Deer in the headlights

[Gregory Green]

A friend of mine who is a relatively new real estate investor is the person who got me interested in giving it a shot. He's a buy-and-hold to rent guy as well as flipping properties for profit. As I said in my initial introduction, he and I discussed a good entry strategy and settled on wholesaling. I've read some books, listened to many podcasts, read posts, etc. but now I'm just like, and?

My friend asked me to put him on my buyers list which of course I'm happy and grateful to do. And by chance I met another older gentleman who has been renting a 22 unit complex for over 30 years and he told me he is looking to get into flipping properties. So essentially these guys are cash buyers who I can present deals to, yet, I'm still suffering from analysis paralysis. I certainly don't want my hand held but I am struggling to figure out, what are my next steps? I know that's a vague question because I do have an idea (assembling a team, direct mail marketing, etc.) but still it's very theoretical. I'm concerned about execution. So to any wholesalers out there willing to share, what are the steps you took to put together a good distribution list? How did you determine your criteria? What makes for a good list as far as potential motivated sellers beyond the stuff on the mls? With the level of competition, is there a saturation point where new players in the game such as myself might struggle to get in? Where did you learn which language you should use for your marketing efforts?

To any rehabbers, what has been your positive experience with wholesalers and what made them such? How did you find them, or how did they find you? I am sure networking is the direct answer but what set one person you met apart from countless others? What do you look for from any deal to determine if it's worth your time?

I still plan to do my due diligence to learn and answer/understand as many of these questions myself as I can, still, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. The forums are so vast it adds to the deer in the headlights syndrome as I go through the posts so I apologize if these questions are redundant, as I'm sure they must be. Still, I'm all eyes and ears.