Want to Verify I'm on the Right Track

[Frank Z]

Hi, all.

I'm Frank. I'm in SE Pennsylvania. Forgive me if this is an obnoxiously long post. I don't want to be one of those "I decided I want to do REI so tell me everything you know" newbies, so I want to lay at least a little background out to show I've done some independent study.

I'll start by outlining my personal situation and then get into my questions. I'm basically looking to make sure I'm on the right track of thinking before jumping in.

As background, my wife and I own our house. We have equity in the house, but I've been told I'm not to involve our house in my REI plans. I could probably talk her into letting me use an amount equal to what it's appreciated since we bought it, but I'm not there yet so I haven't had that discussion. We have great credit (800+ FICO) but not a lot of ready cash laying around.

She has a steady job, I am self-employed within an S-Corp that she and I are officers in. The base business of the S-Corp is in decline, and I've been looking at REI for years as something to move into. There is no full time job to quit, so I have full time hours to devote to the REI endeavor. I have no illusions about instant RE riches, but I would like to be able to make a living at it.

I've scheduled the past few months as my RE education period. I've read every book I can get my hands on and scoured this site and the web in general for all the information I can get. Now that my scheduled education period is coming to an end, I'm ready to make the jump.

My plan is to begin by wholesaling and (if the proverbial offer I can't refuse presents itself) buying distress properties. With little cash at the ready, I'm assuming wholesaling will be what I do for a while.

I have chosen a geographic area of focus that I am very familiar with. The way I understand the process, I'm going to find these pre-foreclosure homes and try to meet with the folks to inspect and get details, then calculate numbers from my perspective and perform due diligence on liens etc., and then try to get it under contract with "Me or Asignee" as the buyer and a small amount of earnest money. Then I'll turn around and advertise / cold call (at first) or contact known investors (once I have a list) to sell my interest in the contract to the investor for a profit. $5000 is what I'm understanding the minimum I should shoot for in calculations, but it could be more.

I know that's a real basic overview. If any of you seasoned experts want to pay your success forward and kind of knock my plan apart as a means of instruction via PM, I'd appreciate it.

In the future, I want to move into buying - rehabbing - selling homes and in the very long term into building a portfolio of rental properties.

I've read on here that folks are buying lists of distress properties updated daily. I know there are a lot of sites that list distress properties, but I am so honestly confused about which are good and which are not (each says they are great and the others are horrible and slow) that I don't even know which way to go. Any recommendation on that would be appreciated. My county lists out auctions for months going forward on the web, but I'm kind of looking for something that's a little more user friendly than a raw action list.

I have about a billion more questions, but I just previewed this and it's already too long. Any help or guidance or even a signpost to point me in a direction or let me know whether my goals are realistic would be much appreciated.