All posts by Duncan Wierman

What you need to know about Tax Lien Lists

If you are going to be successful at tax lien investing, you have to get good information. Many people rely on the free lists from the county or municipality. Some people use the tax sale list online on the county treasurer’s or tax collector’s web site along with information about the sale and information on how to register for the sale.

I find that most publicly available lists do not always have the information that you need to do your due diligence on the properties. Many times you will find these lists do not even include the property addresses. It usually does include the property tax ID number, the amount owed, and the owner of record; some lists may include the annual taxes. Some pertinent information that is usually not on this list will help you to do your due diligence on the properties is: The address of the property; the property classification – is it a farm, residential, commercial, or raw land; the type property – how it is zoned; the property assessment and annual taxes; the last sale price of the property; and mortgage information.

The good news is that you can get all of this information if you buy a detailed list from a tax sale list provider. I find that tax sale list providers that specialize in one state or area of the country do the best job of providing timely and meaningful lists. They are sometimes more thorough, since they are covering a smaller area, and they are more knowledgeable about the information that they provide. I’ve seen national providers frequently leave out one or two counties in a state or only list it when it’s to late to do proper due diligence for the sale.

Two of the smaller list providers that I recommend are LienSource.com – for New Jersey, Nassau County NY, Washington DC, and Florida; and ArizonaTaxLiens.com for Arizona.

For most other states you may be able to get the list online in excel format and then cross reference the parcel or tax ID number with the assessment data that you may also be able to find online. When you can’t find this information online – on the county tax collector’s or county treasurer’s web site, you may have no choice but to buy your list from a national tax sale list provider. In this case you can try taxsalelists.com.

Real Estate Science for Wholesalers

Wholesaling can be broken down into a simple formula. Here is our formula for a successful wholesale real estate business.

Q-L + Q-H + R-S + B-L + R = Big Dollars.   What does this mean? Let us tell you.

The Q-L stands for quality leads.  In order to be successful as a wholesaler you need to find sources of leads that are quality houses.  Quality leads that is; that means that there motivated sellers.  You want to have a seller that’s not trying, that doesn’t necessarily need to sell.  You don’t want that seller that’s just kind of testing the water to see, “Oh maybe I can see what I can get.”  Or, you know, you need the motivated sellers.

A lot of real estate investors fail because they don’t deal with enough motivated sellers and that’s what we mean by quality leads.  A quality lead really equals a motivated seller such as a bank or someone in pre-foreclosure or a HUD property or an old landlord that’s burned out.  You want to have those quality leads coming at you every day, every week because those are the deals that are going to make you the most money.  Motivation = Money.

Q-H, which is quality houses It is important to have quality leads from motivated sellers but you don’t want to have junk.  You don’t want to have houses that are not going to be marketable to your back end buyers.  You’re going to want to houses that are your bread and butter type houses.  You want to avoid houses that are slanted to the left or houses that are what’s known as functionally obsolete.

So you don’t want houses like that or houses that are too small.  You want bread and butter houses. Houses that you are proud to represent. This is an area where some wholesalers make a mistake thinking that just because they found a deal where the numbers may work that they automatically have a good house.  A bad house is not going to sell because your investors aren’t going to want to junk.

And remember when we say  mean these houses are going to need to some type of work.  They’re going to need some degree of fix-up whether it’s minor – paint and carpet, or whether it’s a full blown rehab where the roof and air conditioning system and floor boards are messed up.

Most of the houses you’re going to wholesale are going to be your fixer uppers or your handyman specials.  There not going to be your pristine houses in great condition and that’s because there’s a lot of equity in the houses that need fix up. As a result of this rehab, your end buyer’s going to be able to create that equity as they fix the house up.

S= System.  You need a repeatable system.  You need something that you can do day in and day out.  That’s going to be your success.  You want to have a steady stream of customers coming in and out and they can only do that if their systems internally can be repeated.  Treat your wholesaling business like Mcdonalds. You as a wholesaler want to  be able to set yourself up where you can put your business on auto pilot and systemize it where your doing the same thing  over and over again until where it becomes really on auto pilot.

So it’s very important to be successful and to be in a business where you can make $10,000 dollars from one deal every 30 days and then build this into a six figure or even a seven figure business.  You need that repeatable system.

And then B-L.  B-L is your buyer’s list.  Your buyer’s list is your gold.  It allows you to be able to find a, you know, when your out there looking for your houses you can say, “Oh yeah I know that John Smith would like this house.”  Or, “I know that Sally would like this house.”  When you are out looking for houses you’ve already have a-determined what your buyer’s want because your tuned into them and developed that list.

Your goal should be to have a hungry list of buyers waiting for your next deal. Having this allows you to be able to make offers with confidence knowing that you’re going to have a buyer to wholesale to right away. One of the main reasons for our success has been our ability to develop our buyers list because part of our success is really attributed to knowing what our customers want and having the relationship with  them. And that’s the one thing that you as a wholesaler really, really need to focus on is that list of buyers.

R is very critical as well,  R = your resources.  These are your people on your team from the closing your closing attorney, your real estate agents, your contractors, etc. that you can refer out to your buyers..  You cannot be successful in this business or any business at all without teammates, without having people around you that compliment you. These people can also be a part of your internal team i.e. an assistant or a birddog  that’s out there looking for deals for you.

A big part of our success is really attributed a lot to our people internally and then our real estate.  If we couldn’t do the amount of volume of business that we do without our real estate agents or without our closing attorneys being able to get deals done quickly when we need them to.  So it’s really key to have the right resources in place, have the right team.


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Have Continual Success in Finding Buyers Fast!

You don’t make money in real estate until you find a Buyer or Tenant. Perhaps you putting up roadblocks for your prospects without knowing it? S These investors believe they can operate the real estate business by removing the human element. Just as you & I get aggravated with endless voicemail and hoops, so do your Buyers. Attracting buyers is key to a successful real estate transaction. If you rehab or flip properties to retail buyers, make sure that you don’t loose them when they become interested in your property.

How many times have you called a company that only provided voicemail options? Or how many times have you had to deal with a Customer Service rep or associate that would never answer the phone? The only was to leave a voicemail message. Do you like the endless loop of voicemail dancing when you’re trying to buy something or contact a company? Of course not and neither does any prospective buyer.

Once you have a buyer interested in your property, why do you make them to jump through endless hoops to perform for you?

If you facilitate the process instead of clog it with bottlenecks, you will sell more properties faster which means you’ll make more money faster!  Voicemail can be tool rather than a bottleneck when used properly . If you advertise a home for sale in the newspaper, a voicemail describing the home and directions would be appropriate. 

Using voicemail beyond this point can hinder your buyer from moving forward. For example, are you an investor that uses voicemail to recommend the buyer fax an application in before they can view the property? Do you give them an option to call you directly in the voicemail?

Even though some of us want our business to be 100% automated, taking the human element out of the buying process will hurt your real estate business.

Alternatives:

  • Hire someone specifically to answer the phone and give directions, addresses, qualifications, etc. Adding someone & not using voicemail would increase a response over using voicemail alone.
  • Use a motivated mortgage broker would gladly accept your calls for prospect in exchange to get the qualified.
  • Use a Realtor.

Use voicemail only to provide directions and instruct the prospects to look for the flyer in the window and ‘info tube’ for all the details and qualifications.

A flyer can list all the benefits, features, qualifications & a direct telephone to speak to someone. This will ensure the prospect has read your qualifications and viewed the home before calling. Using voicemail effectively along with other strategies will reduce repetitive telephone calls and keep your buyers rolling in. Don’t make the buying process a hassle. Make buying easy!!

Easy Skip Tracing – Where Did They Go?

How many times have you come across vacant properties, that you can not find the owner? Last week I heard of a very simple and effective way to get a forwarding address. It all started when I was in the post office. I overheard a conversation with the postmaster a customer was having. This person who was speaking to the postmaster wanted to to find someone who owed him money and he wasn’t having a lot of luck. He knew that the person had moved to another city, but that was all he knew. He had originally tried getting the post master to get the forwarding address, but the post office informed him that they would only release a forwarding address to a law enforcement officer, licensed private investigator or under court order. BUT the post master had a better solution… To get a forwarding address you simply have to send the person a letter and include the following clearly below the return address:

Continue reading Easy Skip Tracing – Where Did They Go?

Getting Tenant Buyers Qualified

Question I am often asked in how to get lease option tenant buyers qualified


Question: How can I get my better tenants qualified for a mortgage even though they have very poor credit histories for the most part? These houses are currently privately held deeds with no mortgage what-so-ever. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Answer: Getting Tenant-Buyers qualified is like trying to get the mud off of pigs. It may seem like a steep hill to climb but you can do it. Tenant selection is going to be your first priority.

Continue reading Getting Tenant Buyers Qualified

Handwritten versus Print Direct Mail Results

Have you had trouble understanding how to find a motived seller? Have you been challenged getting motivated sellers to contact you? Are you spending your money on high-priced newspaper ads, etc. and then waiting for calls from serious sellers that never come.

Well, now there’s something that can change your whole approach to real estate investor marketing.Donna and John MacNeil have come up with a brilliant solution to finding motivated sellers. It’s called "The Yellow Letter".

Direct Mail with a Punch!

Direct mail can be an extremely effective way to find motivated sellers and sell services, if you know how to do it.    As you probably know, most people open their mail over the wastebasket. No message, no matter how effective is going to generate a response unless your letter gets opened!   Then you have to have a message that will inspire the recipient to take action and call you.

Real Estate Investor Marketing the Easy Way.   Now, you can do your own research and then spend thousands of dollars testing various letters until you find one that works.

Or you can do it the easy way. Donna and John have created a real estate marketing letter that gets opened and has a response rate that is off the charts.

The typical real estate investor marketing and direct mail campaigns have a response rate of about 1/2%–that is, only 1 out of 200 people that get a letter will respond. However, Donna and John have found that the Yellow Letter, thier proprietary real estate marketing letter, gets a reponse rate of up to 30%–that’s almost 1 in 3 people who receive it will call you.

Cherry pick your sellers

With that many potential sellers calling you, you can take your pick of the best deals — the homes with the most equity, best profit, and the quickest cash out.

You won’t have to waste your time with non-motivated sellers, tire-kickers or time wasters just because you have no one better to work with.

This Real Estate Marketing Letter Will Work Every Time

The really cool thing about an effective direct mail piece is that if it works once—it will work every time!

Mail to your list of people in foreclosure, or people who have declared bankruptcy. Or pick your hot neighborhoods to farm. Just keep sending out the Yellow Letter.

If you get a response with this real estate marketing letter the first time, you will get a response every time.

Easy, Simple, and Cheap

Donna & John’s Yellow Letter real estate investor marketing system is so simple, and average high school student could do it. You don’t have to be a direct mail guru. And you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars with special fonts, graphics, envelopes, etc.

Add the Yellow Letter to Your Business NOW!

What are you waiting for. You town is filled with people waiting to sell you their house. They just need to hear from you. This system will show you how to find motivated sellers in your market! Don’t waste your time with marketing that drains your budget and doesn’t bring you deals on a regular basis. Try John and Donna MacNeil’s real estate marketing letter today!

AUTOPILOTRICHES.COM

What You Get

4 Original Yellow Letters
Instructions on who to send the letters to
Why to use a specific letter for a particular list
Estimated results
How to duplicate John’s “Original” Yellow Letter at your print shop
How to work with the print shop
How to mail letters
Do’s and Don’ts for maximum benefit
AND ALL NEW IN VERSION 2

2 new Yellow Letter samples
Call scripts for answering the phone
Resources for finding lists
John’s personal audio recording where he will tell you everything there is to know about getting the best result possible from the "Yellow Letter"

A total marketing campaign for  the low, low cost of only $299.99

They are ready to ship you your CD Today!

AUTOPILOTRICHES.COM

Marketing Your Property And Remaining in Control

You should already have your buyers list created. If not, you really need to master the art of being a great marketer. Getting the property under contract to purchase is half the battle. If you can’t find someone to buy the house you wasted your time, money and effort.  The most important thing you can do to sell a property fast if you don’t have a buyers list yet  is,

Continue reading Marketing Your Property And Remaining in Control

No Cash? No Problem! Fund All Your Deals With Private Lending

One of the most important things for you to have access to is a ready supply of money for your deals. Nothing is more frustrating than having a deal ready, but not being able to access the money quick enough or at a decent price (i.e.: non hard money).

If you invest in real estate, you need cash to buy houses. Even if you have a full bank account and great credit, you’ll eventually run short on funds – or short on time to obtain a loan – for the next deal. Private lending is the answer. It is a bottomless pool of readily accessible funds: whether you have great credit or poor; whether you have cash reserves or not. “Private Lending” refers to the process of borrowing real estate investment funds from private individuals at rates higher than these lenders can normally achieve in the marketplace. The attraction of private lending is the speed and ease of funding a deal. Continue reading No Cash? No Problem! Fund All Your Deals With Private Lending

Watch your competitors to find private lenders

Huh? You are probably asking “What do I look for? What do you mean?

There are MANY other investors who buy, rehab and sell houses. I am not the only “game” in town and neither are you.

Every day properties are bought and sold:

 Bank owned,
Estates,
Pre foreclosures,
 Tax lien properties,
 Fixer-uppers,
 Vacant homes,
 Boarded up “junkers”,
 Condemned properties,
 Mismanaged rentals, etc.

Many investors use traditional bank financing, credit lines, personal cash, etc. BUT there are other investors with money who get money from private individuals to fund their deals. So why not approach the same private parties who already loan money to other investors – your competition.

They already know about private lending. It doesn’t take any additional effort to convince them to loan money as long as the right kind of deals is in front of them.

So with this in mind, think about it now….. You can find new private money in as little one hour to dig up lenders capable of loaning you all the money you can use.

The ANSWER:

Simply do some courthouse research to get names of private money lenders. Look for individuals that have multiple mortgages (and closed in the last 6 months ) in your area.

Real Estate Law & Public Record Search Tools

Real Estate Law & Public Record Search Tools

With the right tools, it is easy to find out who owns a property.  Just use your local assessor’s website to look up a property by map or address.  Another way to scout properties is to search bankruptcies, liens, and death records. The following tools are all useful to help the investor to research possible real estate investments.

Public Records Search

    • CourthouseDirect.com
      Download digital copies of documents such as Deeds, Mortgages, Liens, Abstracts of Judgment, Releases and other county courthouse documents

 

 

 

Real Estate Disability Law

    • DisAbility.Gov
      A great resource for finding information related to housing and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • FairHousingLaw.org
    Preventing housing discrimination for renters and home buyers