Talking to a seller about his potential properties, what next?

[Dominic Jones]

Wow. I just started learning at the beginning of February. I went to two REIA's, one in the BWI area and another up here in York, my local market. I connected with a few investors here in my local area and all of a sudden I've been put on a hunt for referral fees. Which leads me to my 1st question... has anyone found themselves searching for referral fees and found themselves becoming a wholesaler?

That's exactly what I feel is happening to me right now. I do not have a problem with this since I'm one of the many people who have nothing to start out with and I feel as though this is a viable way to raise capital to help build my real estate business.

So here is what has happened and what I need advice about.

I meet with a local REI with 10+ years experience. He gives me his criteria and answers my questions in regards to what he is looking for, what I should do to start popping leads, etc. etc.

- I immediately go to the courthouse and purchase 38 pages of the pre-foreclosures (have yet to send the letters)

- I also have been shopping Craigslist in the local market and reaching out to sellers.

The first seller that has responded to me has decided to sell b/c his partner, who was the "hands on guy" has moved to another state in PA for a better opportunity and has left him with the 8 properties. One of which is a 4 unit.

Now, this guy sent me a table with the information about the properties and two rows of the table gave Zillow rent and zillow estimate (for the current sale price of the property).

I've already checked all of the local assessment data on the property and all of the estimates are almost double what he has paid for it. Since I've been around bigger pockets and learning and reading voraciously I haven't seen anyone really take Zillow seriously.

There is one property in there he described as a "crack house" that needs $6K work on it before it is rent ready. I'm thinking that this is the property I want to hone in on and that I can get him to sell for cheap // close to what he purchased it for.

I'm not going to leave the numbers here for sake of time, I'm just wondering what should be my next step? This is as far in a deal as I've gotten and I'm unsure what is the next proper step. Should I continue on to set up dates to see the properties?

If I do go and see the properties should I have one of the local REIA guys send a contractor to meet with me to give me prices on the repairs to help garner more leverage in negotiations?

BP Community, please help!