randian
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Posts posted by randian
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These days, that means avoiding areas such as where I am in south FL, and many of the major metro areas. Smaller metro areas, in and around the Midwest for example, seem to work well for me.
So you've abandoned doing local deals? How much more effort and how much less profit are the remote deals? Lower property values must mean much smaller option consideration.
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That acquisitions guy is gold if he keeps sending you leads.
I'm not so great talking to people either but I'm a super-expert at not finding motivation. Either they want $20k up front to even consider LP, act ignorant and offended at me not being the end buyer, or want me to break the law ("I won't sign a contract but bring me a buyer and I'll think about it"). I'm also expert at sending 50 emails and getting 0 responses (not even angry indignant ones).
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Can't say that I keep such specific numbers, but if I were to take what I think is an accurate guess, I think 200 emails gets me about two dozen replies, and in turn that will lead to one deal.
Once you strip out the stealth realtor ads and repeats I don't think there are anywhere near 200 distinct sellers at one time on craigslist. I doubt I can identify 50 different ones. A 1/4 chance of a deal is depressing. I'm also assuming that CL isn't silently refusing to forward your emails after you reply to a bunch of ads.
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Is this new site a useful source of LP leads?
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I prefer emailing, instead. It's faster, and if the homeowner has no interest, they simply don't reply. No wasted time on the phone, no negative vibes to deal with.
What kind of response rates are you getting? For example, email 200 to get 5 positive responses to get 1 deal.
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And how many hundreds of sellers do you have to call to get one? The manual mentions this as a deal source but sellers are so preconditioned to see you as a spammer. Obama's **** 3% down BS, which will cause another housing bubble just like the last, isn't helping things.
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Randian, I think you're correct about Cubix only working with Windows. I'm surprised. Have you contacted their support desk to see if anything is in the works for Macs?
Not yet. I'll ask but I'm not optimistic. I'm also wondering what this software does for throttling emails. As I'm sure everybody knows, if an email account sends email "too often" to any Craigslist anonymized address those emails will be discarded and that email address blacklisted for a period of time. I've seen other, far more expensive, solutions say they only send one email every 5 minutes, for example.
I'm looking for an automated solution like this because I've realized 99% of all the FSBO listings on Craigslist are spam, primarily hidden realtor listings. Sifting through hundreds of listings manually to find one potential lead takes huge amounts of time, and there are hundreds of new listings every day, many from software autobots copying old listings to the top again because, again, there's so much crap you can't stay on the first couple of pages more than a day if that.
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This seems to require a Microsoft Windows machine to work. Is there anything like this that either works on a Mac or is a hosted web app?
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It sounds like you are strictly minimarketing. maximarket for 6 months straight with a good ad and the phone will start ringing. you must be commited. you must be commited.
What do you mean by "minimarket" and "maxi market"?
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"No charge to you, Mr. Homeowner. The tenant/buyer pays my fee". Then be quiet and watch the delighted smiles on their faces.
I think the buyer would be confused by this response.
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Some cities in an effort to maintain the standard of living require an inspection from the city before a tenant moves in.I guess they "track" it when an order comes in to switch the water...I guess.
"Maintain standard of living" Yeah, I believe that. If that's what they're doing, then order the water yourself (no change for new tenants and advertise "water included")
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David, the newspaper is a dying medium for FSBOs. The cost is probhibitive and the results minimal. It's no wonder the number of homeowners who advertise there has dwindled.I'd say Craigslist is too. 99% of the FSBO CL ads are from realtors. They show no respect to CL's terms of service, and CL never sanctions them for violating it.
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I consistently send emails to 20 CL addresses per day, 5 days a week, with no problems. That's the "magic number" I've found that doesn't trigger that error...How are you getting so many good addresses? I don't think I even get 20 per day. Well, there are hundreds, but those are just realtors spamming the FSBO board, which homeowners seem to have figured out because they don't use CL much anymore. Their ad would get thrown off the first page or two in 10 minutes or less due to all the realtor spam. I find realtor's disrespect aggravating, but CL doesn't seem to care no matter how much you complain, and neither does the board of realtors. Their strategy is obvious, however: make non-realtor methods of selling useless.
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When I talk to sellers, I never use the word investor. I don't want them to think I'm doing this for my benefit, rather, I'm doing this for them, to help them.If you aren't an investor, what do you call yourself when you get the inevitable "what are you?" question?
I'm curious what you say to get people to think you're not doing this for your benefit. I get lots of pushback once the owner realizes I'm going to make money. That's partly greed of course, but in addition far too many people have been conditioned to think that profit and help are mutually exclusive. They curiously don't seem to think that way about plumbers or realtors, as if the commission a realtor gets isn't "profit".
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Maybe I should start hiring hot Aussie babes to sell my houses. Check out their penthouse ad too.
That's obviously a high-end waterfront property, their commissions could easily pay for it. Some of the footage is probably stock, like the helicopter.
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Craig's for example or Backpage or...Ok. I wasn't sure if the ads were electronic or print. I know guys who advertise in Greensheet and similar.
5 out of 20 are interested and 1 deal is made. "Mr. Seller, I have several families who maybe interested in your house to Lease Purchase. . ."Nice numbers. I wish mine were that good.
And I do a lot more than just flip a contract.It wasn't my intention to impugn your work ethic. I've talked to sellers who think I'm not really doing anything for the money I'm making, and it bugs them. I've stopped bothering trying to rebut that belief because not once has it changed their minds.
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Well I have placed this simple ad in Houses Wanted catagoryHouses Wanted category of what? How do are the sellers reacting when they realize you don't want to live there yourself and just want to "flip" the contract?
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If the market option fee is ~$5k, how much do you reduce it for a fixer-upper? Chances are whatever you do it won't be enough to offset the cost of repairs.
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I believe it is illegal per Federal law to use a Section 8 voucher to make a payment on a purchase contract (which the option fee is).
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Claude's method is very direct and to the point, but I wouldn't use the term aggressive.An aggressive questioner would, in my view, ask the "if you got your price..." question first.
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Email hasn't done much for me, and I know cold calling is how our host got started.
How aggressive should you be when talking to sellers? Ask for what you want up front? Claude Diamond doesn't put much stock in spending time on "rapport and bonding", for example.
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9 Lies That Are Holding Your Business Back, Steve Chandler & Sam Beckford
No BS Business Success, Dan Kennedy
SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham
The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
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One more thing: I was reminded by fellow member Jonathan Rexford that acting as a "consultant" in these deals is pushing the envelope as far as brokering real estate without a license. It's a grey area. So just be careful and use discretion when doing your deals. I mean, the Real Estate Police have never come knocking on my door at 3:00AM, but try this with the wrong person and you may find yourself with the local real estate commission writing angry, threatening letters.Florida Statutes 475.01 says, in part, a broker is somebody "who directs or assists in the procuring of prospects or in the negotiation or closing of any transaction which does, or is calculated to, result in a sale, exchange, or leasing thereof, and who receives, expects, or is promised any compensation or valuable consideration, directly or indirectly therefor".
It would not be difficult for a district attorney to argue that you, by telling the seller how to best advertise their property for lease/option and select terms that will appeal to buyers, have "assisted in the procuring of prospects" and that the fee was "compensation or valuable consideration, directly or indirectly therefor". FS 475.42 makes doing that without a license a "felony of the third degree", the punishment for which FS 775.082 says is a "term of imprisonment not exceeding 5 years" and FS 775.083 levies fines "not to exceed $5,000". These penalties are so stiff it's hardly worth the risk.
The realtors cabal has done a pretty good job locking up their monopoly under the false guise of "protecting the public".
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Investor indeed does have negative connotations. . .especially here in south FL, where we seem to be a Who's Who of real estate scams and Ponzi schemesI think all the "beware of scams" signs on the roads have a lot to do with it. Every day going to and from work homeowners get government-financed reinforcement for the idea that if it's not ordinary, it's a scam.
Let's see your direct mail marketing ideas
in Marketing
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I thought by "avoiding" you were implying that SE Florida is so much of a seller's market that deals are few and far between. Certainly not enough to live on by itself.