A motivated seller is basically someone who needs to sell his/her property very quickly due to circumstances beyond his/her control.
These circumstances could have arisen through for example divorce, death or debt.
When anyone experiences any one of the above, they may be forced to sell their house and more often than not will need to sell very quickly. Its this speed of sale that is more important to the seller than the final price achieved. This is why a sale via an estate agent may not be the best option for the vendor of the property.
These motivated sellers often turn to adverts in local newspapers to look for prospective purchasers of their property. If youre not advertising in that paper, you could be missing out.
If you are financially constrained, dont buy a half page colour advert! Try a small black and white advert first. Ive known simple monochrome adverts to work just as well as their colour equivalents.
Test the market by changing your headline every week until you find one that works best for you.
When first deciding on the wording of your adverts, it is best to look at what your competition is doing. Try and find adverts that appear every week and emulate their style. These adverts obviously work otherwise they wouldnt be used over and over again.
One thing to try would be to literally copy a successful advert that appears every week. All you need to do is change the contact number at the bottom of the advert. Done effectively, you will legally steal half of the original advertiser's market!
When it comes to advertising in the paper, please be aware that success will not come overnight. You need to be persistent in your efforts, and continually test your strategies.
Also, an advert that may work very well in one paper may be a dud in another. You can avoid making expensive mistakes by continually trying different variants of your advert. I cant stress this enough.
Once you have a successful advertising strategy, you will find that you are dealing primarily with motivated sellers. This will enable you to grow your property business very quickly and with very little of your own money.
The mortgage companies want you to find 15% of the purchase price every time you buy! Where on Earth do they think you have all these 15%'s stashed - under the floorboards?
This article will take you into the world of the below market value (BMV) investor, and show you how you can free yourself forever from the shackles of the 15% deposit.
You must first understand that it is perfectly possible to buy BMV properties, no matter which area of the UK you live in, and almost regardless of your own financial circumstances. There are below market value properties for sale all over the UK, all the time. The challenge is tracking them down and adding them to your portfolio.
There are two routes to finding BMV properties for sale in the UK. One is through auctions, and the other is to track down motivated sellers yourself. In this article, I'll be concentrating on auctions - we'll leave the tracking down to another time!
People and organisations, such as banks, building societies, even the government, choose to sell through a property auction for two main reasons - speed and certainty. It generally takes no more than eight weeks at the most, and sometimes considerably less, to go from the decision to sell a property to the auctioneer taking bids for it in the auction room.
If the vendor sets a reserve - the minimum price they're happy to accept - and the reserve is met or exceeded on the day, then the property is sold the moment the auctioneers gavel falls, and the deal will be completed within 28 days.
No pulling out. No quibbling. No question.
As a BMV investor, you can get the auction catalogues from auction houses in your area, research potential properties, do your due diligence, turn up at the auctions, bid on your target properties, and then go ahead and complete on the deal within 28 days (or risk severe financial penalties).
All of this takes time, money, resources, a certain amount of skill and, if you're out-bid on the day, it's all for nothing and you have to start again. And let's be clear - not every property that goes through auction sells below market value - far from it!
The other way to do it is to use what might be called "vulture tactics".
Rather than spend all that time and energy researching possible BMV properties only to be out-bid by 'amateurs' who don't understand the true worth of a property, or who want it at more or less any cost, you can just sit back and relax. Then, when the auction is over and the bidders have all gone home, you take a leisurely look at whatever lots are left unsold.
The advantages of doing it this way are...
* You only spend time and money researching the properties that are definitely still available
* You know the asking price without having to bid
* The competition for properties is significantly less
* The 28-days-to-complete rule usually disappears
There are three ways you can get hold of unsold auction lot details.
1. Direct From the Auction Houses
You may have a couple of auction houses in your area, and you could always ask them to send you details of unsold lots as soon as a sale is over. The larger firms now publish them on their website, too.
2. From the EI Group
David Sandeman does a great job at the EI Group. They collate all the property auction data from around the country, and their records go back to 1991. However, a subscription costs around £500 a year, so you need to be pretty committed to make that sort of investment worthwhile.
3. Subscribe to the Property Bargains Bulletin
Leo Summers has produced the Property Bargains Bulletin since 2005, and what he does is unique. The Bulletin is emailed out to subscribers twice a month, and each issue covers 8-12 bargain property opportunities. You get a photo of the property, the full address, contact details for the selling agent, the price of the property against it's true market value, details of any income it's bringing in, and a full page of analysis as to why the property is a bargain, some ideas as to what to do with it, and any potential pitfalls identified.
All this for less than a pub meal a month!
Now you know exactly how to find BMV properties at auction, and particularly amongst unsold auction lots. In a subsequent article, we'll look at how to track down motivated individuals who will happily sell you their property at below market value prices.
Both Javaid Kiyani & Rob Best are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Javaid Kiyani has sinced written about articles on various topics from Real Estate, Property Agents and Management Software Solutions. Dr Javaid Kiyani is a successful Property Investor and Internet Marketeer. With 10 years experience of property, his knowledge of is vast as ev. Javaid Kiyani's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
Rob Best has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances, Advertising Guide and Wellness. The brings you 8 - 12 BMV property deals every two weeks throughout the year. You get all the information and analysis. Rob Best's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.