My New Letter of Intent
Hooray for you – we're giving away another freebie today! Not only will you get to swipe a goodie from us, but I’ve also got an awesome video for you that comprehensively covers what we're giving away.
Look, there are lots of letters of intent available out there. You could even create one for yourself and consult with your attorney before using it.
But why reinvent the wheel?
We've already done all the heavy lifting for you. (You’re welcome!) I still suggest you cover your butt and run this document by your attorney before using it, but it’s our letter of intent of choice – and it’s worked for us for years.
It’s simple, matter-of-fact and to the point. And, you’ll notice it’s only 1 page. That’s intentional. That way sellers can quickly understand exactly what we're offering them.
The Body Consists of Only 2 Parts
As you’ll see, our letter – chock-full of benefits for the seller – is really just 2 main parts:
- Property Facts
- The Bottom Line
Think of the letter as a template. Most of the information will remain the same for every deal, but we customize it based on the details of each situation.
The first section – the property facts – is where we make the most changes. This is where you list your offer price, mention any repairs needed and include the closing and contingency details.
The bottom line section reiterates our interest, and reminds the seller that we’ll be there if and (hopefully) when they are ready to pull the trigger.
And that’s it.
Go ahead and press play…
I’ll go over the tone that your letter should reflect – we’re playing it cool here, kids, and we certainly don’t want to sound salesy.
This letter simply states the facts, considers the seller’s situation and reminds them to contact you when the time is right.
Video Transcription:
Hey guys, this is JP here, hope you're doing well today. I want to share with you a new letter of intent that we've been using in our wholesaling operation.
It's really not magical, but it's cool. It works and we just kind of closed an unexpected deal that circled back around and I think we made about six grand on it. It's just a little base hit of a wholesale deal, but it reminded me that I had not yet shared this with you or how we're using it in our business.
So, if you've been with us for a minute, then you know we have shared four letters of intent some time ago. In fact, somewhere here on this here lesson, there should be a link to the previous lesson on those letters of intent.
The letter of intent I'm about to share with you here is not any of those four. Okay? At the time I made that we actually weren't really using letters of intent much, we just very rarely used them on occasion. Now we're doing this pretty consistently and I came up with this document to use and so I want to share it with you, not to say those other ones don't work. Those are still good solid letters of intent and actually the specific one you use is less important than using it the way you use it.
Important disclaimer… you've been looking at it the whole time though, since I started the video. This form is provided as-is without any warranty of any kind of expressed or implied, statutory or otherwise, use any of this form at your own risk. So do your own due diligence. Check with an attorney and all that good stuff. This form works for us, but you shouldn't use it until you've run it by your expert advisor.
All right, so let's look at it. Letter of Intent to Purchase Property.
So, everything you see in blue is what we edit every time, right? Everything else, pretty much we keep the same.
Now, I’m giving this to you in a word doc form, but you're going to have to customize everything, obviously, right, because your name is Johnpaul Moses and James Alston. That's us, we’re The House Guys. So, you're going to have to, you know, make this your own.
The date is some kind of fancy little script that automatically updates to whatever today's date is. So, I know you're not seeing, but right now I'm making this video for you on March 3, 2016. So that's what popped up. I don't have to fill in the date. It's automagic, which is pretty cool. And that should translate into the document that you're going to be downloading. It should still work the same way. Hopefully.
Obviously, the address is whatever the street address is for the property that we're sending this. So, in this case it was 4870 Marcel… this is the homeowner's address. Now this is… their mailing address is often going to be different than the actual property. Right?
“Hi, Mr. Wigington,”, I'll just read through this and, and by the way I'll tell you in a minute how we're using this, but let me just read through the document itself. “Thanks so much for chatting with us recently about your property. It was nice meeting you. As we discussed, I'm sending you this letter of intent to summarize our cash offer to purchase your property. We've learned that just you just never know when life's circumstances may change and you should always know all your options. So we want to make sure you have our offer in hand based on our initial research and conversation with you;”…
Now, let me stop before I go any further. You may have picked up on this, but the tone of this is basically us submitting a something in writing to a seller who we have not currently been able to come to terms with. We get a lot of calls from people who have maybe, you know, crappy properties in crappy parts of town. Pardon my French there, but you know, they just want more for their house than we can pay. We always make them an offer and they say thanks, but no thanks.
Well, in those situations, uh, we still want to submit something to them and we want to give them something that they can use to circle back to us down the road when reality sets in and our stupid low price actually starts to make sense. And this happens more often than you would probably think.
This deal I was just talking about where we socked a little six grand base hit was a gal who we had made an offer to. She declined the offer, was maybe even a little bit insulted. And then four months later she came back and said, okay, uncle, I give.
So, we actually use this in Click2mail. We upload this into our Click2mail account and we have our assistant Carol send this. After having a conversation with a seller, anytime we know that we haven't come to terms and we want to have her send off one of these letters, we just mark it in Podio, it automatically creates a task for her in Podio to generate a letter of intent. She gets that tasks that day or the next day and she drops into the lead in Podio. Then she hops into Click2mail. She fires off one of these letters in Click2mail and it's in their hands, right?
Now, this also is a letter that gets sent out even if we haven't even given the property much due diligence and we just want to get something in their hand.
This number right here, a lot of times is just generated from a stock formula, believe it or not, based on the Zestimate of the property. A lot of times, Carol will just take whatever this estimate is.
And yes, I know some people are like, ugh, the Zestimate! First of all, ethe Zestimate in Zillow has actually gotten a lot better nowadays than it used to be back when Zillow first came out. When the Zestimate first came out it was the laughing stock of real estate valuation, but anymore it's actually getting a lot better. Their algorithm is better.
I'm not saying you should bank on it instead looking at comps and doing your own valuation. But it's it's a good starting point. And I've said this before, but in some of our Q&A coaching calls, we often use Zillow as our starting point to construct a ball park offer and that's a lot of times what you're looking at here.
We're not making a hard, you know, we're ready to pull the trigger here in this case at $32,000. Carol and James have just looked at what's the estimate for this property? Okay, let's take that Zestimate, let's multiply it by 65 percent, let's subtract ballpark repairs from that based on just what the seller might have said in their conversation to us… Very broad strokes here… Let's subtract another seven grand off of that so we have some profit built in and then let's toss that into this letter of intent. And say we're interested in buying your property for this much.
This is not a contract, okay? This is simply a starting point.
“We're interested in buying your property for $32,000 cash. We will buy as-is so if repairs or fixing up as needed, it's no problem. We can handle any and all repairs when you sell to us so that you won't be inconvenienced. We'll close within 30 days or faster if needed, whatever works for you, really. We will pay you all cash and cover all closing costs and no fees, costs or commissions to you whatsoever. Our only contingency with this is #1, clear title and #2 final inspection by us before closing. Here's the bottom line: We are local Memphians and we love investing in our hometown. We've been buying and selling houses since 2001 and have a long track record of very happy people who we've helped move on from their house quickly and easily. If this scenario ever make sense to you, please reach out again anytime, and we will schedule an appointment to view the property and move forward from there.”
And basically me and James took an image of our signatures, we scanned it a signed piece of paper, , and then created a nice, high quality resolution graphic of them. You can just see it's just a graphic in Microsoft Word. We created a transparent png for those of you who were playing along at home and do graphic design. If you don't know what that means, that's fine, but it looks like we actually signed the document now in Click2mail when it's published. It doesn't look as good as this, but it doesn't matter really
So, by the way, the vibe I want you to notice is here is that you won’t see a single exclamation point on this letter. I do not want this to feel hypey, like I'm trying to sell them on something. What I want this to feel like we're being kind to their situation, but not we don't need them. I don't want them to feel like we're trying to sell them on us too hard.
I do want to highlight a few things here…
Number one, the facts of what, what we're suggesting as our starting point. Right? And I want to do that succinctly. I don't want it to be too terribly wordy or even, looking at this document, I want you to be able to see it's just one side of one piece of paper and it's easy to scan.
The things that are bold in it are bold because people tend to scan things first before they read them, we've been trained by the Internet to do that. So when you scan this, you're going to see, okay, this line about interested in buying for cash as is 30 days. All cash, all closing costs. Okay? I mean those are anchor points for your eyes.
If this was too wordy, if there were too many paragraphs or it was too dense, it would make your brain think, ah, I don't want to read all this. Is it worth my time? And you start having discussions with yourself about whether or not it's worth your time to read it. This is an easy thing to read, but it's also an easy thing to scan. And that's an important point in my view.
Like I said, it's not hypey, it's very matter of fact, but it does cover some real benefits to them. For example, I mentioned,
“So if repairs or fixing up is needed, it's no problem. We can handle making any and all repairs when you sell to us”… little embedded command there for you NLPers… “so that you won't be inconvenienced in the least.”
There's a benefit right there. All right? They won't have to be inconvenienced in the least.
“Will close within 30 days. But really whatever works for you, right? No fees, costs or commissions to you whatsoever.”
So, I'm basically still selling sizzle here. I'm just not trying too hard because I don't want them to think we're motivated buyers, right? So, there's a lot of my thinking actually went into crafting this letter. And hopefully you've been able to crawl inside my head a little bit now and understand.
Now, make it your own. And you know, if this is not your style, you can use this as a starting point and create your own version of this if you want to. Maybe you want exclamation points all over the place. I don't know. But at the end of the day, this is the letter of intent we're using.
And again, our standard procedure is whenever a lead comes in that we're not able to buy right now, for whatever reason, we have Carol fire one of these off through Click2mail. We just send her a task in Podio and then we get deals that come back to us down the road through this.
This is a great kind of follow-up sequence. I don't know if you really want to call it a sequence. It's just a way to give them something that they'll hold onto, a lot of them, and when the motivation gets bad enough, they'll come back to you.
Okay, so there you go guys. I hope you enjoyed that. You can download this and a swipe and deploy, use it in your business and I'd love to hear what your thoughts are.
Would you leave me a comment below? I'd really be grateful. I love hearing what you guys think about the things that we have to say and share here. So fire away and if you have any questions, let me know those as well. I'm happy to fill in any blanks if I missed anything here. Thanks guys.
Here’s how to download our “New Letter of Intent”
Step 1 ⤸
“Like” our Facebook page please?
Step 2 ⤸
Just leave a comment below sharing your honest feedback on the letter of intent template I'm freely sharing with you. Whatever you think after hearing my thoughts behind it in the video above. Good, bad, and anywhere in between. Seriously.
Alternately, I’m also interested in hearing anything else (another resource or tool) that you’d like us to share in a future “Swipe & Deploy” like this. Do tell.
Step 3 ⤸
Then Chuck Norris will hand you over my template.
Totally serious. Just try it. 😀
thanks for sharing!
Great information! Especially the part about not being too salesy or a motivated buyer. One of the best plays is a “I don’t need you” strategy. Thanks for sharing and I’m looking forward to putting it into practice.
You all do an exceptional seeing that we have the best content in all areas of brokering a deal. Letter is great. Thank you again.
Very valuable information.
Those are great info
As a complete newbie to RE Investing I need all the help I can get.
I really appreciate having a ready template I can use that is easy to customize and understand
I love this. Can’t wait to use it.
Dude! Thanks for the awesome share. Exactly what I have needed.
clear, calm, simple and right to the point….I love it. Thanks for the secret. Very helpful
This document is another necessity which communicates the intention of the parties quite nicely
Thanks for the information and suppling a tool for us
awesome
Woot! Thank you. Had to come here again to redownload. ♥️
Thanks JP, the info and forms are great
Looks like a winner! thanks
I’m interested, can’t figure out how to download it.
@Aida, please check your inbox and spam folder you should have received it by now.
Thanks for sharing. I’m excited to use the awesome materials you guys offer.
I actually got started with the program on 01/20/2023. I completed all of the videos modules by 01/22/2023
It would have been completed sooner but some module definitely had to be reviewed twice I enjoyed the overviews. I enjoy the whole concept. I have been in the Real Estate arena for over 30 years on the Real purchase side for purchases and refinance for Owner occupied. I have been a Processor, Loan Officer and Underwriter. I am eager to get started on the investor lending side of things. I definitely like the letter of Intent recommendation. You guys definitely have the right ideas. “LET’S MAKE THIS MONEY”
It’s all confusing for me! When you watch one video, it goes to another hour + long video selling something else. This doesn’t seem to be “user friendly” for people living with a cognitive disability, but I’m going to try!
Awesome Info, Thanks for the free information!
Thanks for this golden nugget!!!
Hey JP I’m still very green in the real estate foreclosure game. Not sure my opinion carries any value to you but, if i got this in the mail i would likely keep it as a plan for a possible way out from, under my home , if i was a distressed seller. The facts stand out , its not too long, and written with some degree of kindness. Thanks for sharing…
Heck yes!
I’m interested in trying it out. Thanks.
Just started the training, already is amassing, I’m so exited can’t wait to finish the program to start making those deals. Thank you so much. Maria
Hi, the letter of intent is very well written and straight to the point with some compassion. Thank you for this! Lisa A.
Great letter! Thanks!
Thanks. I can always rely on great information from Awesome REI, because you guys are awesome!
Thank you for sharing, I will return to let you know how it goes.
Your letter is awesome
Thanks for sharing!
Great information, I am loving what I have learned so far.
Thanks JP. That’s a very non-threatening letter.
Great letter of intent just what I needed.
Thank you for sharing great REI info. This will help me move forward.
Hopefully this will open many doors!!
Thanks for your assisting other investors by your sharing!
Do you have a legal Wholesale Contract with the added no sale/offer clause
Just commenting again to say… WOOOOT!!!
As always, your material is relevant and helpful
Best REI program thus far.
Having a process flow with documents is key to my success!
Good stuff. Especially for new investors like me. You guys are definitely leading me into areas I haven’t been taught yet. The letter of intent is surely easy enough to understand. Its simplistic and informative about offers.
Nice! Thank you so much! I am sure your awesome letter will really come in handy after I make it my own!
Love the new letter. Very useful.
Thank you!!! Woot! I’m so excited!
like the LOI as it is concise, spells out the needed information for them to make a decision. It is also short enough to be less likely to be thrown in the circular file!
Excuse the exclamation point.
Great letter! Thanks!
Good to have a reference material. Looks very straightforward.
Excellent Letter of Intent, To the point!,,
Great Info Awsomeness!
It’s always refreshing to watch one of your videos because everyone I’ve seen is competently and professionally presented. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the ammo. I’m new to this so just learning as much as I can. Thanks again..
If you sent me this letter, if I was facing possible foreclosure, I would definitely read it. You use words that promote trust, you show appreciation for the customer, you provide a visual of the outcome, and you give them the opportunity to put aside and really think about it. It’s a great letter! Thank you!
Just what I needed!
Always god to leave something in the hands of the seller, something for him or them to really think about. Thanks!
Happy New Year guys and gals. Thank you for share another fantastic tool for all of us. I like the simplicity without any big pushy words or statements.
Great presentation JP!
Have a fantastic year!!
Thank you
Mike
I like how streamlined it is!
Thanks JP!
Great Letter and it will do it’s job
JP I cannot thank you enough for sharing what to me is a very valuable resource : ) So thanks again
Thanks, very good letter!
Good stuff. Thanks for doing the setup!
Great letter, thank you..
Really good info
This sounds interesting heaven knows I truly need to generate $ to get out of debt and move forward
JP you are a refreshing addition to the Land Buying Industry. There is so much information that you offer with no payback.
It’s always nice to have a guide you in your ways
Great stuff
Great stuff
Love it. It makes sense to get something in their hands , as I’m sure they’ve had so many low ball offers that don’t give them anything. So when reality kicks in the only thing they have in writing might be this and they will call.
This is an invisible letter, in that: I haven’t seen it, I don’t know what it’s going to be used for, or where to send it, or who to send it to, and what it will proclaim I’m intending to do. And yet I’m being asked to comment on how well I like it. Is it just my feeble old brain getting more and more confused?
No, it isn’t your feeble old brain. When I got to the end I was flabbergasted. I thought it was a joke. But no, this supposed letter never materialized. Sigh…. people can get sucked into anything!!! For me, seeing is believing, and I’m NOT paying hundreds of dollars for this letter… if it exists.
I haven’t read everything thru yet just trying to get it downloaded on my phone so I have access later when I finish but it’s great feeling this way hope I can convince my friends to back me!
Another dose of awesome ness!
My best part was the multiply by 65% , subtract estimated repairs and add $7,000 for my profit .
both the video and the letter are fast and to the point.
Thank you for providing the necessary information and tools to get started in buying my first property
Thank you for all the information! I am looking forward to utilizing this tool very soon.
Great Letter
Good to keep your name in front of sellers
Greatness
Thanks very much. Liked in FB already; subscribed to YT.
thank you JP this is very good stuff that I can use in my real estate deal
“Letter Of Intent”. this is a great way to Warm-Up a potential client. Good stuff, thanks!
Awesome how you guys keep us informed and give us great tools to succeed in this business.
Great information. I look forward to implementing the letter of intent.
Thanks, Suzanne
Thanks for sharing! It’s an awesome example to follow.
Thanks for sharing! It’s an awesome piece that every investor needs.