No Motivated Sellers
I have run ads in the paper for stopping foreclosue. Went to the court house gotten NOD list and the condemed housing list mailed letter after letter for 2 months straight over 100 letters and I have only received 3 calls and none of them were motivated am I doing something wrong???????????
what are you going to do with the properties?
I find all my motivated sellers at my local real estate club. I close over 20 deals a month, they e-mail properties on a daily basis. I get all my buyers from ads in the paper and referrals from people I did loans for.
There are many different kinds of real estate investors, It depends on what kind you are to be able to point you in the right direction
See my profile
Lori
[addsig]
Remember, it's a numbers game. The more people know you buy houses, the more the word will spread. Try multiple marketing strategies, not just ads.
Does your town have a legal newspaper? That's where I find some of my foreclosures/probates.
Network as much as you can and it will pay off!
I've got some unfortunate news for you if you're unhappy about 3 phone calls from 100 letters. 3% is a good rate of return on mailings. Try mailing out 1000 or so and see what you end up with. As was mentioned before...it's a numbers game. Send out enough letters, talk to enough people, and you'll end up with deals. Don't get discouraged, if this was extremely easy everyone would be doing it. It just takes some determination - stick with it.
Ryan J. Schnabel
Lori,
What club do you belong to?. I have been thinking about joining one.
I talked to a few guys about ACRE. Do you know anything about it? Good? Bad?
[ Edited by wishbonejones on Date 01/29/2004 ]
As stated earlier, 3% is a good rate of return on your mailings.
Unfortunately, alot of the people facing foreclosure are not facing reality. For what ever reason, they are in denial. Lots of them will be convinced that there will be a windfall there for them at the last minute that will allow them to keep their house., even right up to the fateful day that they are escorted off the property.
Can you picture it? The Deputy Sheriff pulling up in the cruiser, and the homeowner scrambling for the phone to call that investor that sent him that pretty multi-colored postcard, or that extremely well written letter offering to help them by purchasing their house and chasing that monkey off their back.(4 months ago!!). Trying to make that last minute deal to keep out of foreclosure.
I haven't witnessed that myselff, but I'd be willing to bet that something like that happens more than we would believe.
This is just my opinion, but if you really want to do better than 3%, you're going to have to knock on a few doors, and talk to people face-to-face. Offer to help them first, work the conversation towards purchasing the house later. Be understanding, and treat them with dignity, and respect. Listen to them, sincerely and gain their trust, and try to work it from that approach. Set yourself apart in some way from the the others sending all of the same info, only packaged a little differently.
In the long run, you were the one that came out to meet them in person.
You're not a form letter that's easily discarded, and never read.
You're not a faceless voice on the phone that's just as easy to hang up on as that bill collector was 2 monutes ago.
You're that person that screamed in agony when they slammed the door shut in your face. (Just kidding) Bottom line is that people respond differently in person than they do to a phone or piece of junk mail.
Or you could take an approach that Mr. Locke suggested on another string. Offer them $$ for their opinion of all of the other mail from other investors that they have recieved, and to have them point out which one they found the most effective and explain why.
It probably would get you more appointments to see the people you need to be talking to.
Good luck,
Jeff
Quote:
On 2004-01-27 18:54, tinman1755 wrote:
what are you going to do with the properties?
I find all my motivated sellers at my local real estate club. I close over 20 deals a month, they e-mail properties on a daily basis. I get all my buyers from ads in the paper and referrals from people I did loans for.
There are many different kinds of real estate investors, It depends on what kind you are to be able to point you in the right direction
See my profile
Lori <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_confused.gif"> <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_confused.gif">
You close over 20 deals a month.
I am going to have to move to Pittsburgh!
Jeffrey Adam
[addsig]
you just have to keep plugging away, we have a new rei group starting up in DC, why don't you stop by, we meet every 2nd wednesday of every month, check the groups section of this site for time and place.
Jeff12002,Speaking of the situation of a homeowner calling as they were being put out on the street. I received a call 4 months ago from a 2 yo mass mailing. If the home owner had called a couple of months earlier,I could have solved their problem. Instead,I solved the banks REO problem. A 3% rate of response is considered good. Any type of advertising signs,door hangers,mass mailings,targeted mailings,and billboards produce about the same results.
Dear Soulman,
Your response rate is standard. May I suggest that you go knock on some doors.
You will be rejected by some and a few doors will slam. Strangely enough I sometimes used to go a second and even a third time during the period of the foreclosure. Each time their reaction was different. If you have the cash and can go fast then you can operate closer to the actual date of foreclosure and of course your profit is probably larger the closer you are to actual date of foreclosure. The pressure on the Borower gets greater and greater.
Also this depends on your personality. Are you an agressive kind? Or do you react with a quiet steady gazed approach. Sometimes best.
To judge what is best for you takes a little analyses.
If I can do it anyone can. I am older then Moses, almost bald walk with a limp am slightly over weight and ugly. I do not dress well the only thing attractive is a Spaceview 1964 model Accutron Watch on my wrist. Dogs growl and cats run for their lives.
But I have an interest in people and I consider rejection as a challenge.
The old lady answers the door, "Yes" she says in a quavering voice. I respond, "Good afternoon young lady is your mother home?" The ice breaks she laughs as my remarks are overly stupid. I laugh and the beginnings of an empathetic connection begins.
I end up at the kitchen table and I look at her documents and I tell her what can be done and we decide what is best for her.
When I leave I have the beginning of the documents of the transaction signed. Or she is in my car on her way with me to Escrow.
You will of course be exposed to all those very human situations which are the root cause of the Foreclosure. The lost job or denial of pension. The illness and subsequent recovery without income. The family break ups caused by all sorts of strictly human causes. The husband who stays and starts to drink himself to death covering up his inability to make changes. The wife covered with bruises who insists her husband loves her but he screws up every job he gets and now he is preventing her from holding down a job. Thousands on thousands of reasons.
You must cut through all this humanity and address that which you can effect. The solving of the problem of the foreclosure
Well now, that was a bit heavy. There are light sides also. But I will leave those for you to discover.
So if you like take some NOD's and tomorrow go knock on doors, come back and post what happened.
One thing I guarantee you will not be bored.
Sagisously Lucius
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[ Edited by Lufos on Date 01/29/2004 ][ Edited by Lufos on Date 01/29/2004 ]
soul_controller,
go to the "The Gazette Newspaper" in your county or www.Gazette.net on the internet for legal notices.
[addsig]
Isn't www.Gazette.net only a local paper to the D.C. area.(the Gazette newspapers are owned by the Washington Post, and bought the small local paper group I worked for a few years ago) I'm pretty sure that's theri URL, but can't get it to load right now. Some areas have a paper dedicated entirely to legals, and in some areas legals run in the local paper.
you may need to change the wording of your letter....try using different wording.
I mailed out about 250 postcards and received 8 calls. And thats because I changed my wording (the first batch that I mailed didn't get anything) then again it could be timing.....
Out of those 8 I'm working with 3 people to do a workout with their lender. I have not yet sent out the second mailing due to more restructure. I have completed for postcards that I will use to start off with for this month. I have to finish the other 4 between this week and next week. (total of an 8 week mailing campaign for homeowners facing foreclosure)