All Forum Posts by: David Tower

Hi folks,

Something is amiss here. On my first go around to my list I averaged over 9% response with yellow letters. 8 weeks later I mailed the first 200 on my list again and got 1 call so far.

This time I did try to copy Kathy kennebrook and i included a separate half page insert with some basic intro along with my website,email, and mailing info for people afraid of the phone. I got one hit on my site and haven't checked my po box but I don't know if this is normal for round two (its not from what I've heard) or if people hated my insert.

I'd appreciate some experienced feedback thanks

It's 5:30 am and I'm lying in bed thinking. I just realized that I'm being penny wise but pound foolish when it comes to writing letters myself.

It takes me about 8 hours to complete 200 letters with stamped and stuffed envelopes. My cost is about 60 cents each. Even if I'm saving $100 per week I could just work 3 hours of overtime at my job and make up for it, thus gaining 5 hours of productive time per week.

I feel stagnant because I'm a slave to these letters and its a constant grind which I don't always complete. I should be using this time to move forward and not saying "someday, once I get a deal or two"

A few hours reading the Internet and watching videos can get you a ton of good and free SEO techniques. Now if I can just finish writing these dang yellow letters...

Wow I hadn't realized how long I've been away. I feel like Bill Buckner walking back in to Shea Stadium.

I've definitely been busy although there was about a 3 week stretch where I hadn't put any letters in the mail. I mailed out 200 late last week and this time I printed out an insert that gives my website, e-mail, and mailing address in case someone doesn't feel comfortable calling.

I'm very close to closing on a deal, the one I've been working since January. My contractor is going by tomorrow do get me a detailed scope of work. I'm strongly considering rehabbing it vs. wholesaling it.

I've come to learn just how precious a commodity time is and how hard it is to do anything significant outside of a 45hr/week job. The main reason I've been missing from BP is that posting and reading here is not "the most important thing I could be doing" and I'm trying to make what I've come to call my "Money Time" as productive and focused on my "Money Tasks" as possible.

I've also moved out my now officially ex-gf, found out my best friend who was moving in is moving 1600 miles back to RI, and prepared for a move of my own that I wasn't expecting. Not to mention slipped on the stairs carrying a couch and fractured a bone spur on my knee that I didn't know I had.

I'm really trying follow this CD set from Brian Tracy about goals and planning. In my opinion it's the best material I've come across on the subject and it's been working well.

The basic premise sounds so simple, yet it is so profound. It is to write down your goals daily, make plans to achieve them, and work on your plans every single day.

There's much more to it than that, but that's the main idea.

I started getting up at 5am so that I have an hour of money time before work and I make sure the night before I have written my plan for the next day in my notebook that I now carry with me everywhere.

I'll try to make sure I check in more regularly going forward I know I can make time. I hope you're all doing well!!

sorry, I left out the fact that the house is owned free and clear.

Thanks Will Barnard for your insight

The basic formula is supposed to be offer price = 70% of ARV - repairs - wholesale assignment amt (could be 5k could be 10k or more)

So if you want to make 10k on a 100k house you'd contract it for 50k and sell it for 60k if it needs 10k in repairs.

All kidding aside someone was about to tell you that there's about a million posts directly below yours that explain wholesaling and that it would have been less effort to read them (or just one of them) than to ask a question like that in a new post.

Since we're on the subject, wholesaling is getting a property under contract and then flipping the paper, either through an assignment or a double closing to a cash buyer. Youre not acting as an agent because your contract gives you equitable interest. Yes it can definitely be done in Canada.

You weren't lying

Thanks Danny. Great article! Nice to see you 'round these parts.

All,

Ok it was my fault for not providing all the details but man a lot of you sound jaded. Also Sunny Gardner you've been here a month and you're calling me out for posting in the wholesale forum? Lighten up Francis....

My planned exit strategy is wholesaling (as most of you know) but this doesn't fit the cookie cutter deal mold.

Here's the whole story. I'm not being conned but I understand the apprehension. These are good people. I've been speaking to the wife (co-owner) for a month now. She is a sweet older lady (very smart and sharp though) that I've built a lot of rapport with. Her husband is overseas. She is getting over a severe injury and was back in the hospital for 10 days recently.

The tenant is a relative. It is grandparents taking care of grandchildren because the parents are out of the picture. The kids are thriving in their new environment and they don't want to move. The owners are sensitive to this and don't want to displace them. I'm not being blinded by dollar signs in my eyes. I've spoken to the wife for probably 2 hours or more over the past month and I guarantee you she is genuine.

I spoke to the husband (co-owner) for the first time last night. He skyped me from Iraq. If they sell, he can stop doing the job he's doing over there and come home to be with his recently hospitalized wife. That is why he wants to sell now. (not because they are pulling a fast one) They wanted to give the tenants a chance to get a VA loan to buy it, but they can't get financed right now.

It might come down to them figuring out which they want more, husband coming home or tenants staying in place but I'm sure there's a way (albeit a creative way) to achieve both. I'm thinking maybe if I can get the owner's enough cash now that I could have them owner finance it to me and if I'm cash flowing I could keep the tenant in their for say, a year, and if they can't buy it then I could rehab and sell retail at that point.

These are ex-military people. They didn't want to deal with some fast talking, pushy homebuyer which is exactly what I'm not. I got to know them and their situation and they appreciate that. I realize I'm not a guru, but even I know that people want to do business with people they like. (and no, they aren't all scam artists and felons).

Again, I realize I was asking for skepticism by only providing part of the story. I appreciate everyone's input.