Lease options are a great option for investors because you never have to see the house, meet the sellers, or schmooze with the buyers. You can do all of this from your house because these are the kind of properties you can look for yourself. John Jackson, with over 650 lease option transactions under his belt, tells me how he finds move-in ready houses for lease-option deals.

In choosing a target market, John looks for areas that are going to be a bit larger. He likes nice houses, but they don’t have to have amazing amenities. The year the house was built doesn’t even matter, but handyman specials will eat too much into your profits. And of course, condos and townhomes, especially if they have an HOA, are tricky and should be avoided.

John’s list for looking for houses is so simple that you’re not going to believe his basic search criteria. He uses websites like NeighborhoodScout.com, Redfin, Zillow, and PropStream to search for homes, and then he targets them with his direct mail campaign.

The message absolutely has to match the market, warns John. You can’t send a junky postcard to a million-dollar house and expect a response. The 3 keys to a successful direct mail campaign are:

• The list
• The frequency
• The message/mail piece

People hang onto the mailers for months and months before they call. By the third time he’s sent out a mailing to an address, it increases the chances of a response. John shares how many pieces he mails out and what his response rate is. Direct mail campaigns can build your reputation as a wholesaler in your target market. The mailers you choose to send out will reflect on your reputation, so John says you should choose your message and mail piece carefully.

What's Inside:

• Where new investors should start looking for homes to buy.
• With a lease option assignment, the equity in a house doesn’t matter.
• John explains the difference between high equity and low equity.
• The 3 keys to direct mail.
• Why so many investors fail with a half-hearted attempt at direct mail campaigns.