Real Estate Wealth Today Blog
Mike Lautensack
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Residential Property Management: Tips on How to Find Renters Using Newspaper Advertising
Importance of Headlines
Particularly with newspapers you don’t have a lot of space and it’s expensive, so you’re going to have maybe a headline, one or two bullet points, and then a phone number or website. You don’t have a lot of space so you’ve got to make sure that you do it the right way. Your headline has to be appealing.
Let’s use Louisville as an example. You don’t need to put Louisville in your headline. Everybody knows it’s a Louisville newspaper. You’ve wasted your space. We see that mistake a lot.
Putting irrelevant words in your headlines doesn’t mean too much. Make sure your headlines have relevant words. If it’s a particular neighborhood or section of town, if it’s a well-known area, make sure you put that in there, but not the town.
Be Concise
Be very concise. If you can drive them to your voice mail system or your website, that’s the best way to do it. They would go there and find out if they have some interest. They would see some photos or the video and would kind of screen themselves out and save you a lot of time.
Be Careful of Fair Housing
One thing you’ve got to be careful of is violation of Fair Housing when you advertise. Remember people are going to look at your ad and claim somehow that you’re being in violation of Fair Housing rules. This is a whole subject by itself. We can spend a whole night talking about this. You have to be careful about the words you use.
You can’t use words like church – even if it’s right next to the biggest church in town, or directly across from the biggest church in town. You can’t mention that church. That is a violation.
You can’t mention any sort of family – “It’s a family neighborhood.” If you say the words “family neighborhood” in theory you might be implying that single people aren’t welcome so you’ve got to be careful.
Or vice versa, if you use “apartment designed for singles,” it might be construed as excluding families. Be careful about the words you use. Think about them a little bit.
One of the things I’m going to do on the checklist you’re going to get from me is there are a lot of things in there in terms of words to use and then alternative words to use, particularly if you want to write an ad and you want to use the word fantastic three times.
It will give you fantastic and then give you two or three alternative words to use to try and mix up your words. My template ads are on that checklist. You’re going to get those as part of this program.
Be careful of Fair Housing. If you want HUD offers, in most areas a one day course doesn’t cost much, say $25, where you can take a Fair Housing course. You can learn all about the rules and regulations of Fair Housing. If you’re a serious property management I would do that. Go and spend a Saturday or whatever day they offer that course, take it and learn those rules and regulations and keep yourself out of hot water.
I invite you to learn more about Property Management and get a free 60 minute audio titled “Learn the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know to Maximum Profit and Avoiding Tenant Headaches” by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PMS.html.
Mike Lautensack is the owner of Del Val Property Management LLC, a FULL service residential property management company located in Philadelphia, PA.
Particularly with newspapers you don’t have a lot of space and it’s expensive, so you’re going to have maybe a headline, one or two bullet points, and then a phone number or website. You don’t have a lot of space so you’ve got to make sure that you do it the right way. Your headline has to be appealing.
Let’s use Louisville as an example. You don’t need to put Louisville in your headline. Everybody knows it’s a Louisville newspaper. You’ve wasted your space. We see that mistake a lot.
Putting irrelevant words in your headlines doesn’t mean too much. Make sure your headlines have relevant words. If it’s a particular neighborhood or section of town, if it’s a well-known area, make sure you put that in there, but not the town.
Be Concise
Be very concise. If you can drive them to your voice mail system or your website, that’s the best way to do it. They would go there and find out if they have some interest. They would see some photos or the video and would kind of screen themselves out and save you a lot of time.
Be Careful of Fair Housing
One thing you’ve got to be careful of is violation of Fair Housing when you advertise. Remember people are going to look at your ad and claim somehow that you’re being in violation of Fair Housing rules. This is a whole subject by itself. We can spend a whole night talking about this. You have to be careful about the words you use.
You can’t use words like church – even if it’s right next to the biggest church in town, or directly across from the biggest church in town. You can’t mention that church. That is a violation.
You can’t mention any sort of family – “It’s a family neighborhood.” If you say the words “family neighborhood” in theory you might be implying that single people aren’t welcome so you’ve got to be careful.
Or vice versa, if you use “apartment designed for singles,” it might be construed as excluding families. Be careful about the words you use. Think about them a little bit.
One of the things I’m going to do on the checklist you’re going to get from me is there are a lot of things in there in terms of words to use and then alternative words to use, particularly if you want to write an ad and you want to use the word fantastic three times.
It will give you fantastic and then give you two or three alternative words to use to try and mix up your words. My template ads are on that checklist. You’re going to get those as part of this program.
Be careful of Fair Housing. If you want HUD offers, in most areas a one day course doesn’t cost much, say $25, where you can take a Fair Housing course. You can learn all about the rules and regulations of Fair Housing. If you’re a serious property management I would do that. Go and spend a Saturday or whatever day they offer that course, take it and learn those rules and regulations and keep yourself out of hot water.
I invite you to learn more about Property Management and get a free 60 minute audio titled “Learn the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know to Maximum Profit and Avoiding Tenant Headaches” by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PMS.html.
Mike Lautensack is the owner of Del Val Property Management LLC, a FULL service residential property management company located in Philadelphia, PA.
Learn How to Collect Rent and Deal With the Eviction Process Without Attorneys
Collecting rent is one of those situations where I have
to use some rules of thumb, some feeling, some gut to try to figure out
whether it's time to go and do the eviction or do we try to work with
the tenant and see if they can get caught up. Maybe it's a temporary
problem. We can do a weekly or monthly payment plan and maybe we can
get them back on paying again.
In the same token, if I don't feel it's going to happen, we have to go to eviction quickly. There's no point in waiting and spending two or three months waiting around for something that's not going to happen. That takes some gut feel and experience.
Know the Rules for Eviction
We'll talk about the eviction process. There again, just like the rules and regulations, you've got to be smarter than your tenants. You've got to know the rules better than they do, because if you don't, I guarantee you they will take advantage of you. They will tell you things that are not accurate and if you buy into it you're going to end up being their whipping post.
Now every state might be slightly different and I recommend you go to Google and search for your sate and landlord regulations and study them front to back. Knowing the rules and then enforcing them is the single most important thing in terms of collecting rent.
Should you use an attorney for evictions? You guys can do it better than an attorney can. They will do almost nothing for you except the fact that they're attorneys and they'll charge you $250-300 an hour.
I can probably out perform any attorney in this area and I can do it for $50 an hour for my clients, probably one sixth of what they'll pay an attorney.
How to Retain Tenants
How to work with tenants and try to encourage them to stay tenants, making sure that you're resolving issues with them in a friendly and professional way so they say, "Hey, yeah, I want to stay another year, two years, three years whatever."
If you are late with doing maintenance, you drag your feet, you try to find excuses why not to do it every time they call you, you don't return their calls, they got a little drip here and there, you don't fix it, do you think they're going to stay that second year after that lease runs out? I don't think so.
Again, you want to keep at it. You want to work within trying to keep the tenants as long as possible. Also, we have little things in our lease that encourage tenants to sign a new one-year lease. They can go month-to-month but there are some penalties - I wouldn't call it that - but just some things in that lease that make it more onerous on them as opposed to coming back to me and saying, "I'd rather have a new one-year lease than go month-to-month."
We probably have 75 to 80% of our tenants come back to us for a new one-year lease as opposed to remaining month-to-month. It's hard for you as landlords and owners to manage if you don't know beyond 30 days whether your tenant's staying or going. It's much nicer to have a one-year lease and you know that for the next 12 months at least you're going to get rent, so we'll talk about that.
In the same token, if I don't feel it's going to happen, we have to go to eviction quickly. There's no point in waiting and spending two or three months waiting around for something that's not going to happen. That takes some gut feel and experience.
Know the Rules for Eviction
We'll talk about the eviction process. There again, just like the rules and regulations, you've got to be smarter than your tenants. You've got to know the rules better than they do, because if you don't, I guarantee you they will take advantage of you. They will tell you things that are not accurate and if you buy into it you're going to end up being their whipping post.
Now every state might be slightly different and I recommend you go to Google and search for your sate and landlord regulations and study them front to back. Knowing the rules and then enforcing them is the single most important thing in terms of collecting rent.
Should you use an attorney for evictions? You guys can do it better than an attorney can. They will do almost nothing for you except the fact that they're attorneys and they'll charge you $250-300 an hour.
I can probably out perform any attorney in this area and I can do it for $50 an hour for my clients, probably one sixth of what they'll pay an attorney.
How to Retain Tenants
How to work with tenants and try to encourage them to stay tenants, making sure that you're resolving issues with them in a friendly and professional way so they say, "Hey, yeah, I want to stay another year, two years, three years whatever."
If you are late with doing maintenance, you drag your feet, you try to find excuses why not to do it every time they call you, you don't return their calls, they got a little drip here and there, you don't fix it, do you think they're going to stay that second year after that lease runs out? I don't think so.
Again, you want to keep at it. You want to work within trying to keep the tenants as long as possible. Also, we have little things in our lease that encourage tenants to sign a new one-year lease. They can go month-to-month but there are some penalties - I wouldn't call it that - but just some things in that lease that make it more onerous on them as opposed to coming back to me and saying, "I'd rather have a new one-year lease than go month-to-month."
We probably have 75 to 80% of our tenants come back to us for a new one-year lease as opposed to remaining month-to-month. It's hard for you as landlords and owners to manage if you don't know beyond 30 days whether your tenant's staying or going. It's much nicer to have a one-year lease and you know that for the next 12 months at least you're going to get rent, so we'll talk about that.
I invite you to learn more about Property Management and get a free audio titled "Learn the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know to Manage Your Own Investments Properties for Maximum Profit and Avoiding Tenant Headaches" by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PMS.html
Mike Lautensack is the owner of Del Val Property Management LLC, a FULL service residential property management company located in Philadelphia, PA.
The Advantages of Professional Property Management Vs “Mom and Pop Management”
One of the things we’re going to focus on is what is professional
management versus mom and pop management. Now many of you may have a
couple properties. Maybe you’ve read a book on property management, I
don’t know, but if you ultimately want to make a business and to grow
wealth and to be a serious real estate investor, you need to become a
professional property manager.
That is you’re better at it than most people. You’re better at it than nine out of 10 investors. You take it seriously because you’re investing a lot of your own money in these properties, a lot of your time and a lot of your energy, and you want to get the most you can out of it.
That’s where the money is, because if you don’t manage it properly, the value of that asset declines rapidly. I guarantee you, if you’ve bought a property, put a bad tenant in there and they destroyed your property, you’re looking at $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 of damage. Not that property management can totally eliminate that possibility, but certainly professional management versus mom and pop management makes a huge difference.
Advantages of Property Management
We’re going to go through that and understand that process. We’re going to go through the advantages of property management. Why is it worth you getting on this call for two hours for a series of four calls? What are the monetary advantages of doing it? Are there monetary advantages to it? Why not just read a $12 book?
Sure, you can do that, but everybody knows reading a book is a hard way to learn. It’s not interactive. You won’t have the ability to fire questions at me. Maybe you’re pretty good at property management and you have a couple areas you’re weak at. You won’t have the ability to fire questions at me.
Again, filling a rental. Let’s say we had a $900 a month rental. Filling it 30 days earlier than you would otherwise puts $900 in your pocket. So the monetary issues here are tremendous. Keeping a tenant a second year as opposed to losing them because you didn’t treat them right or you didn’t fix the property right or whatever, reselling a vacancy is tremendously expensive.
You could be looking at two months vacancy, $900 per month, and costs you have to pay to maybe carpet in between tenants, so maintaining a tenant is again a huge monetary issue. So there are clearly some monetary issues here that can be quite overwhelming in terms of cost savings.
We’re going to talk about the importance of education, these kinds of calls tonight, the importance of doing it on a continuous basis, meaning joining your real estate clubs, looking for other resources, maybe join my coaching program at some point down the road, but continue to educate yourself further and more completely as time goes by.
Again, a professional real estate investor continues the education process and never stops. A mom and pop learns a couple things and then stops. We’re going to talk about the difference between the two. How to do things like develop contacts and network, how to work with contractors.
I invite you to learn more about Property Management and get a free audio titled “Learn the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know to Manage Your Own Investments Properties for Maximum Profit and Avoiding Tenant Headaches” by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PMS.html
Mike Lautensack is the owner of Del Val Property Management LLC, a FULL service residential property management company located in Philadelphia, PA.
That is you’re better at it than most people. You’re better at it than nine out of 10 investors. You take it seriously because you’re investing a lot of your own money in these properties, a lot of your time and a lot of your energy, and you want to get the most you can out of it.
That’s where the money is, because if you don’t manage it properly, the value of that asset declines rapidly. I guarantee you, if you’ve bought a property, put a bad tenant in there and they destroyed your property, you’re looking at $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 of damage. Not that property management can totally eliminate that possibility, but certainly professional management versus mom and pop management makes a huge difference.
Advantages of Property Management
We’re going to go through that and understand that process. We’re going to go through the advantages of property management. Why is it worth you getting on this call for two hours for a series of four calls? What are the monetary advantages of doing it? Are there monetary advantages to it? Why not just read a $12 book?
Sure, you can do that, but everybody knows reading a book is a hard way to learn. It’s not interactive. You won’t have the ability to fire questions at me. Maybe you’re pretty good at property management and you have a couple areas you’re weak at. You won’t have the ability to fire questions at me.
Again, filling a rental. Let’s say we had a $900 a month rental. Filling it 30 days earlier than you would otherwise puts $900 in your pocket. So the monetary issues here are tremendous. Keeping a tenant a second year as opposed to losing them because you didn’t treat them right or you didn’t fix the property right or whatever, reselling a vacancy is tremendously expensive.
You could be looking at two months vacancy, $900 per month, and costs you have to pay to maybe carpet in between tenants, so maintaining a tenant is again a huge monetary issue. So there are clearly some monetary issues here that can be quite overwhelming in terms of cost savings.
We’re going to talk about the importance of education, these kinds of calls tonight, the importance of doing it on a continuous basis, meaning joining your real estate clubs, looking for other resources, maybe join my coaching program at some point down the road, but continue to educate yourself further and more completely as time goes by.
Again, a professional real estate investor continues the education process and never stops. A mom and pop learns a couple things and then stops. We’re going to talk about the difference between the two. How to do things like develop contacts and network, how to work with contractors.
I invite you to learn more about Property Management and get a free audio titled “Learn the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know to Manage Your Own Investments Properties for Maximum Profit and Avoiding Tenant Headaches” by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PMS.html
Mike Lautensack is the owner of Del Val Property Management LLC, a FULL service residential property management company located in Philadelphia, PA.
Real Estate Investors - Learn the Most Important Element You Must Have to Make a Successful Offer!
The first step in the instant offer system is simply to
build rapport. This is a fundamental building block to any offer. You
cannot develop a deal with a seller if you're not in rapport.
What is a Rapport?
What is rapport? It's hard to define. It's not necessarily being friends. It's not necessarily having a long relationship. It's not that. It's a sense that the two of you are on the same page. There's some comfort between the two of you.
There is starting to be a sense of trust that you're comfortable with each other. You have a sense that the other person and you are kind of moving in the same direction that both of you want to go.
If you don't have rapport you cannot move forward in this system. It is absolutely the most essential of the five steps. If you do not have rapport then really the process is over.
The Importance of Rapport
If you go talk to a seller and the first couple of minutes are very awkward, maybe very argumentative or you say something that the other person doesn't like - it gets their back up a little bit - the offer process is really over at that point. It really can't proceed until you come back and you develop that rapport.
It doesn't mean you can't come back and get it, but at that point you've got to take a minute and build rapport.
How to Develop a Rapport
One of the best ways to develop rapport when you walk into somebody's home is to start to ask questions and take a little tour of their home. Make comments about some of their belongings in the house.
Maybe they've got sports memorabilia and you can make a comment about it if you're in a sports town. You can talk about the great game a couple of years ago, the Superbowl, World Series or whatever. You're developing some rapport. The two of you are developing some commonalities. You're starting to understand each other.
If the person has pictures of their kids or something of that nature you can make comments about that. If there's something about a college, maybe you can make some comments about that - you or somebody you know has been there.
Basically you want to walk through the house with that individual, spend a few minutes and just chat about relatively minor things - nothing important. That is the rapport building process. You can compliment the house. If it's decorated nice or there's something you particularly like about the property, a compliment is obviously a process of building that rapport. It's important that you go through this step. It's important that in your mind you take some time.
I know everybody wants to jump to the table and start making the offer, but this process needs to take its time. Let it build and develop naturally. If this walk through takes half an hour, let it take half an hour. Don't try to force it. Again, the rapport will happen naturally if you allow it to.
What is a Rapport?
What is rapport? It's hard to define. It's not necessarily being friends. It's not necessarily having a long relationship. It's not that. It's a sense that the two of you are on the same page. There's some comfort between the two of you.
There is starting to be a sense of trust that you're comfortable with each other. You have a sense that the other person and you are kind of moving in the same direction that both of you want to go.
If you don't have rapport you cannot move forward in this system. It is absolutely the most essential of the five steps. If you do not have rapport then really the process is over.
The Importance of Rapport
If you go talk to a seller and the first couple of minutes are very awkward, maybe very argumentative or you say something that the other person doesn't like - it gets their back up a little bit - the offer process is really over at that point. It really can't proceed until you come back and you develop that rapport.
It doesn't mean you can't come back and get it, but at that point you've got to take a minute and build rapport.
How to Develop a Rapport
One of the best ways to develop rapport when you walk into somebody's home is to start to ask questions and take a little tour of their home. Make comments about some of their belongings in the house.
Maybe they've got sports memorabilia and you can make a comment about it if you're in a sports town. You can talk about the great game a couple of years ago, the Superbowl, World Series or whatever. You're developing some rapport. The two of you are developing some commonalities. You're starting to understand each other.
If the person has pictures of their kids or something of that nature you can make comments about that. If there's something about a college, maybe you can make some comments about that - you or somebody you know has been there.
Basically you want to walk through the house with that individual, spend a few minutes and just chat about relatively minor things - nothing important. That is the rapport building process. You can compliment the house. If it's decorated nice or there's something you particularly like about the property, a compliment is obviously a process of building that rapport. It's important that you go through this step. It's important that in your mind you take some time.
I know everybody wants to jump to the table and start making the offer, but this process needs to take its time. Let it build and develop naturally. If this walk through takes half an hour, let it take half an hour. Don't try to force it. Again, the rapport will happen naturally if you allow it to.
I invite you to learn more about Real Estate Investing and join our FREE weekly tele-seminar class where we teach tips and strategy on how to grow your real estate investing business and how to raise Private Money by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/TuesdayTipsSignUp.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur, coach and mentor in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE eBook go to
Real Estate Investing Blog.
Real Estate Investors – Learn the 5 Key Elements You Must Have to Make “No Money Down” Offers
I would like to talk about what I call the “WOWWW” formula. It
is a simple formula that you’ve got to understand and incorporate into
your business if you are serious about real estate investment.
There is simply no way that you can structure a truly no money down and creative offer if you don’t understand this formula. There are just five pieces to it. Four of which are “W’s” and one of which is an “O”. The five important elements to working with a seller before you can structure an offer you must know these five pieces of information.
“W” When
You must know when. That is basically when do they want to sell? You want to understand their sense of urgency, their motivational level. If they want to sell months from now, they’re not very urgent. You’re not going to get a very good deal, and it’s really not something you should be spending much time on.
I’m not saying you don’t capture that person’s name, email and phone number, and put it in a database somewhere and follow up with them on a regular basis through postcards and what not. But they’re not going to be a deal this week or next month. They’re simply not.
If they’re not properly motivated, and the when is motivation, if they are going to be doing a deal in the next 30 days because of a foreclosure, they’re moving out of state, or they’re out of state or about to miss a mortgage payment because they’ve been trying to sell it for a year and they can’t sell it and they’ve run out of money, then their ‘when’ has really shortened up.
“W” What
What is their situation? That’s kind of related but you need to understand what’s going on with them. Why do they need to sell? Is it a foreclosure or pre-foreclosure? Is it a divorce? Is it a sale where they can’t get it sold? Is it that they bought it to flip?
We’re seeing a lot of this. People have bought things to flip them, went in and rehabbed it – spent a lot of money – and they were hoping to sell it but the market turned on them and they got stuck. So you need to understand what their situation is. That’s an important element of this.
“W” What Is the House Worth
Worth is always difficult to nail down, but you should do your homework and figure this out. You should look at comps or appraisals or whatever other sources of information you want to try to figure out what the properties worth fixed up.
It may be worth $150,000, $200,000, $300,000 or who knows. You should have some sense of what the property’s worth to make an offer.
“O” Owe
You should know what the person’s owes on the mortgage or mortgages. This is a critical element and something a lot of people don’t understand. You cannot make an offer through the MLS system if you don’t know what the other person owes. It’s very hard to make a creative offer if you don’t know what they owe.
If the property is free and clear and there’s no mortgage, then that will dictate a completely different type of offer. If they’re completely under water and the house is worth $130,000 and the mortgage is $150,000 that will drive a completely different type of offer. If they owe $90,000 that will drive the ultimate offer.
You cannot make quality offers to sellers if you don’t understand what they owe. It’s absolutely critical. All five of these are critical.
“W” What They Want
Probably the least important is what they want. That will change over time. If they’re not motivated and don’t need a quick sale – one and two aren’t really in place – most likely they’re going to want a high price. They are not truly ready to do a deal. They are not where you need them to be to do a deal.
What they want first all changes over time. It’s also probably the least important of the five items. However, you do need to know what that is. If they want some outlandish number, you don’t want to spend a lot of your time and effort on it.
That is the WOWWW formula. Use it on every deal and make much better offers.
I invite you to learn more about Real Estate Investing and join our FREE weekly tele-seminar class where we teach tips and strategy on how to grow your real estate investing business and how to raise Private Money by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/TuesdayTipsSignUp.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur, coach and mentor in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE eBook go to
Real Estate Investing Blog.
There is simply no way that you can structure a truly no money down and creative offer if you don’t understand this formula. There are just five pieces to it. Four of which are “W’s” and one of which is an “O”. The five important elements to working with a seller before you can structure an offer you must know these five pieces of information.
“W” When
You must know when. That is basically when do they want to sell? You want to understand their sense of urgency, their motivational level. If they want to sell months from now, they’re not very urgent. You’re not going to get a very good deal, and it’s really not something you should be spending much time on.
I’m not saying you don’t capture that person’s name, email and phone number, and put it in a database somewhere and follow up with them on a regular basis through postcards and what not. But they’re not going to be a deal this week or next month. They’re simply not.
If they’re not properly motivated, and the when is motivation, if they are going to be doing a deal in the next 30 days because of a foreclosure, they’re moving out of state, or they’re out of state or about to miss a mortgage payment because they’ve been trying to sell it for a year and they can’t sell it and they’ve run out of money, then their ‘when’ has really shortened up.
“W” What
What is their situation? That’s kind of related but you need to understand what’s going on with them. Why do they need to sell? Is it a foreclosure or pre-foreclosure? Is it a divorce? Is it a sale where they can’t get it sold? Is it that they bought it to flip?
We’re seeing a lot of this. People have bought things to flip them, went in and rehabbed it – spent a lot of money – and they were hoping to sell it but the market turned on them and they got stuck. So you need to understand what their situation is. That’s an important element of this.
“W” What Is the House Worth
Worth is always difficult to nail down, but you should do your homework and figure this out. You should look at comps or appraisals or whatever other sources of information you want to try to figure out what the properties worth fixed up.
It may be worth $150,000, $200,000, $300,000 or who knows. You should have some sense of what the property’s worth to make an offer.
“O” Owe
You should know what the person’s owes on the mortgage or mortgages. This is a critical element and something a lot of people don’t understand. You cannot make an offer through the MLS system if you don’t know what the other person owes. It’s very hard to make a creative offer if you don’t know what they owe.
If the property is free and clear and there’s no mortgage, then that will dictate a completely different type of offer. If they’re completely under water and the house is worth $130,000 and the mortgage is $150,000 that will drive a completely different type of offer. If they owe $90,000 that will drive the ultimate offer.
You cannot make quality offers to sellers if you don’t understand what they owe. It’s absolutely critical. All five of these are critical.
“W” What They Want
Probably the least important is what they want. That will change over time. If they’re not motivated and don’t need a quick sale – one and two aren’t really in place – most likely they’re going to want a high price. They are not truly ready to do a deal. They are not where you need them to be to do a deal.
What they want first all changes over time. It’s also probably the least important of the five items. However, you do need to know what that is. If they want some outlandish number, you don’t want to spend a lot of your time and effort on it.
That is the WOWWW formula. Use it on every deal and make much better offers.
I invite you to learn more about Real Estate Investing and join our FREE weekly tele-seminar class where we teach tips and strategy on how to grow your real estate investing business and how to raise Private Money by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/TuesdayTipsSignUp.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur, coach and mentor in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE eBook go to
Real Estate Investing Blog.
Real Estate Investing: How to Use Voice Mail Systems to Improve Your Marketing Response Rate
Choose a Voice Mail System
Before setting up voice mail systems you have to choose one that will suit the needs of your business. I use a company called Freedom Voice Systems. I think there are probably 8 or 10 different programs out there that are somewhat similar. A typical voice mail system will have a couple different price points depending on your needs.
A basic system may only have 10-20 different voice mail boxes. A more advanced system, the one that we use, has I think has 1,000 boxes or maybe 900. I think it starts at 100 and goes to 999, so I guess that’s 900 total boxes that we have available within the voice mail system.
A typical price for a voice mail system of any real quality is going to be somewhere around $20-40/month, a very minimal investment in terms of the amount of money that you put into that.
Using Voice Mail to Improve Response Rate
What a voice mail system allows you to do, once you’ve got it in place – let’s say you want to start marketing to sellers. You want to go out and you want to create some marketing pieces. You’re going to have let’s say a newspaper ad, you’re going to have a postcard, maybe you’re going to have your business card, and you’re going to have one or two other pieces of marketing, whatever they might be.
With each one of those various pieces of marketing, you’re going to put a different box number. You’re going to put Box 100, Box 101, Box 102, Box 103. The reason for that is that every time somebody calls you off of one of your pieces of marketing, the system will record where that came from.
Let’s say at the end of your first month you’ve got 10 calls on Box 103. Let’s say Box 103 was postcards, so you know that if you sent out let’s say 1,000 postcards and you got 10 calls back, that’s a 1% response. That’s not a bad response. Now maybe there’s some things you can do to make it better, but you know at least on your first mailing you got a 1% response. That’s not bad. It allows you to know precisely what your results were. You can know it mathematically.
So now what you can do the next month is maybe you send out another 1,000 postcards. Maybe you change the headline, maybe you make the offer a little bit nicer, maybe you change some of the information. You change the postcard, you do it again, and this time you get 15 calls the next month. Obviously what you did that second month is better than what you did the first month. Now you’ve improved your system and it’s gotten even better.
I invite you to learn more about Real Estate Investing and join our FREE weekly tele-seminar class where we teach tips and strategy on how to grow your real estate investing business and how to raise Private Money by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/TuesdayTipsSignUp.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur, coach and mentor in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE eBook go to Real Estate Investing Blog.
Before setting up voice mail systems you have to choose one that will suit the needs of your business. I use a company called Freedom Voice Systems. I think there are probably 8 or 10 different programs out there that are somewhat similar. A typical voice mail system will have a couple different price points depending on your needs.
A basic system may only have 10-20 different voice mail boxes. A more advanced system, the one that we use, has I think has 1,000 boxes or maybe 900. I think it starts at 100 and goes to 999, so I guess that’s 900 total boxes that we have available within the voice mail system.
A typical price for a voice mail system of any real quality is going to be somewhere around $20-40/month, a very minimal investment in terms of the amount of money that you put into that.
Using Voice Mail to Improve Response Rate
What a voice mail system allows you to do, once you’ve got it in place – let’s say you want to start marketing to sellers. You want to go out and you want to create some marketing pieces. You’re going to have let’s say a newspaper ad, you’re going to have a postcard, maybe you’re going to have your business card, and you’re going to have one or two other pieces of marketing, whatever they might be.
With each one of those various pieces of marketing, you’re going to put a different box number. You’re going to put Box 100, Box 101, Box 102, Box 103. The reason for that is that every time somebody calls you off of one of your pieces of marketing, the system will record where that came from.
Let’s say at the end of your first month you’ve got 10 calls on Box 103. Let’s say Box 103 was postcards, so you know that if you sent out let’s say 1,000 postcards and you got 10 calls back, that’s a 1% response. That’s not a bad response. Now maybe there’s some things you can do to make it better, but you know at least on your first mailing you got a 1% response. That’s not bad. It allows you to know precisely what your results were. You can know it mathematically.
So now what you can do the next month is maybe you send out another 1,000 postcards. Maybe you change the headline, maybe you make the offer a little bit nicer, maybe you change some of the information. You change the postcard, you do it again, and this time you get 15 calls the next month. Obviously what you did that second month is better than what you did the first month. Now you’ve improved your system and it’s gotten even better.
I invite you to learn more about Real Estate Investing and join our FREE weekly tele-seminar class where we teach tips and strategy on how to grow your real estate investing business and how to raise Private Money by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/TuesdayTipsSignUp.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur, coach and mentor in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE eBook go to Real Estate Investing Blog.
Why Private Lending is HOT!
We are all aware that real estate prices are down anywhere from 15% to
40% across the country. In the past, you might have invested $15k to
$30k to buy rental property that rented for $1,000 per month and netted
the investor 10% to 15% on their investment.
Now you can buy that same property for dramatically less but the rent has remained the same, or even gone up slightly, over the last couple years. So the return to the investor has gone up substantially and 30% to 50% returns on your investment are ordinary today
The hard part right now is being able to get a bank loan. Banks want to see 20% to 40% down from real estate investors AND excellent credit, traditional employment, and personal guarantees. If you do not meet these criteria you are essentially lock out of the traditional mortgage market and will be unable to borrow money from banks. Many of the other non-traditional loans such as “no-doc”, ALT-A and no money down loans have all disappeared due the financial crisis.
So what is the solution for real estate investors that have been locked out of the traditional mortgage market?
Private Lending is the answer!
Private lending is a consistent source of funds with which to purchase real estate deals and to which you can often go back to again and again and again. In fact, the more you use, the more will become available as you develop relationships with more private lenders.
The reason why private lending is HOT today is so many people are lock out of the traditional mortgage market and private is their only option to get money for real estate investments.
What is private lending and who are private lenders?
The definition of a ‘private lender’ is an individual that you can negotiate directly with on a personal one-on-one basis from whom you wish to borrow money for real estate investments. The money can be used to purchase rental real estate investments or to supplement funds borrowed from a bank to cover down payments.
Private lenders come from all walks of life and may not know the first thing about the real estate business. But what they do have is extra cash or assets that they can invest in your real estate deals. These individuals are generally middle class people, who have some extra funds to lend. They can be retired business people, corporate executives, professionals such as doctors, lawyers, or business owners or even blue collar workers.
Private lenders are looking for returns substantially above the 3% to 5% they get at the bank with CD’s or money markets. Most private lenders are looking for investment returns in the 9% to 15% range and secured by local rental real estate.
For more information please go to http://www.private-lending-secrets.com/.
Now you can buy that same property for dramatically less but the rent has remained the same, or even gone up slightly, over the last couple years. So the return to the investor has gone up substantially and 30% to 50% returns on your investment are ordinary today
The hard part right now is being able to get a bank loan. Banks want to see 20% to 40% down from real estate investors AND excellent credit, traditional employment, and personal guarantees. If you do not meet these criteria you are essentially lock out of the traditional mortgage market and will be unable to borrow money from banks. Many of the other non-traditional loans such as “no-doc”, ALT-A and no money down loans have all disappeared due the financial crisis.
So what is the solution for real estate investors that have been locked out of the traditional mortgage market?
Private Lending is the answer!
Private lending is a consistent source of funds with which to purchase real estate deals and to which you can often go back to again and again and again. In fact, the more you use, the more will become available as you develop relationships with more private lenders.
The reason why private lending is HOT today is so many people are lock out of the traditional mortgage market and private is their only option to get money for real estate investments.
What is private lending and who are private lenders?
The definition of a ‘private lender’ is an individual that you can negotiate directly with on a personal one-on-one basis from whom you wish to borrow money for real estate investments. The money can be used to purchase rental real estate investments or to supplement funds borrowed from a bank to cover down payments.
Private lenders come from all walks of life and may not know the first thing about the real estate business. But what they do have is extra cash or assets that they can invest in your real estate deals. These individuals are generally middle class people, who have some extra funds to lend. They can be retired business people, corporate executives, professionals such as doctors, lawyers, or business owners or even blue collar workers.
Private lenders are looking for returns substantially above the 3% to 5% they get at the bank with CD’s or money markets. Most private lenders are looking for investment returns in the 9% to 15% range and secured by local rental real estate.
For more information please go to http://www.private-lending-secrets.com/.
Property Management Secrets for Real Estate Investors
One of the best ways to build up long-term wealth and passive income is by buying and holding rental properties.
While being a "landlord
" isn’t a glamorous job… if you run your rental property business
correctly, it can be a very rewarding, easy, and profitable way to
invest in real estate.
In just 72 hours we are starting a power packed 3 4 Night Live Tele-seminar where you'll learn simple step-by-step process to develop your own Property Management Program for Maximum Profit and Avoiding Tenant Headaches.
Imagine
the money you will save by simply avoiding one bad tenant (can you say
$1,000's). Now imagine having good tenants that pay on time and do not
call you with minor problems and allow you the time and energy to focus
on buying more real estate and growing your business.
Well this program will give the knowledge to achieve these goals.
To learn more about Property Management Secrets for Real Estate Investors and listen to a 30 minute audio please click here ===> http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PropertyManagementSecrets.html
Who is Property Managements Secrets For?
- Prospective property owners and landlords
- First time property investors
- Portfolio builders who need their properties to work for them
- Experienced multi-property landlords looking to get the most from their property
This course starts Thursday September 10, 2009 so sign up tonight at http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PropertyManagementSecrets.html
Thanks
Mike
The Top 10 Real Estate Investment Blogs
I have compiled a list of the Top 10 Real Estate Investing blogs – several of them I use on a regular basis and recommend you do the same. I try to take the good and interesting blog post and routine post them on my blog at http://www.learnrealestateinvestingblog.com/.
Please bookmark this site and I will update from time to time, so stay tuned.
Enjoy the list, and if you like or know other blogs too, e-mail me or include them in the comment field, and I’ll take a look.
The Top 10 Real Estate Investment Blogs
http://www.realestateweblog.org/
http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/
http://www.investorwealth.com/blog/
http://www.equityscout.com/blog
http://www.investing-secrets.com/
http://topsites.blogflux.com/real-estate/
http://www.investorloft.com/blog/
http://www.realestatewebprofits.com/rewp/blog/real-estate-blog.php
http://www.LearnRealEstateInvestingBlog.com/
Property Management - FREE Audio on the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management
Do own a Rental Property or have you ever thought about buying a
rental property?
Have you ever had a problem with one of your tenants like
nonpayment of rent, late rent, complaints about maintenance?
How would you like to become a more professional property manager
and move beyond "mom and pop management".
I just completed a 60 minute audio titled "Learn the 10 Success
Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know
to Manage Your Own Investment Properties for Profit and Avoid
Tenant Headaches!"
If you would like to listen to this FREE audio please go to
http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PropertyManagementSecrets.html
Here is what you are going to learn and discover in this brand new
tele-seminar:
rental property?
Have you ever had a problem with one of your tenants like
nonpayment of rent, late rent, complaints about maintenance?
How would you like to become a more professional property manager
and move beyond "mom and pop management".
I just completed a 60 minute audio titled "Learn the 10 Success
Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know
to Manage Your Own Investment Properties for Profit and Avoid
Tenant Headaches!"
If you would like to listen to this FREE audio please go to
http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PropertyManagementSecrets.html
Here is what you are going to learn and discover in this brand new
tele-seminar:
- What is Property Management and why it is absolutely essential to be successful in real estate investing...
- How to use both offline and online marketing techniques to get the phone buzzing with qualified potential tenants...
- The 3 keys steps you MUST take to screen potential tenants and maximize your potential of getting good long term tenants that can make landlording a joy...
- Discover the advantages of a true professionally lease designed to protect the owner versus a "store bought" lease which favors the tenant...
- How to Get Your Tenants to Stay After the First Year...
- And of course, a whole lot more!
If you would like to listen to this FREE audio please go to
http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PropertyManagementSecrets.html
Thanks
Mike Lautensack
http://www.LearnRealEstateInvestingBlog.com/