A common source of leads for the quick-turn real estate investor that exists practically everywhere is abandoned properties. There are several advantages to pursuing these types of properties that are known to investors. One is that if a property is abandoned there is a good chance that the owner is disinterested in the property and might be willing to sell it.
Another is that since the property is not actively listed for sale there is likely to be little competition from other potential buyers. If you can contact the owner you will probably be the only investor they are speaking with. Yet another is that abandoned properties are readily available in most areas.
There are, of course, a few potential drawbacks to abandoned properties as well. One of these is the trouble it takes to find the owner, which is what this article is about. Another is that it is very common for abandoned properties to have title issues which may be troublesome or impossible to fix. And finally, since the owner is often disinterested in the property it may have severe defects that will require a thorough inspection to reveal. However, if you design a business model to handle these requirements effectively and efficiently, abandoned properties can be an effective source of deals.
Lists of abandoned properties can best be obtained by canvassing a neighborhood street by street with a digital camera. This will provide you with the most accurate picture of the neighborhood you have chosen to work in. You can also work with lists acquired in other ways, such as the notice of default list, published monthly, of properties with defaulted mortgages, lists of condemned properties, lists of properties with absentee owners, or lists of fire damaged properties. These types of owners can all be located using the same methods and all have a potential to result in workable deals.
There are several different basic methods available for contacting missing owners given only a property address and the owner's name (starting with just the property address the owners name can be discovered from the county appraisal district records). The most relevant factors are time and budget constraints. If you are farming a neighborhood you can leave notices on the doors of target properties on a regular interval of once or twice a month perhaps.
You can also send a piece of mail to a property with the words "do not forward, return receipt requested", which will cause the post office to return it to you with the previous occupant's forwarding address. You can use the services of a private eye who does this sort of thing in your area, or you can do the same work the private eye would do and use a skip tracing service to find phone numbers and relative's phone numbers for the person of interest, making as many calls as you have to until you get who you're looking for.
The best way to approach the owner when you make contact is with honesty. Tell them you are an investor interested in buying the property, and tell them how you got their number if they ask. Get the relationship off to the right start and the work of closing the deal is halfway done.
Abandoned Properties For Sale
Last month I told you about the opportunity abandoned property can represent as a new investment strategy. Knowing that these properties exist is only half the battle, especially if you don't have a clue as to how to go about locating the owner. While the owner's can sometimes be difficult to locate, if you're willing to put on a detective's hat, you can usually locate them fairly easily.
Once you have located your target property, take a walk around the yard and look for any clues that may have been left behind by the owner. Many times the yard will become overgrown and you may discover a for-sale sign lying in the yard with a telephone number on it. You might also look in the window next to the front door for legal notices.
Another strategy you can use is to speak with the next-door neighbor. Explain to them that you are a real estate investor that is possibly interested in purchasing the property. Ask if they happen to know how you might be able to go about getting hold of the owner. If you have a business card, give it to them, because this can build credibility for you. They may not know how to reach the owner of the property, but a lot of them know much more than they're willing to tell you. By leaving your card you give them a means of reaching you at some point in the future if they discover the whereabouts of the owner, or later learn how to reach them.
In addition, if they do know where the owner is, they may not want to tell you for fear of violating a friend's trust. If they have your card, they have ample opportunity to contact the owner of the abandoned property to let them know that someone is trying to reach them. You may wonder why a neighbor might be secretive about the actual location of the owner. It's really simple: if the owner has walked away from their property, they know that the bank will eventually be trying to reach them. Furthermore, they may be experiencing other financial difficulties as well. If this is the case, the neighbor may just be trying to protect them from bill collectors or process servers. In any event, by leaving your card you do make it available for the owner to reach you.
If your efforts to reach of the owner through the next-door neighbor or other nearby neighbors don't yield results, you can always venture a trip to the county courthouse for a manual records search. This can be somewhat time-consuming, but when you're done, you will have the name of the owner. With this information in hand there are a couple of other strategies you could implement.
The first is to go online to www.reversephonedirectory.com and fill in the information that you do know. It'll cost you a few dollars, but it may very quickly yield results in the form of a telephone number you can use to contact the owner of the abandoned property. If that resource fails to pay dividends, there are other resources online as well. A simple Google search may tell you what you need to know.
Another way you can try to reach the owner of the abandoned property is by putting the power of the US Postal Service to work for you. Simply address an envelope to the owner of the abandoned property and mark the front of the envelope "Address Correction Requested". Once you've ensured that you've put your return address on the envelope, mail it. When the Postal Service sees that you're requesting an address correction, they'll send you a postcard with the owner's updated address if they have one on file.
These strategies aren't guaranteed to locate the owner of every abandoned property, but they'll usually yield results more than 90% of the time. Once you locate the owner and make contact with them, you can present a creative offer that will not only solve the owner's problem, but will help you to expand the size of your own real estate empire. You can utilize traditional or creative investment strategies at this point. Because the owner has his back against a wall, he's usually willing to entertain any idea that will solve his problem, especially if you can help his problem go away with minimal pain. Whatever approach you utilize, abandoned properties are an excellent means of taking advantage of investing opportunities that you may have previously overlooked.
Both Omar Johnson & Michel Lautensack are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Omar Johnson has sinced written about articles on various topics from tax, Real Estate and How to Sell on Ebay. Omar Johnson is a successful real estate investor and author of the home study course "Secrets To Making Big Money In Real Estate With Little Cash and No Credit" For more info visit. Omar Johnson's top article generates over 12100 views. Bookmark Omar Johnson to your Favourites.
Michel Lautensack has sinced written about articles on various topics from Real Estate, Personal Desktop and Finances. Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur in Philadelphia, Pa and creator of the Private Lender PowerPoint Presentation Kit. This powerful. Michel Lautensack's top article generates over 2400 views. Bookmark Michel Lautensack to your Favourites.
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