Wanted to run my action plan by the experts...

[Patrick Rentz]

Alright guys, I’ve been reading and educating myself every day outside of my 9-5 for the last 8 months. Books, ebooks, websites, the works. I feel like I’m as ready as I can be at this stage and need to get off the sidelines. I’m 23 years old and moving back to the town I grew up in and lived in for 22 years (Knoxville, TN – any of you guys in that market?) to begin this journey.

I’m giving myself one month to get in touch with my contacts (couple realtors, friend in the commercial real estate biz) and build a buyer’s list. First, I’m going to attend every REI club meeting I can (there should be 5 in April), looking to speak with potential buyers, attorneys, title company guys, realtors, etc…trying to find the big players. Within this first month, I’m going to spend hours each day cruising my area and looking at listings (paper, craigslist, FSBO signs, for rent signs, etc…) to try to get a feel for home values as well as rental rates. I know the area very well, but not necessarily in the terms that I need to for this business. I should also have access to the MLS login, which will be a great perk.

Toward the end of this first month, I expect to start marketing to sellers (won’t go into too much detail here – bandit signs, flyers, business cards, craigslist ads, direct mail, etc…)

I would like to set up 2 simple websites: one for buyers and one for sellers, including e-mail address prompts in order to add to my buyer/seller lists.

I have 2 main concerns. The first is that I feel people are very likely to not take me seriously because of my age. The second is my limited knowledge of different types of contracts and the actual closing (or assigning, in my case) process, as I’ve never been through it first hand. If anyone could provide a sample contract they use when wholesaling, it’d be greatly appreciated.

What do you all think of my plan? Obviously this is the cliff notes version. I’m looking at this as if I’m starting a business, and want to have all my bases covered early on, but at the same time I don’t want procrastination to rear its ugly head and keep me out of the game.