9 Steps To Uncover Vacant Houses
and Off Market Properties In Competitive Markets
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Why You Need To
Know Your
Market Better
Than Anyone
How To
Find Vacant
Houses
How To Find
Vacant House
Owners
My Top Secret
Post Card
How I Made
$150,000 This
Month Fixing
And Flipping 2
Houses
Step 1: Market Research
•
•
•
Market Research is what sets you
apart
– Do it right and you will never
struggle to get a deal sold.
You need to know your market
like the back of your hand.
Know exactly what things are
selling for in each area.
THE GOAL IN MARKET RESEARCH
Find Areas Where there are a lot of Look for Middle income areas for Huge
Cash Sales or Investor Buyers, Lots of
Profit Flip Deals
Potential Sellers and a Fair Point (first
time home owner areas, good rental
areas, working class and middle class)
Our price point we love is to buy
between = $50,000 and $110,000 and
Sell for $100,000 to $190,000
WAR ZONES:
WORKING CLASS:
MIDDLE CLASS:
HIGH INCOME:
You will want to stay away
from war zones. Prices
will be very cheap in these
areas and you can
probably make good
money flipping houses in
these areas. I will not do
business somewhere
where I do not feel safe.
The working class
neighborhood is our
favorite place to do deals.
Homes in this area are
affordable, have stable
neighborhoods, and are
safe. Working class is the
best place for rentals; you
can usually buy houses
cheap enough so they will
cash flow.
These neighborhoods
are where a lot of first
time home buyers go.
They are a great place
for rehabbers and
wholesalers.
For the beginning
investor, I recommend
you stay away from high
end homes. An
experienced investor can
make hundreds of
thousands flipping a high
end home, but there is of
course more risk
involved.
Step 2: Who to Target?
The 4 D’s
D D
eath
isability
D
ivorce
D
istress: Job Loss
OUT OF TOWN LANDLORDS, FREE AND CLEAR,
PROBATES, INHERITANCE LIST and next my Favorite!
www.listsource.com
Less than $150 bucks
FindMotivatedSellersNow.com
Start with list of 1,000 records to 2,000
Records
FlipThisRealEstateList.com
FreedomSoft
WHAT ARE MY FAVORITE SOURCES FOR DEALS?
Vacant Houses
• Pre-foreclosures
• Absentee owners
• Designed to show you how to go out and find the most profitable
deals in any real estate market (vacant houses)
Why are Vacant Houses so Profitable?
• Easier to sell a vacant house
• Owners do not want them
• Usually need work (can get a better deal)
SIGNS A HOUSE IS VACANT
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Weeds/Grass Tall and Dead
Vacant Slip in Mail Box
No Cars
If Snow – No tracks
Notices on the door
Nothing Inside the House
House is in disrepair
Utility shut off notices
Boarded up house
Broken windows
Power Meter and/or Gas Meter gone
8 Highly Targeted Lists To Acquire
1.
High Equity Absentee Owners -Find Motivated Sellers NOW,
ListSource.com, FlipThisRealEstatelist.com
2.
Vacant Houses (next Step how to Find Vacants)
3.
Pre-Foreclosures -Local Court house
4.
Probate -Local Court House
5.
Evictions –Local Court House
6.
Tax Liens –Local Court house (ours is online)
7.
High Equity Owner occupants -
8.
Fire Damaged Properties –Fire Department, newspaper
STEP 3: HOW TO FIND VACANT HOUSES
There are several ways to find vacant houses.
I am going to be talking about a few ways that
I feel are the best.
When looking for vacant houses you need to
work smart and not hard.
#1 WAY TO FIND VACANT HOUSES
Get out in the Field and Search for them
WRITE DOWN AND CREATE A LIST OF VACANTS
Always be searching
On your way to work
Grocery Store
Everywhere
Post Note on the Door
(don’t be scared)
Write Down the Address
Vacant and fixer upper houses
Post a Bandit Sign in the yard
POSTAL WORKERS
They drive
around all day
and know every
house that is
vacant
Have a list of
vacant houses/
vacant slips
Pay them $5
per lead
Might have
forwarding
addresses
FORECLOSURE INSPECTORS
Drive around all
month checking
on foreclosures
(30 days late
until foreclosure)
Post vacant
notices on doors
Independent
contractors
Pay them $5 per
lead
To find
Post an ad on
craigslist
Look for their
slips on vacant
houses
ESTATE SALES AND PROBATE
• A lot of time the house is vacant
– Heirs want to sell the property
• Call up all of the estate sale companies in
your area and see if you can get a list of
upcoming sales
• Pull a list of Probate from the court house
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Get a list of vacant fire damaged houses
LAND LORD EVICTIONS
Get a list at the court house
Send a Mailing to these people
EVICTION NOTICE
STEP 4: MARKETING TO YOUR LIST
Marketing is the life blood of your Business
•
Consistent Leads =Consistent Deals = $$$$
•
Sending out 2,000 letters/post cards to a targeted area should
consistently produce 1 to 2 deals
•
Resulting in ($30,000 to $40,000)
•
Learn everything you can about marketing
WHY Direct Mail is one of the Best Strategies!
•
You send your message Directly to the customer
•
It has proven to work over the past 40+ years
•
You can track your results easily
Marketing for Vacant House owners
•
Your List of Houses and Mailing Addresses is Compiled NOW its time to start marketing
•
Marketing is the Foundation of our Business
•
Leads = Deals and Deals = $$$$
•
Consistency is the KEY
•
Remember to Set up a Phone System to receive the calls
–
Patlive, RingCentral.com, Freedomvoice.com, callfire.com
Step 5: Sending DIRECT MAIL
Postcards
Door Hangers
Yellow Letters*
Professional Letters
*Some returned mail
Research forwarding address and send to
forwarding address
SEND THEM A YELLOW LETTER OR POST CARD
Here Is The Best Letter I Have
Ever Sent
• Hand Written on Yellow
Legal Pad
Dear Seller,
Hi, My Name is Dione Saliba. I’m an
Agent with ReMax Realty And I have
a cash buyer who wants to buy your
vacant house at 1234 Seller Lane
Please Call
(555)555-5555 (Agents Cell Phone)
Thanks,
Dione
• Why does this letter work?
OUTSOURCE YOUR YELLOW LETTERS
 YellowLetters.com
 YellowLettersComplete.com
 FreedomSoft.com
Do it yourself Process
 Print them Out (hand written font)
 Hire a Lady to stuff envelopes and hand address the
labels and stamp them 20 cents per letter
 I send them out (bulk mail permit 23 cents per letter,
pre-canceled stamps)
 Material cost around 18 to 20 cents
 Costs me around 60 cents per letter
Send a Post Card
Response Rate 1 to 3 %
48 cents to send
Easy, sent out 4 days
Example Next Page!
Better Quality of Callers
POSTCARD
Step 6: Wait for the Phone to Ring and Pre-Screening
•
Typically Takes around 4 to 7 days using Click2mail to start to
receive calls
•
Calls come into a Call Center or your Voice mail
•
Go through a Lead sheet with them and Sort the Good leads
from the Bad
Step 7: TRACK RETURNED MAIL
Returned could mean Vacant but no forwarding address
Step 8: WHAT TO DO IF YOUR DIRECT MAIL
DOES NOT WORK?
Use Your Private Eye skills to
track down the Sellers
Camp out in the Front yard and
wait or Hide in the Bushes
GIVE THEM A CALL
To find a sellers phone number you can search
sites like
•
Google and Facebook them
•
411.com (free Site)
•
accurint.com ($200 per month)
•
intelius.com ($19.99 per month)
•
TLO.com ($1 per search) awesome
•
Facebook.com
•
Linkedin.com
•
Google – Search people finder - Look for obituary,
then look for heirs names
•
Yellow pages
•
BigBook.com
•
zabasearch.com
THE BURBS
Neighbors
always
know other
neighbors
business
Talking to
the
Neighbors
Neighbors
have phone
numbers
Step 9: Follow up process for Vacant Houses
Set up a Google Calendar Schedule
• Send a Yellow Letter First (or post card)
• Send a Post Card 1 month later
• No Answer From second post card then
schedule to give them a call
• No Answer go visit the neighbors
• Call every Month or So
Things to Consider
•
Always be testing and tweaking your mailing
•
If a mailing fails try something new
– Professional letters, new head line, new color, etc.
•
Higher End Areas Respond Better to letters
– Response rate will be lower
•
Learn more about Direct Mail
LETS REVIEW THE PROCESS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Compile
Your List
Look up the
Owners
Mailing
Address
Send your
Yellow
Letter
Send your
Post Card
Give the
Seller a
phone call
Buy the
Property
(Wholesale,
Rehab, etc..)
Make $$$$
LET’S REVIEW THE PROCESS (continued)
EVALUATE
Once vacant house
sellers call you or you
contact them.
CONTACT
You pre-screen and
evaluate and start
making offers.
Go through Josh’s $40k
Flips course for the rest
of the process
PROCESS