World Wide Property Sales
How to Find the Motivated Sellers (Part 2)
by Ron LeGrand
Remember, the key to successful real estate investing is motivated sellers. In
Part 1, we discussed several ways to find motivated sellers. Let's continue.
FSBO Signs
It is amazing how many people do not advertise their home for sale. Some people
are so sure the world will beat a path to their door, they just put up a single
small, handmade sign. Sometimes it's not even legible from the street. Of
course, this can work to your advantage as an investor. If you are the only one
who pays any attention, you are also the only one to make an offer. Poorly
advertised For Sale By Owner (FSBO) homes are an excellent source of leads.
Write down the phone number and call the owner. If there is no phone number on
the sign, that's even better! Just knock on the door and start talking. Always
look for FSBO signs when you are driving around. Take a different route home
every day, and make it a point to cruise the neighborhoods looking for deals.
Neighborhoods change every day and so do the houses for sale.
Referrals
Would it benefit you to have ten people searching for deals on your behalf? How
about a hundred people? Could you afford to pay them all? The answer is "Yes!"
You can certainly afford to pay someone $250 or $500 when they bring you a deal
that makes you $10,000 or $20,000. These folks are called "bird dogs," and they
are fine sources of leads you otherwise would never hear about.
It doesn't matter how many bird dogs you have because you only pay them if you
actually close on the deal. If you're a serious investor, you should always get
people to bird dog for you. Ask everyone you talk to if they know of anyone
selling a house. Tell them that if you buy one on their referral that you will
pay $250 at closing. Let the word get around town that you pay for leads, and
you may have more than you can handle.
Flyers
Flyers are even better than direct mail. Design an 8 1/2" by 11" flyer and
distribute it door to door in the neighborhoods where you want to buy. I promise
that if you put out 3,000 flyers in this manner, you'll be very pleased with the
results. I don't believe I've ever done that and not bought a house as a result.
Basically, the flyer should read like our ad. Don't crowd it; just get the
message across. The best part is the flyer can last for years and produce
results when you least expect them. I made $23,000 on a house I bought from a
year-old flyer. You can hire students or people from your local labor board to
distribute them. Two people can put out 500 flyers in three hours. Put flyers on
every door in the neighborhood. Car windows and mail boxes are off limits.
Vacant Houses
Whenever you canvas the neighborhood with flyers, you'll also want to be on the
lookout for vacant houses. Vacant houses make motivated sellers and good
bargains. Looking for them is another way to find houses that are not even on
the market.
Look for the telltale signs of vacant houses: the lawn is not cared for; weeds
have begun to take over; a pile of newspapers in front; old coupon flyers
attached to the front doorknob; and other subtle signs. Record the address of
the vacant house and check with the neighbors for the whereabouts of the owners.
These are excellent leads, yet very few people are willing to hunt for them. So
you will have little or no competition. If the neighbors can't tell you how to
contact the owners, go to the court house or local tax assessor's office to get
their name and address. Most of the clerks at these offices are very helpful and
willing to guide you through the system used in their office.
Leave several flyers at the vacant house (the owners may come back) and send the
owners of the house a letter. If it is first class, it may get forwarded to
them. Another way to find out who owns a vacant house is to go to the post
office and ask if they have a forwarding address for the vacant property. The
post office charges $3 for this service, but it will often give you the name and
next address of whoever was living there last.
Obviously, not all the letters you sent to owners of vacant houses will lead
anywhere. But some will. All you need is for one or two of these leads to turn
into a deal every three months for you to make a fair living. We have still only
scratched the surface of how to find motivated sellers.
Bio:
Ron LeGrand is a nationally recognized real estate expert and trainer with 25
years experience in both residential and commercial properties and a 20 year
history of hard money lending and brokering. His experiences include personally
buying and selling over 1,600 single family houses and completing over
$300,000,000 in Commercial Property deals with student partners all over
America.
He’s obtained current real estate developments across America with market values
exceeding two billion dollars, all under his control. His properties include
office buildings, industrial, commercial, mixed use and residential land
development, luxury condominiums, marinas, etc.
Mr. LeGrand is a highly sought after platform speaker whose addressed audiences
as large as 20,000 and as small as 100 in hotels and convention centers across
North America, sharing the stage with leaders such as Donald Trump, Robert
Kiyosaki, Rudy Giuliani, Tony Robbins, Larry King, Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, and
many others. For the last 20 years he’s been helping thousands of ordinary
people take their lives back and create financial freedom by implementing his
systems for success as real estate investors. Today he’s considered the
country’s leading expert and is referred to by many as the “millionaire maker.”
His book is in stores and online and over the years he’s created dozens of home
study products, held live training events on various real estate related
subjects. He spends much of his time passing on his experience at those live
training events, held in various parts of the country, while simultaneously
running over ten different business he owns and controls.
Ron LeGrand's 41 year marriage to his wife Beverly has produced four children,
nine grand children, and two great grand children.