Doug Pretorius (ON)

I like to listen to cold calling techniques on youtube and this is probably the best I've ever heard. Relaxed, no pressure, but he gains a ton of insight into the seller's motivation and the second he gets a yes to his main question ("Are you willing to rent it?) he ends the call and leaves him thinking "Wow maybe I just sold my house!" till tomorrow. Very nicely done

I put my first house under contract back in December 2000, an SLO. And in all this time I have done precisely...1...somewhat creative deal involving a realtor. Not for lack of trying mind you. I think I clued into the notion that realtors aren't the easiest folks to work deals with somewhere around creative offer #439. Since then I've pretty much made it standing policy to avoid them like an ebola-infected village. HOWEVER, a situation has arisen that has me considering the unthinkable once again There's a city about 900 miles from here that is a hot bed of tenant/buyer activity on my site. I have no idea why this particular place is so popular but I have FAR more T/Bs looking to buy there then anywhere else and who am I to argue? Find a need and fill it, isn't that what they say? Well I've found a need now I just have to figure out how to get them what they want. And therein lies the problem. There are virtually zero FSBOs or FRBOs that I can find online! But there are a few MLS listings that could work. Obviously I could just contact the owners directly like John does and that's definitely on the table. But this thread isn't about marketing to listed homes. It's about conducting a little experiment to find out if there's some way a lease purchase investor can work with a realtor on a mutually beneficial deal. Maybe not but what the heck I have a few dozen listings and free long distance (and apparently too much time on my hands ) So what I'm asking you, my good and creative friends, is for anything and EVERYTHING you can think of that I can test out to get some of these realtors to work with me. I will post the results and hopefully we'll all learn something...like that I need to have my head examined, or whatever

Mail active listings like John does.

No good deed goes unpunished!

Yeah I don't really like the whole 'you don't pay anything' approach, everyone EXPECTS a professional to be paid. Can you get a mortgage?

Well...you ARE one of those sneaky underhanded predatory 'investors' aren't you?

After sending a bunch of emails to craigslist ads expressing interest in lease purchasing their properties here's one reply I got back... Thank you soooooo much for your interest. I have a fantastic opportunity for you Doug. How about you purchase my property for asking, and then you can do whatever you want with it! How about...not?

As I'm reading these replies I'm thinking..."You try to offer a little helpful info and what do you get? Nothing but grief!"

Hmm...maybe you're right. MAYBE it has nothing to do with the PPP itself but rather the way I wink at the female seller as I mention it?

Thought I'd share a problem that my fellow Canadian investors can solve with lease purchasing. If you haven't talked to many motivated sellers yet you probably wouldn't even imagine that this would be much of a motivating factor at all, but it is. So what is it? Mortgage Penalties Most mortgages in Canada are fixed for a certain length of time (eg. 5 years) and again most have an early pay-off penalty. Even though the penalty is usually pretty reasonable (2 months of interest) avoiding paying this has motivated a number of sellers to offer me 3+ year lease option terms. When you combine that with no commissions, no closing costs, no maintenance and no tenants and toilets...it's not that hard work up a nice little SLO deal at today's prices or at the mortgage payoff value.

WHAT??! Did I miss that video on youtube? All I saw was JJ's talking head...where's the bikini girls? Nevermind the t/bs *I* have been victimized!!

I'm of a similar opinion as MC on this topic. As Merle Woolley once told me: "I don't need to see a piece of paper to know that my t/bs have terrible credit...that's the reason they called me!" LOL so true As for me I find that most of the people who call me have already tried to go the traditional route and were denied, BUT they picked up a very helpful mortgage broker along the way who they prefer to work with. I'm quite happy with that arrangement. If need be I'll explain what's going on to their broker so they can work it into the credit rehabilitation plan they already have underway.

Lynn, many times when I'm pitching a lease option the owner asks if I would be willing to look for a regular buyer too (or instead). They usually say: "I'll pay you $5,000 if you find me a buyer." That right there could be a pure option. Now of course the price will determine whether or not it's a deal worth taking on for you...OR...you can do what MichaelG is doing and use the pure option as a way of building a relationship with the seller and convert them into a lease option or owner finance or whatever later.

We Buy Houses

After reading this thread I thought I'd run the ad again (haven't done so in a long time) and see what happens. So far I've got 3 replies today and sent off the second email explaining things a bit. Thanks for resurrecting this oldie but goodie, Steve [where's a thumbs-up smiley when you need one?]

Good to see you too, Michael. Things are pretty good I'm just running out of beer money and figured I'd drop in for some pointers on closing a few more lease options

Leave that to the professionals:

Chris, you could always become a broker yourself

Chris, how has the ebook worked out for you? Years ago I created a very nice presentation package similar to what realtors use, and would have been comparable to your ebook idea. But I didn't find it useful. I've always found that people either are interested or they're not right off the bat, if they need a lot of convincing and educating they always seem to end up saying no and then you've wasted all that time and effort.

I do a ton of cold calling ('real' cold calling, in person, door-to-door) and the ONLY way is to get right to the point. People are busy, and some are suspicious too, so coming right out and stating who you are and what you want puts them at ease (or gives them an easy out: "I'm not interested".) Since houses are a big ticket item it's a good idea not to try to close the sale on the first call though. Make that initial call about information gathering: are they interested? how much do they need? are they reasonable and easy to work with? Then tell them you need to go over the info they've provided and will call again tomorrow if you want to proceed.

More like marketing to realtors listings, not the realtors themselves. Ahh marketing to realtors, I remember it well...not fondly...but well.

As far as our paperwork is concerned, it's the same, credits go toward the purchase price. But in practice CMHC insured mortgages are allowed to count any rent credit above the going rate for rent as part of the down payment.

Keep it simple, noob The buyer gets the house they want with very few questions asked. "Do you have $10k? Yes. Good. Are you under the influence? No. Good, sign here." As for the logistics of getting a loan later on. Most lenders will consider the option deposit, rent credits, and appreciation all toward the down payment. But I have to admit I'm a bit out of the loop these days, I leave that nonsense up to the mortgage brokers. 20%... is that really what people have to put down for a traditional loan nowadays? Good grief!

Exactly right, Steve. Although as you can imagine because of the way my site is currently set up I'm getting a lot more T/B leads than I am of L/S. That's where FSBOs and FRBOs are still filling in the gaps at times.

Hey guys. Well I've been 'quietly' growing my business across North America. Currently doing business in 3 provinces and 5 states. 100% of my leads come from my website, I'm not doing any emailing, or cold calling, or direct mailing or anything anymore. Something I've found that's pretty interesting about this particular model is that I get to see which markets are the best performers and focus my attention there. Instead of trying to make something happen in say...Atlanta (where I'm currently getting zero leads), I just switch to Vancouver where I'm getting lots of leads. I'm also finding that there is a lot of opportunity in smaller towns, as well as areas where you have several small to medium sized cities close together (within commuter distance). So what I'm doing right now is working up a proper database for the incoming leads on both sides (tenants and landlords) so I can just run a search and do a little matchmaking magic without the need for any additional marketing. I'm also not limiting myself to rent to own even though that is the main thrust of my site. I'm offering rent, rent to own and sales. Anyway, it seems to be working. I'm making more money more consistently than ever before.