Real Estate Training Academy » motivated sellers

Your “Veteran” Stories…

Heather Seitz — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:38:25 +0000

If you’d like to share stories of veterans in your life, we’d love to hear about those men and women that sacrificed themselves, their families, and in many cases, their lives. Or even just the stories of the men and women that fought in wars here and abroad and their courage and character.

No matter what we think politically or the viewpoints on many of the past and present wars, we need to respect and honor the people that served the country. If you’ve got a great story that could touch our readers, please do share!

One of the organizations we support – and feel strongly about – is the Wounded Warrior project. Too many soldiers come home injured, unable to find work, and finding it very difficult to put their lives back together after service. This organization is doing some wonderful things and if you can get involved, donate, or support in other ways, there are hundreds of thousands of men and women that would appreciate it!

Also, if you have another charity that you support that helps Veterans and their families, please do share it with our readers.

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5 Deals for Less Than $3K

Heather Seitz — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:26:29 +0000

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…

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Is Your Real Estate Website Getting Results?

Heather Seitz — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:42:29 +0000

Most people are getting this wrong when it comes to using the Internet in their real estate business. This goes for investors AND real estate agents alike.

The thing is… it’s not their fault. They don’t know any better.

Let me use a story to illustrate this point…

Last week, a friend of mine wanted to “run something by me” to see if it was a good fit for some stuff we’re doing with investors and agents. In a nutshell, it was a guarantee of a page 1 listing in Google in six months or less.

At first, that sure sounds like a big promise, but there’s more to the story and if you don’t know what to ask, then it could either be a total waste of time or money… OR both!

There are a few things that you want to know the answers to…

#1. Who CONTROLS the Website?

In other words, do you own the website and all of the information? Or are you simply getting a “landing page” on someone else’s site? SO, if you stop paying the monthly fee, is your site wiped off the map, or worse… handed over to someone else?

#2. What keywords/keyword phrases will I show up for on page 1 of Google?

It’s real easy for someone to promise you page 1 of Google, but you’ve got to know what you’re getting to page one of Google FOR!

I could promise you page one of Google for the keyword phrase: “3 ways to find buyers online”. But, is that REALLY going to accomplish your goal(s)? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on what you’re looking to do. If you’re marketing to find pre-foreclosure needs, probably not.

But the point is, page 1 of Google is not for anything and everything related to your website. It is for one specific keyword or keyword phrase.

See #1… If you CONTROL the website yourself, you can have dozens, even hundreds or thousands of “pages” come up on page one of Google for specific keywords.

And YOU want to CONTROL what keywords you’re coming up under on page 1 of Google and you may want to come up for SEVERAL keyword phrases.

#3. What is the PURPOSE of the website (or individual landing pages)?

You’ve got to take a few minutes and think about the types of people you want to attract to your website based on your business. Are you looking for:

Motivated sellers?
People facing foreclosure?
People looking for fixer uppers?
People looking for INFORMATION on real estate investing?
Credibility to support your marketing campaigns?
Etc.

Your website, or at the very least your pages, should be very different for each of these types of leads.

#4. Is your site designed for lead capture?

It’s amazing to me to see the number of real estate sites out there that are just plain junk. They do absolutely NOTHING to capture prospects and provide you the opportunity to follow up with them.

According to the National Association of Realtors® 2009 “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”, 90% of all homebuyers use the Internet as a source of information.

And of those, 77% drive by the property prior to ever contacting an owner or agent to see the interior. This means, that you’ve got to capture their contact information to follow up with them or risk losing the lead.

#5. Are you actively generating traffic to your website?

Unfortunately, too many people believe the old adage, “If you build it, they will come.” That is simply NOT the case when it comes to the Internet. You must advertise and market the site consistently. The marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, but you must do it. PERIOD.

Sure, if you set your site up properly from the ground up, you will have “some” traffic, but you simply won’t get enough to build a business.

It’s also essential to understand that your website is really your HUB. There are lots of other spokes, so to speak, that are a part of your online presence including social media, content marketing, classified advertising, and more.

So to recap…

It is CRITICAL to have an online presence if you want to be doing anything in real estate these days. PERIOD.

Over 90% of all homebuyers start their search online (and for motivated sellers, the numbers are also comparable).

When it comes to your website, you MUST:

CONTROL your own website…
Understand the basics of KEYWORDS and KEYWORD PHRASES and how to effectively use them in your web marketing strategy…
DEFINE the purpose of your website (and/or individual pages on your site)…
Ensure your site is optimized for LEAD CAPTURE…
Actively GENERATE traffic to your website…

To use this article on your own website, include the following:

Looking to use the Internet CORRECTLY in your real estate business?

Visit http://realestatemoneymagnet.com to get my HANDWRITTEN Money Magnet Model and a Comprehensive video that explains each magnet! You’ll discover how to SUCCESSFULLY use social media for you real estate business. You’ll also learn the 2 real estate social media sites you MUST be using if you’re serious about leads!

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Is It A Good Time to Buy Real Estate?

Heather Seitz — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:59:21 +0000

Nothing is harder to watch than seeing real estate investors simply watch the best market we’ve seen in countless years pass them right by.

If this is you, here are 5 concrete reasons why this market is the best we’ve seen in years and why now is the time to buy real estate.

Rock Bottom Home Values
Home values have plummeted. I don’t think anyone would argue here. And what does that mean for you…deals, deals, and even more deals! We have right now the best deals we’ve seen in the last decade or more.
Cash Flow
It also has gotten a lot easier in just about all markets to cash flow on properties. During the boom, many of the most popular markets across the country became virtually impossible to really cash flow. Now, not only is it a lot easier; but it’s expected!
Real Motivated Sellers
The real motivated sellers just raised their hands. What was considered a motivated seller 3-5 years ago was they were will to sell their house. Sure, there were some hard cases but they were far and few and took a lot of digging. Now, they are everywhere.
Government Programs
There are a number of government programs available to help new home buyers buy real estate and to help investors get into real estate for very little down and record low interest rates.
Low Risk Strategies
Terms have never been easier to negotiate; taking a lot of the risk and upfront money out of the game. You really can invest with very little to no money or risk at all.

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Real Estate Investing Mistake – Lack of Focus

Heather Seitz — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:31:33 +0000

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…

The problem that investors (and entrepreneurs in general) face is that they get started with one thing and then get distracted by the next big idea. OR… what’s even worse is when they take system A and pull out the pieces they like in system A and try to fit them in the model for system B.

Think about your business like a recipe for baking a cake. You need three things:

The RIGHT ingredients;
The RIGHT measurements (for each ingredient); and
The RIGHT procedure for combining the ingredients, baking the cake, and frosting/decorating the cake.

If any one of these three things is off, then your recipe is a disaster.

The same holds true for real estate investing. Therefore, you’ve got to pick ONE recipe and follow it through.

To make this make sense, let’s look at an example – one of our real estate systems that’s worked seamlessly for YEARS in our business.

Recipe: Absentee Owner Marketing

Ingredients:

Motivated sellers (non owner occupants)
Marketing strategy
Method for screening sellers
System for evaluating leads/deals
Contract for purchase and sale
And so on…

“Measurements”/ How Much?:

Motivated sellers (10-20 to get a deal)
Marketing strategy (250-1000 letters mailed/month, networking, online advertising, etc.)
Method for screening sellers (website, voicemail system, etc.)
And on and on for each “ingredient”

Recipe/Procedure

Determine your lead source for absentee owners
Filter your database for the best prospects (define this criteria beforehand)
Create your first direct mail letter
Mail merge your prospect lists with your direct mail letter
Send your letters
Provide a voicemail line for prospects to call in order to prescreen sellers (pre-record a message that filters prospects so you can spend your time with the most qualified first)

You can sort of see how the process works here. Now, this is not a comprehensive training on absentee owners or each section would have been far more comprehensive and complete.

By the way, if you ARE interested in this market, check out www.AbsenteeOwnerMarketing.com for the complete course/program.

OK, so back to this recipe and why people go wrong with the shiny object syndrome…

They get started gathering the ingredients. And while they’re getting everything together, they hear about another market, or another strategy or system, and they either completely abandon the recipe or they start to mix and match ingredients or steps in the process. The recipe becomes boring or too complicated and they give up before they see the results!

Perhaps they don’t like a particular ingredient, so they choose to leave it out.

It wouldn’t work in a cake… and it won’t work in real estate.

The other thing to understand is that SOMETIMES you simply have to run through a recipe a couple of times before you get it right. Sometimes there are adjustments that need to be made based on your oven or even your elevation! So, even if you follow the recipe to a T, there’s still a chance that you might need to add a little more of this ingredient or that, cook the cake a little longer or for a little less time, etc.

So, don’t give up before you’ve given it your all and followed the recipe COMPLETELY several times!

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Absentee Owner Marketing Real Estate Course

Heather Seitz — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:36:14 +0000

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

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Foreclosure Investing: Persistence Pays Off

Heather Seitz — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:13:35 +0000

We’re currently working on a short sale for a property on which the owner hasn’t made a payment since February of 2008. (Yes, the banks CAN take that long to foreclose!).

There had been a few offers along the way, but they were either refused by the lender or the Realtor® she was using didn’t know what to do in order to get the deal closed. In addition, the lender is AHMSI, who is difficult to say the least.

Offers came and went because the bank simply didn’t respond. When we finally got involved, we moved right up the chain of command, contacted the Attorney General for the State of Florida and a few other agencies. Amazingly enough, we got a reply within a few days.

However, the offer was $110,000. The bank wanted to NET $140,000. Now, if they’d taken the offer a few months back, or one even a few years ago, they could have probably gotten it. But not now…

The other problem is that the bank’s BPO was about 5 months old. We know of several short sales in the neighborhood in the past 60 days that justified the offer price. Yet, the lender was stuck on their outdated BPO.

We took their recommendation and forwarded an appraisal from the property across the street, which was quite similar. In fact, it was in slightly better condition. Still NOTHING… the lender wouldn’t budge. They set a sale date and the Realtor® that had the listing suggested it was time to give up. The bank was probably not going to work with us. They were probably ticked that we were so aggressive and involved 3rd party agencies. She suggested the seller just let it go to foreclosure and move on.

Well… that’s NOT an acceptable answer. You see, there’s a lot of misinformation about foreclosures and short sales and what really happens financially as a result. Foreclosure can seriously harm a person for many years and there are some serious financial consequences in almost all cases, whether it’s in the form of tax or a judgment.

NOTE: When you get your copy of 3 Simple Steps to Foreclosure Profits today, I’ll give you access to an interview I did with my CPA on the financial ramifications of a short sale, foreclosure, deed in lieu, and bankruptcy. (This may be something – as an investor – you want to listen to anyways because lots of investors are trying to decide what to do with their own business investments).

As an investor, your job is to find solutions to sellers problems that others can’t find. That’s why you get deals done that others can’t and that’s why you make money.

Now back to the case study!

The lender agreed to accept a contract at $130,000. Yet, the property would not appraise. Naturally, the end buyer wasn’t going to pay for an appraisal on a deal that he didn’t even have an approval on. The seller didn’t have the money. So what do you do?

Here’s what we did.

We got the seller to agree to a contract price of $130,000. We put together an addendum that stated that they could walk if it appraised over $110,000. Truth is… they could walk at any point in time, but they felt more secure with it written that way.

Then WE went ahead and paid for the appraisal. It cost $250.00 and it was put in the buyer’s name. We contacted the same appraiser that had done the one directly across the street, which appraised for $110,000 just 30 days prior!

The new appraisal was then submitted to the lender who required a new BPO on their end. (Yes, it IS a lot of back and forth!).

Just this past week, we received a call from the negotiator stating that the two appraisals were in line and that the final investor would be issuing a new approval and the deal should close within the next 30-45 days.

In this scenario, the seller wanted to give up. The agent wanted to give up. The negotiator at the bank probably could care less – and might have preferred we just all go away! But, that’s not where money is made! It’s made by being persistent, consistent and organized.

When it comes to foreclosures, you can make money

Just to get you thinking… here are 7 reasons why you need to – at the very least – understand the mechanics of these kinds of deals in this market:

Lots of inventory… (And it’s continuing to increase each and every day)
You’re dealing with extremely motivated sellers…
You can use professionals and leverage their expertise, connections and relationships… (I can show you how to leverage over 93% of ALL the work – more if you use a VA!) You’ve got to have the right players though or it can be DISASTROUS!!!
You don’t need credit or a dime of your own money to do these deals…
You can sell to END buyers which lets you do deals with LESS equity and/or generate higher profits.
You can generate multiple streams of income from every deal you do (even if you don’t end up finding a buyer)…
The biggest reason why is that we are going to be in the middle of this for years to come and it’s the single largest pool of opportunity out there right now. AND… there are too many people that DON’T know what they’re doing. So, if you know what you’re doing – and are persistent – then you can get more deals than you can ever handle.

BONUS REASON: It’s a whole lot more streamlined now and armed with a little information, you can do VERY well…

To access our 3 simple steps to foreclosure profits where you’ll learn how to find pre-foreclosure sellers with deals that work for you, how to create additional streams of income with foreclosures and short sales, and how to get deals closed, visit http://www.realestatetrainingacademy.com/foreclosures.

To use this article on your own website, include the following: To access a 3 simple steps to foreclosure profits, where you’ll learn how to find pre-foreclosure sellers with deals that work for you, how to create additional streams of income with foreclosures and short sales, and how to get deals closed, visit Finding Foreclosure Deals at http://www.realestatetrainingacademy.com/foreclosures

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Getting Started In Real Estate Investing

Heather Seitz — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:27:36 +0000

Real estate investing is really simple if you simply follow the basics. The problem is that we have the tendency to complicate things more than they really need to be AND that we over-think things too much. We get “too much” specialized knowledge that it begins to cripple us from ever getting started in real estate investing.

You see, we all tend to keep looking for the “magic pill” to riches in real estate and no such thing exists. You need to actually take action and apply the specialized knowledge that you are getting — not simply go from strategy to strategy, never actually implementing anything.

In addition, when you take this piece meal approach to getting started in real estate investing, you often get contradictory information, which makes you start to question if a strategy will work.

For instance, when I was brand new to real estate (I mean… one boot camp under my belt and no home study materials to which I could refer), I found this piece of property that I absolutely loved. I called about the property and proposed a lease option.

Why? All I knew is that I couldn’t afford to “buy” a house like that and that I was used to renting!

The husband initially said “No”, but the wife called me back about 10 minutes later and asked if I could meet her there! I told her what my situation was and that I was getting started in real estate, and some of the details of my personal situation. We had a great conversation and I fell in love with the house, but realized that it was much too big of a decision for me to make with my current financial situation. I couldn’t afford the option consideration until we closed on that first deal and I didn’t want to lose the other place I was looking to rent.

I left the house a little disappointed. But, less than an hour later, she called me. She said, “Heather, I know this is a big move and it’s probably a little difficult to make such a big decision in less than 24 hours. So… why don’t you move in now (I had to be out of my friend’s house in 3 days) and see if you like it?

If, at the end of the month, you want to move forward, we’ll sign the paperwork. If not, you can simply move out.”

I was blown away!

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. To this day, I still keep in occasional contact with them and always remember back to how I got into my very first home. Plus, I negotiated this in one of the strongest markets in history, when other people were saying deals like this couldn’t be done. More than a place to live, it gave me confidence and it gave me the opportunity to start over new. But most importantly, it made me believe in the business and also helped me realize that it doesn’t matter what other people say.

Don’t get bogged down in what other people tell you will/won’t work. Every situation is different and if you’re sincere about what you’re doing, you’ll be able to put together deals that other people won’t.

I have talked about the 13 traits that every successful real estate investor has and the value of what Napoleon Hill teaches in “Think & Grow Rich”. But one that really is so critical, especially early on, is the Burning Desire. You have to want it so bad that you’re willing to overcome obstacles and to continue to press on even when you feel like giving up and I can promise you that you WILL feel like giving up as you grow in real estate.

I can still remember back to my first 6 months when I was just getting started in real estate.

I was sitting on my couch, which was underneath the window of my living room. I got a call from my Realtor® who told me that we had a “low offer” on one of our properties and the reason was because ‘there was nothing in the house’. Now, naturally, my question was, “What do you mean?” Apparently, someone had broken into the home and stolen the appliances, ceiling fans, a/c units and fixtures. Just as I was trying to absorb this, I got another call. Only this time it was from my contractor. He had just arrived at the job site to find that all of his tools had been stolen, including the $4000 generator that was there.

I certainly wasn’t having the best day ever! And as the week progressed, there were a total of 5break-ins at 2 properties in 3 days.

I remember looking out the window — up the street and down the street — thinking to myself, “What the hell have you gotten yourself into?” I couldn’t afford my own mortgage payment (which was in my mother’s name, so I had no choice but to find a way). I couldn’t even afford groceries. I lived on canned marinara sauce and pasta with an occasional olive oil and garlic twist. I had a good heart to heart talk with myself and decided that I had no other option. I had to stick with it and fight through it. But, boy… I sure wish I could have quit that day.

But, by making the choice to stick with it and dig myself out of whatever it was that I had gotten into, something else happened. I strengthened my tolerance muscles. I got just a little bit stronger and a little more focused and determined. I had a big reason for doing it and I wasn’t going to let this little” challenge” stop me from achieving my dreams!

Now having said that, let’s assume that you have your reason why and that you’ve made the decision to get into — and stick with — real estate. There are really only 5 things you need to do to make money. The key is to work one step at a time. So often, members contact us and are so worked up about what’s going to happen in step 5 that they never even get started with step number one. The key is to start at the beginning. Once you accomplish the first step, then move on to the second. Trust that the right information will come to you at the right time. This goes for anything.

Step #1: Find A Motivated Seller

Real estate investing comes down to motivated sellers. That’s it. Period. If you don’t have a motivated seller, you won’t be able to get your price or your terms.

The most common question that we get from subscribers is: “What’s the best way to find motivated sellers?”

The answer: There are endless ways to find these sellers. It simply depends on your budget and time constraints. If you are short on cash, it is important to realize that you will have to put in sometime. If you have no time, but have money, hire out some of the work or use leveraged marketing strategies.

If you’ve got no money, but lots of time on your hands, go back to the basics. Get out your Sunday paper and start calling the classified ads. When I started out, I had no money, but all the time in the world. I would run through the paper 3times. The first time, I would circle the ads that called out motivation. Then, I would go through a second time to see if I missed any. And then, after I’d called the first round of ads, I’d skim through one last time to make sure I’d not missed anything.

I could almost guarantee that out of 50 calls, I would have at lease 5-8 motivated sellers.

Plus… this strategy really helps you practice overcoming objections and talking to sellers.

Now, let’s assume that you have limited time and limited funds (but some of each). I would recommend direct mail to targeted prospects, like foreclosure leads, out of state owners, probate, etc. Send personalized letters out on a weekly basis. The number of letters you send out will depend on your budget.

These are but two ways to find motivated sellers. There are dozens and dozens of ways to find motivated sellers that we cover in the membership section and in peripheral materials.

Understand that you’ll probably have to call 50to get 10 sellers with real motivation.

Step #2: Evaluate the Deal

You must be able to quickly determine if a deal is worth your time and effort. We first evaluate a deal on 5 criteria:

Location
Seller’s Motivation
Property Condition
Price
Financing

Each criterion is rated on a scale of 1-3.Depending on where the deal scores, we cut it loose, put in a little more time evaluating it, or move on it fast!

Remember, not all deals are won or lost on price only. Terms play a big factor in whether or not you’ve got a deal on your hands. Obviously, in all cases, the lower the price, the better the deal! But in some cases, you may trade price for terms. Of the ten motivated sellers, you may only end up with 2-3 that are really deals after your evaluation.

Step #3: Write An Offer on the Property

Once you’ve decided that you have a motivated seller and the deal makes sense, it’s time to put the offer in writing. Before you do this, force yourself to come up with 3 creative alternatives that are win/win for you and the seller. The model that we follow is: 1. Cash offer price; 2. Full price (market value); 3. A hybrid offer.

You can present them all at once as a “pick4your favorite” strategy or actually sit down with the seller and go through each of the offers and show him/her the benefits of each of the offers. Present your least favorite offer in the middle as people tend to choose the first or third because of the recency and primacy effect. But… keep in mind that every single offer should be a win/win. If there are not 3 alternatives (like in the case of a short sale where the seller cannot offer you terms), then don’t write three offers just for the sake of doing it.

Be sure to include ‘exit’ clauses to get out of the contract if you should have trouble getting financing or find something during the inspection.

Step #4: Line Up Your Financing

Whether you’re going to a conventional lender, hard money or private lenders, you’ve got to get your financing lined up. Even if your seller is holding all of the paper, you’ll want to get the actual mortgage or deed or trust and note written up by an attorney to ensure everything is done properly.

During this financing, or due diligence, period, you’ll also do your home inspections, appraisals and any additional research.

If you truly have a deal, the financing is the easy part! It’s the properties that you try to make a deal out of something that’s not there that are the real problems.

Step #5: Follow Through with Your Plan

Remember what your original intent was with the property. If you were going to buy and hold long term, don’t get in and expect to turn an overnight profit. The deal was structured for a different purpose.

Likewise, if you based your evaluation numbers on basic renovations, don’t decide to put granite counters and marble floors in after the fact.

Also, don’t get greedy on the price!

If you put the deal together based on a certain sale price, don’t get greedy (or attached) once the projects done and increase the price. You bought it based on one set of numbers. Stick to it so you can get out and get on to the next! If you step back and truly focus on one step at a time, you’ll be able to get more deals done in a shorter period of time. So many of us get caught up worrying about what might happen that we never really get through to find out that the things you fear most are probably the least likely to happen!

Watch Your Free Training Video: Back to the Basics in Real Estate and learn the steps for Getting Started In Real Estate Investing and take advantage of our special subscriber-only offer.

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Getting Started in Real Estate

Heather Seitz — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:35:32 +0000

When I started out in the business, I made a commitment that I had to implement at least one thing from any home study course I purchased, event I attended, or book that I read before I could buy something else. You see, we tend to keep looking for the “magic pill” to riches in real estate and no such thing exists. You need to actually take action and apply the specialized knowledge that you are getting — not simply go from strategy to strategy, never actually implementing anything.

In addition, when you take this approach, you often get contradictory information which makes you start to question if a strategy will work. For instance, when I was brand new to real estate (I mean… one bootcamp under my belt and no home study materials to which I could refer), I found this piece of property that I absolutely loved. I called about the property and proposed a lease option. Why? All I knew is that I couldn’t afford to “buy” a house like that and that I was used to renting!

The husband initially said “No”, but the wife called me back about 10 minutes later and asked if I could meet her there! I told her what my situation was and that I was getting started in real estate and some of my personal situation. We had a great conversation and I fell in love with the house, but realized that it was much to big of a decision for me to make with my current financial situation. I couldn’t afford the option consideration until we closed on that first deal and I didn’t want to lose the other place I was looking to rent.

I was blown away! I could hardly believe what I was hearing. To this day, I still keep in occasional contact with them and always remember back to how I got into my very first home. Plus, I negotiated this in one of the strongest markets in history, when other people were saying deals like this couldn’t be done. More than a place to live, it gave me confidence and it gave me the opportunity to start over new. But most importantly, it made me believe in the business and also helped me realize that it doesn’t matter what other people say.

I can still remember back to my first 6 months in real estate. I was sitting on my couch which was underneath the window of my living room. I got a call from my Realtor® who told me that we had a “low offer” on one of our properties and the reason was because ‘there was nothing in the house’. Now, naturally, my question was, “What do you mean?” Apparently, someone had broken into the home and stolen the appliances, ceiling fans, a/c units and fixtures. Just as I was trying to absorb this, I got another call. Only this time it

was from my contractor. He had just arrived at the job site to find that all of his tools had been stolen, including the $4000 generator that was there. I certainly wasn’t having the best day ever! And as the week progressed, there were a total of 5 break-ins at 2 properties in 3 days.

I remember looking out the window — up the street and down the street — thinking to myself, “What the hell have you gotten yourself into?” I couldn’t afford my own mortgage payment (which was in my mother’s name, so I had no choice but to find a way). I couldn’t even afford groceries. I lived on canned marinara sauce and pasta with an occasional olive oil and garlic twist. I had a good heart to heart talk with myself and decided that I had no other option. I had to stick with it and fight through it.But, boy… I sure wish I could have quit that day.

Now having said that, let’s assume that you have your reason why and that you’ve made the decision to get into — and stick with — real estate.

There are really only 5 things you need to do to make money. The key is to work one step at a time. So often, members contact us and are so worked up about what’s going to happen in step 5 that they never even get started with step number one. The key is to start at the beginning. Once you accomplish the first step, then move on to the second. Trust that the right information will come to you at the right time. This goes for anything.

Step #1: Find A Motivated Seller

Real estate investing comes down to motivated sellers. That’s it. Period. If you don’t have a motivated seller, you won’t be able to get your price or your terms.

The most common question that we get from subscriber is: “What’s the best way to find motivated sellers?”

The answer: There are endless ways to find these sellers. It simply depends on your budget and time constraints. If you are short on cash, it is important to realize that you will have to put in some time. If you have no time, but have money, hire out some of the work or use leveraged marketing strategies.

If you’ve got no money, but lots of time on your hands, go back to the basics. Get out your Sunday paper and start calling the classified ads. When I started out, I had no money, but all the time in the world. I would run through the paper 3 times. The first time, I would circle the ads that called out motivation. Then, I would go through a second time to see if I missed any. And then, after I’d called the first round of ads, I’d skim through one last time to make sure I’d not missed anything.

I could almost guarantee that out of 50 calls, I would have at lease 5-8 motivated sellers.

Plus… this strategy really helps you practice overcoming objections and talking to sellers.

These are but two ways to find motivated sellers. There are dozens and dozens of ways to find motivated sellers that we cover in the membership section and in peripheral materials.

Understand that you’ll probably have to call 50 to get 10 sellers with real motivation.

Step #2: Evaluate the Deal

You must be able to quickly determine if a deal is worth your time and effort.

We first evaluate a deal on 5 criteria:

Location
Seller’s Motivation
Property Condition
Price
Financing

Each criteria is rated on a scale of 1-3. Depending on where the deal scores, we cut it loose, put in a little more time evaluating it, or move on it fast!

Step #3: Write An Offer

You can present them all at once as a “pick your favorite” strategy or actually sit down with the seller and go through each of the offers and show him/her the benefits of each of the offers. Present your least favorite offer in the middle as people tend to choose the first or third because of the recency and primacy effect.

But… keep in mind that every single offer should be a win/win. If there are not 3 alternatives (like in the case of a short sale where the seller cannot offer you terms), then don’t write three offers just for the sake of doing it.

Be sure to include ‘exit’ clauses to get out of the contract if you should have trouble getting financing or find something during the inspection.

Step #4: Line Up Your Financing

If you truly have a deal, the financing is the easy part! It’s the properties that you try to make a deal out of something that’s not there that are the real problems.

Step #5: Follow Through with Your Plan

Likewise, if you based your evaluation numbers on basic renovations, don’t decide to put granite counters and marble floors in after the fact. Also, don’t get greedy on the price! If you put the deal together based on a certain sale price, don’t get greedy (or attached) once the project’s done and increase the price. You bought it based on one set of numbers. Stick to it so you can get out and get on to the next!

If you step back and truly focus on one step at a time, you’ll be able to get more deals done in a shorter period of time. So many of us get caught up worrying about what might happen that we never really get through to find out that the things you fear most are probably the least likely to happen!

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Classified Ads for Real Estate

Heather Seitz — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:49:44 +0000

Let’s get right to the point here!

Classified ads work IF YOU DO THEM CORRECTLY!

There are hundreds of classified ads in any of your publications on a daily basis. Most of them look identical to one another and don’t do anythingto grab the attention of your prospects.

Your only goal in marketing is to get apotentially motivated seller (or buyer) to contact you. Nothing else! (Despite what some say).

Just as in any training that I do on marketing, I will tell you that the key to successful advertising is testing and tweaking. You will test and tweak your copy, your placement, your call to action, etc.

The single most important key to being successful in your classified advertising isCONSISTENCY. You can’t run it one day and hope to have your phone ringing off the hook and pull in 50 deals right off the bat. This goes for traditional newspaper classified ads as well as online classifieds — perhaps even more so with online advertising.

I’m sure you’ve heard investors tell you, “if there are 10 other investors in the same section of the paper with the same ads, week after week, then it must be working. It doesn’t matter what your ad says or where in the list it is.”

Well, on one hand, if they are continuing to advertise, you can assume that either they are getting a good return on their investment or that they are not on top of where they’re spending their marketing dollars!

So, the question is: how do you get a good return on your marketing dollars while using classified ads?

Let’s first talk about newspaper classified advertising since it’s one of the most popular and cost effective places to run consistent classified ads.

First off… newspapers will negotiate! If you’rerunning an ad every day for one month, it may cost you a few hundred dollars to over a thousand. In our local papers, you can fun for 28 days for between $350-$600 depending on which major newspaper you are advertising in.

However, if you commit, let’s say, to 52 weeks advertising only on Sundays or to a full weekend package, you should be able to get a better rate. Ask for the Realtor rate if you commit to a long term ad. Try asking for a discount even if you’re only willing to commit to 3 months at first. If you don’t have the budget to commit to 3 months at this time, consider holding off until you can budget for an initial test run of 3 months. Also, make sure you can change your copy week to week if you need to.

Having said that, you’ll want to try to get into the #1 position. Depending on the publication, it may be called different things. But, often your ads will run in the “Miscellaneous Real Estate” section of the paper with a handful of other investors. The closer you are to the top, the higher your chances of getting more calls are.

People will certainly call more than one ad, they get a similar story from 3 or 4 people, thecalls start to taper of. We tested ads in the 5th position against the first position and got 321% more calls in the first position!

So, how do you get to the first position?

If your publication will allow something like AAA HomeBuyers Can Save You From Foreclosure, that’s great. Some publications won’t allow it, however and will require a name, like ours! We started with“Avoid Foreclosure”. The following week, another investor changed his to “Abe Buys Houses”. So we changed our ad to read “Aaron Buys Houses” and our response shot back up!

If you CAN’T secure one of the top positions,all is not lost! You just have to be more creative than the competition and speak to the seller’s needs.

Now that you’ve secured your position, use a 2-step marketing process and keep in mind that if you need to buy a couple of extra lines to get your message out, then do it. Don’t try to squeeze it all in if it simply doesn’t fit. Additional lines are pretty inexpensive. Not to mention, a bigger ad will capture attention better too!

A 2-step marketing approach means that you are going to give them some“teaser” copy and then direct them to a website and/or a voicemail system toget the rest of the information. (I like to give them the option to bypass themessage when they call in in the event they want to talk to someone rightaway). By using this approach, you’ve already pre-qualified the seller andgiven them your initial spiel before spending your valuable time.

Dare to be different and address what the seller is thinking. No more “WeBuy Ugly Houses” ads! So does everybody else. How are you different? Youare different in that you know what they need and can help them find a solution.

Consider some headlines like the following:

“AAA-1 rated company wants to buy your house. No equity/no problem”
“American Dream Turned Into Financial Nightmare? We can help”
“Call Me Last! I buy houses others won’t touch!”
“Get Rid of Your Nightmare Today”
“Don’t Call Me Until Your Ready to Sell Your House F-A-S-T!”

You’ll notice that these headlines stand out. They not only catch people’s attention, but it also say, “Hey… I’m different!” People are tired of the same old song and dance, so you can be the new face in the real estate market.

These same principles hold true in other publications as well. You’ll want to test the “Penny Savers”, “Thrifty Nickels”, and “Flyer” type papers to see what kind of deals and what response rates you can get. These may wind up being quite a bit more cost effective for you in the long run and work especially well if you’re working in specific farm areas as they tend to be targeted more so than the major newspapers. Plus, you can negotiate bulk rates pretty easily with these types of publications.

Also, pay attention to online classified sites and other free publications. Craigslist.org is one of the most popular out there today. Your title is critical here as there are often hundreds of postings/day in each of the real estate sections. A bad headline — or a even a bland headline — will get you virtually no traffic and you might as wells save your time!

Ultimately, you’ll want a catchy headline, well-written ad, and a two-step approach so prospects can get the rest of the story! Otherwise, you’ll spend several hours each week pre-screening un-motivated seller.

Your first goal is to grab the reader’s attention. Second, to prescreencallers via a voicemail system or a website.

Then, use a prescreening sheet to quickly sift through sellers and spend time with only truly motivated sellers that are ready, willing and able to sell their homes to you.

Remember to use online and offline classified ads to maximize your exposure!To learn how to market like an expert, pick up yourcopy of Motivated Seller Marketing at MotivatedSellerMarketing.com.

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