Your house buying kit

You want to always make sure you have certain things when you go to look at houses.
Make sure you have a note pad and some pens, I like the bic pens that you can buy 10 in a package if you lose one it’s no big deal, just grab another one.

You will lose your note pads too, so keep some extra ones. When looking at defaulted properties, people will answer their door then say something like I will write down my phone number for you, take your pad and pen, then close the door and not answer it again.

So always keep extra ones.

I like to have some binoculars too, many times I am driving and looking for an address. I see a house across a one way street or something, if I can pull over and get my binoculars and look at the house number I can tell if it is the one I want or not. Otherwise I have to get out and walk over there, or drive around the block again if the street is too busy and I can’t back up.

I use my tape-less voice recorder a lot, when I see a property that is not really being taken care of it means that there is some money probably being wasted there.

A boarded up house is a sign that someone is not interested in that property, so I always get the address then look up the owner and try to contact them and see if they are interested in selling.

Even a house that is vacant, the grass has not been mowed for a few months. These can be good to search too.

You also want to always keep your paperwork with you, incase you find someone who is willing to talk to you about selling their house.

The first step is to get them to sign a form that their lender will accept to give you information on their loan.

The first meeting may be your only chance to get this signed, so you want to make sure you have it and try to get them to sign it right away.

The other reason I like to bring this form up right away, is that if they refuse to sign it, then they will probably refuse to sign a Grant Deed when the time comes, and it’s better to find out what their attitude is in the first 5 minutes than after you have spend 5 hours of your time talking to them.

When I drive around and go to the store or do errands, I always keep my list of defaulted properties with me. Many times I will find myself driving right by one. I can spend two minutes and see another house, otherwise I would have to drive all the way over to look at the house the next day. This is just another way to save time and be a little more efficient.

I also carry some business cards, or pre-printed flyers that say something like:

Would you like to sell your house for all Cash?  Please call me…. Then put my phone number.

If you like professional letter head, that is fine, if you just want to print something with your computer, I think it’s all about the same.