Need Help Drafting A Letter For Property Owners
I have been working with a nearby county health department to get a list of properties that are "white tagged." This means someone has called the health department to complain about the condition of a property. After they call, the health department goes out and inspects the property. If there are serious issues, a "white tag" is posted at the property and the owner is notified. The owner has 30 days to respond and can drag it out an additional 30 days by whining. After that, if the owner refuses to clean up the property, the county posts another tag and calls for bids for demolition. After another 90 days or so, the property is bulldozed.
So I thought this would be a good place to check for motivated sellers.....I had to buy the list from the county, but now I have it. My question is, what should I do with it? I thought I should draft a letter to all the property owners telling them I am interested in buying their property. What are your thoughts? How should I word this letter to get maximum results? If I mail the letter and wait a few weeks for a response, should I follow-up with a phone call? (if their number is listed) Or should I write another letter? What would you do with this list? (as usual, I have MANY more questions than answers!) 
[addsig]
heres how you do it. don't send them a letter as an investor, send them a letter as someone who is concerned about them losing thier property. and would like to help them clean it up. When and if you get a reply you set up a meeting to "estimate" the clean up. Then after the meeting goes on awhile simply ask how and why the property go so degraded. hopefully its along the lines of a "cant handle it any more" answer then go for the deal tell them you are also an investor and would like to take the property off of thier hands, and clean it up. if they say no and only want you to help clean up then hire a coupla of college kids and pocket a couple of extra bucks
with all due respect to raymo, i'd just go in with the full "i'm an investor" story right off the bat and see if they're open to get rid of it for a few bucks (literally), otherwise it's getting demolished by the city/county/whomever. it's almost obviously not wanted since it's gotten to that point of being "white tagged", so it must be a deal. my only concern would be, is the contact info correct? you want to make sure they actually get the letter. then follow up with a visit or a phone call since most won't respond to your letter.
I'd use something very basic. maybe a first couple sentences would read:
"hello. i saw your property on XXXXXX Street and i'd like to offer you some cash for it. i'm a local real estate investor and i look for properties in less than ideal condition to rehab for area families."
then pretty much give contact info and wait for a call. quick and to the point!
i hope it helps!
by the way, we have a "blight" plan here as well, but homes can be on it for 5 years before anything gets knocked down. i wish it was like it is there, b/c then people'd be under the gun to strike a deal or lose it all. great idea![ Edited by jackman on Date 02/04/2004 ]
Dear Shirley,
How are the things going up north? Are the S F bay aria bailers still swamping the good all Ripon?
I would like to make clear that I deeply dislike such hart-less landlords who allow their buildings to deteriorate to such stadium of disrepair when the poor tenants have to call and request the state servant's assistance. What a mess. Knowing what you do is noble, I am happy to see that someone's taking care of the same biz we often do here in LA. I call this biz a milk-man-landlord-eliminators because the only thing those landlord do is milking those dirty, molded walls and their poor tenants to the last tortillas.
With your father being No1 in local government (if memory serves me well) you'll have no problem lining up some right connection to get you those hot leads. I love those fine but I love the state own land even more so let us know if you can get those to? if you do, I be willing to partner with you with all the rest of my big money lenders so you do not have to put a dime. But before that happened, lets go back to those health issue deals. They work 50% of the time and once you get them, have some right people make some right calls to local bank's VP for RE loans so you can get your nice little project on it's way.
And not to live you feel alone, we are doing something similar over here in LA, trying to figure out a legal way to make the top public servant filthy reach for handing us that short lists of the most "age effected" large buildings, ready to be shot down for good with one stroke of a pen. A rain maker in hart, I do not like to have them come short out of such MM$ revitalization deal. The way our state government is functioning today, the only way they could buy 'for example' the new home here in LA is if Lufos hands them one of his container houses for free or if I give u my share in that company, which I bought for half price from someone who decided to live the deal shop club of convenient payers.
Who sad the CREI is not about networking?
Our area adopted an enviromental court a couple of years ago. But thanks to so many blighted properties in the area they already have a 3 year backlog. Dealing with the owners of these properties can be tenuos,they feel their tenant should be held responsible for all the properties problems. Approach it as you have the solution to their problem property. Look at it this way some will,some won't,so what,who's next.
I agree with jackman. Credibility is everything. Be upfront about why you've approached them, although I'm not sure I'd throw in the "less than desirable" verbiage. I would first identify any owners who are open to selling. Then I would verify current status of their properties on "white tag" list and obviously, get whatever info is available from the municipality.