All Forum Posts by: Sean OToole

Hi @Anthony Caiafa - ok, New Jersey uses the judicial foreclosure process, so you'll want to focus on the county courthouses. The process will start with the filing of a court case, picking that up from the courthouse will be the fastest solution. Most service providers will offer tracking of the Lis Pendens - a document filed at the county recorder to encumber the property with the notice of the pending foreclosure. That works too, but will be slightly later than tracking at the courthouse.

If you want to use a service provider, I'd probably recommend Listsource (Corelogic), or Attom Data (the pro version of RealtyTrac). But often in judicial areas, you are better watching the court records yourself. 

You do mention wanting to see "inventory" - you won't really find that at the courthouse, instead you'll have to review each case, perhaps going back years, to figure out which cases are still open and active. True inventory tracking is pretty rare. We are one of only two services that do that for non-judicial foreclosures, and I'm not aware of any company that does that for judicial foreclosures.

Hope that helps. As you start digging in to the courthouses you decide to track, feel free to ask questions along the way.

Thanks for the mention @Lydia R. Yes, we do foreclosures. At the moment just in 5 states, AZ, CA, NV, OR and WA, though we will be nationwide in late 2019. 

@Anthony Caiafa let me know what state you are working in and I can probably point you in the right direction. Both 3rd party services, which cost money, but will save you money unless your time is worth nothing, and where / how to get them from the county for "free".

Hi @Leland James, congrats on striking out on your own. Big step, but exciting! What parts of the business have you been doing the last 5 years? Sounds like they were finding the homes, were you doing the rehab?
One things I'd suggest, is that it is often fairly easy to reverse engineer what other investors are doing. You might start by simply looking at the history of the homes you've worked on over the last 5 years. You can also use software like ours to find all of their other deals, then look at the history of those. You can usually see what they paid, how long they held it, how much they sold it for. Usually, after looking at a bunch, you'll start to see patterns that you can follow. And unlike advice from gurus from another state, you'll know that this actually works in your area. :-)

Hope that helps!

Sean

Hi @Joe Yobaccio

Our current note buyers use us a) for initial due diligence and b) to monitor the properties with notes they already own.

While we do have some very basic note criteria today (position, ltv, amount, lender name), we've never claimed those alone are sufficient for note buyers. That will change in the fairly near future though, so stay tuned. :-)

Best,

Sean

Hi @Leland James,

First thing I'd offer, is that there are a ton of possibilities. What is most important though, is what you'll be comfortable and happy doing. For myself, I didn't like talking to owners, so I focused most of my buying on Trustee Sales. Others specialize in preforeclosures, probate, tax defaults, non-owner-occupied, etc. Do you have any thoughts on what type of deals fit your skills and interests best? As others have suggested you kind find a ton about each specialty here on BP. Most importantly, after having helped tens of thousands of investors with data and advice, I can confidently say that you just looking for "a deal" isn't enough - this business isn't a get rich quick scheme, there are no magic lists, no perfect letters, etc. But it isn't necessarily that hard to be successful either if you are willing to do the work.
If you really can't decide where to start, my recommendation is driving for dollars. Especially since you mention looking for deals in your neighborhood. Take a different route each night on the way home from work. Look for properties with deferred maintenance, that are abandoned, etc.  Plus you'll be getting to know your neighborhood better which will increase your market knowledge, and give you a better shot at completing a successful deal.

Hope that helps,

Sean

That's funny @Jay Hinrichs, reminds me of when I used to get calls asking for the bank manager in charge of REO's. People would buy lists of "bank owned properties", not realizing that the list resellers were just selling names abstracted from Trustees Deeds, with no idea which were bank owned, and which investors, like myself, purchased. Separating those into separate lists was one of our first differentiators - and mostly just so I could stop getting those dumb calls. :-)

Since a number of folks here are using it, I'm curious to hear feedback on mojo dialer. Do you find you upset people with the aggressiveness of the predictive dialing? It has to inevitably end up hanging up on some folks as it connects others. 

I'm definitely biased but I think there are better options for what you are trying to do. Feel free to PM me if you'd like me to explain.

If you really want handwritten, you can either hire someone, outsource, or use robots. Check out https://www.bond.co/ for outsourced robots, and http://signaturemachine.com for machines (as examples, haven't used either).

I'm not convinced handwriting matters much. Would suggest A/B testing true handwriting vs handwritten font vs machine font. Perhaps take a list of 3,000 and break it into 1,000 of each, using same message, and just this one difference. Important when doing A/B testing to do one thing at a time.

You should maybe consider less expensive, more robust, options for lists too.

Sure, multiple funnels is great if you have the bandwidth to do them each well. Consider dialing one in at a time. Also consider targeting your message within segments - for example rather than saying the same thing to all absentee owners, break them up by equity, or length of ownership. For example folks who bought in 2009 or 2010 in CA have absolutely crushed it, but may be getting tired of being landlords and may see less appreciation ahead. So a list of absentee owners, who purchased between 2009-10, for all cash, could be an interesting list, with a very specific message - ie. ready to cash in? Combining things is interesting too - Absentee+Foreclosure is very different then Owner+Foreclosure. Or Owner, over 65 + vacant. So many possibilities. Be sure to look for a list provider that allows you to make as many lists as you want for no extra cost. ;-)