Chasing Vacants

Today, a new report has surfaced claiming Homes facing foreclosure more than doubled in the 1st quarter from 2007.

And yesterday, new data was released that shows Homeowner Vacancies are at an all time high at 18.6 million homes.

Now in most cases, homeowners that have vacated a property have given up - they’ve lost the emotional attachment to the home which means you’re already 1 step ahead.

For many of these owners, they’re happy for you to take the deal off your hands.

In some instances, when the owner is still living in the house, they’re still attached emotionally. They’re not thinking logically about what would be the best move for them financially. For those, they’re still thinking about the mark’s little Johnny made on the wall, and about having family functions - you know the memories…

And for many, this blocks them from making the right call.

But for vacants, typically the homeowers are stoked to get your letter or phone call.

One reason I love using direct mail is not just for the fact to get phone calls, it’s also to see which letters come back so I’ll know which deals are vacant. And then, these deals become high on my priority…

Even if the deal is tight or upside down, I can still do a short sale and make the deal work.

So, it’s time to get hip on how to effectively chase the vacant in preforeclosure.

And that’s exactly what I hand you with my Preforeclosure Mastery system - now’s the time to get a systemized approach to take advantage of all the opportunities going on all around you.

Click Here now to learn more

Later

Derek Pierce

Preforeclosure Trap

I was on the phone today with an investor friend of mine that I’ve known for several years.

Just so happens, he’s wrapped up some real estate training with one of the well known gurus that’s teaching how to get a credit line for your real estate business regardless of your current personal credit ratings.

Anyway…

He was describing how the “guru guy” was teaching how you could get a credit line, then give homeowners in preforeclosure a 2nd mortgage to bail them out, then when they quit making payments (which is obviously going to happen 99% of the time) you can then foreclose and get the house. And if they make you payments - you charge a 18%- 24% in interest. And of course, you have a ballon so that they don’t drag it out.

Pretty smart huh?

Not so fast…

As my friend was explaining it - I stopped him and said “this guy is f****ing nuts - that’s extremely risky.”

He gets real defensive and starts explaining how you only loan money to those with lots of equity.

I stopped him again and said - “It’s risky because of the legal issues!”

See, this little technique was a new idea to my friend but has been taught in seminar land for years and it has a legal name for it called:

Predatory Lending

It’s when you give a homeowner a loan knowing the homeowner has no way to pay you back. This happens to be one of the fastest ways to get you in court causing you lots of legal drama.

And when real estate investors go to court over one of these instances- there’s a prejudice that you are the “fancy pants” professional and that you’re taking advantage of the poor homeowner.

That’s the truth

Now go ahead and tell me you have a fool proof way of making this little technique work- break out your disclosures, break out your CYA letters-

I don’t care.

This IS NOT a legitimate investment strategy!

Personally, if I’m not able to buy the house because the seller is wanting a loan, then I don’t offer a loan, I don’t offer a leaseback - I simply move on or look at approaching the deal from another angle.

Right now, there so many legal cases surrounding this very technique and also using leasebacks.

Leasebacks are when you take the house “subject to” then lease the home back to the homeowner.

Stay away from both of these techniques and realize anyone telling you otherwise is full of shit.

I made a post with a video about using the sale leaseback you can see here

Foreclosure Notices

For those that may not believe that foreclosure and preforeclosure real estate investing is where you it’s at, there’s an interesting read that came out today about the current foreclosure rates.

Here’s the article:

Click Here

The fact remains if you’re not investing in preforeclosures then you need to implement a preforeclosure strategy immediately. This way, you can grab the property before it hits the foreclosure sale.

I love the preforeclosure arena for various reasons but I love facing the deadline, knowing you’ve got days, hours ticking away that you’ve got to push to get the deal done. It’s really an adrenaline rush with a big payday in the end if I’m smart with my investment.

But, in order to succeed, you’ve got to treat this like a business instead of get rich quick money maket.. Now, what do I mean - you ask?

Well, for starters you’ve got to gain the necessary knowledge. And then you’ve got to put the action into place.

Action is the real secret ingredient for success.

I have people emailing me all the time - I need to get my first deal done. I’m tired of struggling

To those, I have the following questions:

How long have you put off gaining a list of homeowners in preforeclosure- whether it be a subscription or you gather the leads from your own courthouse research?

Have you sent them any Preforeclosure letters?

Have you ran any Real Estate ads?

Have you looked at any houses whatsover?

Have you made offers?

It’s a proven fact that if you fail to make offers, then you’ll never buy a house. Period.

Now I gotta go check on my contractors - we’re having hardwood floors installed.

Derek

PS- What do you need help with? I’m interested to hear your concerns and questions, so post them to the comments section below

Homeowners Are Like Hookers

I know I’ll catch some heat from this but no one has ever had the guts to say it. Forgive me for the bluntness of this post, but I assure you that there’s an important point to the story, so listen up.

Never pay the hooker any money until she’s completely finished with her services or she’ll bail on you leaving you drawers down and empty handed all while she spends every last nickel.

Here’s how this relates to real estate…

In many cases, especially when dealing with homeowners in preforeclosure, you’ll be forced to give them time and money to move. For example, the latest deal I did, I told them up front that I would give them time to move plus some money to move with.

Well, when I closed on the deal, the homeowners were looking for all of the money right then.

Not so fast…

Whenever giving homeowners money, always make sure they’ve completed their end of the bargain. For example, if you promise them money, consider giving them a percentage now and the rest when they’ve moved out and left the home in a broom clean condition. (this also helps to keep them from destroying the house)

Or else they’ll pocket your money, refuse to leave, and trash your house.

For example, let’s say I promise a seller $2K and two weeks to move if they deed the house over to me. I’d give them $1K now and the rest when they’ve completely moved out.

Now- do you see why I say that many…

Homeowners Are Like Hookers!

See, when many homeowners are facing foreclosure – it’s like a pressure cooker. When they’re facing the foreclosure situation, their boiling point is steadily increasing as the foreclosure date reaches near, adding more and more pressure. As a result, they’ll make promise after promise to get some relief from this pressure. And when you step in and stop the sale, the pressure is gone- and many times once this pressure is gone, they’re quick to forget how it felt in the pressure cooker.

Now, you should be strategic about every move and have a reason for what you’re doing, protecting your investment dollars. Bait them with the carrot and only when they’ve completely honored their end of the bargain, then release all of the funds you promise to them.

Most importantly - be ethical about it and be sure to fulfill ALL of your promises.

That’s it for now,

Derek Pierce

By the way, I just finished an open letter about my business, exposing the truth about making money with preforeclosures, and what happened 6 years ago that flipped my world upside down. Read it now by clicking below:

http://www.preforeclosuremastery.com

How to Find Motivated Sellers

Howdy,

Looks like today will be another day filled with looking at deals, following up on short sale offers, and just making things happen to progress my deals to the next level so that I get PAID.

Now, everyone knows that in order to find good deals, you’ve got to focus on finding and attracting motivated sellers with your marketing campaigns. Everyone has heard this, but too many investors still struggle getting deals in their pipeline. It’s time to stop begging people to accept your offers and realize there are sellers out there that would love your offer. It’s just a matter of….

Finding and Attracting Motivated Sellers!

But how?

Well, since this question keeps appearing, I prepared 2 videos for you revealing 21 ways for you to get more leads, more deals and Bigger profits, the 4 step approach to getting more leads, and why you should implement a strategy to target homeowners in Preforeclosure.

Just click below:

Always a surprise with homes in preforeclosure

I’m always amazed at some of the homes that I look at. This is a picture of the toilet in a home that’s in preforeclosure. It looked as if they lost the top to the tank and used cardboard with one of those fuzzy covers in an attempt to replace the lost top. I thought it would be a good pic to show here, so I snapped it with my Blackberry.

This property is 3600 square feet and in one of the nicer neighborhoods in my local market. As I walked in, I felt compelled to strip down because the ac unit decided to give up the ghost. And what a time to give it up - during the “dog days of summer” while we’re having scorching, record highs. Thermostat on the inside read to be over 90 degrees…

This house has problems.

And more importantly - the owner has problems.

Just goes to show you - there are people from all walks of life with problem houses. Some come in good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, and the super wealthy neighborhoods….

House is scheduled for foreclosure tomorrow.

I guess, we’ll see what happens…

-Derek

Marketing to Preforeclosures

I hope your week has been good to you and I hope you’re working closer to your goals.

Ok, lets continue our talk about mastering the preforeclosure process. First, we’ve discussed the homeowner’s options while in foreclosure, and then we talked about the actual foreclosure process.

Now, let’s dive right into marketing to those in preforeclosure with all the methods you can use to start a successful marketing campaign to those behind on payments.

1. Classified Ads: This method is the most popular methods to marketing your business. The reason? It works and it’s very economical. Also, think of this: if someone is behind on their payments and they decide to move, where are they going to look for an apartment or house to move? This isn’t rocket science here.

2. Signs (aka Bandit Signs) If you decide to use these, you should first check with your local city ordinance to see if these types of signs are illegal. Next do a Google search for ‘bandit signs’ and you’ll see tons of providers. Most of these providers are cheaper than what your local print shop would be. Be sure to keep your message simple, as most try to fill the sign with too much text, 800 numbers with extensions, and website information. It makes the sign to jumbled. Remember, you’ve only got a split second. Also, be sure you place these in areas that will get noticed. Just last week, I saw one on a pole that I couldn’t even read the phone number because it was so small and out of the way.

The methods mentioned above are used to attract those that are just falling behind or those that are just in the preforeclosure stage. You can use these methods to gain preforeclosure leads to call you directly or to attract them into your funnel.

3. Direct Mail Campaigns: Hands down - my favorite method. Before you decide to conduct a direct mail campaign, you’ve got to know that your preforeclosure list is up to date. As you’re probably already aware, you can buy lists of preforeclosures or you can create your own from the courthouse records. The quality of the list is more important than the letter or postcard you send out. So make sure you’re receiving these preforeclosure leads from a reputable source. And be sure they’re not selling these lists after they’ve cherry-picked all of the deals.

4. Making outbound phone calls: You can make outbound calls to sellers in preforeclosure and it will save you loads of time. You can search for those numbers listed at 411.com or some other free number search. A lot of times you will find that those in preforeclosure have changed their numbers to an unlisted number because of collection calls. If you desperately, need to find the seller, then you could hire a skip tracer. However, you’ve got to be sure the lead is worth investing the $15-$25 on a skip tracer just to be able to talk to the seller.

5. Door Knocking: This technique is what separates the men from the boys. Sometimes, you’ve just to get off your butt and chase the deal. If you know there’s a chunk of equity, you’ve got to be willing to do what others are scared of and go to the door. If you’re nervous, practice knocking on a few doors that the deals have little to no equity. This will help get rid of the nervous jitters. Although this method can be a little un-nerving, most people aren’t that mean. As a matter of fact, most are a little shocked when you appear at their door. Even if that person behind the door is a pompous ass, so what? Even though this method is effective, it’s the most expensive, because its so time consuming. Before you head out the door, be sure to have a good program to map out your locations with directions, something like Microsoft Streets and Trips

You’ve got to be willing to attack the deal from every angle possible. Use classifieds and signage to get the early preforeclosure deals into your funnel. Then focus your efforts to directly marketing to those in preforeclosure. It’s all about systemization and your ability to execute your marketing.

Now, have a great weekend!

Derek Pierce