All Forum Posts by: Zach Robbins

Hey Everyone, 

I'm working towards our first direct mail campaign, two of them actually. One is going to target absentee owners as well as houses that we have found driving our neighborhoods looking for neglected homes. BP has a lot of information on this strategy and I feel pretty confident how we plan to approach it. 

The second campaign is going to target other investors. Maybe there's so many other threads discussing the other direct mail strategies that the few threads discussing this very topic are just harder to find. Or maybe I'm just not doing a good job searching.  

Our county records are accessible online. To find these owners I'm going online and searching for mutli-family properties. I then go through each one and record the property address as well as the home owners name and home address. It's been a slow and tedious process but the goal of this is to introduce myself as a potential buyer to any investor looking to sell their properties. Even if they are not looking to sell now, as long as I get them to open my mail and read the letter I've at least introduced myself as a buyer if they decide to sell down the road.

My question is what would you say to another investor using this strategy? I've seen so much content on good letters to use towards absentee, probates, foreclosures, etc., but little on this. Short and to the point seems to be consistent thing mentioned in other direct mail strategies. Would hand written letters targeting other investors still have a better success rate over typed letters? Or maybe a professional looking typed letter on a letterhead would strike them better? As an investor yourself what kind of buyer do you want to deal with when selling your property and what kind of letter would paint that picture to you of the person sending it?

Based on my current thoughts of keeping it short and direct here is what I am currently thinking (ignore the way the spacing looks):

Dear «Leads.First Name»,

My name is Zach and my wife and I invest in real estate. We primarily invest in multi-family properties. Through researching our county records I've learned that you own at least one multi-family yourself.

We are currently looking to add properties to our portfolio. Do you have any interest in selling your property? If so please give us a call, we would love to talk to you.

Thank you for your time,

Zach Robbins

PCF Real Estate LLC

(my phone)

At this point I have it typed simply to keep it saved. I am still torn whether typed or handwritten would be best in this strategy. I have also debated whether I should throw the idea of owner financing in this letter. For the sake of keeping the letter short and to the point I've decided to save that content for Letter #2 or later. I'm looking forward to everyone's thoughts!

Thanks,

Zach

I found this thread after doing a search to find an answer to a question similar to this one.

I see a lot of properties where the house is basically baracaded by shrubs, bushes trees from the road. I can't post a picture but I'm not talking baracaded by a nicely trimmed natural privacy fence but instead what looks like overgrown bushes etc where you can still see half the house and the other half is hidden by (what appears to me) as overgrown bushes next to the house.

Now I've probably painted a picture where everyone would agree this is not good curb appeal. But the reason I am posting to the forum is because I see so many of these I question if maybe I'm just different in my thinking than most and that maybe a lot of people like this.

Everytime I see a property like this I always think that this property would immediately look better to remove, or trim, a lot of the plants/trees and open up the view to the house from the road. 

Aside from what I've described the houses are usually in fairly good shape (from what I can see) and the grass is well kept. So it just raises the question, while I think hiding the house from these large plants makes the property look bad a different opinion than most? Or would most people prefer to be able to see the entire house from the road? 

I don't have enough experience to answer how much of an impact this has on a property value. What's everyone else's thoughts? 

Kevin please forward me all the information you have available for this property.

Thanks,

Zach

@Bill Exeter I read your response and was curious how long a investment property would need held before it could be rolled into a 1031? If a property was bought, rehabbed, rented and then sold how long would it need to be owned/rented before being 1031 eligible?

Josh I struggle with the same question. I just had my offer accepted on my 2nd duplex and will close on it in the next 30 days. I chose to pay cash for my first two units. I'm eventually going to be faced with having to finance if I want to scale but in the beginning, just my opinion, it makes sense to have properties paid off to maximize cash flow. Everyone's situation and strategy is different. In my case I work a W-2 job. My strategy is to get my first 5 units paid off as quick as possible. Then I will begin using financing to minimize capital needed up front. Use the first 5 properties to accelerate paying off the mortgage of unit 6 while I continue to save my W-2 salary to fund the next down payment. As my portfolio grows I may have 4 properties financed. One of those 4 I will pound the principal with the cash flow of the other properties while the remaining 3 financed properties I will only make the minimum payment. The ultimate goal is to get my portfolio to where it can start funding the growth within itself. So for me dumping large amounts of capital in early on makes sense (to me anyway) to minimize risk and accelerate the time until the cash flow is great enough to fund the next deal.

Hey Everyone,

I'm looking to start using a CRM to help track everything. These days so many CRM's are easy to customize and for the most part are user friendly once the setup is complete. I feel getting the database structured and setup right the first time is an important piece to making it successful. While most people are asking what to use I'd like to ask how you have set yours up. 

For example, one question I've been asking myself is should I use the property address for the lead/account name instead of the contact name? In a round about way the property itself is the item you are looking to track history on. Also if you're driving for dollars you may not have a contact name to use for the lead name at the time. 

What is your take on this and what are some other unique things you have done to help make your CRM work better for you? 

Zach