Momentum is a wonderful thing. There are times during my road to becoming a real estate investor that I have no idea which way to go or what to do next. Those are the times when fear and procrastination are at the fore front with me. However, when you talk to people, take action and keep moving forward momentum takes over and before you know it you’ve reached new heights.
Ever since some good friends of mind encouraged me to stop being afraid and send out my mailers, things have been coming at me much quicker. I’ve gotten more then 10 calls this month alone which has greatly increased my confidence with talking to sellers. I’ve still got a ways to go and still hesitate for a second before answering, but i’m not scared stiff any more.
After every call I do my research on the house and then contact my friend Bruce, to talk about the deal. I pay careful attention to how he thinks and the manor in which he goes about the entire process of getting information from the seller over the phone to the types of comps he pulls for a property. I’m always learning.
Call Update
Yesterday Bruce shot me an email about a recent caller that said…
These are all the possible comps. I came up with 325,000. I called Dave and said I would pay him between 175,000 and 205,000 depending on repairs with him paying the sewer assessment. I will see the house this week to determine a firm offer. This looks like a winner. Good job. I am building in a 20,000 wholesale fee. We will see if that holds up.
This was the caller who said that he had an agreement of 195K from a realtor, but he broke off the agreement when the Realtor asked for his 3% commission also. Very strange situation and I’m not sure I fully understand what happened. His loss could be my gain though. This marks the closest I’ve come to a deal so far and it may even turn into one. Positive Thoughts People!!
Condo Calls
Two of the calls this past weekend where pertaining to condos. I’m not in the condo game around here, and neither are most of the investors I talk to. They aren’t selling right now and if they are it’s taking a long time. it’s not worth the risk in my opinion. Sure you could sell anything if you buy it low enough, but none of these two people just wanted to get rid of it. So I move on.
Make Me An Offer and I’ll Accept It Message
No less then an hour ago I got a voice mail from a gentleman who in not so many words said…
Hello Scott, This is Richard calling about the letter that you sent. Thank you for giving me your condolences and I do have the house for sale and if you’re wanted to make an offer on it, surely I’ll accept it.
If it didn’t sound like a nice old man I would think it was a “to good to be true” phone call. I’ll give you a dollar sir, please sign here. This guy is getting a call back for sure.
Selling Probate Leads
Even though I got no responses from my early craigslist postings about selling my left over probate leads, I kept at it. My first rounds of ads were descriptive and explained how much I wanted to sell the leads for and why I was selling them and who I was. ZERO total calls from those ads. This past week I dumbed it down to just say..
I’m an investor (and also a Realtor) who deals with Probate properties. I get leads all the time that don’t meet my investor criteria and I’m looking for someone to pass these along to. These leads are the executors of the estate who are in charge of selling the assets and will most likely need a Realtor in order to sell a house in the estate. If you are interested please contact me at 973-910-1001 or email me and ask for Scott.
I got two calls from this. One guy I agreed to a 17.5% referral commission for any people he signs up and the other call came in today so I must call him back. Do you guys think it’s better to sell the leads for $20 a each upfront or agree to a referral fee if they do sign one of the people up. Also how am I going to keep track if they do sign one of those people up?
That’s it for now. Tomorrow I’m going to post up my goals for the year. I’m going to do it a little bit differently this year…
Have a good one!
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Comments 9
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Scott, you have to be careful now being a realtor and collection 'commission' outside of closing.
Is there any reason why you don't personally list these properties instead of giving them away?
Keep up the momentum, Scotty. A deal is right around the corner.
I'm passing them to another Realtor so i'll be getting a referral fee which is acceptable between realtors (sales agents). At this point I don't have the time to deal with listings of people who want to sell their homes at retail prices.
Thanks Shae, a deal is getting closer that is for sure.
Scott,
I think the difference between taking a referral fee or making them pay upfront and getting a guaranteed $200 (minimum 10 leads @ $20 a pop) is that you really won't know if they sign up the lead you refer to them unless you're constantly checking the MLS.
Grant it, you'll make more money with the referral fee method, but again, you're going to have to keep track of the agent. I'd definitely get them to fill out a referral fee form (I'm sure your office has one, if not I have one that our office uses that I could send you) and you can also let the agent know that you are continuously following up with sellers to see how a) if they ever listed the property and with who and b) if they did list the property and it was with someone that you referred if they were happy with the service??
Hopefully, that would get them to be honest and cut down on your having to “follow up” all of the time.
Btw, I'm going to be referring my short sale leads to an agent in the area as well. I want to concentrate in other areas and I'm just not interested in doing certain things even tho I have my license. So I understand where you are coming from.
Keep at it Scott!
Thanks Carey for the good tips. Sometimes I don't think things through before doing it and then thinking about how it will actually go down. I wonder if I could look up MLS listings by agent? that would be a good way to keep track of the person.
“There are times during my road to becoming a real estate investor that I have no idea which way to go or what to do next. Those are the times when fear and procrastination are at the fore front with me. However, when you talk to people, take action and keep moving forward momentum takes over and before you know it you’ve reached new heights.”
Amen. You said it perfectly. The irony lies when you figure out that one thing and just when you think you are out in the clear, BAM, another even worst comes up. Unfortunately i understand what you are saying all too well!
I know what you are saying Luis. But it's a good thing to hit that new situation where you have another wall to climb over. That's the part that gets me excited, I love the challenge of the unknown and there is no greater feeling then conquering that challenge.