Driving For Dollars?

[Pete Resendez]

With very little or no money, is it possible to start that way? What are options to start this way? I'm in Texas, DFW area, and new to all of real estate investing.

[Trent Stone]

Absolutely. Here in Utah it's not fantastic because we don't have a ton of distressed properties and we do have a ton of wholesalers and investors so they get snatched up pretty quick, but it can be done. My parents live in DFW so I know there are tons of wholesale opportunities there. Pick an area, target market, target property type and go nuts. You can hand write letters and leave them on the door, knock the door and talk to the owner, skip trace the address and call and email the owner, Send letters in the mail, use something like Deal Machine(though it costs a little bit to use). You must become an expert with your numbers though so you know exactly what you can offer your sellers and know that you are still providing a good deal to your buyers. If you get a property worth $100k under contract for $97k, you are going to fail in a hurry. There are several methods for determining what to pay, but generally speaking you will probably want to be getting your properties for about 65% of ARV. Know what your cash buyers' numbers are so you know that you are providing them with value. If they want to flip a property and they want their purchase price plus rehab costs to be under 75%, then offering them a property for 80% of ARV will do them no good and you will be stuck holding it yourself.

Also, if you are going to start wholesaling, you must build your cash-buyers list ASAP. Way too many people get stuck with contracts and can't perform and screw over sellers. Jump on the podcast and listen to all the episodes with wholesalers, there are some good ones. Also get the book by @Brandon Turner "Investing in Real Estate with No or Low Money Down". It was one of the first I read when I was starting out and it helped me a TON.

Good luck, let me know if I can answer any other questions for you!!