Calling Jonathan Rexford FL/Auction Sale

[LonnieWA 0]

Hi John and all other naked investors,

 

I've read all your posts and have borrowed "How To sell your home in 5 days" and I stll have a few questions that needs to be answered. I hope you can help me with this. Your help is appreciated and I want to say thanks in advance.

 

1. Do you use the classified ads format that is in the 5 day sale book? Those ads are big and probably cost a small fortune in the big papers.

 

2. What percentage below fmv do you start the bids? If the percentage that you usually starts lower the price below the price you option the property from your seller for then what?

 

3. You said that Bill Effros has a concept but you made some changes. Can you tell me what changes you made and why you made them?

 

4. I think you said that you call the lowest bidder first. Why not call the higher bidder first?

 

Thank you very much and happy investing!

 

Lonnie Turner

[Doug Pretorius (ON) 9]

Lonnie, I'm not Jonathan but here's my take on your 2nd and 4th questions.

 

2. It doesn't matter if your starting price is below your option price, because the starting price is not the final price, and your not obligated to accept ANY offer if it's not high enough.

 

4. I never understood the concept of calling the highest bidder first. Calling the lowest bidder and telling them what the highest bid it makes much more sense to me.

[Brian - L.V. 0]

1. Do you use the classified ads format that is in the 5 day sale book? Those ads are big and probably was cost a small fortune in the big apapers.

 

I would imagine that as long as you ad has the necessary information and stands out somewhat (bold print, framed, etc.), you wouldn't need the exact formatting. I know that if I ran an ad like that in only the Sunday real estate edition of my classifieds, it would be $75-$100 per week pretty easily.

 

4. I never understood the concept of calling the highest bidder first. Calling the lowest bidder and telling them what the highest bid it makes much more sense to me.

 

This has confused me a little also, because I can see reasons for calling both first. On one hand, the highest bidder before the start of the round robin may not have put in a "reasonable" bid (it could be that the highest bidder at the start is $50) as to not reveal their strategy. They get first bid so they can put in their "real" bid. Plus, it encourages people to place higher bids before the real bidding begins. That is my understanding of the reasoning from the book.

 

If the high bid at the start of the round robin is a fairly reasonable price, then sure it would make sense to start with the lowest bidder. Either way once the bidding starts, it seems pretty straight forward.

 

It looks like I'm not the only one who is losing sleep over this concept.......

[Guest Guest_Lonniewa_*]

Thank Doug & Brian for answering my questions.

 

Good luck and happy investing.

 

Lonniewa

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

Lonnie,

 

I will answer your questions in the order that you asked.

 

1. In some papers you cannot use the same format. Personally what I do is just use information that grabs attention. The ad is designed to get to website or call the 800#.

 

2. It depends on the house. The last one we did we started it 75%. I new this home would go fast because of location and condition of home and its in one of those areas that things sell in days. In some other markets I would do lower or maybe higher. It also depends on what type of auction you are doing. Example: Down payment auction could be used for owner financing or lease option deals. Monthly payment auction could be used for rentals...(lease favorite) and of course we could go whith higest price.

 

3. I use the website. I do not answer calls. I do 10-14 days instead of 5.

 

 

4. Because the lowest bidder may not be bidding online after the open house.....of I can do it via phone or web.

 

I hope this helps. If not just call me.

 

 

Hi John and all other naked investors,

 

I've read all your posts and have borrowed "How To sell your home in 5 days" and I stll have a few questions that needs to be answered. I hope you can help me with this. Your help is appreciated and I want to say thanks in advance.

 

1. Do you use the classified ads format that is in the 5 day sale book? Those ads are big and probably cost a small fortune in the big papers.

 

2. What percentage below fmv do you start the bids? If the percentage that you  usually starts lower the price below the price you option the property from your seller for then what?

 

3. You said that Bill Effros has a concept but you made some changes. Can you tell me what changes you made and why you made them?

 

4. I think you said that you call the lowest bidder first. Why not call the higher bidder first?

 

Thank you very much and happy investing!

 

Lonnie Turner

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Brian - L.V. 0]

3. I use the website. I do not answer calls. I do 10-14 days instead of 5.

 

How do you handle it if someone doesn't have internet access? Also, how do you gague the success of your marketing if you don't take the calls personally? The reason I'm wondering is Bill Effros' book mentions that if you don't receive a certain number of calls by a certain time, the marketing isn't effective and you should call off the sale. Or is this generally not an issue since you're doing a 14 day vs. 5 day sale?

 

I'd love to hear what your recorded message sounds like that you use before a sale. Is there a number that we can call to hear what information you're providing before the sale (voicemail)? Thanks!

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

I guage the calls via the 800#. The message that I have was about 3 minutes. I get a daily call report anytime I ask for it via the internet. If a potential does not have access they can call my office and we will manually enter them into the computer and bid on there behalf. When they come to the open house they will be able to see the bids. If I am bidding on there behalf usually around 7pm I call them to let them know what the current bid is, and if they want to advance the bid....and so forth. This is just for online bidding. If I was doing a phone in round robin it would work similar except I would be calling them.

 

I will see if I have a copy of my script that I used for the last sale. I deleted the last voice mail, but I have it written on my computer somewhere.

[Brian - L.V. 0]

Ok. That makes sense. You basically do it online, with you manually entering bids for people that don't have internet access by calling them. I'd love do eventually do it online like you're doing, but I'm thinking that I may have to start out doing the round robins by phone. I'd love to see the script if you have it available.

 

I have a really good voicemail system (toll-free voicemail, faxmail box with find-me and call forwarding options for $5/month + useage), but the only problem is it doesn't allow for multiple mailboxes. Would you recommend recording a generic message about the process and use it for all of your auctions, or would it be better to re-record the message as needed with specific information about the current property for sale? Realistically, I'll only be doing one house at a time for the foreseeable future.

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

I record each message, because I give certian directions about the home, such as driving directions

[Brian - L.V. 0]

I'm talking to this guy who needs to sell soon (his listing expired and claims that he's going to accept an offer somethime within the next 10 days because the house is vacant), but his house is worth about $1 million. It's not the value that makes me nervous (there are many million dollar homes in Vegas, even though the average house is a little less than $300k), but it's the timeframe. Is it reasonable to be able to sell in about 14 days, or should I go for a little longer sale time?

 

Also, whenever the sale/auction is completed, do you collect the 2% earnest deposit the next day?

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

Brian,

 

Its your deal. You collect what you want. I chose 2 percent because if the amount of the home and the type of buyer.

 

Timing is everything. Is the home ready for sale? I mean really ready?

 

You really need to have a check list of what buyers will want:

 

Home inspection

Something about the area

Terms of auction

Copy of Sales Agreement.

 

Just some of the things in the bidders pack.