Well I posted on here a few weeks ago that we were starting our own little business with real estate, set up an office and some of the required tools we needed and got started. We just found a home that is 59% LTV and the owner wants out bad, they accepted the offer, but we’re just working on the deal right now, and now we’re getting calls from out of town owners, and working on 2 junkers, its crazy when its slow you want some more business, then all of the sudden it picks up and you can’t wait to have a break! Whats crazy is we’ve done basically no marketing, all the deals were found by driving and looking in the paper! I’ll be sure to let you guys know how things go in the next couple of days on all of them
Its crazy here in Raleigh, the banks are letting go of stuff at 50% LTV in the neighborhoods I buy in (not that great)
Glad to hear its a good market for you guys. But just to prove that real estate is a million local markets, I’ve had offers in on 4 different properties in the past 2 months; 2 REO, 1 going through foreclosure, and 1 estate. My offers are in the 65% ARV - repairs area, all cash, no contingencies, and none have been accepted. None have sold to anyone else either. I don’t know what they’re waiting for. I’ve put the same offer in on one REO property the first of every month since February and the bank is still WAY overpriced.
I spend about $350/month on advertising and am thinking of cutting the ads from 1/week to 1/every other week because they just don’t seem effective. Most of my leads are generated by driving for dollars.
jmd_forest - what do you mean “driving for dollars”? Would you mind elaborating a little bit… Do you mean driving through the neighborhood(s) you want and trying to find distressed properties and sending them letters?
Thank you.
You’re absolutely right! Going around looking for FSBO’s, vacant properties, distressed properties, rehabs, etc…and even driving around with your Car Magnet is driving for dollars!
Good job Powder!
Yes, Driving for Dollars is a colloquialism for driving through my target neighborhoods, identifying distressed homes, and sending letters to the owners. I also use the courthouse to identify Lis Pendens filings in my target area as well as the County Surrogate’s Office to look for estates in my target areas. I also blanket my target areas with fliers about 3 times/year…Still having a hell of a hard time finding good deals.
jmd_forest
I’ve found driving for dollars to be a waste of time. With gas prices where they are, good luck. The best deals in this area is bank owned.
I get letters from investors wanting my properties from time to time, the first thing I think of is, how much!! I"m not going to let go of them cheap when THEY approach me. I think your wasting your time.
I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time. You just wouldn’t be that investor’s ideal seller. However, your neighbor down the street probably will.
I will agree that my “driving for dollars” has dramatically decreased with the rise of gas, but it’s still very affective.
-Lamar
Lately, “Driving for Dollars” has been done using my motorcycle. Beautiful day, beautiful ride, 75 miles/gallon, pick up a few leads…
I wish the REOs were the best deals around here. At least in this market, the banks simply aren’t hurting enough.
jmd_forest
There aren’t all that many foreclosures around here. Most of them aren’t properties I want to own.
Yesterday, for the first time, I saw one listed in a neighborhood I’d buy in, so I am going to drive by and take a look.
I’m hearing that the banks are selling for about 10% off FMV. Hardly worth the hassle of trying to deal with the bank. I can easily get 10% off a property listed on the multiple and get exactly what I want.
Still, I’ll drive by and if I like the house, I’ll dance with the bank for a bit.
Driving for dollars has brought us many great leads as well. So just an update, our original strategy with the owner did not work because their mortgage broker told them what we were doing was “illegal”, but its not and we’ve done it many times before. Basically we were going to pay her the equity she had in the house, the difference between her loan and her acceptable price, and then sell the home either to a cash buyer or on financing. The mortgage broker suggested they do not go through with deal because he thought it was illegal. Anyways the sellers agree that it is not illegal, so they dumped their broker and are working with a new one. We continued on working other deals and told them to contact us if they still wanted to make a deal work. A week has passed and they are back in contact with us practically begging us to take their house at a big discount. Right now we’re planning on running a 7 day sale just to take any risk out of it for the sellers as well as us. Do any of you guys have any experience with the 7 day sale? I don’t know why a motivated seller wouldn’t want to try it, and if it doesn’t work its no loss to them.