Looking for a step-by-step coach

[Andrew Coffey]

I'm new to real estate, the mountain of information, paperwork, legal this, illegal that, and just plain uncertainty is overwhelming. I'm looking for someone to help educate me in what makes a good deal, starting with how to find one, get it under contract (To wholesale, but eventually I want to get my own deals) and get to the closing.

Making some educated guesses, I need to form my own LLC to start, but after that I'm kind of lost. I've been suggested to contact a direct mailing company to help find motivated sellers. (I can produce a list of pre-forclosure houses in the area I'm marketing to with a program I bought) but in the eventuality that someone picks up the phone and dials me, how then can I be sure that I don't waste my time and money on making sure that the lead is a actually a deal in disguise? I have a full time job that I must dedicate 40+ hours a week to, leaving me with very little time (Save for weekends) on getting my snowball rolling. If I were more familiar with how the process is, from beginning to end, I could more easily replicate it, so in that endeavor I'm hoping to work with a Flipper, in a symbiotic relationship, where I find a good deal that they finance, get my cut for finding the deal while they move on to rehab the house.

I'm more than willing to put the work in, I don't expect a payday for nothing, my first few deals don't even need to really get me any money, experience is the desired result. Once I know what I'm doing I can begin to do my own thing.

Also, I've heard some say that wholesaling is a legally grey area, that it is both perfectly legal, and illegal to do, can someone also clarify that for me?