Wholesaling

[TJ Sayers]

This is my first time posting and I would like to get some feedback on wholesaling. I am interested in wholesaling and I have read through this site and listened to hours upon hours of podcasts and youtube videos. I do know that it "sounds" easy, but I am sure that actually making money wholesaling is probably a lot of work. I am willing to put in the hours, energy, and effort into building a business out of Real Estate and thought it would be smart to learn as much as possible before getting started. I do have a lawn care business that I run during the summer months, but that is about to slow down significantly because of the seasons changing. I am looking for advice for getting started in Real Estate, specifically wholesaling. Unfortunately, I do not have a whole lot of money to invest into a fix and flip property but I do have enough saved to do some marketing.

Real Estate is something that I really like and want to do. I actually enjoy driving around and looking at properties to fix up. The problem has always been that I never have been able to save up enough money to buy a house to fix and flip or hold and rent.

It seems to me (from reading posts on this site) that a lot of wholesalers develop a bad name because they do not know what they are doing. I want to run a first class business and do things the right way. I really do not want to establish a bad name in my community. However, I also know from life experience that the best way to learn is to do. I have a friend who is a real estate investor (fix and flip and buy and hold), and I have spend many days in his office talking to him and riding around with him trying to learn as much as I can about the business. I also count my own home as experience. I bought my home as a foreclosure in 2010, and I (along with my dad) put in a lot of work fixing up my house. We ripped out the whole kitchen and a bathroom, replaced all tile, appliances, cabinets, built a deck, replaced all trim, painted, and refinished hardwood floors. I am saying this to demonstrate that I do have a little bit of knowledge of costs of repairs and time frame. My original plan was to flip my home and move out and do it again. Since then, I have got married and living in a house that I am fixing up is no longer an option.

I am sorry if I have babbled on and on, so I will get to my questions.

1) From what I have read, it seems like direct mail will be the best form of marketing. Is that correct? If so, are yellow letters better than postcards?

2) I have never done this before, but I suspect that most sellers will want to work with a Real Estate Agent. Is this the case? If so, how do you handle this?

3) Should I hire a mentor or coach to help me get started?

4) Is there any other advice that you guys would be willing to share with a new Real Estate Investor?

Thank you for any advice that you are willing to give, and I look forward to learning from you guys who have a lot more experience than me.

[Hesron Gomez]

Welcome TJ. This place is an awesome place to learn, you just have to take advantage. I would search for the area where you live in, and start seeing what other investors are doing and saying about that area. Try to network with them. The founders of this site have done a great job at creating an environment where people help each other out, and I'm sure more than a couple of investors will sit down with you or have a phone conversation. I've had this experience, and you can check my profile to see when I got started.

I'm no expert, but I will reply from my short experience.

1) Read and listen to:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/08/15/wholesaling-business-lamar-cannon/

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/08/29/flipping-wholesaling-plan-sam-craven/

2) You're not in the business of finding buyers for the sellers. You are looking to acquire or control the property (assignment, purchase, etc) and sell it to your buyer. So you come across a Real Estate Business Entrepreneur. This is another good way to get burned with sellers, when you're not educated. A lot of them will have tons of questions because you are not a Realtor. This site is another great resource to get educated. Have you checked this out?

http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

3) This is where my experience really comes into play, and my advise is NO! At least you shouldn't trade money for someone else's time. What you should do is to use this site and find investors in your area, and try to exchange your time and resources for their time and knowledge. This site has everything you need to get started in RE.

4) My limited experience just allows me to offer the already given advice. The only thing that I'm seeing clearer and clearer, is that this business requires time, lots of time, because it should be a long term business. What makes it different to other venues, is that this industry's pay off is worth what you put in--something that cannot be said about other industries as often.

Good Luck TJ!