scarface675

Well out of a total 30 e-mails I ended up sending out last night I received 23 replies, that seems fairly good even if theyre just giving a cordial "no". I got 19 no's, 3 "tell me more" and 1 that gave me his phone number and said to call him tomorrow explaining the lease purchase. Looks like I'll at least get to practice talking to a seller tomorrow even if he isn't motivated. I thought about sending him the reply referenced above but figured its better for me to make that first seller call sooner rather than later.

So I met with a real estate attorney yesterday at an investor friendly title company. All of my documents should be good to go and he even gave me some encouragement after I broke down my plan to him. So with an newly instilled confidence I figured it was finally time to get going! I e-mailed 25 FRBOs on craigslist earlier. I was using my gmail account and was sending the following: "I may be interested in your rental. Would you consider selling it on a lease purchase?" I already got 7 "no" answers and 1 "tell me more" response. I also wanted to post my response and get any feedback, it went as such: "Let me first tell you, so their wont be any confusion, that I will not be living in this home. I have several tenant/buyers that are looking for a home just like yours. They want to lease your property for a set period of time during which they would have the option to buy the property at a predetermined price. I am not a realtor and I don't collect any commissions. Of course, my service isn't free but I am paid by the tenant/buyer not you, the homeowner. A few of the benefits you can receive from this type of arrangement include: - You avoid paying realtor commissions when you sell - Receive a purchase price at the top of market value, even in a buyer's market! - Tenant/buyers are responsible for all maintenance and repairs - Tenant/buyers have a homeowner mentality, not a renter's mentality, since the home will one day be theirs - It costs you nothing and puts more money in your pocket! A lease purchase, properly structured, can be quick to complete, stress free to maintain, and the most profitable method for a homeowner. If this is something you might be interested in than let me know your number and the best time to call and discuss it." We'll see what he says. I was just excited to be getting responses! I am also in the process of forming my LLC and already bought my domain name so I can begin building a website to send prospects/leads too. Its amazing, just taking that small step feels like I overcame such a huge roadblock thats been holding me back.

I've been digging through old posts and stumbled upon a post by Mark in St Louis recommending this service. It compiles all FSBO leads from newspapers, online sources, etc for a specific geographic area and e-mails you the list daily. It claims to filter repeats and also scan the do not call list to make sure you arent in violation. One of the best features IMO is you get access to all leads up to 6 months back. The site is www.landvoice.com If youve used this service I would love to get some feedback on it. Seems very reasonable for $40/month for how much time it would save. Hell, thats not even 2 less beers a week at the bar and, I'll admit, I usually dont need those extra 2 anyways

Thanks for the warm welcome and feedback. I will talk to my bosses and also their broker to figure out if he is investor friendly. If not I am not bound to hang my license in their office it would just make the most sense since I work there already. I did send a message to HHI and had also stumbled upon the topic he posted earlier this year about issues he had run into. I noticed he uses a business as well as a roth IRA, I assume to shelter profits. I asked him about this but would also appreciate feedback on how some of you other investors structure this. Basically I want to be able to shelter as much profit as possible to be able to snowball them into future investments. SDIRAs have caught my eye since they could own the business and profits are untaxed. Since I would be using very little of my own money I could see this being a large advantage. I live very modestly and am currently paying down my debt (about 3k in credit cards) so I don't need to use much money from deals to live off. I took advantage of banks hurting right now, I negotiated down my APR to 8% and get a $550 credit if I make at least the minimum payment for the next 8 months. I plan on being licensed within the next month but figure I can start testing the L/O waters now since it won't cost me anything but my time. You'll be hearing from me shortly, Michael.

Greetings everyone, I've been scanning the forums for a few weeks now and have to say I'm so glad I stumbled across this site. There seem to be a lot of knowledgeable people here that are willing to share there experiences, ideas and advice. I became interested in real estate a few years ago while still in college but never really knew where or how to begin. I graduated school in May 2007 and have since had a few different jobs, none of which I wanted to continue in but hey, they paid the bills. A few months ago I left the financial industry (collections, yikes!) after realizing I was going nowhere fast and working a job I didn't enjoy. The good thing being that once you've called people demanding hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, or you'll repo their car it's easy to talk to people on the phone. I moved from Philly to Arlington, VA and now do back office work for a busy real estate team as the assistant listing manager. Basically, when we get listings I do the walk-through, take pictures, enter them into the MLS and setup our online marketing as well as other miscellaneous marketing activities. It's a great opportunity and has allowed me to get a firsthand perspective into the real estate industry and given me a crash course in the local market. I'm currently taking real estate classes online due to time constraints (I'm a server as well) and should be done in a few weeks. This leads me to my first question. I've read various posts on this site and others regarding the pros and cons of being licensed but figured that since I wanted to focus on lease options this would be the best place to get a straight-forward answer. Eventually I would like to build an investing business but doing the retail side also interests me and I would really like to be able to do both, at least at first. So, my basic question is what kinds of added liability would being licensed put on me? I would obviously disclose this fact to sellers early on in our conversation but is this, and how the contracts are worded, enough to do L/O deals without constantly worrying about legal issues? Secondly, when it comes to marketing, what would I not be able to do? I've heard bandit signs are out because of disclosure but if I was sending inquiring e-mails would I need to disclose my license on first contact (ie when gauging interest in doing a L/O) or would disclosing in the follow-up when getting more in-depth be adequate? My primary lead generation would be calling and e-mailing FRBOs and FSBOs at first so this is a biggie. Lastly, if I were to line up some pure options would I be able to list them on the MLS due to being a principal? This would obviously put the property in front of a lot more eyes and I would gladly pay 3% to a buyers agent to move a property quickly and I would build it into my offer price. How would I get paid in this circumstance? Would it need to be commission based or could I just collect my money at the closing table since I'm a principal in the deal? Anyways, lot of stuff there, I'm just excited to get going and finally be in charge of my own destiny. Any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks, Jim PS- Michael, I do plan on buying your manual assuming I can do these deals with a license. Looks to be a great product at a great price. Unlike many people, I believe the best resources don't cost much. Those multi-thousand dollar bootcamps seem to be a waste of time and money, I know a number of books I've picked up have been but luckily I can almost always pull at least a few good ideas from anything. Give me numbers and facts over sales pitches and fluff anyday.