Accidental Wholesale Inventory - I need help

[Marie S.]

Let’s just say I settled into a buy and hold strategy and never thought twice about taking another route until now.

My husband recently hopped on my REI train after helping me prep and fill a vacancy. We decided to find a project to work on together for the summer. We found five houses that would need work. We could see ourselves living in them short term to save some money. Then leasing when we’ve recouped.

Well, my letters went out Saturday and 4 of the 5 called back this evening. The owners just didn’t want the property.

They didn’t know what to do with the places. They were happy to dump it on me because they were tired of paying taxes and getting fined by the city for random stuff. (Plus a lot of personal issues that are completely irrelevant to me.)

We settled on me paying the liens on two of the places (all less than $1,700 total). I’ll do the leg work, and upon closing day I’ll hand them $1000 cash.

All of the taxes are paid for the year on all of them.

All of the properties would bring in about $4800 a month, not including the commercial space. (I’ve never rented a commercial space before so I honestly couldn’t tell you what it would yield.)

The problem is that there is no way we could renovate all four of these properties at once. I got a little too excited, I know. We’re not looking for another loan as we took that route with another property and need to pay that off.

This brought me to the conclusion to sell them off. It’s technically wholesaling right? Except I don’t have a buyers list! I had no intention of wholesaling, but now that I have the places it seems like a good opportunity to learn something new.

I know it’s going to take time to close these deals, but now what do I do? I’ve been scouring through this forum but I haven’t quite found which way to go. It seems I might be following the rules of wholesaling backwards.

[Marie S.]

@Emily Snapp

I do not believe in the "yellow letter" concept. I'll tell you why in second. To answer your question:

I saw a few houses I wanted. I did a walk around the house an noted some things that was wrong on the outside and what I liked about it. I looked up the owner's information at the county. I pulled out a steno pad with flowers at the top that I bought from the dollar store. I honestly think the pad is supposed to be used as a grocery list. I HAND WROTE my letter. I introduced myself. I let them know:

1.) How I got their information.

2.) I noticed their house was unoccupied.

3.) I wanted to buy it.

4.) I wanted to buy it.

4.) Despite my findings, I was still willing to buy it because...

5.) I wouldn't be able to offer much.

I gave them my Google number and email address. I put the letter in an envelop. I put a stamp on it and dropped it in the mailbox. A few days later, I got replies.

Screw the "yellow letter" stuff. I think it's bologna. Everyone is using it; not just in the Real Estate Investment industry. When I get them, I don't even read them. I throw them in the trash. I definitely wasn't looking to build an inventory. My intentions were sincere so my letters were sincere.

There is no cookie cutter letter that works. People see through it because it's impersonal. Since this incident, I wasn't able to personally close every deal, but I was able to match a couple people with the owners.

-I makes me want to get my license so I can collect on the deal ;-)

I've sent three more letters and received three replies. Am I just lucky? I don't know. I didn't look into wholesaling until I posted my original post. There's no real secret sauce.

You have 10 letters not 500 so just hunker down and write to the owner like they were standing in front of you. Don't write it like you were speaking in general to the group of owners you found.