Many people have plans for how to respond if their house catches fire ”” they know where the important documents are, which exits to use, what to grab if they only have a few critical moments to exit the inferno. But far fewer people have worked out plans for what to do after a house fire.
Norwalk-based Joel Efosa created Fire Cash Buyers to make it easy for people to figure out those next steps without adding to the pressures they face in an already stressful time.
Efosa found his way into the real estate business by building websites about roofing. He used search engine optimization to top the Google rankings to generate sales leads, receiving calls from people looking for roofers and then selling those leads to roofers.
“Then it dawned on me, why don’t I use this skill?” Efosa said as he recalled the origins of his business. He got in touch with a friend who runs a marketing agency and honed his skills further. He also wanted a business that he could run while commuting to and from his job as a business system analyst at JPMorgan Chase in New York City. However, he was initially hesitant to go full throttle into the real estate business.
“My dad did real estate growing up, and I hated the idea of rentals,” Efosa recalled. “But I said, ‘Let me give it a second chance because I’m older now I’ve got two kids and a third on the way.'”
The final push came when his wife told him she wanted to ultimately work in real estate.
“So, I looked into it and built a site in Connecticut to start off and generate some leads, talking to some homeowners that want to sell for cash,” he continued. “I didn’t realize there’s a whole separate part of real estate where the seller just wants cash. They want to sell it and walk away, and then you can rehab it and rent it or sell it to make a profit.”
By focusing on the most unique leads from his initial site, he discovered the owner of a fire damaged property in Indiana. The tenants of that rental property were gone and the city was pressuring the owner to either repair the building or tear it down ”” the threat of a lien was also raised by the city.
“I like to hear people’s story and I like to listen to people. I like to see how I can help,” Efosa said. “So, with that lead I didn’t make any money, I actually signed that contract over to a local construction company.”
In short order, he discovered that despite relatively low demand compared to traditional real estate the number of specialists in fire-damaged properties was small, and the number of resources for those trying to decide what to do after a fire even smaller.
“What I found on the internet is that there’s a lack of information on handling fire-damaged properties. Nobody really talks about it,” Efosa said.
While his approach is to help match those who need help selling or repairing their properties and are actively seeking it, there are others who take a more aggressive approach. The people Efosa works with need information on how to proceed when they are ready to move forward with their lives.
“There are others who call somebody while they’re having a bad time, maybe they’re still going through the trauma, but we’re not trying to profit from someone’s disaster,” he said. “We want them to be ready. And we want to make sure it’s beneficial to them, we don’t want to push anyone into selling their property especially with that probably being their biggest life investment.”
The strategy has worked. The steady stream of people looking for information has resulted in Efosa hiring four contractors to handle the site, and he has plans to bring on another four in the near future.
Efosa said that finding the right niche is the secret to real estate success.
“Anyone that’s inspired to get into real estate, whether it’s locally or nationally, should look for a place in the market where there aren’t enough people already,” he said, encouraging others to try taking up real estate. “There’s all sorts of different markets where you can just come in and establish yourself because there’s a lack of information, try to be an expert in one thing and you can definitely make it work along with a nine to five.”
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