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L/O-not getting qualified buyers - http://www.dealmakerscafe.com Forums

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Dee-Texas

"L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Thu 5 Oct 21:37

Hello All,
Let me start with saying thank you to Jackie for telling me about this site. This is a great site.
I have a house offered for L/O and have been advertising and showing it for about a month. I'm getting lots of calls but no one is sending in applications.
This is a blue collar house and is priced a little above what others are bringing. The main problem is no one has had more than $500.00 to put down as option money. I just evicted someone that I let pay out their option money, so I'm leary of doing that again. Even though I do have two more that are paying their option money out and they are doing fine. I was just hoping that someone had some money up front. I'm finding more and more people this year don't have up front money.
Any ideas? If they are strong enough, I can also do a contract for deed, but if they are shaky I always do a L/O just because it's easier to get them out of the house here in Texas.
Dee-Texas

Always Learning

Replies:

Dee-Texas

"Re(1):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Mon 9 Oct 07:48

Thanks to All for your replies, some I've tried before and some are new and I can't wait to implement them.
The not mentioning an amount for the downpayment is really hard here. I've tried that with everyone that I've had on this house and EVERYONE of them don't know, they just want to know how much I NEED. 90% couldn't come up with 3K at all. Sooooo, sometimes we just stare at each other for a while with them finally saying, well I can come up with$500.00! Whew! this is a hard one and it's a great, clean house. Doesn't have Ch&a, that's the real catch I think.
I'll try another idea today!
Thanks,keep those ideas coming.
Dee-Texas

Always Learning

Jackie

"Re(1):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Fri 6 Oct 19:40

Hi Dee - Welcome to Dealmakers

I've found that if I say anything about "rent" or Lease" in my ads I get less than desireable people calling or looking at my houses ( sticky credit, no money, and champaign taste on a beer budget)

In your ads, it's much better to say "No Bank Qualifying - Owner Will Finance". Then you'll attract people that have that homeowner mentality - not renters.

I have all my calls directed to a voice mail where I explain that the only thing they have to do to qualify for the loan on this house is lease it for a year and make all their payments on time. -- That's it, no loan fees, no points, no closing costs -- no hassles -- we make buying a hoem simple! Just make your payments on time for a year and the owner will finance you forever.

I've had great response with this - I've never sold a house with less than 5% down and I usually get 10% down.

By the way - I don't show my houses to onezie - twozie's -- I have a 2 hour open house - anyone that wants to buy the house has to come to the open house. The more people that show up - the more competition and the more down payment I get.

Don't forget to put up lots and lots of signs to direct people to the open house -- 50% of the people that come to the open house are from signs -- and 75% of my buyers were from signs.
My signs say "No Banks Needed - Owner Finance ---->>"

Jackie

Dee-Texas

"Re(2):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sat 7 Oct 14:12

Hello Jackie and thanks,
When do you tell them about how much they need down? I love your ideas but this house is with a partner and she wants to be cashed out in at least two years. It's the down payment that we're not getting.
Ideas?
Dee

Always Learning

Jackie

"Re(3):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sat 7 Oct 22:22

I NEVER tell them how much I want down.

Have a 2 hour open house - advertise like crazy at least a week BEFORe the open house -- get as many people there all at once as possible. Newspaper ads, signs at major intersections near the house, flyers at convenience stores, etc, etc,,,

Tell everyone that likes the house the submit their credit application along with their bid for a down payment.

You can even say the minimum bid is "x"

Then explain that the person with the MOST down payment gets the house.

You could even put up a large poster board with the down payment bids and the buyers last name written on it.

Jackie

TJack

"Re(4):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sun 8 Oct 18:32

Hi Jackie,

This sounds similar to the method used in the book 'How to sell Your House in Five Days' by Bill Effros. Have you read the book?

Jackie

"Re(5):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sun 8 Oct 22:22

I haven't read the book but I've heard great things about it -- it's on the to-do list for sure!

Jackie

lynnhahn

"Re(3):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sat 7 Oct 16:42

Hi Dee,

I'm sure Jackie will answer you question, but I wanted to say that we try to never be the first one to mention an amount. We always ask the "How much do you have available for a down payment"? We have had several cases where the amount someone had to put down was more than our minimum requirement. You don't want to tell them $5,000 down if they were thinking of putting $10,000 down. "So you have $10,000 for a down payment, I think we can work with that"

Happy Investing!
Lynn

Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it!

Jackie

"Re(2):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Fri 6 Oct 19:47

tht was stiNky - not sticky -- either or both apply though

Jackie

lynnhahn

"Re(1):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Thu 5 Oct 22:57

Welcome to Dealmakers Dee!

Tell us how much the house is selling for?

What does your ad say?

What section does your ad run in?

We had a similar problem when we ran ads in the for rent section of the newspaper. A lot of calls, but no one had any $$$

Tell us more and maybe we can help.

Happy Investing!
Lynn

Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it!

Dee-Texas

"Re(2):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Thu 5 Oct 23:31

Rent-To-Own
4/2, nice neighborhood, call xxxx. I list it under homes for sale and for rent. I don't put price or down on my machine, just tell about the house and to go by and look then call back. Price is 35K with 1K to 1.5K down, $400.00 per month on L/O to cover rent, taxes and insurance or $350.00 on contract for deed if they have all of the down, but no one does. They all want to pay extra a month until they get the downpayment paid off.
Ideas?
Dee-Texas

Always Learning

Jackie

"Re(3):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sat 7 Oct 22:32

You do NOT want to sell this one with a contract for deed - use the lease option if they don't pay it's much easier to get them out in less than 30 days - plus they cannot claim "equitible interest" and try to get their option consideration back if you use the right contracts.

What's their incentive to cash you out in 2 years?

If you Make the payments $400 -- and they know the payments will go down if they get a loan -- then they have an incentive to cash out asap. (maybe give them a $25 a month rent credit if they pay on time)

If they payments are $350 -- that's probably as good as they will get with a new B/C loan -- no incentive to jump through the hoops that a lender will require to get a new loan.

There are fewer and fewer lenders that will handle loans less than $75,000 -- you REALLY need to get into a higher price range or you'll have lots of frustration getting these cashed out.

Jackie

Jackie

"Re(3):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Sat 7 Oct 10:02

I'd also suggest you work in a better price range ($75,000+) to attract better buyers.

Are there really 4/2's for $35,000 in your area????

Jackie

lynnhahn

"Re(3):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Fri 6 Oct 06:54

My first observation is that our personal experience is that when we use the "Rent to Own" heading we tend to get a bigger response (especially from the For Rent section) However, we also tend to get people with no money.

Of course, lower price homes also tend to draw people with less $$$ as well.

You might try to change your heading. We use "NO-BANKS" Lease-Purchase or Owner Finance.......

A side note about "Rent-to-Own"

I actually spent 18 years of my life in the rental purchase business. You know, appliances, furniture etc. As an executive with one of the largest publicly owned rental purchase companies we spent a ton of money in marketing research. One thing that we discovered was that people have a bad connotation of "Rent-to-Own" People associate "Rent-to-Own" with "rip off". If you will look around you will notice that most rent to own companies avoid using that phrase now. You will see "Rental Purchase", "Lease Purchase" and other terms used in it's place.

These are just my personal observations. Maybe some others will have more ideas for you.

Happy Investing!
Lynn

Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it!

Al Jordan

"Re(4):L/O-not getting qualified buyers" , Fri 6 Oct 07:22

Dee,

We've had similar problems. We usually put Lease/Option in our ad, but what really gets a responce for us is writing "owner financed" on the FSBO sign in the yard.

A few weeks ago we had a 3/1 for 52K and put that sign in the yard. Wooo. I think I could have sold eight of those houses. On the other hand I have a very nice 3/2 in twice the neighborhood (also twice the price) and havn't been able to fine someone with a decent deposit. Who knows?
Good luck.

Al

"When rejection loses its emotional charge you can function at your best"
-Azriela Jaffe