We use the Dream Team Checklist to remind us to continue to expand out and strengthen existing relationships we have with key dream team members that will help us accomplish more as real estate investors.
Unlike many of our other checklists that give you action steps, this one lists some of the key dream team members to encourage you to reach out and make contact with professionals that will make your life easier and more profitable.
Whether you use it as a reminder to ask your existing dream team for referrals or recommendations in those areas or as a list of folks to seek out and interview on your own, you will find the list to be a great resource for improving your real estate investing business.
Here is a very abridged list of key dream team members from our much larger list:
- Accountant/Bookkeeper
- Administrative Assistant
- Appraiser
- Attorney
- Contractors
- Lenders (Traditional Brokers, Hard Money, Private Money)
- Insurance Agent
- Property Manager
- Real Estate Agent/Broker
- Real Estate Wholesalers
- Title Company
Until my next post,
James
I was doing some research for doing another mailing campaign for our real estate investing business and happened to have a meeting with a local title company for lunch. Many title companies are offering investors great resources and services to attract new clients to their core services of title insurance.
During lunch today I was reminded of this as I talked to the title company rep about mailing lists for my newest mailing. In fact the prices on their mailing list was very good in comparison to what I would have paid elsewhere.
A good title company can provide you with these types of lists:
- Absentee Owners
- Foreclosures
- Lenders on Existing Properties
- Home Owners with Adjustable Rate Mortgages
- People that have purchased more than one property in the last X months (potential investors that have bought recently)
- And many more…
If you are looking to use direct mail to market your real estate investing business, I encourage you to contact a local title company or two and interview them to see if they can help with it and what other services they can provide to assist you.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Download our Real Estate Investor Daily Training Volume #1 real estate course (free for a limited time) to find out how I generated over a hundred motivated seller calls in a few days using low cost direct mail.
I’ve talked before about the important of building your dream team and having a great title company on your team is critically important. In fact, many people do not realize all the different things that a great title company can provide.
While I was putting together the Title Company Interview Questions as an exclusive resource for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members I was reminded of just how important my title company is to my business. For example, here are some things that a title company may be able to provide to you:
First, they can close your deals and provide you with title insurance to protect your interest in the property.
Second, many are offering to help negotiate short sales for you.
Third, many can provide access to comparable sales data so you can determine the value of your properties before you buy.
Fourth, many can pull up mailing lists from public record including Absentee Owners and Free And Clear–both are excellent marketing lists. Many can pull a foreclosure list for you as they are filed. Some, and this is much rarer, can give you access to probate data if that is part of your business model.
Fifth, many will help you with the paperwork you need when you are using owner financing or private lenders to do your deals.
So, take some time to find a great title company for your real estate investing business and you’ll find it saves a lot of time and money.
Until my next post,
James
Most of the creative transactions we do as real estate investors are not normal for title, closing, or escrow companies. I will only refer to title companies from here on out since that is what we use here in Colorado, but the process of finding a good one is the same for all three.
Title companies typically work with real estate agents and brokers and tend to do a lot of very traditional transactions, however, as investors, it’s important that we find a title company that understands what we are doing and can accommodate some of our more unusual requests.
So, how do we find a title company that caters to investors and some of our more creative real estate transactions? The simple answer is to ask other investors.
The best way I know of to find a title company that can do these types of transactions is to ask a fellow investor for the names of the people that he/she has worked with. If they have not found someone yet, at least they can tell you who didn’t work and reduce the number of people you have to try out. Try attending your local real estate investor club meetings to network with other investors. Call ads that investors are running to buy houses or find tenants and buyers and ask them if you can take them to lunch to discuss this.
If talking with other investors does not work, my next best resource would be real estate agents who work with investors. Good agents have closed many transactions and have worked with many title companies. They can often tell you which to use and which they would avoid. Often they have insight into ones that work with investors and can do creative or hard to do transactions.
As a last resort, I’d call title companies and explain the type of transaction you are trying to do and see if they could handle it the way you want to do it.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Finding a great title company is just part of the process of building your dream team… you also need someone to help educate, motivate and consult with you about your real estate investing business. Become a Real Estate Investor Bronze Member today to check that off your list.
