An overflowing mailbox turned into my first $1,250
There's a 1950s three bedroom on my walking route that I'd been looking at for about twenty months. Gutter hanging off the back corner, mail wedged in the slot so hard the flap wouldn't close, same two newspapers on the porch turning gray. I never did anything about it because I assumed somebody more organized than me already had.
In February I finally looked up the parcel on the county assessor site, got the owner name and the mailing address, and it was two states away. Wrote a short letter saying I wasn't a buyer, that I work with a local investor who buys houses in that condition, and asked if she wanted me to pass her number along. She called me eleven days later. She'd inherited it from an uncle, was paying somebody to mow it, and had no idea what to do with it.
What I actually sent the investor was one page. Address, parcel number, what the owner told me about the estate being settled already, four photos I took from the sidewalk, and a plain line about what I confirmed versus what I was guessing. He called her the same afternoon.
Numbers: I sent three leads over five weeks, that was the only one that went anywhere, it closed 41 days after I sent it, and he paid me a flat $1,250 by check about a week after closing.
The part that nearly broke it is that I had nothing in writing. We'd talked about "a thousand or so" back in January and I never asked him to confirm the amount or when it would be paid. He was fine. He also could have paid me $400 and I'd have had no argument. I've since asked him to put the fee and the timing in an email before I send anything else.
What I'd keep is the one page format. I think it's the reason he called her that day instead of Friday.