Suggestions, Ed? - Posted by Jason

Posted by Jason on July 14, 2002 at 08:32:17:

Thanks for the response. My strategy is first to find the buyers and then have them choose the house they want. Then I buy the house below appraisal and sell it to them at appraisal. Therefore, the buyers are needed first to choose the house. In my area (Northwest Indiana near Chicago), most homes can be bought for below appraisal, so it wouldn’t be a problem finding houses once I find the buyers, so the “I Buy Homes” kind of ad wouldn’t be needed.
As for the ghost ad, it seems that that is completely unethical. There is no house that is available, but yet I’m lying to say that there is just to get clients. Sounds like a bait and switch to me. Thanks again for the follow-up and I look forward to any more responses.

Suggestions, Ed? - Posted by Jason

Posted by Jason on July 13, 2002 at 14:19:04:

I am going in and ready to start flipping properties or holding a wrap around mortgage. My only problem, of course, is to find buyers. I have inundated the area with flyers but have had no responses yet. I was thinking about putting an ad in the paper but have some questions. Ed, you mentioned something about putting an ad in the paper for a home and then finding buyers and then finding a home. How can you put an ad in for a home when you don’t have one yet? Or did I misunderstand? Also, how about an ad that says something like, “If I can’t get you a mortgage, I’ll give you $25.” Certain restrictions would be age and a minimum monthly income. What is the likelihood of that working? It seems like it would work well, but I’m sure you and others on this board know a lot more than I do. Any other marketing suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, all!

Re: Suggestions, Ed? - Posted by Shawn Knowles

Posted by Shawn Knowles on July 14, 2002 at 03:35:43:

I’m a little confused about what you are trying to get at, but I’m going to try to help you out.
Depending on what your market it is like in the area that you are in, if it is anything like southern california where I live it is a seller’s market… Finding a buyer is not the problem…it’s a little tougher to find that awesome deal to quick flip…
If you are wanting to find a home you can run an ad like you’ll see in the paper all the time “WE BUY HOMES” and then begin prescreening to weed out the motivated sellers. ie divorce, bankruptcy, job transfer, etc. Then you inspect their property make your offer and make sure to get a good idea of the market value of the home.

Your idea about the $25.00 In my opinion wouldn’t be that great of an idea, because $25.00 is not worth a lot of peoples time…if that was the case a mortgage lender would offer it because it would be worth the small 25.00 to bring in more customers.

Oh and as far as the add goes it is called a ghost ad which you can run to test the market, when someone calls you just tell them the house was sold, and let them know your an investor and you will be closing on a couple more shortly. get all their information such as what price range bed# bath# , location, when they are ready to move.