Realtor w/ Wholesaler's Business Model (Thoughts?)

[William Rose]

Hi all,

My name is William Rose and I'm a licensed agent in the state of Maryland. I've had my license for around 6 months and I've done about 3 deals. At first I approached the business as any regular Realtor would. I'd target regular people looking to buy and sell homes and market to them however I could. Unfortunately, this approach hasn't worked for me very well. Immediately after doing my first two deals, I decided to reinvest and put some of my money into Zillow leads. Terrible idea. As the Summer came to an end and the cold set in the Real Estate market in my area slowed down and it became harder for me to find clients. As a result, last month I did some brainstorming and I came up with a plan using some of the things I learned when I was trying to get into investing. Why not approach my business like a wholesaler? Take a look and tell me if you guys think this could work. I think this could easily be scaled.

Step 1 - Build Your Buyer's List

I've assembled a list of Cash Buyers using Craigslist however I'm not very confident in the quality of my list. I feel as if I'm getting tire kickers, wholesalers and maybe a few serious buyers. Since I have MLS access I'm going to go through and see who bought properties that needed major work with cash. I'll then contact them and ask them if they'd like me to send them properties that meet their criteria. I'm sure that the quality of my list will improve after that.

Step 2 - Finding Quality Deals

Between MLS searches and auction sites like auctiondotcom and hubzu I've been able to find what I consider to be potential deals. I send out the deals and include 2-3 comps and the estimated ARV based off of those comps. I can go take clients/customers to see the property without a problem however I don't know how to estimate repair costs so usually me and the customer/client just go take a look and they tell me what they think.

By building a huge buyer's list full of quality buyers and matching them up with discount properties I see on these sites, in theory I think this sounds like a good idea. I've been giving it tries recently but I haven't had any closings or bids so far. Currently all of the people on my buyer's list have been generated from CL ghost ads so I think that has a big role to play in it. I even go to the extent of putting them in my CRM and following up multiple times throughout the week via text. I'm under the impression that when I find buyers who've done multiple cash transactions in the past, they'll want to pull the trigger on a good amount of the properties I find. The best part is it's almost as if I have an unlimited inventory...Also, I don't have to ask for a fee most of the time because usually the seller pays my commission. Plus I'd hope to be dealing with quick closes because my buyers would be coming with cash? This is just a general summary of the strategy. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Do you guys have any recommendations?

Thanks!!!