Doug Pretorius (ON) 9 Report post Posted February 18, 2009 I'm getting a good response from my kijiji ad and am working out my follow-up email. I want to give them enough info to make a decision because I'm getting too much replies to have to answer a pile of questions from every direction. Here's what I've got so far, let me know what you think. Thank you for replying to my ad! This is a just a little follow up email to give you a bit more detail on how I do business and what I can offer you. Whether you decide to sell your property to me or not is entirely up to you, you will find no high-pressure sales tactics or endless calls or emails here. My name is Doug Pretorius and I am a private real estate BUYER, not a Realtor. I buy houses and other residential property in all 10 provinces across Canada and have been doing so since 2000. To date I have bought approximately 100 homes direct from homeowners just like yourself. You may be wondering if your property matches what I'm interested in buying. Chances are excellent that it does because I buy all types of homes including detached and semi-detached houses, townhouses (condo or freehold), apartment condos, mobile homes...you name it. I also buy properties in any condition from brand new or totally renovated all the way down to complete wrecks that have been condemned. In addition, I'm ALWAYS looking to buy. So even if you are just curious right now and not quite ready to sell you can always contact me again later. Whenever YOU are ready I'll be ready with an offer in hand for the FULL market value of your property. The reason I'm able to buy your property for as much as any best-case-scenario offer an agent could come up with, and do so at a time convenient for you, even in 24 hours ifnecessary. Is because of the way I purchase. I use a technique called a Lease Purchase. This is in my opinion the best form of private financing in use today because it is so simpleto understand and use. It's a combination of a LEASE and an OPTION to PURCHASE agreement.This allows me to begin making payments to you or directly to your bank/lender today, and complete the purchase of your property at a later date. * Get FULL market value for your property.* Get your payments covered.* Get your vacant property filled quickly.* Save thousands in commissions, closing costs and management fees. That's the Lease Purchase Advantage and that's how I can buy your property for full market value in as little as 24 hours! I hope this email contains enough detail to help you to decide if this is for you. If it has and it is just respond that you're ready and I'll have a contract in your inbox for your review shortly. Or if you have more questions please don't hesitate to contact me at your leisure. Even if you decide this isn't for you right now please keep this email if you ever wish to sell your property for full value quickly, or pass it along to a friend in need. Thank you for giving me to opportunity to present my solution to your real estate needs. I look forward to purchasing your property. Sincerely,Doug Pretorius Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted February 18, 2009 Hey Doug, Nice response email. It would be perfect to use for an auto responder.Have you, by chance, had the chance to look into an auto responder,such as aweber.com? (around $30/month) Also, gmail (Google's mail) has a free, built-inauto responder. Once someone responds to your initial email, you can set up the AR to respond whenever you set it for. Say, for instance, anywhere from automaticallyto a few minutes or hours (even days, weeks, months) after they submit their info. This would save TONS of time and make things a little more automated, so youcan focus on other things.That, or drink some of Canada's finest. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alexlocklear85 0 Report post Posted February 18, 2009 Jason, how do I find the auto-responder in gmail? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted February 19, 2009 Hey Alex, I assume you already have a gmail account. If not,it's super simple. Anyway...Your gmail account is set up.There are 2 ways to do this.The 1st is much simpler. Once you're on your homepage:First way: The Vacation Response1. Click Settings2. Scroll down to Vacation Responder. Turn it on. Set your Subject Title andwrite your desired message. Something like the one Doug posted above, for example, wouldbe the message.3. Done. Now, if you're using this way, make sure it's strictly for an automated emailaccount that you're using for responding to emails only. Because if you do this for yourmain gmail account you'll have everyone that emails you receiving the message you'reusing to lease/buy/rent houses. So I would just set up an account something like, lease2buy@gmail.com,just for this. Second Way: The Canned Response1. Click Settings2. Click Labs3. Scroll a little more than half way down the screen til you see: Canned Responses(You'll also see a TON of other neat applications to incorporate with your gmail account)4. Enable it, then scroll down the screen and click Save Changes Now, whenever you compose a message like the one Doug posted above, or now known as a "canned response",you can save it as such within your gmail account.You save it as a Canned Response by clicking the option you've now enabled, located just below the subject line of the written...or about to be written email.Create a name for it and save it.It will now be saved as a Draft. Once your Canned Response is saved, you can now set Filters for it.Now, whenever you receive an email it will automatically send the Canned Response for you.You can use this for your main gmail account should you have one you usefor other endeavors. Does this help? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted February 19, 2009 Just messing around with it by sending a fake email to my lease purchase only gmail account (set up on Vacation mode)from one of my yahoo accounts, and I got a response within 2 minutes. So, all those wanting to try this, scroll back up and do the Vacation method.Don't know what to write?Use Michael's LPA form as your response or see if you canuse some of Doug's content above. He may charge you for it though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doug Pretorius (ON) 9 Report post Posted February 19, 2009 Cool, thanks Jason! I've got my canned response saved and will use that for now, if I really kick my ads into high gear (i.e. 3 replies a day x 20 locations) then I'll set up a separate AR-exclusive account to handle the heavy lifting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
alexlocklear85 0 Report post Posted February 19, 2009 Jason, Good stuff!! Thanks for sharing. I think it's a GREAT idea to set up an account just for AR. I'm getting ready to set one up here in a minute. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MichaelC 160 Report post Posted February 19, 2009 Doug, I like the response. It's thorough enough so the recipient should be intrigued to reply. If not, you've weeded out someone you don't want to speak with anyway.Jason, cool idea with Gmail's autoresponder. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doug Pretorius (ON) 9 Report post Posted February 19, 2009 Thanks everyone. The reply is doing its job quite well too, out of a total of 8 sent out 2 have come back from what looks to be very motivated sellers. Pretty good numbers so far! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doug Pretorius (ON) 9 Report post Posted February 20, 2009 Hey Jason, I'm having a problem with the AR and Kijiji. I set up gmail's vacation thingy and when I send an email to it it responds no problem. Then I went an set up an account on kijiji under that email account so I don't have to activate ads everytime I post a new one. But when I try to email my AR through kijiji, it doesn't arrive and no reply is sent out Is it possible kijiji is detecting that there's an AR on the receiving end of those emails and blocking them? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted February 20, 2009 Not sure what's going on behind the scenes over at kijiji with your AR account. My guess is that the reply is going to kijiji because, if they're like CL, then it's kijiji that's sending you a notice (via email) that you've got a response.Make sense?This is why you might not be seeing the AR email. --kijiji is Unlike CL, whereby you have to option of hiding your emailor leaving it public (and it's clickable), kijiji has only the option of someoneentering their email manually to get in touch with you (to prevent spam),it seems you would have to leave your email addyin the message...or not use the AR altogether with them. I'm sure this would also be the same case with CL if you optfor the private email (CL would act as the middle man, thus you'rereceiving emails from CL and not the person responding to you).So, if you're wanting to use the AR on CL, then I would make theemail address public. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doug Pretorius (ON) 9 Report post Posted February 20, 2009 Doh! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites