Posted by David on August 08, 2003 at 09:14:21:
If they don’t go to you, you have to go to them. If your writing postcards, you have their address. Right? So, if your time is limited, goto a few homes per wk. Remember, some may not even be there! Keep doing this. Talk to them if you can. Find out their problems and see if you could offer them a solution. By the way, make sure you you do your title search as well. You never know.
Getting in contact with pre-foreclosures - Posted by Tim (CT)
Posted by Tim (CT) on August 08, 2003 at 09:00:32:
I’ve purchased Joe Kaiser’s “How to totally dominate your foreclosure market” and am trying to follow it. One of the things the course says is to try and mail postcards to people in the foreclosure process. Well, I went down to two courthouses and flipped through the indicies. I pulled out every person that has a “lis pendens” filed against them from a mortgage company (or some kind of lending institution). Great, I cross-reference every one and excluded those that have been released and I mail out the postcards. In all, I probably mailed out about 150. I’m thinking, not too bad, I should get at least a few calls. I mean, these people have to have some motivation so somebody should be calling.
NOT ONE!!! NOTHING!!! NADA!!! ZERO!!!
I can’t believe it. It’s been about 6 weeks since I sent out the post-cards. And, I did another mailing to about half of them about 3 weeks after the first one. Not one. Not even someone calling me up to tell me to take a hike!! I’m thinking 1 of 3 things has happened: 1) I went after the wrong people in the indicies 2) I went after the right people but found them too late in the process because they’ve all been foreclosed upon (all 150?) 3) People in Connecticut are just stupid enough or stubborn enough not to do anything about their situation!! I’m sure there are some other reasons.
I’m really floored by this. In Joe’s course, he mentions the “trigger” document filed by the foreclosing attorney that states to the world, “o.k., foreclosure proceedings are about to start against these people and I’m the person that’s going to do it”. Forgive me, at this point, the exact name of the document filed escapes me. But, the point is, the only thing I see at the coursehouse is ‘L/P’, or ‘LISP’ or something of that nature. I don’t see any kind of “trigger” document.
What’s my next step? I don’t have a problem knocking on doors, but I have to tell ya, that’s my last resort. I just don’t have time for that. And, from what I hear from other people in my area in the real estate business (RE agents, RE attornies, etc.), I’m the only person in this area that’s going to this level and doing this stuff. So, it can’t be that somebody’s getting to these people before me. And, even if there is, they can’t be dealing with all 150 people.
HELP!!
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks.
Re: Getting in contact with pre-foreclosures - Posted by Tom (MI)
Posted by Tom (MI) on August 10, 2003 at 11:06:29:
It seems to me that you are not hitting each prospect enough with you mailings. I have found that majority of people won’t respond until the 5 through 7 mailing. It will never replace door knocking or even calling them up on the phone.
Good luck,
Tom
Re: Getting in contact with pre-foreclosures - Posted by Kristy-AZ
Posted by Kristy-AZ on August 08, 2003 at 19:38:06:
Tim,
It doesn’t matter where you live, there are MANY investors doing the same exact thing you are…mailing letters and postcards. These people you are mailing to are receiving numerous postcards from investors, lenders, REaltors and whoever else.
You need to READ Joes course more in depth. It suggests to do mailings, BUT not to make it your main source for getting leads! Knocking on doors sounds like alot of work, however, you can’t make money in RE just sitting on your duff mailing post cards and hoping for those calls to come in.
We had a dry spell for 3 months. No calls, no properties, nothing! I started door knocking and missed 3 good deals because I was 2 HOURS too late! You HAVE TO BE FIRST! I got tired of knocking on doors, so I went all out and…posted flyers, handed out business cards, searched the MLS, put out Bandit signs, had signs put on my truck and guess what! We have bought and sold 7 properties in less than 2 months, plus have 3 others we are scrambling around trying to find money to buy them!
Also we are in a market that is flooded with Investors. If you don’t jump on a property it will be gone. So if your area is as slow as you say, you should have no problem acquiring properties. Just get out there and DO IT!
Kristy-AZ