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. 😀
A LOI (Letter of Intent is a great way for a buyer to neatly have an offer of a property he or she wants to send an offer on a specific property. Its fabulous.
That is actually what I’ve been looking for a simple formula with a letter of intent….. looking forward to downloading the document. Your guys are awesome with the stuff you send…..
It’s an AWESOME gift, concise and very beneficial. Thank you! You guys are ALWAYS AWESOME.
This is pure awesomeness! Thanks guys for this tool!
I think it’s an awesome door-opening tool!
Awesome deal generating tool!
great letter
Incredibly generous you are giving this to your subscribers
Good Tool – Thanks for the video as well.
Very simple and yet, showing intent to purchase.
Your suggestions are turning out to be good ones thank you and keep up the good work.
Thank you again JP, I am so glad I found your site and thanks for sharing for free!
Truly informative. I’d really like to inquire about partnerships or teaching us how you did it? [email protected]. C/O Dr. Candi O. Belle MBA PhD,COO of the Oscar International Capital Holdings Group LLC, Atlanta.
It’s genius
You guys ROCK, thanks for the resources
Thank you Respectfully!
So grateful for this free infomation
Nice content and presentation. Thanks.
I think it’s AWESOME! and straight to the point. Thanks JP Awesome walkthrough! I can’t wait to use this! Tanks again for the wonderful output!!
Thanks so much for your generosity! Really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience with all of us.
I think it’s AWESOME! It’s soft and straight to the point. Thanks JP Awesome walkthrough! I’m can’t wait to use this in my business! God Bless You!!
This is timely and maybe just what I needed to get started. Thanks
Great information and details!!
What a great way to have the seller accept your offer!! Clear and simple!
Yes, you are awesome for providing your FREE new letter of intent to help us with our real estate investing services. I am glad to be a member!
Thanks for your straightforward approach, Patrick.
A good letter to capture the attention of the seller in a calm and easy way! I like it! Thx JP!
Michael Heard
I like how simple this one is Great Job thanks so much
You guys make all the difference for people just starting out and looking for a little hope in this profession. Thanks!!!
Love it. Thank you for the value.
Appreciate it!
Appreciate awesome rei always have good content that is very useful
Thanks sooooo much!
Enjoyed the Content!
Pretty Hands on related
Plan on using this one for my next 5 deals!!!
you guys are awesome, thanks
Great content,Thanks
Thanks JP, as always great info and insight. Appreciate the freebie.
Thank you for giving the LOI. I think is great and will be handy.
Love it! Would love to check it out for my deals
I like that it was short and sweet and no cluttered information. Very easy to digest!
Great stuff
I like the way the letter is stright to the point. I have seen the offer letters that Real Estate Agents write and this is just picking the important points
Thanks for sharing the video. I would really like to download the letter. Thanks
I think you guys are awesome. Please keep up the great work.
Thank you so much for allowing us to obtain this awesome letter of intent. May God continue to bless you, your family and your business for all that you do.
Thank you for giving some awesome knowledge, tools and wisdom for free to help improve my business as well as guiding me to my next level. Thanks guys!
This letter is good to put out offers to motivated sellers without having to write out a long buy-sell agreement for each one. Thanks!
It’s very awesome that you are giving us the chance to get this letter free of charge. And it will improve my abilities in reaching my goals.
The letter is very well done: direct, yet kind; to the point, yet approachable. You have made a great introduction and provided the potential seller with an opportunity to feel comfortable to work with you.
Great letter. Straight to the point and it doesn’t come across as pleading for their business.
Thank you so much for the free info hope I make you proud
[email protected]
Please send me your fabulous Letter of Intent – I really appreciate your free resources!!! Sincerely, a Newbie.
Awesome! Thanks. Really simple.
I love how you give us so much info and even provide documents thank you guys so much!
Great info!
Hi everyone. Having a LOI (Letter of Intent) makes a deal much more simplified in paperwork. Its like having a small office on the frame of paper. I love it. And would use an LOI for every deal in.
This sound very simple. Let’s see how it will work for me. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness.
Look forward to the download, the correct documentation is extremely crucial. thanks for walking me through the program.
Never used an LOI , this will be a great resource to have.
Great explanation. Never used an LOI before but good to have in toolbox.
You guys are the best!! I’m new to the business an everything I need to be successful, you guys proved. Best decision I’ve made in long time thanks again.
AWSOME! Straight to the point. Thank you.
Great and insightful for me to use!@
Great explanation of how to use the letter of Intent. Thanks
Like your explanation on how to use letter of intent.
Thank you for the Awesome script. I always wondered what a detailed voicemail script would say without being too lengthily. I will Definitely try this one!
Great that you help out
Thank you. Can’t wait to check it out!
Good psychology used here.
Planting “seeds” and then with more follow up hope that they result in a successful transaction.
Very informative and to the point.
Thanks and Awesome guys, I appreaciate your forms and experiences.
The LOI is awesome. I needed another format and this ones works perfectly
This is a nice piece. I loved it. Can one add creative finance offers and lease purchase offers too. Thus giving 3 offers instead of just one?
Thanks for providing this, it is very helpful
I love this great information
You guys provide a lot of wonderful information that is very helpful in this industry. I HAVE learned new ways of approaching buyers/ sellers to get deals done painlessly, thank you.
I’ve used an LOI in the past. I had kind of forgotten about it. Thanks!
I love the info. Thanks
Thanks for sharing. Very useful letter.
This is a great letter of intent and what I need for my starting point. Thank you
Awesome content as usual! Thanks!
Awesome, valuable free stuff!
Awesome intent letter to copy from…
rather terrific please continue.
Very helpful to be able to put this into an automated task.
JP as always great stuff.
Very straight forward and connects with the seller. Great tone in the letter.
Thanks for this JP
this is every helpful
Great, awesome
Thank you for the help, the letter of intent is going to be a great option for selling the houses it let’s people know that you are there for them.
Great explanation of the contents of the LOI. Was looking for the letter LA explained in one of the training videos.
I think the letter of intent is great!
You’ll never know just how much I have come to rely on your gracious sharing of info without attempting to sell me a program or upgrade or ‘something I just won’t succeed without’. I am still struggling to complete my first property deal and have invested thousands in REI education. I haven’t thrown in the towel yet because of your motivational and (I believe) sincere approach to keeping me in the game. Thank you just doesn’t quite say enough…
It’s awesome that you are helping so many entrepreneurs just getting started.
Love the Concept plan on using the exact method!!
Great way to introduce an offer to a prospective seller; simply to the point!
Thanks! Good concept
Nice, concise letter. Very polite and broad enough in content to apply to almost every case!
Priceless Content…
Still very new but, seems worth a shot!
Thanks for all the awesomeness you guys bring to the table.
Can’t wait to use your form. Please have Chuck send it to me.
I’m ready
Awesome info. Will help greatly.
This is great. I really shows that you guys have us the students success at heart. Thank you
Thank you for sharing this letter!
Looks like this letter could be a very useful tool.
WOW YOU GUY ARE AWESOME WITH SUPPORT…
Thank you for this great example, JP. I will certainly use it.
Thanks for offering your awesome LOI for us to use.
Great letter JP ! It is great the way it calmed my new business owner nerves about how show intent to my sellers . Thanks JP ,
Very well put together and I like the idea of sending them the Letter of Intent to give them something to think and to show we are serious about buying the house. Thank you for sharing this.
A great one-page letter that provides a ton of information for the seller and gives the investor a great shot at buying the property when the seller is ready. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up is the key….
Love how simple and easy this will be to implement into our own business! Thanks for putting this together.
This is pretty spot on. I like how straightforward it is.
I like the simplicity of the letter. Straight to the point so the seller ca understand it.
Regina T
This letter is great because it gives second dibs on the same property rather then going and getting another lead which can be very expensive!
A great and simple idea, I don’t know why why tend to make things so complex sometimes. Thanks for sharing and reminding.
As always, clear and to the point. Great letter.
Thanks JP, I can’t wait to use this. You’re Awesome!
Awesome Sauce!
looks like an another alternative way to great a deal.. Thx
Looks like an awesome letter.
Excellent. I will apply and send them.wait for responses of sellers
Nice letter – thanks for sharing, we use friendly format letter also for our initial offer & follow up.
The letter is precise without any filibustering. This is surely an effective for bringing reality to the seller.
Thank you for the download.
thanks i like the letter of intent and want to download it to use and make my own from the letter for my business
Thanks for your support & creating/sharing this video.
I love how it’s Str8 to the point. Short and sweet. Thank you for this. I appreciate it
Nice letter, gives the seller options without pressure. Thanks guys.
This was really helpful to watch, thank you for sharing! I had actually never even considered using a letter of intent before, but now based on your reasoning and how simple it is – I can’t actually imagine NOT using it as part of my followup workflow. Thanks so much!
This is my second time to leave a note for this, please read, and send, Thank you.
Can’t wait to get this – terrific walkthrough!
Thank you JP, once again you Awesome.
Another fine tool for the toolbox. Thanks
Very much like your presentation and letter.