I found that the the list he was using was a good list it. It was a list of sellers who have a high likelihood that they would need to sell their house quickly.

The mail piece that he was trying to put together was yellow letter. A yellow letter appears to be a hand written letter sent to the seller. It’s placed in a hand addressed envelope. These letters have a high likelihood of being opened because it looks like personal mail.

The fact that the letter appears to be hand-written means that it gets a good response rate.

The disadvantage with a mail piece like this is that it takes longer to put this type of letter together. My client taking two months or more to get these letters sent out. By that time, most of the people at already sold the properties or they’d listed them with a realtors.

My advice to him was to simply the mailer so he could get out much more quickly.

Yes, don’t start with the most labor intensive mailer. Start with the easiest to get out, a post card.

The specific service that I referred him to is called www.click2mail.com. This site is affiliated with the United States Postal Service. You can upload your mail list and your your mail piece to www.click2mail.com. They will do the printing. They will do the delivery. This automation makes for a lot less work.

To ensure that he actually finished the task, I asked him to send me an email when he got the post cards sent out. When you add accountability to a task like this that is a struggle, you make it all the more likely that you’ll actually get it done.

Answer: “There was a famous direct marketer, the late Gary Halbert, who once asked an audience at a seminar he was leading an interesting question. He asked them if they owned a restaurant, what would be then number one thing they would want in order for that restaurant to be successful.
Many of the participants at that seminar thought they would be successful only if they had a great menu. Or they had great tasting, high quality food.
But the real answer is having hungry customers. If you don’t have a hungry customer, it doesn’t matter how good the food is.
This concept is critical when it comes to doing a wholesale flip with a property. In fact, it’s the number one reason why most real estate investors are not successful when it comes to doing wholesale flips.
Remember that a wholesale flip is selling a property quickly that you have gotten under contract to another investor. The value you provide to the seller is a quick closing and quick cash. The value you offer to the buyer (the other investor) is a good price on the property.
That means you have to get a great price on the property from your seller.
You can do a wholesale flip on any type of real estate. You can do it on raw land. You can do it on commercial properties. You can do it on old vacant houses. You can do it on newer homes that might be fives years or less old.
The most critical piece of the equation is having a motivated seller. You need a seller who is willing to trade some of his equity in that real estate to you in exchange for a solution to some problem he is facing with that property.
I’ve been most successful in flipping properties that needed extensive repairs because the owners of those properties tend to be motivated to get rid of those properties due to all the headaches involved in fixing those properties.
However, a property owner can be motivated to sell a property at a hefty discount due to host of other reasons unrelated to the condition of the property. For example, they might be going through a divorce, they could be facing a medical condition, they might need cash quickly to solve a legal problem, and whole host of other possibilities.
If you are

It’s ideal when the other real estate investor is motivated to sell that property. If the real estate investor has lots of money, no urgencies, he’s not in a hurry, he doesn’t have a good reason to get you a great deal. You pass on a deal like that.

But if your other real estate investor needs a quick sale, so they can make their car payment or their house payment, or buy groceries – that’s a motivated seller.

You can find these other real estate investors at real estate investing association meetings, and at the websites those real estate associations have up. You can find these people by networking at those meetings.

You can find this other real estate investors by looking for their advertisements. There are two kinds of ads you want to look for. One is the ad that says “must sell, quick for cash investors special”, so they’re trying to sell the house. There are other places where they have ads up saying they want to buy houses.

Look for bandit signs that say “I buy houses”, or ads at the newspapers that says “I buy houses for cash”. Call that person because sooner or later they’re going to have a property they will want to sell quickly for cash. Your opportunity will come when they want to flip a house quickly.

These real estate investors typically have a buyer’s list, and they like to send out email. Get on their buyer’s list. Check on these people regularly. Robert Elder tells about a wholesale seller who, when he was first getting started in wholesaling, brought him seven houses in a row. He bought every single one of them. This guy liked selling to Robert because the other real estate investor knew Robert was quick and reliable when it came to closing. Robert knew the this guy would bring him good deals. It worked great for the both of them.

You never know where you will find a great wholesale seller. You could find these other wholesalers when you’re out looking for houses. Talk to people. Network with, and don’t worry about the fact that people might be competing with you. Focus on instead of how they can help you, and how you could help them. And if you could help them, you know, chances are you’ll make money also.
To find more tips and techniques for finding great deals, go to www.replaceyourpaychecknow.com.

Please write a comment on the article – I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Here’s another great question from a subscriber…

Question:  “What’s the best way to find bank owned (REO) properties?”

Answer: All realtors are not the same.  You need to find realtors who work primarily with investors.  These are the realtors who are going to work with what are called REO’s, or bank owned properties.  An REO property is a bank term that means Real Estate Owned.

Banks that hold REO properties are motivated sellers.  That’s why we focus on these types of properties. 

When bank takes properties back, like Deutsche bank, they typically find one realtor in a given city or area.  They will list most or all of their properties with that one realtor.  Only a handful of realtors in a given city will list most of the bank owned properties. 

What most people don’t get is that the listing realtors for bank owned properties generally like to list houses, but they generally sell these properties.

You have to find another investment realtor who will represent you as the buyer.  This type of investment realtor wants to sell properties to investors.  They generally won’t be the listing agent. 

There are a few ways to find an investment realtor to help you find cash flow properties.  Look for realtors who advertise “investors special’’ properties. You may also find those realtors at your local real estate investor association meetings.”

Robert Elder comments, “In 29 years of buying houses, the single most common source of buying houses for me has been realtors that were selling bank owned (REO) properties because when the banks takes a property back it becomes a problem to the bank.  The problem is the bank has taken back that house, that business property, or that four flex.  We the investor, by making an offer, are the solution to the bank’s problem.”

If you are making an offer to buy John the homeowner house, it’s a much more emotional decision to cut the price ten thousand dollar.  Why?  That’s ten thousand dollars less money in John’s pocket.  

On the other hand, if you are making an offer on a bank owned (REO) property, the is much less emotional about that decision.  If the bank cuts the rice ten thousand dollars, it’s not going to come out of the banker’s own pocket. 

Please make a comment below on this article…I’d like to know what you think. 

Most real estate investors like Robert and I are busy.  I’m guessing you are busy too.  If you are like us, you have a lot of opportunities to chase, and only a certain amount of hours in a day. 

When it comes to finding deals, I can use all the help I can get.  And one of the most under-rated methods for  finding deals that doesn’t cost you anything until you pay for the property – until you buy the property – is using the bird dog. 

Bird dogs can bring deals to you. They can put tons of thousands of dollars in your pocket. So, the question is, what is a bird dog? A bird dog in hunting is a dog who finds birds for hunters. It points right toward the bird to aid the hunter.  And the hunter will take it from there.  A bird dog in the real estate investing business is essentially the same thing.  He finds the opportunity for the investor and guess what, the investor takes it from there.

Bird dogs typically get paid when you buy the deal.  They don’t get paid just for sending you a list of 250 for sale by own properties.  That’s not the purpose.  The purpose of the bird dog is to find a deal that you actually like, right?  A cash flow property that you would actually buy. 

To put this system to action right away, you basically have to these steps. The first thing is you have to come up with an offer for the bird dogs.  In other words, how does the bird dog get paid?  They always want to know that.  They want to know how they are going to be paid.  The most common system in paying bird dogs is to give them $500 to $1,00 dollars for every  property that you buy. 

Step 2 is to actually go out and look for the bird dog.  By far and away the best way to find a bird dog, or a dog for that matter too, is to go to craigslist.  You know that you can place free ads on craigslist.com.  Go into the miscellaneous employment.  You know people that look in this section of craigslist are looking for ways of making a little bit of extra money. 

When I put up an ad like this, I usually get close to 100 replies within a few days.  You just need to reply back by email. 

Here is an example of an advertising that you can post up there.  You could say "Hi.  I buy houses in where ever you’re from.  I’m looking for someone to help me find more houses to buy.  Here’s the deal, I’ll train you to know what type of properties I’m looking to buy and all you have to do is tell me about houses that looks like that. If I end up buying that property I’ll pay you $___ dollars.  You don’t have to negotiate with the owner or anything like that.  No sales will be required.  All you have to do is find a deal for me, and I’ll take it there.  Call me at 5551212 or whatever your number is for more details."

That’s a simple ad you can put up in craigslist. You put it up there as many times as necessary to find your bird dogs.  And you will get multiple bird dogs from one ad. 

Step three is to put your bird dog to work.  Give them some ideas as to where to look for motivated sellers. 

They can scan the houses for sale on craigslist. One thing to really look for are ads in the real estate section where people are advertising real estate for sale.  Look for ads with all lower case, where people are not very careful about what they are tying. Misspelled words, poor grammar, and no photographs are a plus.  This is a clue that you’ve got a motivated seller there, or certainly someone who’s not very sophisticated.

Avoid properties that are listed by realtors, or ones that are clearly being sold by another investor. That’s  not something that’s going to be useful to you. 

Your bird dog can also  tell you about vacant properties they see. You know, the one with the grass are grown up, or for instance properties that have received a notice of violation from the city.  Give your bird dog a specific list of the types of properties and the types of deals that you’re looking for.  Tell them how they can find those properties. 

Have them email you the leads they get. 

And if you are wondering if this really works, Robert and I had a student in wealth school who started working with the bird dog and she made a real nice profit. Her bird dog brought her a deal that ended up making her $10,500 in seventeen days.  No rehab work was done.

You’ll find more about other ways to find great deals in www.replaceyourpaychecknow.com. 

Do me a favor and write in a comment about this article. 

Here’s another question that just came in…

Question: "How do I deal with bank owned (REO) properties to get them when the price listed is higher than I’m offering? How do I make the sellers get motivated?"

Answer:

For starters, it’s pretty hard to motivate someone to do much of anything.  Let me give you the example of my 6-year old daughter. 

It would be just about impossible for me to get her to eat bolonia.   It doesn’t really matter if I offered her ice cream every day for the next month, she just plain wouldn’t eat the stuff.

It’s not much different with a seller who just is motivated to take one of your offers. 

So before you spend much effort on chasing the property, you must first know either the property is already priced close to where you think you want to be.

There is one notable exception. 

You may be able to force a motivation on the sellers.  You have to be careful how you do this, and I wouldn’t advise be deceiptful. 

You could in some way taint the property.  In other words, you create a problem in mind of the seller that may not have been there before. 

One example is mold.  Some investors will go to the trouble of doing mold testing on a property.  If they get a positive result for mold, they will present that to the seller.  That seller now has a duty to disclose that mold result to other potential buyers. 

Let’s say the seller is asking $100,000 for the property.  You want to buy the property for $50,000. 

What you can do is submit that $50,000 offer with evidence of  problems, like mold. 

What you are really after is not evidence of problems like roof leaks (i.e., it needs a new roof), but evidence of things that seller and that real estate broker have to tell other buyers.

A few examples of those might be evidence of foundation issues.  Or mold.  And then an estimate of what it’s going to cost to fix the problem. That’s one way to manufacture motivation in a seller."