Posted by Chad NoCA on September 18, 2003 at 24:37:16:
Ben,
Working preforeclosure in CA is a numbers game. You start with a lot of names of owners in default and beginn working them into your funnel by calling owners and knocking on doors (I prefer calling because it saves time and gas). Try something simple on the phone like “hello, my name is joe smoe and I am a private investor interested in buying a property in your neighborhood, is this something we can talk further about, or probably not”. You are going to get a lot of “probably nots” and a lot of “oh, you are calling because of my foreclosure thing, I already took care of that” (liars). Log the conversation and set a date in the future to contact them again (the situation only gets worse as time goes by, and the owner in default will accept someones offer sometime down the road as the situation becomes more real). Think of it as trying to help a lazy person who does not really want to take care of his problem right now. Be patient, persistant, and courteous and things will begin to happen. Some people recommend calling neighbors and family of owners in default first to try and learn more about the owners situation and create less of a cold call. If you can’t find an owners no. you can do an neighbor’s address reverse search at infospace.com and try to get a neighbor to leave your phone no. on the owners door. I have had some luck with this. Most important thing about working preforeclosure is to not get discouraged and quit. The more no’s you get the closer you are to a yes. If you are in northern CA, drop me a line at vargito1@hotmail.com maybe we could work at something together. Good luck.
Chad NoCA
