Virtual wholesaling questions

[Kyle Bigger]

A Little background on me first:

I do some buy and hold, and I occasionally do a flip, but primarily I like to wholesale. Recently, I’ve gotten to the point where I am comfortable not even personally meeting the seller, or looking at the property myself. I just get pictures from the seller, and then if I am interested and we can workout a number that makes sense, then I’ll just have them scan and email me the signed contract. I’ve had some success with this, and I like it because I can do it all from my laptop and a phone.

Anyway, I guess the term for this is “virtual wholesaling”and although I haven’t been doing it long, I’ve had success with it in my local markets and now I’m ready to to explore other markets

I would be happy to share some of my knowledge and experience with anyone who’s looking to get into Virtual Wholesaling, just send me a PM with any questions or concerns.

Right now though, I’ve got some questions and concerns myself and I thought I would share them with BP in hopes for some great discussion

My questions:

1)What factors should I consider and research when determining what markets to invest in (Be it by city, county, zip code or state)?

I am interested in any and all 50 states and the counties within them, and location isn’t necessarily important to me, but what is important to me is picking the states/counties that have the highest potential to do a high volume of wholesales in. I don't want to just randomly pick states, so what do you think I should do to determine what states to pick?

Note: I am not investing in any particular niche, such as foreclosures, or divorces, or probates, or tired land lords even. So, data on foreclosures, divorce rates, or absentee owner volume doesn’t necessarily help me. Instead, I’m looking for a more broad overview of states/counties as it pertains to the amount of motivated sellers in general.

When looking to answer this question, how important is average house values within the area? For instance, is it harder to wholesale in a market where average house values are $80,000, as opposed to $150,000?

2)How feasible is wholesaling deals on the other side of the country? I live on the West Coast, but I am primarily interested in investing on the East Coast (New York/Florida/New Jersey, Philly, NC, SC, Tennessee, Florida, etc)

-The biggest issue that comes to mind is the trust factor. If I am calling from the other side of the country, I wonder how many sellers will not want to do business with me because I am not local, or because they want a face to face interaction, or think that I might be a scam? Ultimately, I think I will run into this at least a little bit, but only experience can tell me if it’s going to be a big problem or not.Any experienced virtual wholesalers have any experience with this that they will share, or and tips to deal with building rapport with sellers from long distances?

-Will changing my phone number to a different area code help with trust issues? How about a 1-800 number?

-What other ways can I help to come off as a professional, reputable, trustworthy business man? A fancy website? What else?

3)Do other states have different laws on wholesaling that I need to learn about?