The Fine Art of Using Real Estate Postcards 

Many people these days are looking for real estate investments. Real estate investing is a profitable business but to get the best out of it, you need to be an expert at selling houses. Selling houses is no cakewalk, however I have come up with an idea using real estate postcards that makes the job of selling houses much easier and cost effective. Here is some more information about my campaign using real estate postcards.

The Process 

I had started out by mailing around ten thousand large sized real estate postcards containing my business details to every home located within a certain zip code. This cost me $3000. Out of the homes that received my message, only thirty five bothered to call back. However, the main point to note is that I bought five houses from these 35, that too the very first time I sent out the real estate postcards ! This means, I bought one home out of every seven that were on sale. This is a good conversion with my first experiment with the real estate postcards, I must say !

My second round of real estate postcards would generate more responses because my credibility will improve as people hear of their neighbors dealing with my business. Some of them might save my postcard and call me sometime in the future when they need a good deal.

Here is how I made $1,50,100 in cash and equity in only 6 weeks by investing just $3000 in real estate postcards. 

Step One

The fixed up value of the first house was $135,600. The person who sold it to me had used it as collateral to borrow $88,000 plus around $7,000 in other dues. I bought the house for $96,000 which included the total amount of debts and an extra $1,500 to the seller. The house needed a carpet, a coat of paint, some trimmings and a few repairs which came to around $1500, which had to be done before the new residents moved in. The new buyers agreed to buy it for $133,400 and paid us $5,000 as a non - refundable rent for the first month. The total profit made on this deal was $35,500.

Step Two

The second house was owned by a retired university professor. It was in a nice neighborhood and looked real great. I bought the house from him for a sum of $153,000 of which I paid him $65,000 in cash and the remaining $ 88,000 came from four second mortgages on different properties I held. I got the cash I paid him with from a loan I took of $124,000 at 10% interest. I used the $ 59,000 cash I was left with after the sale for financing the deal of the third house mentioned below. Valued at something in between $165,000 to $170,000, the property was sold to a tenant for $ 180,600 who gave me $10,000 on signing the contract. The total profit made on this trade was $27,600.

Step Three

With the help of response I got from real resate postcards, I purchased the third house from a guy who owed 110,700 in various debts. I bought the house for the total amount of the debts and settled the amount owed through back payments and the cash saved through our dealing with the retired university teacher. We spent around $16,000 on repairs and a few essential furnishings. The value of the spruced up house is$ 158,000 for which we are now accepting offers for sale. The total equity gained through this holding is $31,500. Is is not a good return from a real estate postcard exercise worth $3000. 

Step Four

I bought the fourth house for around $110,400 and gave the seller a down payment of $3,500. The house did not sell in it's 'as is' condition so we had to spend some money on fixing it up. We ordered a new carpet, had a paint job done, changed the surface of the soil in the front yard and did some additional repairs. We had not bargained for the leaking roof which needed to be fixed too. The total cost of repairs came up to around $11,900. After the changes, we offered the house for sale at a rate of $148,000. The total equity gained through this deal is $25,700.

Step Five

The fifth home was in excellent condition with a market value of $160,000. We bought it from the owner for a total of $130,000 that included taking over the seller's first mortgage of $105,000. We spent $600 on cleaning the house, fixing the carpet and on the front yard that needed some work. We found a tenant buyer at a round robin which we held who bought the home with $5000 cash down plus a month's rent. Total Profit made off this deal is $29,400.

The total equity we earned on the sale of the five houses when added up is $150,100, while our cost of mailing the real estate postcards was only $3,000. With a return of fifty dollars to every dollar spent, it is heck of a lot more profitable than the stock market.

 

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