http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/internet/how-do-you-define-what-a-good-mailing-list-is-part-1.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/how-do-you-define-what-a-good-mailing-list-is-part-1.html Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Many people worry about mailing lists, but you need to remember; with mailing lists is it not hard. There are a whole bunch of them to choose from. It truly depends on what you want to target. Say you are looking for pretty houses. And for the sake of argument let’s say you are looking in the medium price range.

Here is some information for you. Know that 72% of the foreclosures in America Happen the first year of ownership. That is correct!

Did you really know that in the first two years of ownership and a large percentage (72%) of foreclosures happen in the first year? So houses where people have been in them for three or four years may or may not be as good as target as the people who have been in them less than a year. And you know there is a tunnel list you can get.

Don’t forget about the military. Military is a good list for you to rent. Military homeowners are an easy list. Any list company can give you that. They are transient and they have to move. You won't get a lot of equity in them but it is easy equity. Be careful dealing with the military though make sure that the person that is in the military is not deployed and you are buying the house without an attorney involved. They have laws on that you know! Frankly if you are mailing out the yellow letter, it can be as simple as targeting the area where you want to do business knowing you are going to get a lot of calls and most of them are going to be wasted. But that is okay... you are only looking for the handful that pass through the screening.

You also would at least probably want to mail to people. You know, you could do a carrier route but that is cheap, you don't even have to buy stamps. I just would mail to the whole zip code if I was going to a carrier route.

You can spend the next two days creating lists, but you still wouldn't get to the bottom of it. It really comes down to you having to decide... pick a couple three lists you want to mail to and try it, and see what is working the best and continue doing that. You are going to picking lists for quite awhile until you find out the ones that are most productive for you!

In part 2 we are going to dig deeper with lists. Get ready!


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/internet/how-do-you-define-what-a-good-mailing-list-is-part-2.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/how-do-you-define-what-a-good-mailing-list-is-part-2.html Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Most people become discouraged and get hung up in the response rate. The response rate is irrelevant people. What relevant is how much money did you spend, and how much did you get back? It doesn't make any difference what the response rate is... it really doesn't matter how many calls you get.

Of course it matters if you get none! But the easier it is to define your list . . . the easier the list is to get . . . the more calls you get but the less of those calls are productive. Does that make sense to you?

You mail to people in zip codes and you are going to get flooded with calls. You mail to people with foreclosures you are going to get a handful of calls (but they are good calls). I would rather have three calls from people in foreclosure than I would thirty calls from Zip Code mailers. Then there is the whole big old line of list in the middle, divorces, bankruptcies, out of town owners, expired listings. All of these lists are worthy of your attention and all of them work.

Will all of them work with every mailing? No!

You have to play the marketing game and what I have the hardest time getting people to understand this it doesn't matter if you got a hundred calls and you only bought one house. It doesn't matter. To get a hundred calls it is the cost of a hundred letters. People get hung up... "Well I got a hundred calls and they are all junk." No. There has got to be some in there that weren't junk. That is all you are trying to do. If it takes 100 calls to get one deal that makes you 30, 40, 50 grand, who cares? In the end, if you are making a profit, does it matter if you spent a small percentage to make the sale? Think about it in those terms. And think about it this way-if you have more than one property, you will be making more than one sale!

Hopefully you agree. Now say you have had good success with an ad in the paper and you are trying to target back into some neighborhoods that you really like. What you are now wondering is if within those targeted neighborhoods there is a way of sorting that list. The answer is yes. But that is something that can take a while to get into because there are so many ways to target and sort lists and some lists you can get from list brokers, some lists you can't. You won't get foreclosures from list brokers.

Have you ever thought about just mailing to people with delinquent taxes? Every city publishes that list. Every city that has a tax lien or a tax deed sale publishes that. There are thousands of them every year. People with delinquent taxes it appears to me like they would be fairly decent target. Certainly, probably more target than zip code mailers. But I can tell you right now you can make a million dollars a year if you didn't do anything but mail the yellow letter to zip codes if you get it! And you can do it!


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/watch-for-the-red-flag.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/watch-for-the-red-flag.html Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
If you had a private lender you could not do that.

Is there some back door that you have if something comes up like that so you could give it back?

The answer to that is no. Not unless you can move that private loan onto another property. Think about it. Think about it really hard. Bottom line, either way you have to pay it back.
Makes a case for your diligence before you go putting yourself at risk, doesn't it?

In fact by doing that, you are personally guaranteeing. What does this do? That changes the whole deal completely! What you should be thinking about is you! This should be your mantra!

I want my due diligence done, I want title insurance, I want fire insurance, I want an appraisal and I want to know for sure what my value is, I want to know for sure what my repair costs are going to be. And lastly, I want to know what my marketability is going to be before I go putting myself at risk!


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/is-your-number-important-on-your-yellow-letter-part-1.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/is-your-number-important-on-your-yellow-letter-part-1.html Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
How important is the number listed in your yellow letter - very! Many people think an 800 number is the way to go, but this is simply not the case. Think about it - you don't want somebody answering it like they are a business; you want it to sound like it's going to be you.

And let’s face it; most of us are mom and pop operators. Now realistically, it may be hard to still run your business as a mom and pop type operation (and still sound somewhat professional). But here is the key.

Just as the number is important, so is the person answering the call!

You can probably follow this advice and do what I suggest, and you won't have the above questions or problems.

The first thing you'll have to do is move to Pat Live because they understand the yellow letter campaign and they answer the phone as individuals (if that’s the way you set it up).

You can set it up a multitude of ways; it’s really your choice.

Just tell them you want the yellow letter script, and they will answer the phone with a set of scripted responses pertaining to your yellow letter campaign. Most importantly, they’ll ask if there is a house for sale. If the answer is no, then you don't care what happens after that. But, if the answer is yes, then they will go to work and answer the questions. And what most people don’t realize is, this is the biggest problem they might be having and they do not even realize it is a problem.

Not correctly answering questions can potentially be one of your biggest problems!

Now you shouldn’t be taking these calls yourself (there are numerous reasons for this). Options for you might be to have a couple of people who you hire to simply just answer your phones. That is right - they take all of the calls. Along with answering the phone, they would have a questionnaire, which would contain a basic set of questions (a type of fill in the blank if you will). They ask the right questions, and they’ll get the right answers. Again, they might cost you a few, but how many deals do you have to lose a month because you've got this failure to communicate right here from the beginning.

So use the system that has been perfected for the last few years and quit trying to circumvent it.

We will delve further into the reasons for this in part two.


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/is-your-number-important-on-your-yellow-letter-part-2.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/is-your-number-important-on-your-yellow-letter-part-2.html Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In part one we talked about the importance of the yellow letter calls. The important part was not only the number being used but, more importantly, we talked about who was answering the call!

It is irrelevant who you use (as far as which company), but there are ones already programmed to do it correctly for you. I know there are a few of you who might still try to buck the system. You are probably, saying to yourself right now, “I think I am still going to take my own calls”. You should not want to take calls directly, and there are several reasons for this. Number one, you don't know when they are going to call, and there is no way you can be ready for that call!

Think about it - how are you going to answer the calls at all times? Imagine being in your car. Are you able to give your full attention?

What if you are stuck by a train - think about that noise.

What if you are walking across a parking lot and it is windy - the background noise will be unbearable!

What if you have to give them the kiss of death? What if you have to say the absolute worst thing you could say to someone who calls - can I call you back later?

Bottom line - you just cannot take calls when you are not ready to take them.

I would say the biggest push reason for using Pat Live is because they are ready 24-hours a day, and then you only return the very few calls that pass the pre-screening test. But the biggest reason you don't want to take these calls is because if you do a good marketing job, and you use the yellow letter correctly, (which very few people do), you will get flooded with calls, and most of them will be a worthless waste of your time.

Knowing that going in, the last thing you want to do is be on the phone with people who are a worthless waste of your time all day, every day. Managing the phone is one of the most important things you can manage in this business to truly master your time, so you can free it up to focus on your business and not have it consume your life with wasted energy from talking to people that you should not be talking to anyway.

If you talk to too many of these people who want retail price for their house, you cannot help but begin to get a negative attitude and the air just bleeds right out of you because you're spending so much time with negative people that want everything their way.

You don't want to even come in contact with those folks!


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/private-lenders.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/private-lenders.html Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
First things first! That is kind of a trick question because you can borrow both first and seconds from private lenders. Did you know this?

Now private lenders come in handy when you're borrowing a second behind the subject-to loan. In fact, it will always be a second if it's behind a subject-to loan, and that is commonly used when you are borrowing small amounts of money to either bring payments current (or pay the seller some cash to get out - or both - or doing some repairs, etc.).

It will always be second and it will always be behind the first. So, you will find those loans easy to get because they are small amounts. You may also realize you can get a lot of investors that don't have the larger amounts that it takes to make the first mortgage.

As long as you keep your loan to value ratio down below about 70% or so on that second you shouldn't have any trouble at all getting those seconds.

So how can you give a lender a first mortgage?

Well the only way you can give a lender a first mortgage is pay off all the underlying debts on the property with that private loan, which means it is going to be a larger loan than any small second. The order of which a mortgage is, whether it’s first or second, is only when it is recorded.

So, in essence, you have to get enough from the private lender and give him the first mortgage.

And that frankly is foolish to do on most subject-to deals with low interest loans on them.

You never borrow high interest money to go pay off low interest money!


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/war-zone-property-part-ii.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/war-zone-property-part-ii.html Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Remember our war zone property? Remember the house you purchased for a steal? Now you are desperately trying to sell your home. In fact, you have made such great improvements to the whole property that if you were selling it in another location, you could get four or five times the estimated value. But that is the problem isn’t it?

That is whole problem you have. Now you have decided to go with a realtor.

Remember, you have to go locally with someone who knows the area very well - you need all of the help you can get with this property!

And you are offering ten percent if they can sell within 30 days. It may sound high but the idea is to offer a higher percentage for selling the home in the shortest amount of time. Drop your percentage at each increment of 30 days.

Do you necessarily want to make more of an incentive to the selling agent than the listing agent? The selling agent will take care of what they want to do with that commission themselves. Now you may be thinking you want to say 3% for the listing agent and 7% for selling. But here is what you have to remember: it is not up to you to decide. You let the selling agent handle that. So the 10% does not predetermine what percent the agent gets. It insures that your property will get more attention than the others in the area, especially if it is in as nice a shape as you say it is... it is a perfect kind of house for them. Vacant, in good condition, and you have given them incentive to work on yours.

You may also wonder if you should provide any type of owner financing or anything like that as an option. You have to be careful with this. You can make mention to the realtor that you will take back a small second if you have to. And in that area you very well may. Now you are going to find a buyer that will qualify for about an 85% and take whatever they have down - let the realtor get them a loan and take back a second for the balance.

You also may be considering doing that as a lease option but if you think you have over repaired it (you probably have), you should be afraid they would just mess up what you have already done. You are heading in the right direction to get that house sold!


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/appraisals-part-i.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/appraisals-part-i.html Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Time and time again I have told people to get their own appraisals. This is what you need to be thinking. This is how your mindset needs to be. If I go out and ask somebody to get an appraisal what credibility does it have unless I go through somebody that a bank would also vouch for?

Now you can go through somebody that a bank will take (and you probably should) but still you need to be the one doing the hiring of the appraisal.

Think about it people! That is the basic point, right!

This way you don’t have any hanky-panky going on and you don’t have anybody telling them what they have to have and you don't have anything to worry about. Don’t worry - this isn’t as complicated as it seems!

Just make sure that you get a fair market value appraisal.

Let’s take a look at a situation. Say you have a property that you have almost completely rehabbed but you have a few questions about aesthetics. You are wondering if there is any wisdom in not doing the carpet or the basement and in putting it on the market with the terms that if they take an option to buy, the money will go back into the house.

Now maybe you are doing this because you are short on cash. What should you do?

First of all I would never put carpet in a basement. Anybody looking will know that you will put the carpet in there of the color they choose. Of you may give them an incentive to pay for their own carpet and put it in.

Now if this is near a war zone, all the more reason not to put the carpet in there. It is one of the first targets. And it is also the terms likely to get somebody who is going to follow through on an option to buy. You need to ask yourself this question? Is the house ready to sell? If so, then get a realtor and put it on the market. When you have done this, only then will you will have the full force of the MLS with it. Now are you thinking of another solution? What else can you do? Maybe you could lease it out? In part II we will discuss the answer to the lease option.


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/appraisals-part-ii.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/appraisals-part-ii.html Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In part one we talked about the importance of getting appraisals. We talked about why this is important and we even looked at a situation involving the appraisal of a piece of property. You have rehabbed the property and are making the last minute decisions on aesthetics. You have gotten a realtor and are ready to put it on the market. Is there anything else you can do? You have been thinking of another situation. Maybe you can even lease it out? Is this a viable option? Since it is in semi war zone it is not one you want to lease option out. Because all you are doing is really creating a problem you will have to fix later.

So what you really need to do it to put it on the market before it is finished with the rehab. And have your realtor bring somebody to look at it. Once you have an offer, then you can deal with what still needs to be completed.

I know this sounds crazy! You may be wondering why you should do this if the rehab is not done. Sure maybe there are a few things besides the carpet. And there are few things that could easily be done to enhance it, but you don't know if you would get the return on the money.

Should this be your biggest concern? No.

Right now I think your biggest concern is getting out of the property, isn’t it?

Quit worrying about return on the money. Just make sure you make some money.

But sometimes you just got to do what it takes to get it moved and learn your lesson and be a little bit more selective on where you want to do a rehab next time.

And in semi war zones is not where you want to rehab them!

Take it from me. I have rehabbed a lot of them in those areas and every single one of them was hard to sell. And realize this; if you have an appraiser come in before it is ready to show, you are going to suffer from that appraisal.

Yes. You will probably get a little lower appraisal but so what... At least you know you can add a good 10% on to what you are going to get. And the appraiser is going to appraise it assuming the work is done but he is still going to low ball a little. So what? That appraisal is between you and you.

Here is another thought. Why don't you just get the realtor to come out and do a market analysis for you assuming that the house is in excellent condition and you may not even need to hire an appraisal? You have a low volume house. They are not hard to determine the value of. They are easy to put number on.


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/facing-the-opposition-part-iii.html http://www.articletrader.com/finance/real-estate/facing-the-opposition-part-iii.html Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
So we’ve been talking about our land and what we are going to do with it. I was getting way ahead of the game here because you're probably not even going to have that problem. Regardless of what a handful of neighbors want. It's in the best interest of your community that you take that tract of land and develop it. It usually is. Think about it!

It creates a higher tax base for the community and a higher tax base means fewer taxes for the people-at-large. It also moves progress forward. All cities have a responsibility to do to their citizenship and your engineer will tell you for practically nothing what the chances are of getting done whatever you agree to.

Now if the city is violently opposed to it, then I would look for another use of it, rather than fighting them. In fact, there are very few developments that happen in an area like that, or any other area for that matter, where somebody isn't complaining.

It doesn’t matter what you do with that place. If you put a high-rise Baptist Temple there, I'll guarantee the Catholics would have a problem. Whatever you decide to do, somebody is not going to like it, so don't let that bother you!

Now here is another thought. What you could also do is convert it to a high-rise, and consider maintaining the utility rights and creating a utility company to service this new complex.

This is a great idea! That's a cash flow.

In fact, I'm doing the same thing on that 40-acre tract I was telling you about in Michigan. I didn't even know it, but I'm going to get into the craft business here pretty soon.

It's a pretty good little business, you know, you don't have to go look for customers.

Once they tie into you they can't get away, and they have to pay you for the use of that the same way you pay your utility company downtown. So, once you change that use and put in the utility plant (which is nothing more than another improvement) it is really no different than putting in your roads.

That utility plant becomes a business of its own now. Which is in a different entity than your property is and that's an ongoing business that you can either operate or sell off.

We will wrap this up in Part IV.


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When it comes to real estate investing, I highly recommend information from Ron LeGrand. For valuable information regarding investing in homes visit RonLeGrand.com. You can also find useful investor resources in the free newsletter at MillionaireMakerNewsletter.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>