Re: Need Lease Option Help - Baddddd! - Posted by Jim
Posted by Jim on January 21, 2003 at 23:57:19:
Craig,
As others have indicated, we’d need to know some more info first.
What are the numbers?
What is market rent for the area?
What are you asking for rent?
Does the house need anything?
When people see the house, what are they saying about it?
Getting feedback from potential T/B’ers is a good idea.
you might just find it is something simple.
I had a house once that was really nice, custom decorated and all.
The main comment the first two weeks of showing it was that the kitchen was painted a kind of off green color, and no one liked it.
We spent one day, painting over this with some egg shell white, and the house sold 3 days later.
Now, as far as your marketing, what are you doing?
What does your ad say?
Is that the only thing you are doing?
If the terms are good, and within local market numbers, and the house is nice and ready, then perhaps more people just need to find out about it.
Here are a few things I do when selling a house with a lease option.
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Sign in the front yard, “For sale, Rent to own, Bad Credit Okay! Call xxx-xxx-xxxx Today”
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Signs in the front windows of the house, saying the same thing, and LARGE, so they can be read from the street. This is really backup, should the yard sign get taken down, or go AWOL.
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A flyer tube in the front yard, laying out some details about the house, and the monthly amount wanted.
then a number to call for more info.
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Flyers on the inside of the windows, as well as on the outside of the door, putting tear off strips on that one. Same type of thing as in the tube.
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A flyer pasted to the inside of the front windows that outlines your program of “Rent to own” and how it works.
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Directional signs pointing to the house. Get these on the streets leading to it, and at major intersections leading to there.
I make my own, using corrugated plastic signs, with an arrow that read, “–RENT TO OWN–>” and point to the house. I even ask neighbors to place them in their yards, and keep an eye on them for me, so I can market hard and find them a good new neighbor, instead of a vacant house.
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Flyers, in color, with a picture of the front of the house, some details about the house, the monthly amount, and with the words, RENT TO OWN, very large accross the top.
Place these anywhere you can. Bulletin boards everywhere, laundrymats, apartment complexes, grocery stores.
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Make a flyer that says, “Pick your new neighbor”, and pass info along to those living nearby.
They might want to refer a friend or family member for a small fee.
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A flyer to local mortgage brokers, you can pass these out or fax them. Saying something about, "Don’t throw away leads that are not qualified now, but can be in a few months…then tell them about your deal, and how you will refer the buyers back to them for a loan later.
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Relocation services, or human resource departments at major employers in the area.
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Signs around town that say something like this:
RENT TO OWN
Bad Credit Okay!
Area-Nice 3Bd/2Ba
$xxx/month
XXX-XXX-XXXX
These work well for me. I usually make up 10-12 of these per house and get them out. Some stay up quite long, and I’ll get calls from them months later.
When this happens, we just say, “Well, that house sold, but we have this one with these numbers available now.”
- Flyers on cars. Some people hate these things, and you will get some angry calls, but they work. I make up a half page flyer and then have some highschool kids I know place them under the wipers of every car at the mall, the movie theater, the larger discount department stores, like Walmart etc, and the strip malls as well.
If you do these things, and keep doing them, the house should sell faster.
I’ve sold my last several houses from signs, either directionals pulling people in, or the road side ones with a house for sale “REnt to own”.
Good luck, HTH,
Jim FL