Testing the theory that “Size Matters”!

My latest marketing test…

….the unveiling of my “Rolling Billboard”.

I’ve talked about this truck and my plans for it. I’ve been so darned busy that I just did not have time to get the things done to this truck as I had wanted to.

I was forced into action this weekend, when I witnessed a local police officer, who is also an investor, working his shift, and taking his squad car out of his jurisdiction, just to steal my marketing devices. I lost SEVERAL HUNDRED marketing devices, and was quite fed up.

So, time to pull out a “Big gun” and in a hurry…………..because seller calls virtually STOPPED over a major 3 day holiday weekend.

I will have some folks driving this thing around for me, as well as parking in some key locations. Because I was in a hurry, I just called our local sign guy and had him make me up two signs FAST to mount on the truck.

The truck itself is UGLY, but since I’ve done this in another state previously with some luck, I decided that at least getting the signs on it for now should work.

I plan to track the results, and if they are as planned, there will be more trucks coming. Nicer ones of course, but for a trial run, I wanted to keep it on the cheap.

Total cost into this project is still less than $1200, for the truck, the signs, some repairs to the truck, insurance and some tires.

Since billboards would cost me well more than that and only be for a short length of time, I am hoping this will work out better.

A simple message, “We Buy Homes” for sellers, and then the bottom line to remind people that I also sell houses, even to those with bad credit.

So, wish me luck, and I’ll keep my readers informed as to the results.

A little incentive for you:

This picture is of some option money  collected on Christmas Eve of last year. Not a bad way to begin the holiday! ($10k says “Merry Christmas” to me anyway!)

We were asking for $1,000 down on the house, and the buyer got really excited, wanted the house, and wanted to get into it over the several other people we showed it to at the same time.

So folks, remember, multiple people scheduled for showings is a GOOD THING! DRIVE UP the competition factor!

As Promised, here is a picture of one of my billboards..

I like them, they are straight to the point, and say the same thing ALL of my marketing materials do. Our business cards, vehicle signs, ads, and bandit signs all have the same message. They are all just two colors though, red text on yellow background.

Getting the printer and sign company to make them in vivid color to include our logo would just about double the cost of everything.  So our billboards and flyers are the only things we have
with our full color logo on it.  However, my logo looks VERY nice in just plain red anyway.

I do have a graphic of our billboard on my main website page, so when people go there they can recall the billboards and perhaps create some recognition. The whole point is for people to see your advertising over and over again.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve met with sellers and heard, “Yes, I’ve seen your signs/flyers/cards/billboards all over town for some
time now, so I know you are a reputable company.”

I hope you like them,

Jim

P.S. Please do not call the number, this is my sellers hotline, and I prefer to use it just for that. Having it be tied up by non-seller calls costs me money.

Would you sell your house to this guy?

Think about this for a minute, seriously…

…if someone who looks like this can buy houses, what is stopping you?

The reason that I am “officially” out of the

mobile home owning business!

Below is a picture of part of the front yard, as we took possession, notice all the “Treasures” the dead beat tenant left behind…….weren’t they nice?

It does get better………keep looking.

Is that a beer cooler by the door? and a Truck tire? GREAT! I need those items……NOT!

Notice the fine care taken of the gardening shed and the attention paid to the landscaping…….am I dreaming, or could this be a feature project on “HG-TV”?

Apparently the children of the dead-beat tenants had a streak of artistic talent just as they were leaving.

And as promised, they returned all the window screens to the property…….on the property is more like it.

Anyone want a mattress? Some trash? Mickey-dees happy meal toys or bugs?

An I-HOP booster chair? Nightstand? all on sale NOW!!

(Plunger NOT included, that stays with the trailer)

Take a look at those pillows. This person certainly did NOT learn the proper way to make a bed from Mom as a child.

Can you see the small hole in the wall above here? Kind of hard when camouflaged within the wallpaper pattern.

Oh Where, Oh Where has my tile gone?

Just another little hole in the wall, which just so happens to match a human FIST!

Gee, I guess the Mobile Home started a fight just as they were served with eviction papers………………BAD Mobile Home!

This one was more the size of a foot……..who kicks that high anyway?

And the “Evidence” as per the Sheriff’s Deputy who took the damage report……..”but Mr. Jim, look at all them there shavings on the floor, this here is one of them there, “Retaliatory eviction holes”… (the apparent official term in the south for dead beat Red-NECK tenants who are about to be evicted puncturing a wall… but hey, I’m from “up north”, so give me some time to learn the
“lingo” will ya!?)

I’m not even going to TRY and guess what made this hole in the wall, it is about 2.5 feet long.

Pot Pie anyone? This one is FRESHLY aged.. .only three days on the HOT FLOOR! (Sure was a joy to clean that stuff up… “dude, they slimed me!”)

The makings of penicillin? or just some old dairy products and other delectable’s in the kitchen sink here?

Wasn’t that nice, the kids thought about us when they decorated the WHOLE DAMNED TRAILER for us with their MARKERS!

Sadly, we do not have the “Full action photo” here for you. Right after Matt cleaned out about 4 yard bags worth of trash from the hot tub, I remembered the digital camera was in my van.

Watch your step, apparently the “Rent to own” furniture store is not getting that glass top table back in good shape either.

The Dead Beat Tenants must have not paid the rental store either!

This here is what the neighbor told me was referred to as a “Red-Neck-Polish Bird Bath”……his words, not mine, so if you are Polish, I apologize.

I’m thinkin he was joshin me, this looks like the gas tank to an old ford pickup truck to me!

Good thing I saw that suction cup dent remover infomercial the other night on TV…I need to order one of those for this.

When your central A/C unit does not work, just tear it open and RIP out all the guts, throwing them about the yard……..this has never been know to work, but my former tenants apparently missed that day at RED-NECK school!

My electrician was kind enough to point out the crow bar marks behind the main breaker in the electric service box…they bent the whole damned thing apart…….good news though, only $50 to get it fixed.

And that folks is what  (To appease my wife and her “politically correct attitude, we are inserting the word “SOME” before this next part) “RED-NECK MOBILE HOME DWELLERS” do when they get an eviction notice!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy………who wants to own a Mobile Home park!?!?!?!

Well, the deal from hell finally closed. The buyers rang me thru the ringer on this one. We certainly did not make nearly enough profit on this one.

But, here is the check just the same……..it does ease the pain a little .

Yes, this is a check for $10,872.00

I guess not too bad for SEVERAL hours work……still beats a J.O.B.

Our latest Marketing tool has arrived!

Certainly not flashy, or done by a professional artist, but the message is CLEAR:

We Buy Houses!

You should see the people on the road rubber necking to look at this thing!

We shall see what it does.

Besides, when we need to haul things, we can do so with this and be advertising at the same time……not a bad deal, thanks to my buddy who was so nice as to allow us to deface his trailer with this paint job……..Thanks art.

SOLD-

T/B’er Pays MORE Than Expected!

I don’t always remember to take pictures of profit checks. I do always scan them or copy them for the file, to help create the paper trail for the Tenant/Buyer for later.

But, once in a while, I’ll have the digital camera in the car and snap a shot of one.

So, for your enjoyment, and to show you that REI can pay you, even with small checks, here is a little incentive to get you moving ahead with your career in REI.

Educate yourself in REI, MARKET, Work Hard, MARKET, Work Smart, Be persistent, MARKET, oh, and did I mention MARKET!!!

Below is a check for a mobile home on land we just sold with a L/O.

We were not getting much response at all, a few wanted it, and I was prepared to settle for $3k upfront, and make a cash flow.

This home is NICE, it is a 2001 we got subject to. We took matters to the streets and hit them HARD, doubling our marketing efforts. Sure enough, a T/B’er happened along, and we now have $5k in option money, which is $2k MORE THAN WE WANTED!

And, the couple in it is building a deck, a shed, and fencing my property, at their expense, right away, with the CLEAR understanding that these items remain, even if they don’t.

So, without further adieu, here is the check:

Not a bad way to start the weekend!

Have a good one you guys!

Go get one of these, or several for yourselves!!

Remember the mobile home above that got trashed by my last dead beat tenants?

Well, guess what?  Yes, I screened these folks well, and they seemed alright.  But, a pending divorce, and non-payment of rent from them later, they are alas evicted. This MH has been a rather large pain in the posterior…….BUT, it has NOT lost a dime.

This is the third tenant I’ve evicted from this place in less than a year. These folks went peacefully, the day before the Sheriff’s Deputy showed to throw them out. However, they left the MH
dirty as all get out, a cabinet full of smashed and dented canned goods, and tons or beautiful german cockroaches. So, after bombing the place clean, we went there to clear out the debris and haul it to the curb. We bagged it all, used boxes and cans, and had it all set nicely at the curb, no mess.

Overnight apparently the MH subdivision “Junk Bandit” went on a “Junk run”. He decided to look thru our pile of rotten food, dirty laundry and broken furniture and kids toys. He of course picked out his favorite treasures, but must have been in a rush! He left all the un-bagged items and other debris to blow freely in the wind, all over our front yard, the street, and the neighbors yards.

Speaking the of the neighbors, they apparently respected the Junk mans privacy as he worked, as well as ours and the deadbeat tenants. They did not even bother to call, or tell the person to pick up the trash. They were sure to speak directly to me however as I arrived today to clean up the mess, through his broken teeth and hard to understand broken “Hilly-glish”. (That’s Hill Billy English!.. mostly mumbles and loud boisterous
laughs.)

So, we picked up the mess, cleaned the inside of the home as best as we could in a hurry, and posted some more flyers in the window.

Sure enough, this home already has a buyer waiting to call me tomorrow and set an appointment to sign to move in………”As is”. Once again, this MH from hell makes money fast. I think the longest I’ve held it vacant was just about 2 weeks. We did not even market this one other than to place a flyer for it at others houses we have for sale, and signs/flyers at the MH, just yesterday.

Anyway, here are some pics,

Enjoy!

This was all in trash bags, cans and boxes, with the other items bundled before the “Junk bandit” got to it and made this artistic display of discarded personal treasures!

And just so you can see the MH looking somewhat worn out, but not too bad, here are the latest pics of the inside and out.

The kitchen/dining area, not too bad.

The master bedroom is closed off from the “Master suite bath” by French doors, in a MH, blows me away still……I’ll get used to this, but we did not have many things like this in the Windy city.

This MH has a hot tub in the master bath, as well as two sinks, a shower stall and separate commode.

And here is how you market to the mobile home community and get calls IMMEDIATELY! OBNOXIOUS but EFFECTIVE!!

Flyers in BRIGHT orange, all over the front of the home.

Check out the yard, no truck or “Trans-Camaro” here this time, yippee!!

Doncha just love the oil spots?……..makes you think of “Momma’s cookin!”

UPDATE: We have now taken back this home, yet again, and it was rather trashed. The T/B’ers moved out without giving notice, and left the place dirty. Not quite as bad as above. So, we placed a sign in the window; “Rent to Own, U-Fix, Low Down, $557/month xxx-xxx-xxxx”……and 17 days later, without lifting a finger, cleaning the place or much effort marketing the home……we have it filled again. This will be T/B’er
number 4 for this place.

So far, this little baby keeps making money…………I don’t care if anyone EVER buys the place.

Well, for those who think that the ONLY way to utilize the Sub2 buying method is to sell the house with a lease option……..what about bigger pay days?

Here is an example of a recent deal I closed. I purchased the house subject to, and then sold it immediately RETAIL for full value.

I only saw this house once……..

If you cannot read the HUD image above, and are using MS Internet Explorer, simply use the zoom feature to get a close up look at the profit in the lower right corner.

And for those who cannot zoom the image, the dollar amount shown taken by the SELLER (ME) as PROFIT at close, is: $31,269.27