Real Estate Investing - Locating Owners of Vacant Houses
Real Estate Investing - Locating Owners of Vacant Houses
The previous blog post focused on how to find vacant houses. This post will focus on how to find the owners of those houses. These techniques are for when there is no Realtor sign, since you'll always work with the agent of a listed house. In fact, attempting to contact the owner of a listed house is a waste of time since most people don't want to sell their homes themselves, and he or she will almost certainly have a written agreement with the agent. Besides, trying to cut an agent out of the deal is simply dishonest, and bad business.
So, once I've established that the house is vacant and there is no agent sign out front, what do I do?
Ask The Neighbors
If it looks like a really good deal, I'll ask the neighbors. I ask anybody I see on the street and I knock on the neighbors' doors. I always tell the people I meet who I am, that I'm an investor interested in buying the vacant house, and that I'm trying to get a hold of the owners so I can talk to them about buying it.
Sometimes they'll have a name and phone number (which is ultimately what I'm trying to get), many times they won't. Either way, I give them my business card and ask them to give it to the owners if they drop by. I also tell them that I'm always interested in houses for sale, and to give me a call if they or one of their friends or neighbors decides to sell.
At first I was afraid to do this, but I quickly learned that most people will welcome somebody who want to fill a vacant house in their neighborhood. This is especially true of ugly, distressed properties. People know that an investor will fix the house up, thereby increasing the house's value and subsequently their own. I actually met a woman who was in the process of moving simply because her neighbor's house was a mess, so there's no need for me to be shy when I have the potential to give them something they want.
What if the Neighbors Don't Know?
A lot of the time the neighbors won't know how to get a hold of the owners. So, after every prospecting trip I drop by the county assessor's office. The Assessor's Office for the county in which I work has a computer that allows me to look up the property's information. It gives me the name(s) of the people paying taxes on the house, as well as their mailing address. With this information, it's very easy to look up the person online or in the phone book. If for some reason I can't use the assessor's office, the county recorder should be able to help me.
After that, it's just a matter of calling the numbers I found. I learned that the best time to call people is weekdays after dinner. I try not to interrupt their meals, and I certainly don't want to call too late, so I call between 7pm - 9pm.
Most of the numbers I find are disconnected or have been reassigned to other customers, but I always leave a message if I get a voice mail or answering machine. I do this even if the person on the voice mail is different from the owner. I've had owners return my phone calls from messages I left on the machine of somebody else.
When I Can't Get the Owner on the Phone
Mailing a letter to the house is always an option. I've mailed letters to vacant houses with the expectation of having it forwarded. Again, many of the letters will get returned to me, but like anything in life it's a numbers game.
Another option I have is to hire somebody. There are companies that specialize in finding the owners of vacant houses. This is a pay service that's geared toward investors, specifically people that want to buy rehabs. I've not used a service of this kind yet, so I can't attest to its efficacy.
The End Goal
Ultimately, though, I really want people calling me. One of my next steps will be to setup a system that gets people interested in selling their houses to call me. This will free up my time, which will allow me to do more deals. There are many ways to do this, and I'm going to have to learn a lot more and come up with a plan of action before I try anything.
I hope you've enjoyed this post.
Visit my blog if you're interested in learning more about real estate investing on the cheap. On there you'll find a handful of links that can get you started.
http://thenewkidinvestor.blogspot.com/
Best,
Ted
The New Kid Investor
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