FSBO, FRBO, expired listings. Those are the best. I’ve never done farming but I’m sure it could work. I stay away from people in financial distress. I want the seller to be motivated to get something done with the property, but not so desperate that they become a hassle. I’m happy to leave the highly stressful deals to those who enjoy the challenge
Joke, like Enjoidc said, I’m looking to buy the house from them on a rent to own basis. Usually these are sellers who have bought a new home and the old one hasn’t sold. Sometimes retirees or tired landlords or someone selling an inherited home.
Sounds interesting. I may try that. I just sent letters to all the FSBOs in the county. If I don’t get a good response I might call them all.
couple questions though
You don’t want people in financial distress, why else would they call you? Unless maybe divorce job loss. Im sure thats the answer but I thought Id check.
What question weeds out the financial distress from situational distress?
Im guessing you just get your numbers out of the paper?
Seems like a good way to do it if you’re crunched for time or the weather outside is nasty. Ill give it a try next rainy day.
To clarify, when I say “financial distress” I’m talking about pre-foreclosures primarily. Those sellers are NOT good candidates for lease/options, you can’t rely on them to keep up their end of the deal. And personally I find the denial and stubborness to be more trouble than it’s worth for the kind of deals I like to do.
However, the sellers I typically work with ARE facing an unpleasant situation. Either they’re making payments on a vacant house or will be before long. Or they’re sick of dealing with tenants. They CAN afford the payments, but who wants to make payments on a vacant house for very long even if they can afford it?
I always ask if their payments are current. And if I’m going to be staying in the middle (a Sandwich L/O) then I verify all their mortgage info with their lender. But you can usually tell by their attitude. If they’ve built a bigger better house and they’re not all that concerned about the fact that they’re moving in a week. Then chances are they don’t have a problem making two house payments. But like I said, it comes back to “How long do you want to keep paying on a vacant house?”
Yup, paper, FSBO sites. In most places you can get expired listings from a Realtor. Here in Ontario I don’t have that luxury so I have my own convoluted process of finding those sellers.
I buy from them. But before you order large quantities, you should test your message with smaller quantity to see if it is working and adjust till you find one that works and pull in calls.
My main concern for beginners is that they spent most of their budget trying to get calls, but they don’t know how to close the deal. By the time they learn how to close, the budget is gone.
My main concern for beginners is that they spent most of their budget trying to get calls, but they don't know how to close the deal. By the time they learn how to close, the budget is gone.
Exactly! That's why I recommend MAKING the calls instead. If you already have a phone then it doesn't cost you anything and you're practicing how to quickly qualify tons of sellers in preparation for the day you have tons of calls coming IN.
Like I said: newspaper, websites, Realtors. You want to call the “For Rent By Owner” ads, the “For Sale Buy Owner” ads, and Expired Listings.
The biggest hurdle is making the calls. Nearly everyone gives up after 10 or 20 calls. Well, that’s not enough to get a deal. In the beginning you can expect it to make 200 calls to get your first deal because you aren’t good at it yet. Once you are then 20-30 calls per deal is about right.
Also I highly recommend getting a headset as soon as possible, it’s much more comfortable and a lot faster.
I don’t think I would give up after 10-20, but I might run out of numbers. FSBOs around here tend to stick a sign in the ground and leave it at that no matter the motivation.
