All Forum Posts by: Steve Dussault

I got a tax lien list and an unsafe structures list from my county. I know there are some good deals on these lists as many of them have no mortgages. However, I can't find half of the owners. The letters I send to the address on file with the county assessor is bad, no forwarding address.

Now I am trying to skip trace. Here are some methods I have used so far.

Free Sources:
- information, or free internet search like switchboard.com
- pipl.com (not too bad for free - finds social networking sites too)
- Courthouse records (shows previous subpoena addresses and if they have a driving offence their date of birth in my county. Also marriage licenses - helps with women who's last name changes.)
- Ask the neighbors (unfortunately a lot of these houses are in run down areas and the neighbors are transient renters who don't know anything)

Pay Sources:
- Peoplefinder.com (not too expensive, shows a lot of addresses, married/maiden names, relatives, roommates, etc. This is a lot of info for the money in my opinion.)

However, there are still a lot of folks I can't find and I am thinking about using a skip tracing service. Anyone have any experience with findtheseller.com? Can anyone recommend a good, cost effective service?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks, Don. I appreciate your note that these mailings do work. I also understand that they won't offer a low price to start with, but when I attempt to negotiate with these people they just tell me that they'd never sell it that low. And why would they? They could easily get more by listing with a realtor and they have time to do that. The ones that are rented are cash flowing and they'd rather keep them than sell for a loss. In short, they are out of state owners, but they are not motivated.

I recently sent a letter to the out of state owners in my county. It's been about 4 weeks and so far I have 32 responses out of 544 letters sent. The letters were hand addressed/stamped and this is a 5.9% response rate - so far so good.

Unfortunately, almost all of the owners have properties in move-in condition and they want 105% of fair market value for their properties. Some of them sound fairly motivated, but not nearly enough to take an investor offer. I had two people with no mortgages and houses that needed repairs, but even these people wanted way more than what it would take to make it a deal for me.

Any other people doing out of state owner mailings that can share experiences and what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks,
Steve

I'm in Indiana, but here you can file the eviction against "Unknown Occupants" or at least I have seen that done several times.

I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than you should. Check with a lawyer in your state. In 5 minutes you'd know how to proceed to get the job done.

Sharon,

I used to do simultaneous closes using C's money to fund everything, but these are no longer permitted in my town. It is customary in Lafayette Indiana to close at a title company. No title company in town (I checked them all) will do a simultaneous closing with no money from the first buyer.

They consider it fraud to sell something (B to C) that you don't first own. The only way to get around this problem in my town is to bring your own money for the first (A to B) closing and then resell (B to C) and get your money right back.

It definately is more expensive this way, but the only way anyone will do it here.

My advice is to try it where you live and if you can do it great! If not, you need extra profit in your deal to cover the cost of funds for the A-B part.

Good luck to all!

I am setting up some autoresponders for the leads that come in on my website. Anyone have any pre-written autoresponder series emails that I could have? I don't mind doing a little writing on my own, but it would be nice not to have to start from scratch! :-)

Investorpro.com has a RE website solution that isn't too bad. I like it because it has databases on the back end to track and communicate with all of your buyer and seller leads. Autoresponsers are built in. They will customize the site to your heart's content and have top notch support.

PS - I have no financial incentive to recommend this company

I am seeking to set up an unsecured line of credit for my real estate business. I want to be able to buy quickly and then put the property under a mortgage later. A line of credit would be a lot cheaper than using "hard money."

I have a 5 year old LLC and good personal credit that I can use to guarantee the line. Anyone have success doing this? Which banks are best for this? My local banks all do secured lines, but I don't have enough equity in one property for this and need an unsecured line.

Hi Eric,

I haven't seen any Williams & Williams auctions in my area that are no reserve. Their website says "All auctions are subject to court or seller approval." When they say "all" this doesn't sound like some of them are no reserve, but I will keep my eye out.

By the way - I'm not giving up. I've just decided not to waste my time on Williams & Williams when there are greener pastures! Thanks.

Williams & Williams uses a low minimum bid to attract bidders, but there is no posted reserve price. They don't have to post a reserve since the seller reserves the right to accept or reject any high bid.

Bidding is easy and the auctions I've been to are fairly well run. I've bid in person and online as well. I don't have any problem with the process - only the fact that my winning bid is always rejected.

Just a waste of time in my opinion. Unless they switch to using an absolute auction I won't bid with them again.