speedingpenguin

Maybe begin the conversation with something like: "I saw your house for rent on craigslist, I was wondering if you were planning to keep this as a rental property long term or if you were thinking of selling at some point in the next couple years?" Sure, you'll still get some NO's but that's fine, they're not your prospects anyway. But then people won't feel like they have to "correct you" by reminding you that the ad they posted was for RENT. Or maybe "I was wondering, how come the last tenants moved out?" and depending on their answer you might have a problem of theirs to work with (eviction, didn't pay on time, just up and disappeared, etc.), and explain the advantages of working with lease-purchase tenant/buyers rather than regular renters

I've sent messages to a bunch of those listings before and gotten a call from some representative of the company (forsalebyowner.com maybe? i forget which one) wondering why I sent the same message to several dozen people in a short amount of time. I explained that I was looking for someone who'd be willing to sell with a lease purchase, but that obviously it wouldn't work for a lot of the people so I wanted to reach all the listings I would be interested in. They 'agreed' and said they'd put the messages through, but I don't 100% believe it. Maybe try sending small batches every couple days or so rather than every listing that meets your criteria all at once, but I don't think you'd run in to any sort of legal trouble. Just do it!

Maybe don't list available properties out in the open, but make squeeze page for people interested in seeing available houses and, well... all your inventory is gone because the deals are so hot, but you'll let them know when something that meets their criteria becomes available!

I cold call off and on, cant say I've had much luck (though I have picked up a few investor-buyers that way), though it's one of those things that for the cost you can't really complain (if you've got the time). I too have tried Claude's "ignorant cold call" approach and while I can laugh about the responses I got now, at the time it certainly didn't make me want to dial more numbers! I think it probably had more to do with how I sounded (nervous and probably a little "scripted") than the technique itself. More recently I've been calling and starting the calls off more like an interested buyer and after getting the info I need from them, transitioning to the cooperative assignment type of lease-option pitch. ("Hey, I saw your ad on CL... is the house still available? I'm an investor, I'm looking for something in ______, could you tell me a little about the house? does it need any repairs or updating? How's the neighborhood? Sounds nice, how come you're selling? Do you have a timeframe in mind for when you wanted to move? Already have another place lined up? Have you had a lot of interest so far? Any offers? What were you going to do if the house doesn't sell by _____, rent it? etc. etc. etc.") What I run in to typically is the owner isn't really pressed to sell or especially this time of year, they want to wait before they consider alternative options because spring/summer = buyers season. Working with warm leads (who have called YOU) is so much more pleasant, I highly recommend doing everything you can to get people calling YOU so that you don't have to call them. And/or finding someone to make the cold calls for you, like Erik is doing.

Try now, it wasn't a hyperlink before so you would have had to of copied and pasted. Now it should be clickable!

I'm a turkey, I realized at around 10pm that yesterday was the conference call! Sorry I missed it, I'll be listening to the mp3 of it today while I'm on the road. Here's the link: (Right Click - Save Target As) www.sellwithguts.com/Naked_Investor_Conf_Call_4-16-12.mp3

Looking forward to it!

Skype, my friend! I set up a local phone number for her to use, I think it's around $5/mo... With the marketing I was doing at the time, the phone number (local) went to a voicemail box, and she would sign in every afternoon and listen to the messages, call the people back and collect information... No phone calls were answered live. I'd be happy to send over her information to you if you want it, but I think you might be better off posting an ad and interviewing some people for yourself... A friend of mine hired her to do some telemarketing (after I recommended her) and later told me it didn't work out because she had a lot of stuff going on and wasn't able to keep up... A lot of VA's are just people working from home... so don't expect to hire someone and have it work out perfect the first time. You might have to try a few out to find one that you like working with. I've got another VA who's worked for me for over a year now, and she's GREAT. Reliable, willing to learn, asks questions when unsure about something, good conversations every now and then, and even sent me a tee shirt and dried mangoes for my birthday... Unfortunately she's only able to do data entry work and works while people here on the east coast are usually sound asleep... otherwise she'd be on the phone for me!

For a short period of time I had a VA from the Philippines returning phone calls from my marketing, she had no noticeable accent and was fairly reliable and didn't cost much... I ended up ending her contract because I had slowed my marketing down and time-wise it just didn't make sense at that point in time. You'll probably find a lot of VA's on oDesk or similar sites with real estate experience. Even with experience however, plan on spending some time training and allowing your VA to learn your system and how to handle your leads. As far as price, I was paying $5/hr and had applicants who were asking for less than $5 and some that were way more than $5

In my research on this subject, I'm finding that home warranties are more for protection from expensive repairs such as appliances, heating systems, etc. not damage caused by renters. What I have found though is landlord insurance, which DOES protect against damaged caused to the property, even by malicious renters! I'm waiting for my insurance agent to get back to me so I can find out more, I'd love to offer that sort of protection option to the seller

I've been thinking about this topic as well, and I think from now on I'm going to either require one or have everyone sign a waiver acknowledging that they were offered the option but declined. Cheap insurance and while the agreements are great when everyone sticks up to their end of the agreement, it's probably better to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Glad to hear this isn't unheard of, haha. I wish the transaction had worked out better but what can ya do? background check and references were good, sellers liked 'em and said "lets do it!", but I guess life happens! Gonna try and find them someone else for the house... hopefully we get someone good!

I'm curious how others would handle this situation. It's more a question of "how to say it" I guess, but here's the situation. I assigned my agreements with the seller to a tenant buyer last year. The assignment, signed by both the tenant/buyer and the seller, releases me of any further liability in the transaction (using the MC contracts). Here we are 13 months into the lease and the tenant/buyer wants to leave (And of course now think they should still get their money back), they've caused some damage to the property, and the seller who's been communicating through email with me basically said "I assume since they didn't buy that we get the $$$ they put down so we can repair the property", to which I replied that as per the agreement, the tenant/buyer is the one responsible for any repairs or damages. The reply I got was pretty much "ok so what happens to the money?" I'm happy to help them find another person for the property, but what would be the best way to tell the seller that the option money was my payment and they won't be getting it? I want to sound professional and polite and whatnot, but make it clear that they approved the tenant buyer and the terms of the agreement so it's not my responsibility at this point. Any advice?

6th works for me, or if we switch to Tuesday that's fine for me too! I'll be checking for updates!

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to all my Naked Investor friends, but it is difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on her advice I wish to say the following: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday practised with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practise religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that the United States is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee. By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. Best Regards (without prejudice) Name withheld (Privacy Act).

Awesome call, great turn out too! Think we can get even more next month? :-D Try this: www.sellwithguts.com/6054754000-427522-6.mp3 (right click - save target as)

40 mins! People better be on!

Looking forward to it!

hahaha! 4 hour work week! 12/03/2011: 0 calls, 0 voicemails, 0 contacts 12/04/2011: 0 calls, 0 voicemails, 0 contacts 12/05/2011: ? calls, ? voicemails, ? contacts

It's probably gonna depend on what state you're in (err... the property in question) One investor I know has the maintenance person meet w/ interested tenants, collect paperwork, etc., whether or not it's legal or legal in your state I'm not sure. I believe they just get paid hourly, not on a commission. There might be like a 2 hr minimum to go collect signed documents for example.

Another vote for the 12th!

roflmao! yep! Funny how it works like that! And MC... Fortunately for me, I don't have any kids for you to babysit! hahaha

Craigslist ads have brought me most of my buyers, bandit signs get lots of calls too... with craigslist the key is to post as often as possible WITHOUT getting "ghosted". Sellpoint.com and postlets.com syndicate to a bunch of other websites too which I've gotten leads from as well...

Sorry to hear about your friend, I plan on getting my PPL in the not too distant future, and I've thought about plane crashes and stuff... It's always a risk... but so is driving a car, riding a motorcycle, walking across the street, or eating food that you could potentially choke on... Statistically speaking, aren't you a lot safer up in the air than in a car? It's terrifying how bad other people drive (around Massachusetts at least...), my feeling is that at least up in the air you've got much less of a risk of some jackass sending a text message flying in to your plane, or someone rear ending you because they didn't realize you were slowing down... Hope your friend recovers quickly!

I don't want to upset anyone or start any religious debates (in this thread at least haha), but a mentor of mine who's been in the business a lot longer than I've been around once gave me a piece of advice: Once a prospect (seller, buyer, whoever) starts using "God" and getting all religious on you, 99% of the time they're a "f***ing crook" so beware! I haven't run in to this myself yet, but your comment about him being a religious guy who seemed nice made me think back to that advice... Might be worth keeping in mind! (This doesn't mean I think that all religious people are scumbags, but more that just because someone SEEMS like a good person and they seem/appear to be very religious which I'm guessing is the case here since you brought it up, don't let that put your guard down one bit!)