skalember

Go to WalMart and buy a flip cam. Do a video tour of your homes and upload it to youtube. Take the youtube url for your video and place it in your ads on CL. Anyone who inquires about the property ask them to first take the video tour if they haven't already and follow up if they're interested. This is a great way to separate the tirekickers from the serious and saves you the hassle. By the time they've scheduled a showing to see the property with you, they have already made up their mind. It's basically just a quick look see for peace of mind and you sign there. Of course you'll have already explained how the LP works

Say you have a seller who's firm on his price but comps suggest $50k lower. Do you extend the lease term to 2 years or 3 years on a CA just to get the deal done and give the seller closer to his target figure? If so, do you still advertise rent credits? At what % or rent?

I hear ya guys. What I seem to notice is that the areas that have been hit hardest by the housing crisis, So Cal (I'm in San Diego), FL, NV, AZ seem to be the toughest to do anything with because there are so many homes upside down on their mortgages and everyone here did 100% financing. I can do a phone call and in 5 minutes say what I need to say but when I crunch the numbers, it always comes out to $80 - $100k+ that the seller would have to come out of pocket with at close. I also notice nearly all the LO's on craigslist in my area are FSBO's doing their own LO. At first I thought I was doing comps wrong but then Michael and I did comps for the same addy and it checked out so I know it's not me. Fortunately, I didn't go out and buy that Aston Martin expecting $6-$15k a month in CA's.

I'm new to this (goin on my 6th month) and still no CA's done. Thanks for askin

Just looking for other income streams here...since I run into RE agents by accident in my e-mails, I wanted to send them referrals from people I can't do CA's with. In other words, when I run comps and their homes are worth much less than they owe, I want to be able to refer them over to an agent for a short sale if they're really that motivated to sell. I have a meeting with an agent next week to discuss this, but what kind of referral fee is reasonable? And how would I go about making sure I get paid? Anyone with experience in this area? The ultimate goal here is not so much the fee, but to be able to establish a relationship where they give me their expired listings or people considering renting and I refer the short sales over to them. Sort of a "last ditch" effort on both sides for the homeowner

Help us newbies get an idea of how easy this is when you don't have homeowners that are upside down on their mortgages, stuck on '05 prices, not going into foreclosure etc. What was it really like back in the 90's and early 00's? Right now I'm feeling like if I can close anything in this economy that I'll be a superstar when the market actually starts to recover.

Doug, I do strictly e-mail marketing only and kick out 20 e-mails a day using a personal e-mail like stevek@fakeemail.com. I consistently get 8-10 replies a day and if they say no I just offer to do a rental for them. In San Diego people are cheap so some will scoff at 1/2 of a month's rent for the fee but I also offer 1/2 off that if I don't do showings and the fee is given up front. The homes I target are usually $2k-$2800/mo rent so even if I get 1/2 of 1/2 it's still $500-$800 for writing an ad everyday and sticking a sign on the front lawn then running a background check. But I'm in the same boat as you. I can find motivated sellers but they're just not motivated enough to bring $50-$90k to the table to close in a year, lol. I forget who said it here but i've been having good success flipping them to feel like they're the ones that need to sell me on the home not me selling them on the concept of LO. Simply using the words, "well it all really depends if your home qualifies". Then they really start telling me all about their home while I take notes. It's like the floodgates open and they even tell me exactly how much they owe. I've found my convos go much better and the sellers are even quite friendly when I don't make it all about pitching them with a lease and instead let them "sell" me on their home. Then I run comps and the deal dies, lol

I've used zilpy.com. But sending out 20 e-mails a day on CL has given me a good idea of what the market is

I guess that's a good way of looking at it. I think I'm too busy trying to play RE speculator. We'll see if she replies with a counter. Tough place to comp though since all the other places are new compared to her old place.

So if the seller wants a higher offer should i ask what they're seeking? then just maybe meet them in the middle?

What do you guys do when all the comps for homes sold within a mile of subject property are all newer? I just ran some today and the unit I'm hoping to sell was built in 1928 while nearly all the comps are '00 or newer. The only ones even close to mine had sqft that was 400 or more sqft less. I had 11 properties and the calculated avg came out to be $306.90 per sqft which would be $495k. The range was $402-$599k. Then just for reference I went to zillow and their zestimate says $481k! I'm figuring I have to come in below zillow and I was thinking the property would move if I set it at 455k so I made the short offer for $435k with 50% rent credits and looking to get 2% option money. Does that sound right?

Seller: Yes, I'd be open to a LO if the price is right and it's an exceptional deal (strike 1) Me: Have you had any recent appraisal or sales comps on your home? Seller: Yes, I was given an estimate of $420k based on a recent financing I was seeking. But that was before putting in 50K worth of improvements. Additionally, there were our prior closing costs and the time value of the $93,000 we have already paid. (strike 2) Me: Sir could you hold please? (uncontrollable laughter) This guy wants $600k for his place when all others in the area are going for under mid 400k? Seller: You have option premium,rental income, and net purchase price to make the numbers be a good deal at this end. You could stretch out the length of the lease so most of this increase is born by the tenant / buyer, but obviously the option premium would go up too. (Strike 3) Me: Sure, how does a 20 year lease option sound? I'll have my buddy over at fantasyland bank do the mortgage for the T/B as well. The joys of a down market

I guess it must be a San Diego thing. I'm simply using Michael's 2 step e-mail and I consistently get 8-10 responses a day. 90% of those are "no" but then I just follow up with my offer to rent their place out for them. At least you're getting SLO's and CA's. Every home I've done comps on for the buyer they're losing 100k or more so it kills the deal everytime. Even if the home is free and clear, nobody is motivated enough to lose that kind of coin.

I send out 20 e-mails a day 7 days a week so 140 a week is my quota. I send mine from work first thing in the morning when i get in. Takes about 45 mins. i check FSBO's first then FRBO's. Once I'm doen I sit back and let the e-mails come in. I seem to average about 8-9 responses a day. I use a personal e-mail though, not a "lease2own@gmail.com" or any other biz type account.