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Doug Pretorius (ON)

My Pure Option Journal

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Hi all, thought I'd start a journal specifically for my pure option investing so you can follow along! Please feel free to offer your comments, ideas, suggestions, and critiques. And PLEASE give me a kick in the butt if I slow down and you don't see any updates for awhile.

 

A couple of things of note today...

 

I made an offer on another house this morning. It's a nice move-in condition home located less than a mile from my house. The price is a little on the high end but the seller has shown some flexibility on price already and the house just went on the market a few days ago.

 

Secondly, I'm very happy with the performance of the seller form on my website. I've never before been successful with getting sellers to apply online, to the point that I was considering getting rid of my seller site altogether. But this current format is working out very well. Out of the last 45 FSBOs I marketed it to, 5 filled it out. An 11.1% response, which is even better than my postcard campaign that had my phone number on it. And I LOVE having sellers answer all those questions without me having to spend a half hour or more on the phone! :)

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OK, Doug, so you've decided to hold yourself accountable to all. And you're begging me to give you a kick in the butt, too? Man, this gets better by the minute! :lol: Deal! It'll be my pleasure to remind you when you're slacking. :)

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There's something...evil...about that smile :)

 

I just finished firing off my 3rd batch of 20 emails to FSBOs in the area. Some of these sellers have received 1 or 2 emails before plus a phone call. I'll start calling the first batch again tomorrow to follow up with the email.

 

I've learned not to expect a landslide of sellers just because I'm offering full price in cash. Most (95%+) of sellers still won't go for it--amazing but true. Now I understand why realtors (who also essentially offer full price all cash) are doing VERY well and become a top-producer if they can "corner" Just 1% of the market.

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There's something...evil...about that smile :)

 

I just finished firing off my 3rd batch of 20 emails to FSBOs in the area. Some of these sellers have received 1 or 2 emails before plus a phone call. I'll start calling the first batch again tomorrow to follow up with the email.

 

I've learned not to expect a landslide of sellers just because I'm offering full price in cash. Most (95%+) of sellers still won't go for it--amazing but true. Now I understand why realtors (who also essentially offer full price all cash) are doing VERY well and become a top-producer if they can "corner" Just 1% of the market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Doug, After you find this pure option deal, How are you marketing to sell the property fast? Are you running a auction type sale do you do open house or by appointments, What is your plan to sell this property fast and on to the next one? Anyone can answer this one help needed in this area

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mega, I hope I answered your questions over in your thread. Oh yeah... I'll use the same marketing I use for RTOs, namely: Lots of signs, website, maybe a newspaper ad, maybe an open house or two.

 

Keeping busy...

I didn't start making calls today (bad!) but I have what I think is a reasonable excuse... another seller filled out my form. And I had to do some hand-holding for the seller I made an offer to yesterday.

 

I did however send out my quota of 20 emails.

 

No signed options yet, but with 1 serious lead every day or two it's just a matter of time.

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Keeping busy...

I didn't start making calls today (bad!) but I have what I think is a reasonable excuse... another seller filled out my form. And I had to do some hand-holding for the seller I made an offer to yesterday.

 

I did however send out my quota of 20 emails.

 

No signed options yet, but with 1 serious lead every day or two it's just a matter of time.

Sounds promising, Doug. But don't go out and buy a new sled just yet. . .no slacking off!

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Doug, I am just wondering about your strategy. You are marketing to homeowners with emails and phone messages. What I am wondering is why would a homeowner say no if you are offering close to or full price for their home? To me, there can only be one reason, they don't believe you! How many of those do you think you could have signed had you and the seller been sitting down at a table discussing everything face to face? Homeowners I think are trained to "block out" emails and phone calls because 99% of them are from people they don't know, like junk email and telemarketers. Even I know almost automatically say "no" when a telemarketer calls, and I usually delete emails.

Now, this may be a load of crap because I haven't tried it yet. But my thinking is that I am going to look for a FSBO home that I think a) could be a bit undervalued and B) has good marketing potential.

When I call the homeowner I am just going to say I am interested in buying it and get an appointment. Now I know this wastes a lot of time if the deal doesn't sign, but you have a way better chance of connecting with a seller across a table than on the phone. After they have legitimately spent some time with you, talking about the house etc.. I would think a lot more of them would consider your offer at that point, especially if it is cash, near full price. For my first one, just to get my feet wet, I would consider a non-exclusive option just to make them feel comfortable. With that offer, what do they have to lose! Maybe you could offer some references or something, I think the issue here is a) the sellers don't believe you will give them the price you say B) in general they don't trust someone over the phone. Your thoughts? Rob

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Rob, I don't think there's any way to avoid the numbers game. It would be nice to get a 100% response to your prospecting/marketing and sign up most of them "near full price", but that's not going to happen, not with options--even non-exclusive ones. Even with proof of funds and making slightly below asking offers on the MLS all day, you still get lots of agents and sellers who simply never respond, or dilly-dally back and forth over which appliances to include.

 

The fact is many of the ads and listings you see are placed by sellers who aren't serious. They're testing the waters, hoping to get twice what they're asking.

 

I guess I'm just not interested in "wasting a lot of time" anymore. Unmotivated sellers aren't going to become motivated just because you're sitting across the table from them.

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MC, I'm giving them 3 business days to sign it back. So the first one has already expired.

 

Now I'm going back to the seller to ask for feedback... why did she choose not to sign? how can we improve our presentation? etc.

 

Since I'm generating a decent number of leads my main focus is now on conversion. It would seem to be a no-brainer, a non-exclusive pure option at their asking price... every seller SHOULD sign, and yet they aren't. So "where are my systems breaking down", is the question.

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Since I'm generating a decent number of leads my main focus is now on conversion. It would seem to be a no-brainer, a non-exclusive pure option at their asking price... every seller SHOULD sign, and yet they aren't. So "where are my systems breaking down", is the question.

 

 

Doug, That is unbelievable! Non-exclusive, at their asking, what is wrong with these people!? It has to be an education thing. Sellers are scared because they don't know what an option is, and you are not a RE agent that 95% of the population accepts working with and trusts. I still believe this can be better achieved face to face. I'll bet you some of them think it is too good to be true and think they are being scammed, maybe a live person could put their fears at ease. I'll let you know in a few weeks when I try my first. Rob

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Face-to-face, over the phone, by email... my conversion rates are all the same.

 

It must have something to do with the offer itself because sellers are getting that far without a problem and in what I consider to be very high numbers. But when it comes time to commit it to writing, they pull back.

 

It's probably a communication problem. Either they're confused or we haven't built enough trust.

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No new leads today, and another offer expires at midnight.

 

Unfortunately I'm having no luck getting feedback from these sellers to learn what the problem is so I can fix it.

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No new leads today, and another offer expires at midnight.

 

Unfortunately I'm having no luck getting feedback from these sellers to learn what the problem is so I can fix it.

 

Doug:

 

If I had the time I would get you options for a birddog fee. Your making this harder than it is. Go to Loopnet.com, live deals.com or Craigslist.com look for property which you might think you can sell somewhere for a larger price.

 

I looked a 15 unit apartment across from the college for 255,000 and said thats chunck change to a out of towner or to someone in California. I would buy the place for that price.

 

At this point this part time work is turning fulltime very quickly. I got to many things going at once for a one man band. Something must change. I am looking at OPM. And others to help me out.

 

Craig

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