You have competition.<\/p>\n
Good news:<\/strong><\/p>\n They don\u2019t know the strategy that you are about to learn in this article.<\/p>\n When a typical investor wants to find a property owner, they give up when they see that the \u2018vacant house address\u2019 matches the address of where the tax rolls say the owner lives.<\/p>\n The reality is that 99% of your competition disappears when you find a property with matching addresses.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s discuss a few of the common or traditional ways that investors use to find \u201cmissing\u201d property owners and then I\u2019ll show you how the pros do it\u2026<\/p>\n Step 1:<\/strong> Find vacant house<\/p>\n Step 2:<\/strong> Look at tax rolls to find out who owns the property<\/p>\n Step 3:<\/strong> Google search. Let\u2019s say the owner\u2019s name is John Smith\u2026<\/p>\n Step 4:<\/strong> Find them on Facebook\u2026 now you just lost 3 hours of productivity.<\/p>\n Step 5:<\/strong> Look them up in the phone book\u2026 Phone book? What\u2019s that? Do you even have one?<\/p>\n Step 6:<\/strong> Talk to the neighbors\u2026 let them know that you are in the neighborhood beautification business.<\/p>\n Step 7:<\/strong> Put a FSBO sign in the property with your number on it\u2026 after the angry seller calls you, let\u2019s hope that you are still interested in the property.<\/p>\n Step 8:<\/strong> Send a letter to the owner\u2026 now we\u2019re getting warm! This is a great strategy. But what do you do when the house is vacant and the tax rolls say that this is the owner\u2019s mailing address?<\/p>\n Step 9:<\/strong> Do a skip trace\u2026 this is your answer to #8.<\/p>\n Pro Tip:<\/em><\/strong> If you skip steps 3 thru 7, you will save time and make more money.<\/em><\/p>\n Most real estate investors are not aware of step 9\u2026 and so they give up and never get the chance to contact the owners of these great properties.<\/p>\n In my business I use two types of skip trace services (both of which I own by the way\u2026that\u2019s how important I think skip tracing is for finding good deals). Here\u2019s how I use them\u2026<\/p>\n Skip trace tool #1: RealEstateSkipTrace.com<\/a> (do-it yourself)<\/p>\n This service gives investors the ability to use our standard skip trace type search, which gives you access to information like:<\/p>\n This is an automated service so you can use it any time and get an instant result and many times this standard information is all an investor needs to be able to find the seller. It\u2019s a low cost product that we\u2019re able to provide to our clients very inexpensively.<\/p>\n However, sometime a more exhaustive dossier style search is in order to find those hard to find sellers and that\u2019s when I turn to\u2026<\/p>\n Skip trace tool #2: FindTheSeller.com<\/a> (done for you)<\/p>\n This service allows you to find property owners that no one else can.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it works... you simply go to the site and order your skip trace. The staff at FindTheSeller.com<\/a> takes the info you have and they hunt the seller down for you<\/u>. They use multiple data points to get fresh contact information for you.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a breakdown of the differences in the 2 services\u2026<\/p>\n Pro Tip:<\/em><\/strong> If you\u2019re a member of RealEstateSkipTrace.com<\/a>, when you need the higher level \u201cCadillac\u201d search, you automatically get \u00bd off the cost of premium skip traces ordered through FindTheSeller.com<\/a>! <\/em><\/p>\n Another way to get the sellers\u2019 information is to see if the tools you already have access to provide the information you need.<\/p>\n For instance, if you are a member of VacantHouseDataFeed.com<\/a> then you may not even need a skip trace. As a member of this service you get access to \u201cNCOA\u201d (national change of address) info from the United States Postal Service, when it\u2019s available.<\/p>\n Have you ever filled out one of those \u201cChange of Address\u201d forms at the USPS, when you moved?<\/p>\n You know, the form that you complete that lets the USPS know where to forward your mail to? It usually comes with a yellow sticker on it?<\/p>\n That is what I am talking about when I say \u201cNCOA\u201d info.<\/p>\n When I mail a letter to a vacant house, and the owner has already filled out that change of address form, then I\u2019m assured that my letter is going to the updated, best address for the seller, and that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n What\u2019s better is if you\u2019re a VacantHouseDataFeed.com<\/a> user you\u2019ll see that updated address and can mail directly to it. This will put your message in front of the seller faster and without relying on the USPS to forward it.<\/p>\n A couple other scenarios where a skip trace is unnecessary\u2026<\/p>\n Pro Tip: <\/em><\/strong>I prefer matching address properties because they discourage and scare away competition.<\/em><\/p>\n With the Vacant House Data Feed, you do not need to find out the owner info from the tax rolls, because it\u2019s already done for you.<\/p>\n Just pull up the properties in your area, have a birddog drive by, call the owners with phone numbers, mail to the ones with un-matching addresses, don\u2019t mail to the bank-owned houses, and run a skip trace on the rest.<\/p>\n A typical letter costs $1, so any cost incurred for a subscription is easily covered just from the inside information that your competitors do not know about, which of course you have the inside track on.<\/p>\n You get the phone number of the owner in many cases and you could simply go through the Vacant House Data Feed and call owners in your area.<\/p>\n I also know from working with thousands of students over the years that most investors are unlikely to call these sellers\u2026 so if you would rather send a mailer every time, here is how that works\u2026<\/p>\n Yes, this process is labor-intensive\u2026 but let me ask you a question\u2026 how do you sort thru your mail?<\/p>\n Over the garbage can\u2026 like me?<\/p>\n Most people are quick to throw out junk mail, but when your letter looks like it came from a friend, recipients are quick to open it.<\/p>\n I have received calls from sellers\u2026 months, even years later. They open the envelope, read the letter, and stash it away in case they ever want to sell.<\/p>\n It is important that the letter is just as good as the envelope because they wouldn\u2019t stash it away for another day, if they didn\u2019t think you had a good solution to their problem.<\/p>\n There are many things you can do to make your marketing pieces more persuasive, like:<\/p>\n If you do not want to use the Vacant House Data Feed\u2026 here is what you can do\u2026<\/p>\n When the addresses do not match, you can send a letter exactly as aforementioned and add this little nugget of gold to the letter\u2026<\/p>\n By adding \u201cAddress Service Requested\u201d on the envelope, you compel the USPS to forward your letter AND return a copy of your letter along with the owner\u2019s new address.<\/p>\n They charge about 75 cents for this service (every time a letter is returned with the NCOA info), but it is money well spent because not only does your next mailer to them get delivered to the right address (which means you are not wasting money on letters) \u2026 but you also save money on skip traces.<\/p>\n Perhaps you are interested in a certain zip code, a certain carrier route, an apartment community, a high rise building or any community that is not easy to access.<\/p>\n You can send a letter or postcard (using a first-class stamp) to ALL of the addresses in that group.<\/p>\n If you use the letter as described above but use \u201cReturn Service Requested\u201d under the return address\u2026 USPS will return your letter to you stamped \u201cvacant\u201d if the house is not occupied\u2026<\/p>\n Now you can use this powerful intel to run skip traces and find property owners that nobody else can.<\/p>\n These techniques are the exact ones I\u2019ve used in my business since 1993. While many things have changed over the years these have proven to work the BEST when it comes to finding property owners that no one else can.<\/p>\n If you want to follow a simple paint by numbers style blueprint for wholesaling for quick cash\u2026 check out my blog post on flipping houses with no money, credit, or experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you are excited, please share this article or comment below!<\/p>\n I value your feedback.<\/p>\n Regards,<\/p>\n Cameron Dunlap<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have good news and bad news for you\u2026 Bad news: You have competition. Good news: They don\u2019t know the strategy that you are about to learn in this article. When a typical investor wants to find a property owner, they give up when they see that the \u2018vacant house address\u2019 matches the address of […]<\/p>\nWhen in reality this is pure gold!<\/h1>\n
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