Posted by John Behle on June 04, 1999 at 17:53:51:
The most common term was “Trash 80”, but I loved mine. I still have a Model 4p that was one of the first “luggable” computers. It was a workhorse and still runs after going through a raging fire. I think it has a whopping 48k memory and two floppies.
Why You Should Quit Looking for Properties - Posted by J.P. Vaughan
Posted by J.P. Vaughan on June 03, 1999 at 09:37:32:
So often, beginners spin their wheels and waste a lot of time
looking for “houses.” The faster you can learn this lesson,
the faster you will do deals.
Here is an article Joe Kaiser wrote on this topic:
Still Looking For Property?
Not me. I’ve given up “looking for houses.” Yes, I’ve just flat out kicked the habit and no longer have any interest whatsoever in that sort of thing.
There’s a better way to get those bargain properties into my hands, and it doesn’t involve looking for the darn houses.
Let me ask you this. Are you still out pounding the pavement and trying to find a specific kind of house or type of property to buy? Or, are you still so focused on three bedroom, two bath houses in the better areas of town that you won’t even consider looking at anything else? If so, it may be time to rethink your approach too.
Quit Looking For Properties And You’ll Find Bargain Deals
I used to buy houses like that, but I stopped looking for specific types of property years ago after learning about a much easier way to get to the bargains I was looking for. No, it’s not some big secret and it’s not a special technique. The big difference between how I find bargain properties now and how I used to approach this business is I no longer look for houses. Instead, I only look for motivated sellers.
Forget about targeting those three bedroom, two bath houses or any other specific type of house for that matter. Instead, consider going with my gameplan, “whatever makes money.” How do you to that? You stop looking for houses and start looking for motivated sellers!
If you’re out there looking for houses, you’ve got some real problems to deal with, and the biggest problem I always ran into was if I ended up successfully finding that “perfect house,” I pretty much had to pay whatever they were asking to get it. So, whenever I’d find that “target” property, the one I really really wanted, paying retail seemed “okay.” I didn’t think twice about doing so because it was a “perfect fit.”
Dumb.
Today, I’d much rather just make the money going in, and you do that by putting together bargain deals with sellers who are eager to deal. You know the type. They’re the ones that must sell today. So what if it’s a two bedroom house or a townhouse or a condo or whatever else that wouldn’t normally fit my investment parameters? Now, I make money on any and all of those kinds of properties because I’m buying from sellers who absolutely must sell, and
whenever that happens it happens at my price, a price that’s generally way below retail.
Refocus Your Objectives And Strategies
Truthfully, it’s nothing more than refocusing your objectives and making a subtle shift in your marketing plan. It’s that easy.
But there’s a couple drawbacks you should be aware of. Buying houses this way means you end up looking at a bunch of stuff you never would have considered before and, frankly, some of it can be pretty ugly. When locating motivated sellers is how you find your bargain properties, you pretty much have to take whatever it is they’ve got.
Normally that means you need to know about all kinds of property. My problem? I’ve got no interest in learning about all kinds of property. It turns out the solution is simple. I just peddle whatever I end up with that doesn’t suit my needs to people who do know what to do with a townhouse (I wouldn’t have a clue). To make that work I’ve got to buy it on the cheap, and there’s got to be some room there for my buyer to make a few bucks as well. But, since I’m buying only from sellers who are eager to get rid of their properties, there’s often enough room for all of us to make a few bucks.
So kick that “let’s go take a look at a house” habit. I’m glad I did, and I’d be willing to bet you will be glad too. Consider shifting your focus from “property” and instead think “motivated seller.” Figure out who those folks might be, get you’re proposal into their hands and, you can bet, good things will happen.
how do you find motivated sellers? - Posted by th
Posted by th on June 03, 1999 at 10:07:14:
well how can you find motivated seller without going out looking for house for sale… was joe kaiser talking about targeting tired landlords. thanks for info.
They come to you - Posted by John Behle
Posted by John Behle on June 03, 1999 at 19:24:20:
There are dozens of ways to locate “Don’t wanters”. I developed a home study course years ago for Bob Allen. It later ended up in Mark Haroldsen’s “Millionaire Mindset Volume 1”. I’ll look the lessons I wrote on both finding and analysing “Don’t Wanters”. I will either need to scan it from the book (not sure I still have a copy) or fire up the old TRS80 to find the original.
I posted an article titled “A Million a Month” that tells some of the ways I used to find don’t wanters and in particular how I worked with real estate agents. I won’t repeat that here.
Before I used agents so successfully, I bought over a million dollars worth of property using my classified ad. The ad read:
Full Price (24pt Bold Text)
We will give you full price for your property if you will sell to us on flexible terms.
I then would pre-qualify the people over the phone and invite them into my office where I would write an offer subject to inspection. Many of the properties I had never seen. The terms are what are important. I verified prices through the MLS and most offers were subject to an appraisal.
I had decided I wanted to be a property buyer - not a property looker.
Re: how do you find motivated sellers? - Posted by SCook85
Posted by SCook85 on June 03, 1999 at 10:43:35:
th,
I have many times stated that the day I realized what a motivated seller was is the day that changed my life. I looked at 100’s of homes before I came across my first motivated seller. I was always looking for the perfect home then one day I took what I felt was a gamble but I had a bargain, and I had other investors wanting to buy it from me.
Motivated sellers come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, they are everywhere. Motivated sellers can be tired landlords, banks with foreclosures, family trying to sell off an estate, a divorced couple, an executive that was transferred out of state. Most vacant homes have motivated sellers behind them.
Finding motivated sellers is up to you. You need to decide who you want to target whether it be banks, landlords, estate sales decide then find them. Estate sales, where would you look? Foreclosures, where would you look for them? Tired landlords, where can you find them? Once you have decided, let that group of people know that you are always looking and in time they will be coming to you instead of you going to them. Of course when the deals start coming in you have to perform to keep them coming but once they come in the rest is easy.
Good luck!
SCook85
TRS-80… - Posted by David Alexander
Posted by David Alexander on June 03, 1999 at 21:22:09:
Didn’t those things have cassettes for hard drives?
And caused me many late nights playing a computer game called “Adventure”…Memories.
David Alexander
well said and… - Posted by Bob Eberle
Posted by Bob Eberle on June 03, 1999 at 10:52:00:
if your gonna run an I Buy Houses ad in the paper, don’t be a Sunday only person. Motivated sellers will call any day of the week. They do not get motivated only on Sundays. Also, just because someone is not motivated today doesn’t mean they won’t be tomorrow.
Re: TRS-80… - Posted by Babesy
Posted by Babesy on June 04, 1999 at 24:36:47:
I was told that those old TRS80 computers meant “Totally Replaces Sex”. Good thing they’re gone!
Dancing Demon? - Posted by Jim IL
Posted by Jim IL on June 03, 1999 at 23:40:57:
Thanks for the memory.
My first computer was one of these. It ran off of a cassette player, and the best two programs it had were chess, and “Dancing Demon”. (REALLY SLOW and hard to use)
This was a low resolution character that danced on the black and white screen to “clicks” generated and broadcast thru a telephone speaker.
We sure have come a long way…