Contacting Realtors Pays off!!

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bryant on September 29, 2010 at 6:25pm

Sounds like your off to a great start Patricia! Congrat! Congrats! Congrats! I'm still at the "what all do i need phase". Stories like yours and other's inspire me so much! Keep up the good work!

P.S. Keep those motivational story's coming!!

P.S.S. CONGRATS again

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Permalink Reply by Patricia Moses on September 29, 2010 at 7:08pm

Anthony,Hi,I'm still in that phase!!!I figure if I learn the basics,I'll learn as I go,I put my very first bid in today,only for yard work,but it's a start,Thanks for the Congrats,it's so appreciated.Good luck to you also,just go for it!The way I see it..It's a guaranteed no,if I dont try,least I have a chance when I do.Thanks again!!Patty

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Permalink Reply by Joel Alfano on September 30, 2010 at 8:45pm

hey Patricia! how are you? this is great news! im proud of you.You are on the right track!! great job :)))))

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Permalink Reply by Done Right Property Cleanup on October 4, 2010 at 1:50pm

congrats !! in this slowing period, to get new clients is a big step forward !!

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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Gunn on October 6, 2010 at 7:00am

I have been reading everything I can about this biz. We have decided to go for it. I wish there was a check list of what to do first. Like license, contacts, find sub contractors etc. What do you do yourelf and what do you sub contract? Do they have to be licensed? Workmans comp or not. Soooo many questions. I have a quote coming on workmens comp and ins. I have not talked to any banks, real estate agent etc yet. My job will be ending Nov or Dec and I want to be doing this by then. We are a husband and wife team who has many family and friends unemployed now. I am not sure what to do first. I have ordered a book that will be here in a few days but I am so motivated right now. Should I go to the banks and talk to them or do I write them a letter? a flyer? I have so many questions. Thanks so much for this great forum and all the information you all share.

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Permalink Reply by Home Preservation Solutions LLC on October 11, 2010 at 5:18am

Great Job, congrats on the bites. Realtors Are defintiely the way to go when trying to filter in business; the brokers (or the assigned agents) are the one's repsonible to get these foreclosure/REO's cleaned and ready for sale. Try to avoid marketing to certain companies like Century 21 if you're spending money to pull in business because generally it's not going to be money well spent. A few of the national companies have their own foreclosure cleaning companies under their corporate umbrella so you're best bet is going to be to try and target smaller Private Brokerage's. Another thing is to visit the office's personally on a weekend that you can find a few hours of your time. Bake some cookies or something along those lines and stop in to say hello. Most people like putting a face with a company and what better way to do that than to "break bread" so to speak...lol especially if you haven't really established yourself in the market just yet. A personal touch goes a long way.

Congrats again!

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Patricia Moses on October 11, 2010 at 3:38pm

Chris I agree with a personal touch, I think face to face meetings are much better,by the way,do you hear anything either way if you win or lose a bid,won our first bid for a small repair,have 2 other bids submitted,just wondering if there is a time frame....?Thanks Patty

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Permalink Reply by Home Preservation Solutions LLC on October 12, 2010 at 5:55am

Honestly that's hit or miss. Generally speaking I hear back from them within 48 hours if I've got the contract. If not I "assume" the worst and have a feeling I haven't gotten it. However I still call them back just to get the confirmation of that. Regardless if I've gotten it or not I still prefer to ask them a few questions.

9 times out of 10 if they've decided on someone else they've already signed the estimate and are obligated to that other vendor, but that doesn't mean you can't pry some info out of them. I like to find out what my competition is under cutting me by. I'll generally ask them how much the other bid was that they accepted, I try to find out what parts of my bid was higher which parts were cheaper, if they're willing to give it up I ask which company it was to know who I'm competing against. You'd be surprised how much information you can get out of people just by asking questions. Sometimes those people will try to brush you off as soon as you call so in those cases I tell them I understand you have a busy schedule and offer to meet them for lunch when its convenient for them so we can talk. Eventually you'll begin to notice a trend on how your competition is undercutting you at which point you can begin to adapt your bidding process to at least match theirs (or prefferably beat it without cutting yourself short).

There are some folks with a little decency left who will call you back whether you got the job or not but in most cases no I won't get a call back.

On the calls where it's been over 48 hours and they haven't made a decision on whom to pick (without being pushy) I try to find out what the bid was and see if it would be cost effective enough for me to match what the competition is offering. I've had a few cases (very few though) where the agent hadn't made their mind up yet and revealed to me what the best offer bid was, I was able to match the price and start the job immediately. Even though I hardly made any money off that job after paying my crew, It turned out to be a short-term loss/long-term gain situation. That same agent has already call me back twice now. (He gets DOUBLE chocolate chip cookies :o) ...lol)

I've also had people take up to a week to make up their minds because they're still trying to get the best price. the best thing to do in this case is just keep your calling to 48 hour intervals. If you get a bit of push back by the second call then push it back to 72 for the 3rd and final call. I don't bother calling a 4th time in any case unless they ask me to. If they haven't made their mind by then most likely they were just using your bid to get an estimate for when they deciede to do the work (which could be next month or 6 months from now you just never know.) That doesn't mean you want to burn any bridges though because they may very well call you 2-3 months from now and ask you to get to work.

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Permalink Reply by Property REHAB on October 18, 2010 at 10:04am

THat is a great start!!!! So you had several respond to emails? Good to know! What city and state do you operate in?

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Permalink Reply by Dawn Smith on October 19, 2010 at 7:21pm

Congratulations, its great to hear stories like yours, it gives newbies like me hope. I do have a question for you. What are you saying in your email to the realtors to get them to respond. I'm new at this and would like to try your strategy if you don't mind. I'm in the Atlanta area. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Once again Congrats.

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Permalink Reply by Priscilla Brown on November 18, 2010 at 2:53pm

Where did you find the contacts for these realators? Did you just google foreclosed home sells and contact those realtors?

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Permalink Reply by Patricia Moses on November 18, 2010 at 5:32pm

I go through the phone book,call them,then ask them if its ok If I mail them brochures and business cards,usually they will ask me questions which Is what I want,when they question it shows some interest.Hope this helps.

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