Author: Kathy Kennebrook

Getting motivated sellers to contact you is essential to any successful real estate investor’s business. A truly motivated seller is the key to a good deal, the more motivated the seller, the better the deal. You will find very quickly, as I did, that you will be able to buy a lot more houses at much better prices with the terms that you want when the seller contacts you first.

Marketing to sellers is also a numbers’ game, the more motivated sellers you are able to locate, the more motivated sellers you will have contacting you, and the more opportunities you will have to make good deals. The secret is in learning how to find truly motivated sellers.

Whom exactly are you going to be marketing to? Motivation comes in many forms and sellers will sell for a variety of reasons. Some reasons have to do with the sellers themselves, such as age, health status, job situations, financial difficulties, change in family size or change in marital status. Other reasons might have to do with the property itself, such as an estate, a property that needs too much work, or a property that has been vacant for a significant period of time.

How do you find these sellers and how should you market to them? The best way I have found to do this is by using direct mail to reach these very motivated sellers. The BIG secret is doing these direct mail campaigns over and over to the same potential sellers. As you will discover, given time, almost every potential sellers’ circumstances change and make them more ready to sell.

I also find that these mailings are very residual. These potential sellers will hold onto your direct mail pieces until their circumstances dictate that they contact you. The amazing thing is that when they are ready, they will contact YOU first since they probably have not had any contact from anyone else, since usually their properties are not being actively marketed. Since they are not being actively marketed, there is virtually no competition for these deals.
This makes it even easier for you to make a good deal.

The biggest part of the secret is to find the sellers who really want to sell. I use different mail campaigns to locate several types of motivated sellers. The best way for you to build your business quickly is to use a number of different methods to draw motivated sellers simultaneously. This can be best be done by locating mailing lists and refining them to meet your specific criteria, and then mail to them over and over.

When you learn how to get motivated sellers contacting you and then learn how to purchase properties using a number of different methods, the possibilities become almost endless. If you use several different methods to get motivated sellers calling you, you will have more opportunities than you will be able to handle. You get to pick and choose the deals that you want to do!

Using direct mail campaigns and developing a “cookie cutter” system to accomplish this is one of most affordable, reliable, and effective ways that I know to build your business quickly and have more motivated sellers contacting you than you will be able to handle.

For more information about Kathy Kennebrook’s real estate products go to marketingmagiclady.com

Using delinquent tax lists to locate motivated sellers is one of the easiest ways I know to find good deals for your real estate business.

Each year, just before the tax certificate sale in your county, the county will produce a list of all the people in your county who have not paid their tax bills before the cut-off date. Usually this list will also include the address the tax bill was mailed to and a description of the property including the subdivision if there is one.

There are two easy ways to get this particular list. One is to simply look in the newspaper. Usually a few weeks before the sale, the newspaper will print a section listing all of the properties that have had tax certificates issued against them. The other way is to go to your courthouse and ask for this list and they will usually gladly give it to you.

The way I utilize this list is to carefully go through the list and choose properties in subdivisions I want to buy in and mail each of these property owners a letter. The important thing you need to remember is to keep this letter neutral and personal, don’t mention that you are aware that their taxes are behind. You don’t want to do anything to alienate a potential seller. I mail them a letter letting them know who I am, how I can help them, and that I am interested in purchasing properties in the particular subdivision they own property in. The response rate from this particular mailing always seems to be very high and brings me a number of leads from motivated sellers. You probably don’t want to mail more than 500 letters at a time, or you may not be able to handle the responses from these motivated sellers.

Many of the people who have not paid taxes on their property have not done so for a variety of reasons, such as an inability to afford them, an inherited property, a divorce situation, a probate situation, or a vacation property they no longer intend to visit. All of these are situations that are ripe for good deals to be made and many of these sellers are very motivated. Very often, they know they have a problem they need to solve, they just don’t know how until they are contacted by you.

          Generally speaking, there is no competition for these properties since your competitors simply haven’t thought about using this list as a lead source. In the last mailing I did to this list, I sent out 178 pieces of mail and I have received almost a ten percent response rate from that mailing. I currently have two of these properties under contract. This may be an exceptional response, but I would certainly try this mailing and see what kind of response you get.

Any time you are able to reach a group of potential sellers who have a problem they need to solve, you will get good leads from them. Always be willing to do what your competition will not and you have more deals coming at you than you can handle.

One of the things that amazes me in the real estate business is how many investors leave hundreds or thousands of dollars on the table at closing due to errors in the closing documents.It is a mistake to assume that the HUD is correct or that the closing documents are correct. You need to take the time to read all the documents carefully before closing on any deal.

These are some of the areas to check thoroughly. If there is a realtor fee, make sure the percentages are correct and the payment amount to the realtor is right. Make sure you check the per diem interest to see if this figure is calculated correctly. Make sure that the figures on the HUD from the insurance company, a termite inspection, a home inspection or any other fee that should be carried to the HUD is correct. There have been many times when these figures were either incorrect or there were fees on the HUD that I had already paid out of pocket before the closing.

Check to make sure that the pro-rated tax figures or association fees are correct on the HUD. If you are due pro-rated taxes from your seller, make sure they show up as a credit on your side of the HUD. If there is a new loan amount or a payoff figure from a loan company make sure these figures are correct. This is another area where I have frequently found errors.

Make sure you also check loan documents carefully. Check the interest rate, the balloon and the amount of the note. I had a note and mortgage just this week where I was funding the deal for the buyer and the payee of the note and mortgage was the seller instead of me. They also had the balloon date wrong on the note. It showed a ten year balloon instead of a one year balloon because someone added a zero. If there is an interest only payment to be made each month, make sure this is clearly stated in the note and mortgage. Also make sure that terms for late fees are clearly stated if you are the person holding a note for your buyer.

All of these are important points to check before any closing occurs. Don’t assume the title agent will catch it. They do many closings each day and they usually are unable to catch every mistake. In addition, very often the title agent is transferring figures they got from other people such as the realtor or the lender or the insurance agent so they my not be aware that these figure are incorrect. It’s your closing, make sure the documents are correct so you don’t leave thousands at the closing table.

For more information on finding motivated sellers and closings, take a look at my web site at marketingmagiclady.com.

Finding the owners of pretty houses who need to sell is one of my favorite ways to make money in the real estate business quickly and easily. There are lots of great ways to do this.One of the ways I find pretty houses in “distress” is to simply look for them at the same time I am looking for vacant ugly houses. They will still have high grass and closed curtains and mail loaded up in the mail box just like the ugly ones. One of the best ways to find these houses is to do it on the weekend when people are home. This makes it so much easier to spot a vacant house, and you can stop and talk to neighbors when you find one. Another way to find pretty houses is to simply put signs at the entrances and exits to subdivisions you want to buy in or at subdivisions where you know there are pre-foreclosures.

I put signage and flyers door to door in newer subdivisions that have built in the last two years. My thinking is that folks move into these homes and then realize they got into more than they could afford or they are being transferred somewhere else for work. We have definitely bought a few houses this way. Usually these folks will simply deed you the property.

I also mail to out of state owners. These are the folks who live in a property only part-time. Sometimes they just get tired of making the trip and keeping up the maintenance on the home for whatever reason and they are ready to sell. There are good deals to be made with these properties.

You can also hire someone to lay flyers door to door in neighborhoods you want to buy in. The sooner you can get your marketing into someone else’s hands, the more money you can make in this business. We also have friends and family members who have our signage on their vehicles. This is a good way to reach market areas you wouldn’t otherwise. These folks travel to different places than you would and your signage will get seen by people who need to sell. This has continuously been a good source of leads for us.

I also solicit companies who work with people needing to sell their homes, like moving companies, carpet cleaners, storage companies and attorneys. We offer to pay them a fee if they find us a home that we buy. These are people are in the public working with folks who need to sell on a daily basis.

For more information on finding motivated sellers of pretty houses visit me at marketingmagiclady.com

One of the best ways I know to take your business to the next level is to find the really motivated sellers. One of the easiest types of properties to find are ugly houses and these are some of the most highly motivated sellers once you locate them.There are lots of great ways to find ugly houses. One of the easiest ways I know is to find them during your travels when you are driving. I’ll bet you pass bunches of them everyday, you just have to take the blinders off to see them. These are the houses that have high grass, no mail box, broken windows, papers everywhere and no car in the driveway. Copy down the addresses and follow them up later. Another way to find these ugly houses is to simply enlist the help of “bird dogs”. These are folks who will help you find the ugly houses, like family and friends. They probably drive a different route than you do each day and therefore they will find ugly houses you would never see.

You can also enlist the help of a realtor to help you find ugly houses. They usually have some listed, and if they know you are looking for ugly houses, when they get a listing for a house that fits your criteria, they will call you first, which means no competition for the property.

One way I like to find ugly houses is to enlist the help of local code enforcement. They are the ones who “tag” houses for a variety of reasons. They want to see their neighborhoods improved as much as you do so they are generally willing to help you by telling you what’s wrong with the house and how to find the owner.

Another great way to find ugly houses is to use direct mail. You can do a mailing targeted at middle to lower income areas since there seem to be a higher number of ugly houses in these areas. Then let the sellers contact you!

There are several ways to find the owners of ugly vacant houses. One way is to simply look them up on public record. Remember that the harder they are to find, the better deal you’re going to make! If that doesn’t work, go talk to the neighbors. They will tell you whatever you need to know if they think there is a chance of making the “eyesore” go away. Another way to find the owners of these properties is to use a skip tracer or a private detective. Whichever method you choose to employ, get the job done!! These are deals just waiting to be made!!

For more information on finding the owners of ugly vacant houses, visit my web site at Marketingmagiclady.com.