Handed over 6 addresses and the investor bought one without me

I spent three weekends driving two older neighborhoods on the north side of my city, writing down houses with tarps, dead grass in July, mail piled in the box. Ended up with six addresses I felt good about. Pulled owner names off the county assessor site for free, no skip tracing, no phone calls.

Sent them in an email to an investor I met at a local meetup. He replied "thanks, will look." Three weeks later I drove past one of them and there's a dumpster in the driveway and a permit in the window. Checked the recorder's office and the deed had transferred. He never called me back and I never sent an invoice, because there was nothing to invoice against. No fee agreement, no email saying what a lead is worth, nothing. Just a list of addresses I gave away.

What I'd do differently: get the fee in writing before the addresses leave my hands, even one paragraph in an email he replies yes to. And send one address at a time so I can tell which lead did what. A list of six with no agreement is just free research for somebody else.

2 replies

3diane_kowalskiPassivePRO9

The one-at-a-time thing is the part I'd keep. I've been tracking vacant rural parcels for my own reasons and when I passed four of them to a guy who buys land, he came back weeks later saying "none of those worked" and then closed on the second one. Couldn't prove anything because I'd bundled them. Now anything I send goes in its own email with the date in the subject line. Costs nothing and it means there's a record of who knew what and when.

1gregpowell66AG4BPRO8

Six addresses is also just not enough volume to matter to a buyer. On my job sites I see more distress in a week than that. What I learned the hard way is that investors get lists constantly, so the address itself is close to worthless. The value is the part you skipped, whether the owner has any interest in selling. You don't have to negotiate anything to knock and ask if they've thought about selling, then write down what they said. That note is what gets paid for, not the tarp on the roof.