Posted by Kristine-CA on July 04, 2003 at 15:54:09:
IB: sorry, I wasn’t thinking about pre-foreclosure deals which are a whole different story. I get calls from people with vacant property that live out of the area. The properties usually have several problems such as ownership issues, probate issues, tax debt or other kinds of debt.
Letters to pre-foreclosures probably don’t work very well where I am either. Everyone and their brother is trying to buy from sellers in pre-foreclosures here. Many of the properties that I track have no equity and will not cash flow (per my evaluation) and still an investor comes along and pays the owner $500 for the deed and mows the lawn and puts out the lease/option sign.
I might be missing something here, but it doesn’t look like fun to me.
?When it come to contacting homeowners. Should I send them a letter in the mail to get them to call
me, or should I just call the and talk to them on the phone. Properties that I am looking at are
vacant and need to be rehab. Please advise me I am new to the business. Thanks
Why send a letter and wonder if they received it? Why wonder if they opened it? Why wonder if they understood the message you were trying to convey when you can simply call them on the phone and get right to the point?
Posted by Kristine-CA on July 04, 2003 at 11:36:32:
Matthew: I do both. I send letters to owners of vacant and abandoned properties and get calls. But if I can find the number for the owners, I will call too.
One of the things I am learning is to not second guess anyone. Because I have online info available regarding when the property was sold and price, etc., it’s tempting to assume that the person who just bought isn’t intersted in selling. Or that an investor that owns dozens of properties wouldn’t be interested in selling for my price, etc.
Don’t assume (if you can help it). The worst thing anyone can say is no or try to sell it for more than it’s worth. Actually, it’s a little bit worse than that. They can say no and call you names. But you gotta get used to that anyway.
Posted by Kristine-CA on July 04, 2003 at 12:00:04:
IB: while getting on the phone with most sellers can really help you find out what they need, I can tell you from experience that there are sellers that will never respond to such tactics.
I’ve completed a few deals now where I have never spoken to the owner–totally via email and through escrow. Some sellers have written to me to tell me that they appreciate the fact that they can communicate with me via email and have not responded to other solicitations because there was no email contact.
In my opinion email, in general, is not a good medium for negotiating. But some sellers’ distress is that they do not want to talk to anybody about the property. Some sellers will flat out tell you no when you call them because they are being confronted. But with more distance from the interested buyer, they feel less threatened.
Just something to think about. Sincerely, Kristine
in my market. I get very little reponse (almost nil) from sending letters. All of my competition are sending letters. Mainly because no one wants to confront the seller face to face and get a rejection. So they would rather send a letter and get rejected quietly (by the seller not responding to the letter and thus, not call).
I do send letters as a result of a phone call or door knock. But phone calling/door knocking preforeclosures in my market is far more superior to sending letters. In fact I speak to a lot of owners who have received a bunch of letters but I’m usually the first to call or stop by.
I’m sure it’s different when dealing with probate. In fact, I would never call one out of the blue when they could still be grieving over the loss of a loved one.
BTW, I posted my first response before I realized you posted right before mine. So my opinion of letter sending was not in response to yours. Take care.