i am in oklahoma and am having a big problem getting any calls on my signs or postcards or ads … it seems the motivated sellers (well, just any sellers) have all disappeared.
is anyone having this problem?
can anyone suggest any wording for postcards that would pull the motivated sellers out or any advise at all?
i went from getting a decent amount of calls each day up until april to getting 4 calls total for the past 2 months.
Did you check to see if your signs are still up? Is your ads still being placed in the right places? Did you try doing direct mail? Is the mailing list a good list? Are you getting any returns? Did you try radio spots? You have to be aggressive when marketing to continue to get calls on a consistent basis.
How about stop trying to get people to call you, and you search out people problems and contact them with a resolution. Vacant houses indicate a people problem, major repairs needed to a house indicate probs, probate or divorce court records indicate people probs, tax lien records indicate probs, weeds and trash code violation records indicate probs, etc.
A truly creative and savvy investor/business person researches and realizes the “problems” in a certain area and then provides a solution to those problems that will create a WIN/WIN situation for all parties involved.
thank you all for your advise. i do not have the funds for radio spots and am wandering does certain language work better in getting sellers to call. anyone have any ideas of the wording for signs or postcards that gives sellers the urge to call. i read about these folks making lots of money and i am just trying to keep my head above water, i can’t figure out what i am doing wrong. as i said i have over 60 signs out that are still up and mail an average of 500 postcards 2 times a month. thank you for your help.
:help
Tina, who are you mailing the post cards to? and what does the post card say? if you like, send me a PM with the post card you have and I can give you some feedback. 1000 cards a month should get you an average of a house a month. notice I said average though.
Signs could work, but they are like advertising. They have to be in the right spot and very clear. “We buy houses” still works. Are they in areas with high foreclosure, old neighborhoods where houses may need work, where people have equity? do they see the same sign multiple times while they drive around the neighborhood?
Hooch can you go into a little more detail on how you find these people problems. I have tried going to the probates office with names of deceased from the paper only to not find them in the probate court.
Go to the probate office and get on their computers or look through their books to see WHO is in probate. Different courthouses have different levels of sophistication. Wills in probate are public record. You can look in the obituaries, then check GIS to see if they owned property, then bring a bunch with you that you plan on looking at or just browse through what is there.
Probate investing requires more work than other “people problems” like vacant houses, weeds and trash violations, tax lien records, etc.
I went to my local probate office only to tell the receptionist that i was a real estate investor and asked her how many other real estate investors visit that office. Well she shot me a mean look and told me none. However, she wasnt very helpful to me after that. There is only one computer in that office and you have to know the last name of the deceased, you cant look up under dates.
No problem robdedgar, just work up a list from the obituaries, and for each one of them, check your local GIS to see if they have property that they own. Then bring your list down to the courthouse and look them up. Some may have their property in land trusts etc where it didn’t have to go through probate but most don’t.
Investorman, I switch around from one people problem to another and whenever I am doing probate I find “Hooch deals” that equal my rent X 30 buying criteria. Probate deals are typically houses that are “livable” but in real bad condition because often the elderly person was living there and got to a point where they not only didn’t have the money but they didn’t have the ability to do any repairs. Due to it’s deterioration and liens that may need to be paid off, the new owners (relatives) often have a high desire to dump the property as quickly as possible. Good deals can be had with probate investing. The only problem is there is a little more legwork involved.
