wholesale beginner

[Rubi Rey]

Hello All,

I am brand spanking new to real estate investing. My boyfriend and I attended a Marc Hrisko 3 day seminar and wholesale real estate grabbed my attention to begin this real estate journey. I get the concept of whole sale real estate and a few steps down but I always end up lost and with 100 questions. I was born and raised in Dallas Texas and am looking into a few neighborhoods but I have no idea how go about the contracts, fees, comps, title office, buyer/seller agreements . Can any one within the DFW area help me step by step with an explanation on my first Whole Sale ? anything helps, emails, blogs, contact info, articles etc.

[Joseph B. Davisson]

Contracts: get your own from a mentor or attorney or use the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) forms available online.  TREC forms are widely accepted and current with regard to Texas laws.  They can be modified with addenda to suit just about whatever you need.  An attorney can help you with this.  I recommend an addenda explaining how you are getting paid if you are wholesaling.  Transparency is the name of the game.  I have seen wholesalers who have not informed sellers about their intentions and end up spending time dealing with a seller who refuses to sell.  This time could be used  finding new deals.  Its just not worth it.

Fees: A title company or lawyer should be able to give you a list of fees they charge for particular services like escrow, doc prep or curative title work. Dont decide based on price, an office may have higher rates but provide better service and a bit of free advice along the way.  Title insurance rates are controlled by the sate and you can just google "title insurance rates in Texas" and you will get links to calculators.  Build a relationship with a mentor or a title company that works with investors.  Many of your corporate title shops do not have attorneys in the closing office and are thrown for a loop when a deal is not a cookie cutter residential transaction involving an agent for the buyer and an agent for the seller with a big bank funding the transaction.  An unprepared title company can slow down you deal and TIME kills real estate deals. People's circumstances change, other offers are made, seller's remorse sets in, doubt causes seller's to be lees cooperative.  On a side note, we've all heard lawyers call "deal killers" and while an uninformed lawyer can certainly kill a deal, TIME is generally the cause of death.  An uninformed lawyer will need to research issues and is generally not going to recommend a course of action without some assurance that he/she is giving good guidance. This is where a lawyer familiar with your practices can add value.  Reckless investors can fowl-up a deal so badly from the beginning that it takes a lawyer TIME to untie the knot the investor has created.  This is not the lawyers fault- it is the inexperience or carelessness of the investor.  #1 killer is investors who don't know their contract and don't know how to fill them in correctly or know and don't care enough to do so.

Go to an investor meeting and read the form agreements available online. Forums like this are a wealth of information.  The best way to get help is to locate a deal, then offer an experienced investor a part of the deal for teaching you how to get it closed.  

I am not a fan of the"Real Estate Gurus"  an I have read dozens of books and attended seminars.  In my experience, John T. Reed (google him) offers very good information and his books are some of the best I have ever read.  He is very realistic and is not selling a get rich quick scheme.  He also does research on "gurus" and so you can get an alternative opinion on what you are being pitched by a guru.