All Forum Posts by: David Tower

I'm a bit of Sean Terry ball washer, but I can give an honest assessment. Even Sean will tell you that you don't NEED to join the academy. Honestly his fast start series which I think is #22-#26 of his podcast and his e-book are all free and give LOTS of information.

I feel that the Academy has gotten better in a lot of ways and worse in others. For example, he now has several experts on staff that hang out on the forums and provide answers to questions, but he himself rarely posts anymore. All in all I wish the pros would provide more answers. When I first joined he was posting every day. The number of members has grown a LOT though so I get it. Also, he's doing a TON of deals 20+ per month.

The forums within the academy are a lot of men with one eye leading the blind. BP forums are 10000% better. However, his training modules are GREAT and his bi-weekly coaching calls are GREAT.

I am 100% satisfied with joining flip2freedom. For me, I had irrational fears of getting started and I have no doubt that joining the academy helped me get over those hurdles.

I think the "closing" of the academy is a marketing tool, but whatever. He's not a sleazeball guru by any means.

As for people's potential to find massive success quickly, I don't think he's making any wild claims. He tells people how hard it was for him to get going and how he didn't quit when he wanted to. He tells people that "want to try it for 30 days and see if it works" to not even bother. Wholesaling works. Marketing works. The question is if we are willing to really work.

well my first potential deal is fizzling out. The seller isn't returning my calls.

BUT...lucky call number 13 could be a super sweet deal. This is the type of deal that the gurus pitch to make wholesaling sound easy.

I got a call at work and I wasn't going to call back until tonight but then they called again. I tried at lunch because that screamed motivation and got voicemail.

I spoke to the woman who's husband is overseas and she lives out of state. She needs to get rid of the house here and has no interest in using a realtor. Wow...it's downright easy to talk to a seller who's actually motivated.

Now here comes the catch. She spoke to her husband and the person living in the house is a relative that he wants to give two weeks time to see if they can purchase the house with a VA loan. She doesn't think it will happen and is calling me back in a week.

I was really digging to see how I might be able to help the tenant. They don't want to move before school year is over so I was trying to make it clear that I can work with the tenant to stay until then and maybe even give them cash to move or find them a more affordable house to buy. There's emotion there and I think that If I can find a solution for the tenant I can get the deal.

13 calls in 4 days off 160 yellow letters. Yeah I'd say they work. I'm finishing up next week's batch and will mail them no later than monday.

Call me crazy but am I the only one that thinks like this?

Say a well established national REI has a free CRM tool or a cheap website service....what's to stop them from just harvesting all your data from your squeeze page or contact list?

I like the home brew (beer) forums on reddit.

4 more calls today for a total of 9 in two days.

3 tire kickers but one of them is pretty interesting. A gentleman in Los Angeles called and initially said he'd take 70k for house that "could" be worth 85k. After talking with him more I asked if he'd consider something around 60k and he said maybe.

Not having MLS is killing me here in TX. I'm still not completely sure what an end buyer is going to want to pay based on a ballpark price I can figure from current and recently sold comps from redfin. I know recently sold means recent list price here, but I also know that north texas had a 94% sale to list price ratio last month.

So, I called a buyer I know who likes that area and told him about the deal. We did a conference call and he was able to uncover some things that raises new questions. There's a slight language barrier and my buyer knows spanish. I'm waiting to get the property manager's phone number to follow up with him.

Jerry Puckett that makes a lot of sense. I think I remember in another thread you said you ask for their e-mail address right off the bat? Unless I'm thinking of someone else.

How do you breach the subject of follow up with them or are they just fair game? I'd hate to think i'm sending a text to someone's land line for 6 months. Do you ask if the number you have is a cell?

Thanks

Is it worth even contiuning to follow up with people that have no real intention or motivation to sell?

I know people say the money is in the follow up, but I'm thinking that means following up with people who have shown SOME motivation or interest or the people that have not responded yet to our marketing.

Sure I got some e-mail addresses and why not sent out something free, but I can't see myself writing another yellow letter next month to someone who was just wondering what I'd offer.

Brandon Foken the funny thing is, I am the guy at my current job that takes the "escalated" or manager calls. When someone is fired up and they want to talk to a supervisor they talk to me.

Of course, I started at the bottom 12 years ago and I took more than my share of calls back in the day. Sometimes when we're busy I take some calls and it's like riding a bike.

I'm sure someday that skill will translate over to REI when I get more comfortable.

What a day!

I sent out 160 letters on Saturday. Today while at work I got 3 calls, 2 of whom left a VM and another call after work. Four calls on day one seems pretty good to me.

I spoke to 3 of them and couldn't reach the one who didn't leave a VM.

Man that was stressful. At least each one got easier and easier.

call #1 - I completely and totally blew this one. I pulled the house up on redfin and it was immaculate. Picture perfect. I had it in my head going in that there's no reason they couldn't get top dollar listing it and so I basically called them and told them that in so many words. My one regret is that I didn't even ask what they'd take for a cash offer. dumb dumb dumb

funny story though is when they left me a VM, they didn't hang up so i could hear them talking for 2 minutes after. They were curious about the letter and I heard the husband say "they'll probably make a lowball offer" I was saying to myself "please talk to your lovely wife about what you'd take for the place"

call#2 there was definite motivation, but only about a 4 or 5 out of 10. man in Louisiana has his daughter living in the house. After telling me about the house I got him to tell me his reason for interest was the distance and that he could use the money. not bad right? But, his ballpark number was high and he wasn't opposed to listing it. I got his info and he's ok with me following up

call#3 Nice woman from CA. Early in the conversation she said she talked to a realtor who told her she could get 100k but she wasn't in a rush. I told her based on what I'm seeing in her neighborhood that seemed high but there was no motivation no need to drag it out.

I tried to pitch seller financing (all were free and clear) but botched that also. Call #2 guy was interested enough to ask "how much would I be financing?" I said depending on the deal we could probably get you a few thousand down but the rest would be financed. I probably should have said "what would work for you?" or something like that

I also completely forgot to think about referrals for my realtor friend.

My script from my previous post went straight out the window but that's fine. I need to simplify it for now.

some will, some won't, so what...someone's waiting.

Boom baby. It's not much, but I just received my first call off my letters. I'll call them back after work