What does your typical day look like as a wholesaler?

Question

Hello,

What does your typical day look like as a wholesaler? I am filling in my calender and would like to see what others do in there typical day.

Patrick Britton · Answer

@Joseph Theriault i think everyone will have a different response but Steven J. makes some good points.  Frankly, it sounds like he worked too hard :)

For me, there isn't much of an "average" or "typical" day.  But i'll do my best:

Start your day by going through (or filtering) a farm list you've received from a title company or service, like propertyradar.com.  these are your leads.  then, send the list off to someone like yellowletters.com and have them run a direct mail campaign.  once this gets going your should receive a steady flow of inbound calls.

as the calls come in you should be prepared to ask an array of questions to determine if the seller is truly motivated.  when you find someone, then it's homework time to determine if it's worth the energy.  this is where you'll need to determine ARV by finding comparables.  the first few that you'll do will take a lot of time, but the more you do the faster and more accurate you'll get.

then arrange for a quick viewing.  weekends are good because if you're 9-5 Mon-Fri you'll be looking at the property at night under less than ideal lighting.  aim for when the sun is out.

ideally, you should be able to come up with a very rough estimate of any repairs or at the very least, what needs to be repaired.  factoring this in, be prepared to make an offer right then and there - so have your paperwork handy.  BTW - never say "sign the contract."  say something like, "approve your paperwork" or "authorize the transaction."  Saying "sign the contract" will create a wall between you and the seller as he/she will think they need a lawyer to make sure they're not getting swindled.  "authorize the transaction" makes the seller feel like they are in control, and face it, people like to "authorize" things.  it makes them feel powerful.

once you get signatures it's a 5 minute phone call to title company to open title.  then you prepare your investor packet or whatever you'll use to market the property - and start sending, posting, calling, whatever...hopefully soon after you'll have a few people interested, at which point you arrange for your inspection.  once that's done you'll have a buyer (again, ideally) and then it's assignment time.  skipping the details, once done it's a matter of waiting for the buyer and seller to sign/close...which means you get paid (if not already prior to closing) and that's it.

Now, to provide an extremely simplified version of this:

Monday 9am - 11am:  filter and clean up lead list from title company

Monday 11am-1pm:  write up letter/postcard, etc. and send off to yellowletters.com

Tuesday 11am:  yellow letters sends you mail/postcards/whatever...

Thursday afternoon and evening:  you begin getting calls from the leads.  Filtering and qualifying them takes you well into Friday.  You need to make sure these people aren't tire kickers or time wasters.  get a feel for what they are looking for in terms of price and most important, what their time-frame is.  people who have no urgency/deadline to sell their property don't give discounts.  Wasting time on unmotivated sellers will kill your time and zap your energy,

Friday:  arrange viewings for Saturday and Sunday

Sat and Sun:  view a few properties, make a lot of offers, one gets accepted

Sunday night:  prepare investor packet that will be sent to buyers.

Monday morning: call title and have them open title on property

Monday morning (right after):  blast out packet to your top buyers and give them first crack at it.

Tuesday afternoon:  post on CL, Backpage, REIA forums, Bigger Pockets, etc., assuming none of your preferred buyers got back to you.

Wednesday:  a few people have called and would like to view property.  contact seller and arrange for viewing that works for everyone (ideally in workweek when banks are open)

Friday morning:  conduct viewing/inspection.  one buyer is very interested.  go to his bank, get certified check for assignment fee, then go to title and complete paperwork, inform all parties of happenings, receive certified check and copies of everything.

Friday afternoon:  deposit check (don't take out cash yet though)

a week or two later:  receive notice from buyer or title of signing/closing...once title gives your recording number and buyer has keys, spend your money.

again, this is a very simplified version of everything and i assumed no hiccups or issues - which will rarely be the case.

But the heavy lifting (the mail-outs) can be out-sourced, and some people even out-source the calls.  Once you get enough practice getting the documents together and creating the investor packet, that entire process will get quicker and easier to do.  Once you've dealt with a title company a few times they will facilitate the process faster.  and of course, once you've dealt with the same buyer a few times he/she can make the end process vastly more efficient and rewarding.

So, because everyone is different and we all have our unique skills and time restrictions, I say you should start off very slowly.  and you'll need to practice getting comps to determine ARV, a list of questions to ask people once they call you and you need to start going to as many networking events as possible.  Your local REIA will be invaluable.  As well, have some idea what your investor packet will look like.

again, this is a very simplified version.  but it's only as complicated as you make it.

hope this helps.

Steven J. · Answer

I tried doing wholesaling for awhile and was rather unsuccessful. I did a couple deals with a partner but I found it was too competitive, too much knowledge and experience is needed (which I don't have yet) and I just don't have the personality for it.

That being said I can explain how my day/week worked out. Keep in mind I wasn't too successful with this venture and I had another full time job at the same time.

Every Monday - I would find the latest probate cases in the local paper, document pertinent information, input into spreadsheet, mail merge a document and print letters. Usually would mail them out on Tuesday. This proved to be a rather good lead source.

Every 2-3 days I'd update my Craigslist ads. I think they've since changed how often you can update as I can't do it as often. I did have a couple cycles of ads that went up in order to keep my ads near the top on craigslist.

Other days of the week I'd spend time checking the MLS, craigslist and other sources. Then I would rifle through tax assessor sites trying to gather information on the home. When I would set up times to meet with sellers we'd walk through the home, start to discuss price, etc. I found that at the time many were asking simply too high for what would make sense as a deal for me and the end buyer. Many hours of the day were spent making follow up calls, updating my spreadsheets of information and contacting other leads, and thinking. I did a lot of thinking then - hence I wasn't too successful.

Looking back, I totally bought into wholesaling as the easy way into real estate, and now I'm rather convinced its one of the more difficult avenues to attempt when you've got a full time job 9-5. Wholesaling, when starting out, becomes a full time job in itself because there is such a learning curve and I simply couldn't catch up. I've since switched to mobile home investing which has forced me to target a MUCH smaller market which I can learn quite easily, I'm one of very few who do it in my market, and I'm working with a different type of seller and buyer. My buyers are not investors who have years of experience in negotiation and therefore intimidate me but instead are home owners often looking for a rent to own program. My sellers are also a type of seller looking for a cash deal that I CAN afford. I buy for under 10k as opposed to tens of thousands of dollars. My level of stress with finding money is much lower now.

Hope this helps some! I'd love to hear what you think.

MICHAEL YBARRA · Answer

Patrick - awesome post

We fix n flip in Southern Calf. , but - the key to our success, is we are marketing guys that happen to do real estate..

just being doing something productive everyday and the deals will come!!

God bless

Michael Rae

Joseph Theriault · Answer

@Patrick Britton  Thank you for taking the time to write that. As I am making my schedule I will be referring back to this.

Ahmad H. · Answer

@Patrick Britton Very nice breakdown. Thank you!

What does your typical day look like as a wholesaler?

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