1st property under contract, YAY!!! No buyer list, YIKEZZZ!!!!

[Michael Marrow]

hello bp,

Michael here, ive currently been wholesaling for about 5 weeks and finally got my 1st property under contract yesterday, super excited. Everyone tells me that the hardest part is over, I beg to differ lol. They say find the deals and the buyers will appear, may be true but I need proof of concept lol. Just wanted to post this to encourage all the newbies out their who have a bit of skepticism , it is possible.  My next obsession is to build my buyers list and get this property moved for a win. win, win all the way around the board. Biggerpockets has been a great source of encouragement and motivation. I don't think I would've had the courage to even pursue such a venture like this without the confidence ive received from this platform and the podcasts. if anyone in my surrounding area is interested in doing a jv in the future or just getting together to network and talk real estate, feel free to contact me. Hope everyone has a productive day.

[David Dey]

@Michael Marrow

If you go through my past posts you will see a common factor.  I am a huge proponent for public records.  "Business in a box," I call it.   

Through public records you can find all your sellers, all your buyers, and even the money to put the deals together. 

(Imagine being a one stop shop where you not only offer the great deal but the money to buy it?  Think the buyers will come?  You bet your... Tucous they will.)

Anyway, my mentor taught me one of the most valuable lessons I still use to this day.  

"You can market all over the world," he said.

"But, your real buyer is just a stones throw away."

What that means is that, if you're trying to retail, you should market to the neighborhood.  Someone always had a friend or family that they could refer to you.  (And who wouldn't like to pick their own neighbor? And make a referral fee doing it?)

If you are wholsaling, do a grid search in the neighborhood, or in a mile grid of the subject property.  

Most of the time you can do this through your property assessor's office.  If you wanna do it the easy way, ask your realtor to do a comps search of all the sales within that area within the last year.

Now you will have to do the rest of he legwork yourself, (or hire someone to do it for you) but for a nice profit a lil elbow grease shouldn't hurt, right?

Match the sales to the property appraiser.  If it doesn't show up quite yet, do a name search for the previous owner (still listed on the assessor's site) in the clerk of courts/register of deeds and see who they sold it to.

Only keep the names of the Corporations, LLC's, Trusts, IRA's and obvious investors. (If you see the same guy buying 3 houses within a mile within a year, pretty safe bet those aren't his summer homes)

Now, do a google search on their biz name or individual name.  Do a google search on the company address.  Research the company name on your secretary of state's site. Etc...  The fact is, it won't usually be too hard to find them.

3 benefits will arise from this list.  

1) these are not tire kickers.  Public records don't lie!! The only reason they will show up is if they pull the trigger.

2)  they are already buying in the neighborhood.  If you have a good deal and you use this approach, you will almost definitely have a sale.  (One of the biggest issues newbies have is getting the time of day from seasoned investors)  if you use this proactive (and definitely not a beginners strategy) you will most likely impress them enough to get them to listen.

3)  look at the prices that they bought the properties at and you will notice a trend of what investors are willing to pay for a house like yours in that area.  It'll give you an idea of whether you actually have a good deal or not.

P.S.  Here is a rough and dirty approach to getting a decent valuation.  (Both retail and wholesale)

Now keep in mind, this doesn't replace an actual appraisal.  It just gives you a down and dirty look.

If retail just follow the same steps with owners with the same mailing address as the subject property.

If wholesale, only houses that the owner has a different address then the subject property.  (In the same state)

Pull up all the sales in about a 1/2 mile radius, (mile if there aren't enough sales) last 6 months is best, but 1 year will do if not enough sales.

Let's say you have 10 sales, take the price and divide by sq footage.  Ex: 1000 sqft house sold for 100k.  That is 100.00 per sq ft.

Take out the sale with the highest sqft price and the one with the lowest price.  (Now you have 8 sales.)

Figure out the average dollar per sqft.  (Add up all the 8 sales then divide by 8)

Now match that average dollar per sqft times your house's square feet.

For the retail, that will give you the ARV, for wholesale that'll give you the wholesale value. (Approximate)

Hope this helps!!

P.S.S.  If this helps, send me an upvote!! (Shameless plug, but I'm trying to hit the leaderboard!!) 😜