New member from South Florida

[J. A. Marin]

Hello BP, I'm a newly graduated pharmacist practicing my profession in Broward county. Life was great. I had 2 car loans, student loans that are eating me alive and trying not to live pay check-pay check. Ignorance was truly bliss. Everything was great until I read "Poor Dad Rich Dad". This book fundamentally changed my outlook in life and my situation. After reading most of Robert Kiyosaki's books, I started to read the books published by BP. This lead me to the BP podcast and eventually to here. I now know that in order to get out of the "rat race" and be financially independent I need to acquire another set of skills and become a sophisticated investor. That being said, my short term goals are to acquire a fourplex before January 2017 in Broward County through an FHA loan that yields at least a 10% ROI. My long term goal is to acquire sufficient passive income to be able to quite my job and work on building a portfolio. Although I know what I want, I've read the books, listened to the podcast and have read some of the blogs posted here I'm frozen in my tracks. I have no idea what todo from here. I've been looking at Zillow and Trulia for homes but cannot seem to find any that fit my parameter. Any help or guidance would be truly appreciated. Thank you J. A. Marin

[Account Closed]

My advice to new investors is to start wholesaling properties. This does not require much of any marketing money to start and to get deals closed.

First pick a neighborhood that you are either in or close to. Driver around all the streets and look for vacant houses. (Not by using Google maps because they can easily be outdated pictures) There should be some.

Then look in the county assessors website to find the owners. it should give their name and mailing address. Send them a letter (not yellow letter because they are getting dozens of them) telling them you found their house to be apparently vacant. But if it is obviously abandoned, say so in the letter. Tell them you will pay them cash for a quick close. Write it up as a personal letter.

When you do all that, then contact a local RE Agent to give you a list of all the houses in that neighborhood that have sold in the last 5 years with all cash. That typically is investors. Then again go to the assessors website and find their name and mailing address. Also do a name search on the assessors website to see how many other properties they own. If they own several they are obviously investors.

Once you get a response from the seller of the vacant house, negotiate a deal to buy it for all cash and get it under contract. Then immediately contact all the cash buyers you just found that buy properties in that neighborhood and tell them about the house and would they be interested in buying it. If you negotiate a good enough deal that pays you then complete the transaction with the investor to buy the house you have under contract.

Once you have done all that with that neighborhood, go to the next one and 'rinse and repeat.' This will give you the experience needed to go into other properties. 

I hope this helps.

Steve Anderson