Leaving a note on the front door makes me money

How do you find houses to buy off-market with cash offers?

There are many methods including:

• Getting lists from Batch Skip Tracing and cold calling (yourself or with a team)

• Send postcards to addresses that meet buying criteria (total equity, expected ARV, non-owner occupied, etc)

• Put up bandit signs with things like “We buy ugly houses” and try to get inbound leads

None of these approaches is an immediate get-rich-quick scheme. They all take effort, hard work, and doing them consistently to generate meaningful business. So I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking it will happen without the work.

After doing this for 10 years, my brain doesn’t shut off. I am constantly looking for houses. When I pick the kids up from school, walk a job site at a flip, go on an appointment, or jog in the neighborhood… I’m looking at every house I pass. It turns out if you have been doing this long enough you start to get a pretty good feeling of an opportunity just by looking at a house from the outside and the area.

Great, you see all these potential houses, so what? How does that help me buy a house with a cash offer?

You have to do something about it! Yes, it can feel a bit like a needle in a haystack and not scalable. Trust me, great businesses start by doing not scalable things. That’s how you stand out and be different.

When you see a potential house. STOP. Get out of the car. Stop jogging. Hop off the bike.

Then do the following:

• Stop (please bring the vehicle to a complete stop, for safety purposes)

• Walk to the front door

• Knock on the door

• Ask if they are interested in selling the house

• Most of the time people don’t answer the door

• Leave a note! (Sticky note, index card, back of receipt paper)

• Handwrite “Hey, call me, I have a question about your house.”

I do this constantly.

And I get SO MANY phone calls.

Typically, these are distressed houses or a neighborhood I know well and like. It’s specific and strategic, not every house on the street. At any time I might have a few hundred notes out there floating around the neighborhoods (not at first, it takes a while to get there).

Don’t worry about the work. Many people won’t respond. You are not going to get inundated with phone calls. The calls you do get are high quality because it’s the seller! The golden ticket. Getting a convo with the seller is the #1 object and the hardest thing to do, and you get it like this for free.

The reason we get data, skip trace, hire cold callers, send text messages, send mailers/postcards, and put up signs is to get a convo with sellers! This same phone call that you generate from just stopping and writing a sentence on a sticky note.

If you are nervous, don’t worry, it can be scary at first. It’s a bit awkward and can feel strange. Don’t want to knock on the door? That’s ok! Just leave a note so they call you later.

What are the magic words to write on this sticky note?
“I have a question about your house, please call me.”

This is the realtor equivalent of “Open sesame!” and the cave of cash offer houses opens for you to walk in and start winning deals.

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Peace.

— Temp