There’s a house across my current rehab that’s in pretty rough shape. It’s an all out eyesore and I’d love to buy and rehab it just to get the block looking better. So I tracked down the owner of the LLC that holds it and, after some extremely light Googling, discovered that it’s owned by one of Detroit’s most notorious alleged slumlords.
This individual was literally sued, along with a few others, by the city of Detroit the other year. The lawsuit has since been dropped.
This was a disheartening discovery. I mean, the guy owns hundreds of properties all over the city. Selling this one would surely be small potatoes, and I’d probably have zero luck getting a response from any outreach, right?
Wrong.
That’s exactly what goes through EVERYONE’s mind. And they give up. Right. There.
So, last night, at about 7:30pm I decided to start calling some potential phone numbers I thought might have a shot at being his.
I called the first one and someone immediately picked up.
Him: “Hello?
Me: “Hi, Mr. X?”
Him: “Yeah?”
Me: “Hi, my name is Travis. I’m an investor in Detroit and interested in buying one of your properties.”
Him: “Which one?”
That’s it. That’s all it took the get the conversation going.
We talked a bit about the area. He understood the values, obviously, and he was chill and friendly. I even mentioned the lawsuit, and we talked about that for a bit.
At the end, I asked him if it was ok if I went and checked out the house “if I could find a way in” (I’d already tried but it was tough to access). He said no problem, just make sure it’s secure when I leave.
Well, today I got in and it was pretty ugly.
I looked up what he paid for the home, and it’s more than I’d probably be will to pay. We texted a bit tonight, and he’s obviously in no rush to sell (he mentioned that last night on the phone as well).
But I’ll email him tonight with the photos I took along with my thoughts and see where it goes. Worst case, I have a new (alleged) slumlord friend. That’s got to be worth something, right?
But the point is… make the cold call. Most people will try and text, email, or send a flyer. They’re too intimidated to pick up the phone and do the hard thing. It’s intimidating, I get it. But it’s effective.
It’s how I found The Mansion. I’ve also cold-called another vacant property and found the owner. He was pretty rude, aggressive, and short with me, but I’ll call him back when I’m ready to really make a deal happen.
I’ll likely be sourcing my own deals for the foreseeable future because it’s not that hard, and it’s far easier than dealing with an uneducated wholesaler that’s trying to obscenely mark up the price.
Try it out. You’ll be glad you did.