Business Plan looking for opinions

[Zachary Zinn]

A little background info about me that will help make more sense of the plan. I've been a certified home inspector over a couple years now and I'm looking to transfer into REI. Parts of this plan are common that I've seen many of you use already, but other parts maybe more unique.

The Plan:

1) To acquire leads and deals will use methods such as direct mail, craigslist ads, and whatever else to find those good off market deals.

2) Analyze the leads and determine what will be the best plan of action for each lead, i.e. buy and hold, flip, wholesale, ect. My primary strategy is buy and hold but not all leads may fit this model but the goal is to be able to complete a deal with almost every single lead.

3) Here's where it gets more interesting. I don't have a lot of working capital right now, maybe enough for one deal, but means a lot of these leads could go to waste other than to wholesale them. So my though is to use my home inspector skills to compile a comprehensive report on the property bout about it physically, and its value with all the numbers. Once I create this report I will then take this report and then share it with other investors with the funding so we can partner up on the deal. I think this would work best for out of state investors wanting boots on the ground locally. 

4) All the proper partner paper work is completed and the deal is completed.

So just a general rough idea of the overall plan. Of course would have all the details more laid out and set in place to make it all a smooth as transition as possible. I know some people don't like partnerships but to me seems my best chance to get started and be able to scale quickly. Unless someone can offer me a large line of credit right now haha, but over time will be able to acquire those lines of credit or other financing so I can do more and more deals on my own.

Any thoughts, comments, questions are greatly appreciated or if anyone has done anything along these lines would love to be able to talk one on one.

[May Emery]

@Zachary Zinn I agree that being a home inspector gives you a leg-up on investing - particularly in step #2. I would also guess that you have some realtor connections that can help you augment the off market leads in step #1.

I am sure that you know that nothing can happen till you get a good funnel going in #1. Mail is a good proactive option and the list is important.

You should consider mailing to people who aren’t in every other investor’s sites. Absentee Owners have been popular for a long time, and are apparently still somewhat effective (people are still mailing to them) but they are getting multiple offers to buy their home. It's hard to stand out.

There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.

Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.

Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.

Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance. They won’t be expecting the same money as their neighbors with the shiny new kitchen and fresh paint. With your background, you will know how to best price and tackle these.

Good luck