Wholesaling

[Angel Brennan]

I am new to real estate wholesale investing and have read some of the wholesale feeds here. Can someone tell me what information investors want. I would like to put together an information packet with all of the information and pictures for my future investors. I just want to make sure when doing my due diligent for each property I get all the correct information as well as being able to properly assess the property value and rehab costs. Any advise is very much appreciated. 

Thank you

[J Scott]

Here are some things I want and don't want from wholesalers:

-  Don't bring me a deal unless you know it's good.  If you are going to rely on me to do your analysis for you, I'm not going to look at your deals in the future.  All it takes is one time for you to bring me a horrible deal and I'm unlikely to want to see anything from you in the future.

-  Corollary to the above -- if you can bring me even one good deal, you'll get my attention and support forever more.  Case in point, I went six years without ever seeing a good wholesale deal, but at the beginning of 2014, I had two wholesalers bring me good deals.  In the past 12 months, I've purchased 8 properties from those 2 wholesalers.  And I've partnered with each of them on deals as well, so they're now doing more than just wholesaling. 

-  Don't tell me that you have a property coming up until you have it under contract.  I don't care about what you might have coming...and I'm not going to waste time evaluating a fictitious deal.

-  Don't tell me you have a property, and then when I express interest, tell me that you're not sure if/when you can arrange a showing.  I don't understand how wholesalers can get a property under contract but then not be able to arrange a showing -- this should be part of your discussion with the owner when the contract is signed.

- Don't give me an ARV that is a wide range. I'd rather you not give me any estimate on resale value than tell me the ARV is between $150-250K.

-  I don't need a million pictures.  Bring me one or two pics that indicate what the exterior looks like (style, condition and curb appeal) and then one or two pics to indicate the condition of the interior.  

- The information I need: Year built, # of beds/baths and square footage. That basic info plus the couple pictures is all I need to determine a true ARV. From there, I can work backwards to determine about how much rehab I could put into the project to make the numbers work, and using the pictures, I could determine if that amount of rehab seems feasible for that project. If so, I'm interested in seeing the property.

-  Don't show me a property and tell the owner that I'm your contractor or your appraiser.  You should be upfront with the owner about the fact that you're looking for another buyer, and then you can either tell him that I'm your other buyer, or if you'd prefer, I'm even okay with being your "partner."

-  Don't ask me my criteria for deals and then send me deals that don't meet my criteria.

-  In a perfect world, you are marking up your deals to me by a reasonable amount (not too much), and I won't feel the need to negotiate with you on every deal -- basically, I'd love to be able to trust the fact that you're not trying to strip all the equity and you'd be able to trust that I won't negotiate away most of your profit.  That makes doing lots of deals together much easier.  Of course, you have every right to mark up a deal as much as you'd like, but if I see you trying to make more than I will on a deal, you can expect me to start negotiating a good bit harder.  Personally, I'd much rather there be a partnership where we do lots of deals without lots of negotiation, but that's up to you...if you'd rather every deal be a tough negotiation, I'm okay with that too (I dislike negotiation, but I tend to be pretty good at it)...

-  You obviously don't need to bring me your deals before you distribute them to other people, but if you bring them to me first, there's a MUCH greater chance I'd be interested.  If I know that 100 other people have already seen a deal (or even one other serious investor), I'll be less likely to put effort into it, as I realize there is much less chance I'll end up getting the deal if I want it.

-  After reading the above point, you're probably wondering, "Why would I bring it to you first when I might get more money by shopping it around?"  If you ask the two wholesalers that I work closely with this question, they'll tell you that I'm VERY easy to work with, I can close VERY quickly, and you never have to worry about me backing out or not having the money.  In other words, you might make a little bit less money, but if you very your time and stress level, you'll probably find that it's worth it.  Not to mention the potential for repeat business.  So, if you can build relationships with investors like me, I highly recommend it.  (Though, of course, you have every right to just focus on getting top dollar instead, if that's your goal).

- If you're going to give me preferential treatment on your deals (bring them to me first), then I'm happy to help you with deals -- determining a reasonable ARV, determining a reasonable offer price, helping with creative solutions, etc. But, don't ask me for advice on a deal and then not give me first dibs -- you treat me well, I'll treat you well.