Tag Archives: “absentee owners”

5 Deals for Less Than $3K

In the month of October, we put 5 deals under contract and will be out of pocket less than $3000!

In fact, we used someone else’s money, so it’s not cost us a penny… just some time!

What exactly did we do?

1. Find the motivated sellers!

We started by sending out a direct mail campaign to about 350 property owners. What is different about this campaign versus our standard “absentee owner marketing” campaign is the fact that we found owners of VACANT land that had owned the property for more than 10 years!

2. Screen the leads…

Out of 350 letters that went out, we had about 70 calls! Yes… that’s right! Twenty percent of the people responded to our letter. Typically with other real estate direct mail, I’ll get between 8 – 15%, so this market is definitely hot!

Oh! And by the way… we actually send all of these leads to our virtual assistant who called them all back, filled out lead sheets, and gathered all the preliminary information. In some cases, she even pre-negotiated the price down!

3. Evaluate the deals…

Obviously with 70 deals (give or take), the due diligence took a little time. The great part, however, is that since you’re mailing in clusters, you can duplicate your homework across lots of properties! We hand picked the very best of the best and decided to make offers.

4. Make offers…

Next, we had to put our offers together. Some of the sellers, we called over the phone. Others, we simply dropped offers in the mail and hoped for the best! We gave them 10 days to get the contracts back to us and had 6 contracts back in that time period.

5. Additional due diligence…

The executed contract is just the first piece of the puzzle. Now, I would never suggest you go into a contract on a deal you don’t have every intention of closing on, but you aren’t going to do all the due diligence required on every deal until you have a contract in hand. For example, when we buy real property, we don’t pay for inspections and appraisals until after we have a signed contract. The same holds true for land. There are going to be additional calls to make and some more homework to do, but now it only takes you a short while since it’s the deals you’re actually going to close on.

NOTE: You may have noticed I said that we got SIX contracts back, but that we were closing on 5 deals. Why?

Because during the due diligence, we found some issues that were deal breakers for us. We simply decided to get out of the contract, which was completely within the terms of the contract, prior to closing. THAT’S what this secondary period is for!

6. Closing…

The last step in the acquisition process is closing on the deals! Since we wanted to use someone else for the financing (remember… the more you leverage OPM, the better your ROI is). So, we actually assigned the contracts to the LLC we set up with the partner on these deals. He put up all the money and we did the work!

7. BONUS: Pre-sold one…

We actually run regular ads for our properties on Craigslist and happened to be running a group of ads for seller financing. A potential buyer contacted us and the more we got to talking, the more I realized that one of these new properties was much more appropriate for their needs and pre-sold it while we waited for the deed to be signed off on! They are currently deciding between 2 of these BRAND NEW DEALS!

The Numbers

One of the lots, we picked up for a flat $500. It’s one block away from the lake and would have lake view with a two-story home on it. They are looking at that one for $4900 with seller financing option which will be $900 down and the balance seller financed at 8% for 12 months.

Total profit potential = $4575.44 (5075.44 – $500 purchase price = $4575.44)
Total potential ROI = 915%! (Our ROI is infinite because we had nothing invested)

If they choose the other lot, the purchase price is $8900. We have a total of $2100 into it will all closing costs and additional expenses incurred. If they choose this one, they’re going to pay $8900 with seller financing. This will be $1000 ad the balance seller financed at 8% for 12 months.

Total profit potential = $7190.36 ($9290.36 – $2100 purchase costs = $7190.36)
Total potential ROI = 342%! (Our ROI is infinite because we had nothing invested)

The best part about these types of deals is that there’s NO SHORTAGE of deals AND there are loads of people that are interested in putting up a few thousand dollars to “test” something when you can show returns like that on their money!

Heck, even when you split the profits… that’s still over 450% ROI on the first scenario and over 170% ROI on the second! Show those numbers to investors and they’ll be lining up to do deals with you.

PLUS… if you want to get started yourself… you can use your own money or even a credit card advance for less than the cost of most home study courses these days!

For more information on how we’re picking up these land deals for next to nothing, check out our Simple Land Investing

Real Estate Investing Mistake – Lack of Focus

Real Estate Investing Mistake #1: “Focusing on the Next Shiny Object”

There’s so much information everywhere you turn that it’s extraordinarily easy to get distracted. One “guru” is telling you that – hands-down – foreclosures are the most profitable strategy. Then, another “expert” is saying that foreclosures are frustrating, overworked, and unprofitable and claiming that the best way to make money now is investing in “paper”.

So, what’s a new investor supposed to do?

Who’s right and who should you listen to?

The answer may surprise you!

The truth is… just about any market is profitable at any given time. It’s just a matter of finding a system that works and following it… Continue reading

Absentee Owner Marketing Real Estate Course

This comprehensive real estate course opens the door to one of the most effective markets for real estate investing: absentee owners.

This training, you’ll discover:

  • Why absentee owner marketing is one of the most profitable niche markets you can tap into
  • How to get motivated sellers calling as early as NEXT Wednesday
  • The single most important thing that you need to know when it comes to contacting absentee owners
  • How to eliminate time-wasters and focus only on those sellers that have equity, and are interested in selling their property quickly
  • how to convert dead absentee owner leads into a positive return on your marketing investment
  • And much, much more.

Course contains: 57-page digital training guide, audio training, absentee owner blueprint & process map, “dead leads” marketing fee, sample letters

Training created by Heather Seitz, Real Estate Training Academy

5 Steps to Absentee Owner Marketing Profits

The truth of the matter is that working with absentee owners is one of the easiest markets in real estate.

There are essentially only 5 steps you need to take to be successful with absentee owner marketing:

1. Determine Your Absentee Owner Lead Source.
There are a number of places that you can find absentee owner leads. Ultimately, the success of your campaign comes down to finding accurate leads and the right type of leads. In other words, you don’t want data that’s 2 years old. It needs to be up to date and current within the last 3-6 months. Continue reading

Why Absentee Owner Marketing?

There are 5 reasons NOW is the time to really look at absentee owners as your primary method of finding sellers – with equity.

But before we get into the reasons why absentee owners are a great market right now, it’s important for us to define absentee owners in the manner in which WE discuss it for purposes of this article and in our Absentee Owner Marketing training.

For our purposes, when we refer to “absentee owners”, we’ll be referring to owners of real property whose mailing address is 50 miles or farther away from the subject property.

Let’s look at the top 5 reasons absentee owner marketing is ripe for the picking RIGHT NOW. Continue reading

Real Estate Investing Mistake #1: Farm Area

When I first got started in real estate investing, I was the poster child for mistakes! The one thing I did PROPERLY was that I took action. And success favors the people that take action.

The key is to keep moving and not dwell on each individual real estate investing mistake that you make, especially early on! Just keep on going… and take a few minutes to figure out what the lesson was, add it to your knowledge and experience bank, and move on to the next!

In this article series, I’ve highlighted 17 real estate investing mistakes that I made early on and share with you what you can do to avoid making the same real estate investing mistakes I made…

The first mistake new real estate investors make is always thinking the grass is greener on the other side! That “another” market will have better deals, more motivated sellers, and more qualified buyers. Once your business is established with duplicatable systems in place, it can be easy to expand into additional markets. But in the beginning, stick with your targeted farm area. Continue reading

7 Steps to Getting Started In Real Estate

There are only 7 steps you need to master to be successful in real estate. If you fail to master any single step, you’re building your real estate business on a weak foundation. Wouldn’t you rather build your home on a rock-solid, unbreakable foundation?

Step #1: How To Set Your Business Up And Build Your Team

I defer to Napoleon Hill! If you look at people that have been successful in the past, a common thread is the people they are surrounded with. You need to build your team with the RIGHT people.

Remember, you get what you pay for! (To give you an idea Continue reading

How to Find Real Estate Buyers

The key to selling a house in any market is finding the right buyer.

Just a few short years ago, buyers for real estate deals were crawling out of the woodwork, and finding motivated sellers was the challenge. Now, motivated sellers are a dime a dozen, and the challenge lies in how to find buyers for real estate.

In order to sell your property, the most important thing is to determine who the ideal buyer actually is. Now in this article, I’m not referring to the psychographics of buyers, but a specific “type” of buyer.

To find buyers for every real estate deal, you simply need to figure out which of the 5 types of real estate buyers your house most appeals: Continue reading

Integrated Streams of Income?

Listen to Lou Castillo’s “Online RE Empire HERE (In this 90 minute interview, Lou reveals how YOU CAN have multiple streams of income with real estate as the foundation)

I remember back about 5 years ago when the whole “Multiple Streams of Income” was all the rage. But, even then… I thought, “Hmmm. How in the heck is anyone supposed to learn 4 VERY DIFFERENT businesses at the same time?”

I consider myself pretty good at multi-tasking and taking on multiple projects at the same time, but when you’re trying to…

 

… Learn the RE business;
… Figure out how to write ebooks and put them online;
… Speak publicly;
… Understand the stock market; and

… Choose a network marketing company

all at once, it’s no doubt that you wind up running in circles, never really getting ANYTHING accomplished. I know from first hand experience. I would go to a seminar or an event and I would want to come home and do EVERYTHING! I remember starting Continue reading

Getting Started in Real Estate: Finding Focus

 Before we get into the nuts and bolts of your real estate investing business, it’s important to start with some basic goal setting! Yes, I know that it’s no fun but it will help with your mindset and will get you focused on the right track.

Let me guess, you’ve read a book, bought a home study course (or 2, or 3 or even more!), or just got back from a 3 day “bootcamp”. Your mind is spinning with ideas and you want to do everything and you want to do it right away. I can relate. I left my first training years ago and wanted to:

I got home and tried to do all of these things all at once. I sent letters to people in foreclosure. I bought a subscription to a data service to market to private mortgage holders. I drove through neighborhoods looking for abandoned homes. I worked morning, noon and night and ran from house to house chasing anything and everything. I desperately wanted this to work and I desperately needed a real estate deal ASAP! Continue reading