"Pitch" to Abandoned Home Owners

[KA]

Once I have found an abandoned house and managed to track down the phone number of the owner, what do I say? Certainly, there are some key phrases that can help to both introduce what I do and to coax them out to make their lowest possible offer.

Over the weekend I have found a few abandoned houses in the northern California area. It is a sellers market here. Most of these houses look like they were built between 1910 and 1930. Since many of the non-cosmetic items like plumbing and electrical are way behind current standards, are these houses worth considering to flip?

I am very new to this business. Where can I find the standard real estate contract forms for use in California.

Thanks

[reslynn]

Hi KA,
You got to know the labor cost and material cost to whatever type of work needed in these homes.  Most old homes tend to have snowball defects.  The more you dig into to it, the more work you have to make.  And more work means more money you have to come up.

The are four defects you have to watch out when buying these old homes (even applies to any homes).  Namely; plumbing, electrical, foundation, and roofing/structural.  For plumbing and electrical, defects from these cannot be ignored in fact once the service is turned on, it's either you will have serious flooding inside the house  or your house gets burned.

Not unless you bought these homes at a very big discount to cover your repair cost, you're  better off staying in cosmetic type of rehab.  Serious defects could eat up your profits easily.