I wanted to bounce this idea off the community. I was brainstorming marketing ideas for my investors. I have a domain pointer to MyClientsBuyHouses.com and wanted to have a classified ad for “free tenant eviction services”.
When I owned rentals (sold em all this year), the most vulnerable time for me to sell was when I was evicting tenants, so I wanted an ad that would speak to tired landlords. What do you think about the idea of offering to take over tenant evictions if a landlord will sell their property to you?
They basically walk away from the deal and we take over the headaches…for a price.
Ok, I created a flyer for the “Free Tenant Evictions” idea after bouncing it off my investor friends. It’s actually not too bad and is a way to stand out in classified ads in papers that all have “we buy houses”. The ad so far is as follows:
I explained that was a landlord from 2003-2007 and got fed up with late rent, repairs, tenant headaches etc. Next, it says that we help landlords in three ways.
First, we can offer help and guidance on landlord alternatives (private money, etc., wholesaling, etc.). This helps build our network and we can keep in touch with the owner for referrals or when they want to sell.
Second, I explain that we can evict tenants for free if they let us buy the house. If they don’t want to sell now, we can refer to property manager who can take over for free. Again, I’ll keep in touch with the owner until they refer and get ready to sell.
Just trying to get a feel for how successful this would be. So far, the online flyer is free and business cards won’t cost much.
Are you thinking of marketing this at the Unlawful Detainer Stage?
I market heavy to Absentee active for rents on Wednesdays… We get the ads out of the newspaper for houses for rent call on them to obtain the address then start sending them mail… Here is one of the letters we send…
Hello.
I noticed you have had your house at [address] up for rent for some time now. Have you considered selling it?
Renting can have its headaches, not to mention having to pay the mortgage on a vacant house that would normally be covered by paying tenants. You probably know what I am talking about.
Did you know that you could also make a good profit by selling the house? Of course, I understand that you may have tried this route of selling it without success, or maybe you’ve considered it but were hesitant over the time and energy involved. However, I am writing about buying your house myself; not selling it for you. That’s right. I would like to buy your house!
I can give you a fast cash offer for what the house is worth. There is no need make any repairs on the house either. I am an investor not a real estate agent.
Call me at [number] and I will show you what I have to offer. It will not cost you a cent to have me sit down with you and go over the particulars.
Save yourself further headaches that go along with rental homes with a simple phone call to me. Call me right now and I’ll show you how easy it will be to get money in hand within just a few days - [number].
Michael I like that approach to getting the addresses, actively finding and calling. Then you take the active and turn it passive by mailing. I never really gave it much thought but that is one of the reasons we do well with foreclosures and doorhangers. We actively gather our list and pay them a visit, and we leave a doorhanger under the door jam which is passive if we dont contact them.
We focus on foreclosures and bankruptcys, we really need to focus some time to some of the other destressed property situations. There are so many ways to buy real estate at a discount, we get the occational divorce, L.O., reo, burnt out land lord, MLS deal, and do short sales on more expensive house. I think its just amazing how well you can do by focusing your efforts in one area.
How many people go after all distressed property types, and how many people focus on just a few areas and master them?
I was going to talk directly to landlords at the courthouse or get access to the public record for Eviction Citations, then mail to them or put on a doorhanger. I want to get to the landlords as soon as they’re going through the headache, but perhaps I should wait until they may be even more motivated.
In many states, either the actual owner of the property must show up in eviction court, or they must have a lawyer to represent them.
In states that allow eviction services, the fees are very cheap.
I know of free eviction services that do the eviction literally for free and pick up a few purchases. The purchases pay for their time to sit in court. The evictions are not hard to do, so they aren’t out much if they give a free eviction and don’t get anything in return.
Offering a free eviction if the landlord will sell to you is not really a free eviction. It is part of the purchase terms.
What we’re doing is buying the house, then completing the eviction, so we’d be the owners. I asked a few investor friends what they thought and the really liked the angle. We have a referral service for property managers who can do the eviction free and manage the property. We don’t have any totally free eviction services or nonprofits in my area because it’s too much trouble for nothing.
I’ll see if this works and post results. We’re going to work courthouses for the next 90 days and see if we get anything. I also wanted to print some cards at Illbuzz or Vistaprint.
Dee, if you are offering “free eviction”, and then you buy the property and do the eviction, you are doing the eviction for yourself and not the seller.
I think you are going to run into serious issues with the truth in advertising laws.
It would be a lot safer and a lot more honest to advertise that you will purchase occupied and take their bad tenant off their hands.
I wanted to bounce the idea here to get any input and definitely appreciate the heads up. I changed my flyer site a little to show that I’m actually advertising FreeEvictions.com and not a free eviction service (the way a nonprofit would).
I’m not sure Truth in advertising refers to domains, but will get with legal expert because the site clearly explains how we help get tenants out at no cost to the owner. The main point was to have a card and site that stands out to landlords, especially tired ones. I think they’d easily remember it and the fact that we can help them get rid of their property.
I was going to let them know we’ll take the house off their hands or get them with a property manager since I think there’s better ways to make money in real estate anyway. Again, just my opinion.
Dee i have had a similar thought in that I was going to start a multi-step marketing campaign to property owners who have filed an eviction notice… so i like your idea of mailing to them along with having the website as an information tool for those people who don’t want to talk with you directly they can go to the site and get information but a good emotional multi step letter campaign IMO would produce a steady flow of properties… especially in the present environment where those property owners who are newbies and have ARM’s are starting to feel the ultimate squeeze play - vacancies and increasing mortgage payments!
As some already people noted, there may be issues with the legality of it. IANAL, and I think you should consult one on this. That is my rule in life: ALWAYS consult a professional. In fact, as far as I know, big companies always consult a lawyer when they put out ads, especially in areas like real estate.
Do not, repeat not, remain satisfied with just consulting people on the internet unless you know them really well. For all you know I might be a trained labrador from North Korea typing madly with my rear paws as my Communist master cracks the whip over my snout again and again.
Agreed. Well, fortunately/unfortunately, I got pulled into some great opportunities, so this one is on hold. I’m starting a podcast that goes along with my blog and increased my networking to wholesalers, so I’m too busy now.
I thought it was a good idea and asked a judge friend of mine how to get access to eviction citations. The problem is that I can’t really find the answer. Too bad the other stuff is working. I haven’t even gotten a chance to send yellow letters either.