ScottZavoda

Thanks for all the feedback! I will try the other sites as well. The directionals are set up with the single family. The rental is only 100 dollars less than the rent to own and thats where I've gotten all the calls. I just think the area is very transitional and people are not considering it a good place to buy right now. Problem is I own that house.....Oops! Here are some various links to CL ads I've been posting for the two... check them out and I'd love some feedback. First Two are Condo Second Two are Single Family http://cleveland.craigslist.org/reo/1850886205.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/reo/1845823326.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/reo/1850902420.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/reo/1849242492.html

Ok Ive got two properties advertised as Rent to Own. One of them is for Rent and Rent to own (which i own as well) Problem is I'm getting absolutely no interest from anyone to do a Rent To Own on either. So far I've used... Craigslist 2 posts per day Backpage 2 posts per day. Been using Postlets and VFlyer as well which posts to many other sites. The first property is in a fair area and is a single family... completely rehabbed. Asking about 100 - 200 above the local market rents. Have gotten over 100 calls on renting it but not a single lease purchase. The other one is a 1 bed condo on the top floor of a high rise. The area is fair to good. Purchase is around 42K and 650 / month rent to own with 100 rent credit. Have not had a single phone call on that one and been out for 2 weeks now. Any suggestions on marketing? Who has more luck with bandit signs vs Craigslist. Would you handwrite these or more of a professional look? For me the easy part is getting the owners to agree to this but I find it very hard to sell to T/B's. My marketing must not be as good as I think. Can I put links to my CL ads for advice on this forum? Don't want to look like I'm spamming.

Well my observation has been, and maybe different geographic areas are different, that although you do see a lot of Realtor Ads and that they spam the FSBO's; you also come to find that its always the same handful of Realtors doing it. Considering how many there are and how many listings we have in my area the one's that end up using CL as an advertising medium is an extremely small slice of the Pie. I use it because one its free, two it works well. If I have a listing, and consistently post craigslist I almost always get one potential buyer through the course of it. But it never ceases to amaze me to see the dinosaurs working in my market who squint funny when you say Craigslist, and have never heard of Backpage. If you are an agent on here please take no offense but the technology wave is where all the buyers are these days. I'm a little guilty myself and feel this URGENT SENSE OF NEED to learn the latest web based marketing so I can move my CA's faster.

What about 100 emails per week? I'm sure I'll have some overlap on who I'm sending to with that kind of number.... but you're right its Free!! There just comes a point where my own time available becomes the issue so I want to make it worth it's while.

I think that depends whats on the ad. If too many of them see your marketing as in direct competition with their efforts to get buyers then it could be a problem but many realtors in my exp don't even bother with CL. I am one myself. Definately do not market homes you haven't any equitable interest in. Also make sure that if you are going to market your services to do CA's that you are careful not to say you can help sell people's homes. Michael stresses this very much as well in his manual. If you are doing CA's you are marketing and selling your option to a T/B... not some else's house. IF you stick by this you shouldn't have any reason to make enemies in the real estate community.

Thanks for all the input. My recording does however allow the caller to press 0 and it routes directly to my cell phone. I've just seen in so many other courses the importance of conveying your message in a non threatening way and removing the barriers (ie. sellers talking to a potential investor on the phone) so I thought the recording might be a good idea; not to mention it ads a little professionalism to the whole thing. I get the point though about direct mail and flyers with consistency. What do you put on the signs? Scott buys houses houses. We want Rent To Own. Families looking for Rent to Own Call.... I've also tried mailing yellow letters in the past and was actually surprised by the response rate. Here is my monthly game plan once I can get it all organized. 2000 - 3000 flyers per month. 100 - 200 Direct mails per month (yellow letters) 50 - 75 signs per month. 100 emails per month. Business cards handed out..

Right on! I have also read about that too. I guess here is the ? though. With limited advertising dollars I'm not sure it's feasable to hit the intended market that many times. Right now I've got this down to about $.14 per flyer and that includes print and delivery. So that's $140 per 1000 homes for just one time. If I did that every week to hit each home 8 times that would be nearly $560 per month in flyers which for me is a lot steep right now. Would it make more sense to maybe get a list of FSBO's or FRBO's and hit that smaller more targeted group with that consistent approach and then just blanket different neighborhoods each month with the random flyers? I guess to narrow down my overall question.... where is my dollar spent the most effective in everyone's experience? Down the road I can definately see doing everything you have said and then some but for the New Guy with little funds I just want to realize if doing 1000 flyers a month is worth it vs picking lets say 100 homes that are currently FSBO's and FRBO's and hitting them 8 or more times in a month or so?

Thanks as always! Yeah, your're right, I can do more emails!! They are free and I can rip out about 15 - 20 in about 15 minutes. I will try the flyers for a couple of months i think. It was kind of a toss up though between blanketing a neighborhood with flyers or doing Direct Mail to more of a target market like Expired listings, or non owner occupied properties. Just a matter of budget is all.... With the flyers though, I am planning on hitting new neigborhoods with each batch. Is that the best way to do it or would you repeat neighborhoods?

I started a flyer campaign this month. I'm going to distribute about 1000 flyers a month to specific neighborhoods where I want to lease option. I'm a little nervous as I hate throwing money I don't really have at marketing but I guess sometimes you have to do a test and then evaluate. I've read some older posts but I'm wondering if anyone has had recent success with it. What kinds of results can I expect? I'm doing everything I can to get the phone to ring. Plenty of Craigslist, trying to do about 25 emails a week to FRBO's and FSBO's. Maybe some calls too but I hate those!! My flyer gives people some info and has them call a 24 hour voice recording with my voice explaining a little more about the opportunity. They can press 0 during it to go right to my cell phone. What do you all think? Here's my flyer.... any feedback would be a greatly appreciated!!

Not exactly. The purchase price is still $50K, or whatever price you have written in on the Option to Purchase Agreement. But in this example, while the purchase price is $50K, the balance owed is reduced by the amount of option money the t/b has put down. Meaning, $47.5K This figure is the net price to the homeowner, (minus any rent credits, also), that you should have been touting since you first made your proposal. Ok, I'm with you and understand what you are saying but I guess something about it still bothers me. So it'll say 50K on the purchase agreement; I understand that. Now 12 months down the line when they take this into a title company.. my guess is the escrow agent handling it is going to say.. ok Mr. Buyer, I see that you are buying this for 50K and you are doing a mortgage for.. what 47.5K? "Do you have your down payment money?" And the buyer is going to say... "well I already put that down at the beginning" "It was assigned to me and here is my copy of the Assignment Agreement" Is that going to fly with the title company or is there something I'm missing here. What is going to happen at that point? I just want to make sure my buyer is protected at the end.. and my buyer can close this.. Thanks for all your help.... with my newbie questions!!

Only if the market will bear the price. No use getting deals that you can't move because the terms are all wrong. Thanks for the help. I guess I'm just thinking ahead also putting myself in both the buyer and seller's shoes. If the purchase price today is $50,000 on the written contract and I accept $2500 from a T/B and then assign the deal the buyer would be purchasing the home for $47,500. If the Seller wants $500 for the deal then I would still put the $2500 on the Assignment of Agreement contract right? The buyer would cut me a check for $2000 and the seller a check for $500... at least that's the way I see it. Thanks!!

So I am working on a condo deal with a seller and we are doing a CA for a Lease Option. Here is my question relating to option money from the tenant buyer and how to fill out the contract. Let say the seller wants to keep a little of the option money themselves... call it $500 for simplicity. Now lets say I think I can get at least $2500 for the entire option fee from a T/B. On the Purchase option agreement, page 1 paragraph 4 from Michael's forms there is a place to put the option amount paid to the seller. On the Assignment of Agreement form there is another line to put the amount the New Asignee will be putting down and it says this will all go towards the option / down payment. Would I put only $500 on the Purchase Option Agreement and then put $2500 on the Assignment of Agreements form? Obviously me and the seller will have to sign all the forms before I can even go market to sell this to someone, so I need to put something on that first line. Also do you reccomend having the seller raise their final asking price by a few thousand because I will be keeping the option money as my profit, and their back end net sale price is going to go down by that much?

Few More Questions came up about how I want to structure this deal with the seller. 1. The seller would really like the opportunity to simultaneously market their home for a pure sale along with me marketing to sell my rent to own contract. Is there a clause I could put into the Purchase With Option contract that makes this an non exclusive agreement? 2. I would like 60 - 90 days to procure a tenant to purchase my L/O contract without having to pay the seller anything. I was thinking about just making the start date 60 days from now or sooner as determined by the tenant buyer, if I find someone quicker. 3. If I simply can't find anyone in 60 - 90 days and I want to let this one fall away... how do I protect myself in the contracts in this manner? 4. To make this a valid offer / contract don't I need to include some form of consideration along with the contract to the seller? I know its a lot of newbie questions but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for all the info! I'll probably be re posting with some more questions as this deal unfolds.

Hi all, Great news today! Been talking with a fsbo for about a week now on and off. They finally emailed and said they will pursue my cooperative lease option assignment with me!! It will be my first assignment if all goes well. The sellers had responded to an ad I run on craigslist looking for homes. This is a condo but I can still make this work for them. Not enough spread for a SLO but they understand the CA program as best as I can explain it. I just ordered the manual here about 10 min ago so I'm waiting on that to arrive in the mail. I have a basic idea of lease options and have some contracts from other courses I've gotten. My understanding is that I can just assign the contract to a T/B for a fee and put a clause in my own contract that allows this. I guess I can raise the sale price on the contract for the amount I will keep from a future buyer as to keep the seller happy. Any thoughts here? The condo will probably only rent for about 600 per month and sale price will be close to 50K. Any thoughts on reasonable option deposit to ask for from a buyer. I've never worked this price range before. Maybe Michael can send me a copy of his contract since I've bought the manual. I'll ask him.