably just a couple of blocks from you in Elkridge!

as long as you pull a list that would be around no less than 40% you should be okay. Obviously your bell curve will change a little with respect to your call-to-deal ratio, but THAT stat is uber subjective anyway. Truth is, there's no way to guarantee that what you are pulling is going to actually be that 50+% or better, depending on the timing and sophistication of previous financing. I've got one right now that I got from a 30yr purchase list, and they are BARELY getting more than they owe from me (they don't know that i know hehe)

Hi Tim, Welcome to BP!

So, keep in mind that distressed properties are rarely quick turns, and if they are quick turns, they probably weren't really distressed. There is some gray area there, but you generally want a rehab to be beat up enough so you can get into the property at low cost. Profits for rehabs are generated through 2 channels - 1)elasticity of price differential for repairs cost. In other words the more repairs needed, the more room to play with for your profitability; and 2) the property type, as in what kind of neighborhood are you working in? What's the maximum value you can put into a property at it's minimum cost to hit the sweet spot of fitting in with whatever folks in that neighborhood will pay for. In other words, figuring out the human terrain. If everyone on the street has laminate counter tops, any added value you get from instead putting in granite will be marginal in a cost benefit analysis. Comps will always be comps - if you stuck a 10,000 sqft mansion in the middle of Detroit, you aren't going to get near the value for it as you would in a metropolitan neighborhood with a bunch of other 10K sqft homes. Pricing is a very inter-dependent dynamic.