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Doug Pretorius (ON)

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Everything posted by Doug Pretorius (ON)

  1. MC, yes I poked my head out of the igloo and didn't see my shadow so I figured it was time to post on the naked investor Steve, yeah that could work especially with some of my US clients. Most at the moment are coming from within Ontario though. I just don't want to drive to do them. Chris, I'm shooting for half of the move in money so it's going to be a bit tough to convince someone to pay that upfront. If that doesn't work out though and I end up dropping it to a flat $500 or something, then I definitely will collect it upfront and not worry about it.
  2. Hey guys & gals hope you've all been well My site is generating a ton of leads outside of my home market and rather than continue to sell them all as I have been doing I'd like to pursue the best of them as long distance CAs or consulting deals. As of right now all of my leads are tenant/buyers, but that's OK because finding willing sellers in this market is like falling off a log. My question is, what have you guys found is the best way to maintain control of the deal to ensure you get paid? With the buyer and seller meeting in person at the home in question all without you being anywhere near (or ever physically meeting either party) it's all too easy for them to say: "Hey, let's cut out the middleman..." So I'd like to get your input on what works for you in protecting your interests.
  3. Yeah, my area has traditionally been in a kind of 'warp bubble' compared to much of the rest of Canada. Sales were booming in May and June, lawyers couldn't keep up with the demand for closings, second-hand stores were turning away perfectly resalable items because they had no room for more. But July posted a 27% decline in sales year-over-year. And August has been the worst I've ever seen for rent to own. I think you're right about volume too, MC. Get as much inventory under contract as possible with as many options as possible (sale, rent, rent to own) and play it like the big listing agents...a numbers game.
  4. Man...the market has been brutal! Loads of prospects, none of whom can afford to rent to own a cardboard box Don't get me wrong I'm used to getting lots of dreamers but usually there are a few diamonds in with all the mud. Not this time though. And I'm offering some GREAT terms. Below market rent, 100% rent credit, and the rent is less than it would cost to buy the house as well. Still nothing. MC, I know you like to say that a house doesn't sell because either no one knows about it or the terms aren't right for the market. Well these are the best terms I've ever offered on a rent to own. And I've had no shortage of interest...roughly 400 visits to my site with 15 or so replies for this specific house. That's not the most I've ever had, but it's not the least either.
  5. I've only been asked for my credit information once, by a broker/owner.
  6. Chris, do whatever you're comfortable with. I've always found calling to be effective I just never liked doing it
  7. I'd love to speculate but honestly I've completely given up trying to understand anyone's reasonings and motivations. I'm nearly at peace with the fact that nothing I say or do makes any difference to the outcome of meetings with buyers and sellers. They either sign or they don't and why they do or do not is totally beyond me. Fortunately, just showing up is all that's really required to put a deal together. Or so I've come to believe... Is that just me? I'm a product of my marketplace.
  8. Well! What seemed like a slam dunk sign up took a weird turn just as we were getting to the end of the contract to sign. The seller suddenly took exception to the fact that I would be signing as the buyer. First time that's ever happened Oh well, win some lose some. Meanwhile movement on the home I signed up 10 days ago continues to be slow but is showing some slight improvement. Offering 100% rent credit did precisely squat to entice prospects Oh, and I also got an email from a seller who didn't want to rent awhile back. She still doesn't want to rent but now she's asking me to find a buyer. While not exactly my forte I guess there's no harm in getting an option on it and see what happens.
  9. So many things have been going on lately in my business that I think need to be shared, to inspire, to warn, to teach and (hopefully) to learn from my own mistakes and have you guys point out where I can make improvements! I figure I'll start up this thread as a blog of sorts. Where to start...OK let's rewind back to the last couple of weeks of June 2010. I had no properties and virtually no t/b list to speak of after one of my many long hiatuses. I wasn't especially looking forward to getting back into cold calling FSBOs so I started emailing ads instead. Some to FSBOs some to Realtors, and a few to FRBOs even though I've yet to do a deal with a landlord. When I say I started emailing ads I better put that into perspective, the major free classified site for my area is kijiji, it easily accounts for 95% of all classified ads for everything from bed frames to houses. Craigslist, oodle, olx, isell etc. bring up the rear 5% although I've found that ads on some of these sites are NEVER removed and will continue to generate hits to my website long after they've been placed (as in months if not years afterward). Even though kijiji has a de facto monopoly on the local classifieds I've noticed that there are only about 5 new FSBO houses listed each day. Even with the sifting required to dig up the FSBOs out of the myriad realtor ads it still only takes me maybe 15 minutes to email these ads each morning. Sometimes I'll check back in the afternoon or evening and hit a couple more ads if they happen to be up. Either way as you can see I'm not exactly putting a whole lot of effort into my marketing efforts. But hey, at least I've been consistent By the way I'm using a 2-email approach. The first simply asks if they would consider renting, the second explains who I am and what I propose with 2 major benefits of doing business with me wrapped up in 2 short paragraphs. The benefits are: 1. T/Bs who take great care of the property because they want to buy it. and 2. No commissions since I'm not an agent. The beautiful thing about this approach is that by the time I actually speak to the seller on the phone they've pretty much already made up their mind that they want to do a rent to own, they have just a few specific questions, and then they're ready to set up an appointment and get things signed off. The last 7 weeks or so at a glance... 1. ~250 emails sent. 2. I haven't tracked the response rate but it's VERY high, somewhere around 80% I'd guess. 3. Positive responses to the first email are considerably lower than cold calling, roughly 1 in 15 (compared to about 1 in 5) 4. Likewise positive responses to the second email are quite low at about 50% (that means that half of the people willing to rent to an individual are NOT willing to rent through a company) 5. After a bit of back and forth on the terms we whittle the numbers down to... 6. 4 appointments 7. 1 of those turned out not to be as motivated as I thought 8. 1 very motivated and signed 9. 1 very motivated but waiting for their listing contract to expire 10. And 1 set for tonight (I'll report back on that one)
  10. What does the occupancy status of the property have to do with being a principal or an agent? As far as handling showings I usually get a key and arrange to show it at times when the owner will be out.
  11. I can't imagine either, especially considering this seller has had the house on the market for over a year with 2 different agents. The first one was a childhood friend, but that friendship ended over this house. That's why I don't do business with friends/family. If things go bad with a stranger you lose business. If things go bad with a friend you lose the business AND the friendship. Anyway, responses are starting to trickle in now so we'll see.
  12. A week. The first week is typically where I get a flood of calls/emails on a new property. Although we did just have a long weekend and this is probably the second biggest vacation period (last week of July, first week of August) next to Christmas. Sooo...hopefully things will pick up this week. The seller is already calling wondering why it has sold of course
  13. Well this is odd, never had this happen to me before. It looks like NO ONE is interested in the house I have under contract. I'm even trying the 100% rent credit offer, still nothing. I've slashed the rent to below market. The house is well-built and nicely renovated in a good area. So I don't know what it could be but I guess there's a first time for everything! Normally by now I would have had 20-100 calls/emails. Very strange indeed.
  14. Maybe it's because it's a long weekend but my online ads have produced absolutely nothing in 4 days Oh I did have one person fill out the form, they have no money and no job according to what they entered LOL!
  15. I agree with MC. Only a small percentage of people respond positively to my second email but when they do I usually find myself on an appointment with a very nice, very motivated seller, and more often than not I'm leaving with a signed contract in hand. If you're getting a positive response on your first email (eg. yes I'm willing to rent to own) and nothing on your second then tweak the message. Keep in mind that for a long time I had zero success with email marketing for L/Os. Come to think of it, after getting 3 very positive responses between 2 and 3 weeks ago, I haven't got much since. Once again emphasizing the need for consistency. Who knows? I might not get any more leads from this avenue of marketing for months? But was it worth the 10 or 15 minutes it takes every morning? I'd say so I should probably get back to calling FSBOs too. And I'm looking forward to trying out my signs-on-properties idea. A few good solid leads from here and there adds up.
  16. Email #1: "Would you consider renting?" Email #2: "My name is Doug Pretorius and I'm with Homes Everyday a property management company specializing in Rent-to-Own. The situation we're facing right now is we have many more tenant/buyers than we have properties to offer them. So we're looking for additional nice properties in good areas, and that's the reason I responded to your ad, we're trying to fill a need. Since our tenant/buyers want to buy by the end of the lease they take great care of the property. And since we're not real estate agents you don't pay any commissions or fees on the sale. So it's a nice alternative to doing a regular lease that you might want to consider, plus you'll get the sale you're ultimately looking for as well." Generally they either like the idea of working with a property management-type company and want to set up an appointment right away. Or they don't and I never hear from them again! And no I'm not emailing FRBOs. I don't know what it is with landlords around here but the ones who are open to a rent to own seem to always want way too much rent.
  17. Gary, I still swear by calling on ads. It's by far the fastest way to find motivated sellers. However, my latest 2 deals came from emailing ads. It took some patience but not much effort. Every morning I email all of the FSBO ads on the local online classifieds. Not much to ask since there are only about 5 new ones a day LOL! I've been doing that consistently day in and day out since the 3rd week of June. So that's roughly 150 emails. From that I got about 100 replies. Most just said no but around 15 said they would be willing to rent. I followed those up with another email that explains who I am and what I do. I got around 8 replies that were either positive or they wanted to know more. Those turned into 3 face-to-face appointments, and so far one signed contract (although I fully expect to sign #2 this weekend). Also the seller who signed is seriously considering having me RTO another house for them as well. Those numbers are fairly consistent with my 10-year average of 1 signed deal for every 50 contacts. I have to admit doing these emails has been pretty painless compared to cold calling 150 ads I can't possibly over-emphasize how important a steady ROUTINE is to your marketing. Some days I get no replies, most days I get nothing but "no's", but once in awhile I get a positive response. In the past I'd email a bunch of ads and get little or no results and then a few weeks or months later do the same again. And I concluded emailing ads doesn't work. But it does...if you make it just a part of your daily real estate workout and just do it without any expectation of when it might pay off because you never know. One thing I'll add is that these numbers are totally fine with me. I've made some major changes in my life and decided to dedicate the majority of my time to volunteering. So I'm totally restructuring my real estate business around that goal. As a result I've decided to limit myself to about 1 deal per month. Unexpectedly I've found this limit has actually had a hugely positive effect on my business. I've tightened my requirements for what I consider a "deal", so I'm eliminating a lot of marginal stuff that I used to try to do something with. I'm also eliminating a lot of difficult sellers who I used to try to work with as well, so my frustration level is WAY down. I'll take this as a sign that changing my overall priorities was a good decision
  18. So...fast forward 13 days and I figured out exactly where I was screwing things up. Quite an epiphany considering I've been struggling with this for only what? 10 years? It has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I was saying or when I was saying it. It's all about WHO. 2 spectacularly easy appointments with very motivated sellers (1 signed, 1 set to sign this Saturday) and poof! I suddenly realize all my frustrations and challenges boil down to the age-old thorn in the flesh of all creative investors: Unmotivated sellers. Duh! You would think I should have learned this long ago but I didn't. I figured it out on the selling side with T/Bs many years ago, but only finally figured it out, literally in the last couple of weeks when it comes to the buying side. Unbelievable but true. Moving forward this business is going to be so ridiculously easy and enjoyable I shed a tear over all the aggravation I put myself through all these years! I well and truly hope some new investors can learn a lesson here and save themselves a whole lot of grief. You might just have to change my forum nickname, MC
  19. Oooo! love the incentives ideas, BEV! I just signed a new house yesterday (you can see it on my site) where the seller is offering a $300 rent credit (in addition to mine). So I'm going to tell T/Bs that if they can put an extra $3,600 down I'll match it.
  20. The maximum I could rent to own a house for in that price range in my market would be $1500. How sure are you that you can get $1800?
  21. My thoughts exactly, Jonathan. My numbers break down something like this: 1. Signs = 50-100 leads, but they're poor quality since I don't have any of the terms on the sign to weed out tire-kickers. 2. Kijiji ad = ~10 maybe 15 leads, better quality, but for some reason they're hard to nail down to an appointment. 3. Pennysaver ad = ~5 leads, good quality. 4. My own site = 3-5 leads, the best quality, frequently end up being the actual T/Bs I choose. With the 2 houses I'm supposed to be signing up this week I think I might try cold calling mortgage people looking for clients who can't get a mortgage. I've never done that for a specific house before so it should be interesting.
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