Real Estate: 410 Emerson Ave Rehab

Now that we are getting another rehab project going, I should step back-up and give you a little back ground on. I mentioned in my last post that the house is 1050 square feet in size with 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. The house was built in the 1950s. Good, solid house that has seen better days but it is in a neighborhood that has held up well. It is certainly the worst house in a good neighborhood.

We purchased the house from a woman who needed to get out. We will now spend the next five weeks preparing the house to be leased by a future homeowner. The budget is tight on this one, but this economy is getting us some fantastic prices from contractors. I believe we can get the price down to $15,000. That would be great.

You can check out the house at our website JM2 Sells Houses.

See Ya,
Mike

Real Estate Course: Day Twenty-Three of 30 Day Action Plan

Day 23

1. Answer calls from sellers based on direct marketing
2. Talk to one person every day about your private money program
3. Lunch with an expert (realtor/title officer/mortgage broker)

Day Twenty-three: You should still be getting calls on your direct mail piece you sent out. Start talking to sellers! Have a property information sheet and just go down the sheet. Now remember, this is an opportunity to build rapport with the seller. They may have to sell their property, but they do not have to sell it to you. People want to do business with someone they know and like. So be friendly and upbeat. Be confident that you can help them out of their problem. Don’t forget to stand when you talk to someone on the phone. You will have more energy and that will come through the line. Most of all do not worry about failing. Do not expect to be prefect in fact I have found that helps when people realize that you are human. If you have never talked to a seller about their home you will blow it big time. Just know that now. You will be nervous. You will worry that the seller will know that you never purchased a home before or closed a deal on investment property or that you wear different colored socks or shorts all the time. So just make the call.


Private money! Repeat after me-“Private money is the life blood of my business.” Now go get it.

Then have a good lunch and pick the brain of someone in the field. This is another item that will repeat over and over. This helps spread the news of what business you are working in and helps you establish relationships with other professionals.

Real Estate Course: Day Tent of 30 Day Action Plan

Day Ten

1. Talk to one person every day about your private money program
2. Lunch with an expert (Realtor/title officer/mortgage broker)
3. Drive your farm neighborhood
4. Call rentals
5. Call FSBOs (For Sale By Owners)

Day Ten: Private money! Review your warm list and how they responded to your offer. You may have to modify your presentation. You are selling an opportunity. You are not asking the person to buy anything. They are lending their money and getting an interest payment that is usually higher than what is at the bank and secured by real estate.

Lunch with an expert. Make sure you rotate your list of experts so you grow your list of real estate experts and contacts. Remember you can also talk to them about your private money program. That will help with the action item above.

Get out into your farm neighborhood. You want to keep on what is happening in the neighborhood. It will help when you talk to sellers from these areas. It will demonstrate you do know about the area and you are serious about real estate. They will look to you as an expert.

While you are out in the neighborhood, look for “For Rent” signs. Not the property management signs but the store bought signs or hand drawn signs. These are Absentee Owners who are renting out their property. They may have had to evict the last tenant, which can be a hassle. They may be tired of being a landlord (AKA motivated seller). The seller may be another investor who you can learn from and network with. The investor may have several other properties they are willing to sell at a discount to pay for repairs on the current property or they are getting out of the business.

The same goes for FSBOs, which means For Sale By Owner. These maybe sellers who want to sell, you already know that because there is a sign in the yard saying so. Go talk to them or call them at the very least it is good practice talking to sellers. Their motivation level maybe low which translate into not willing to dealing on their equity. They may not have to move and are not motivated to work on terms for a sale. But right now you may have more time than money so give it a try.

See Ya,
Mike

Real Estate Course: Day Five of 30 Day Action Plan

Day Five

1. Talk to one person everyday about your private money program
2. Buy a list of property owners
3. Open USPS.com account

Day five is the beginning of your search for private money. This will be the most important thing you do in your real estate business. Without money you cannot buy many properties. The bank will only let you buy so many properties and the climate we are in today (December 2008), they may not qualify you for any loans let alone one for a property that can be sold for a profit or has a positive cash flow. From your list you made yesterday, call one person and either let them know about the opportunity you have for them to make a higher rate of return on the phone or over lunch (in person). I tend to do it in person that way I can gauge their reaction and tailor my presentation of the opportunity. If they say no do not cross them off your list a No now does not mean a No later it just means they cannot at the moment.

Next you need to purchase a list of homeowners in your identified farm area. You can do this at www.listsource.com or www.melissadata.com. Both have search criteria you can use to shrink your direct mail to target a specific group of homeowners and sellers in the group. One of the cardinal rules in marketing is to hit the prospect multiple times before you move on. Your budget for your marketing campaign should be large enough to allow you to mail to the home owner at least five times. That will be enough times to give the prospective seller the opportunity to hear your offer.

Now that you have your list and your budget it is time to open your www.USPS.com account. This is a fantastic Web site. You can put together your marketing message on a postcard and mail it to your list of homeowners. In fact, within the span of a couple of hours, you can have a mailing going out to a 1,000 homeowners, amazing. You can also set that mailing to happen again in a month or 60 days or rotate it with another list or two and send it every 90 days. You can also use a virtual marketing company like SalesTeamLive. This company will buy the list in the target area you want and the budget you want and will send out the mailings without fail every month. Send as much or as little as you want, it is “Done for You Marketing.” Just visit www.salesteamlive.com and look at the opportunity.