My First Wholesale Deal. FSBO or Realtor?

[Anthony Gayden]

Good afternoon BiggerPockets,

About a week ago, a lady who works in my office approaches me and says that she heard that I buy real estate (awesome that someone I hadn't even approached heard about me). She then tells me that she and her sisters inherited a house when a relative recently passed away. They want to sell it as soon as possible, and they don't want to do any work on it.

I tell her I'm interested and she gives me the address. I do a lot of online research and find that it is in an older part of a fast growing Omaha suburb with an excellent school district. I looked up a few comps in the area using Zillow recently sold. Another house on the same street with less square footage and the same number of beds and baths sold for $130,000. Another a block away sold for $125,000.

One of my coworkers who wants to get started in real estate investing hears me talking about the deal and wants to be my partner and put up some of the cash. Of course I agree. 

I went out and looked at the house today. The house is dated, but livable. Built in 1900, it had updated electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and windows. It was cluttered but not bad and a good clean up and paint would do wonders. 

My offer was for $65,000. I told them the offer was all cash, no inspection, and 100% as-is. They seemed very interested but said they would think about it and had to discuss it with the third sister who was not present at the showing.

There are two different things I was thinking about doing. 

1. Purchase the house cash and do a simple clean up and immediately list it FSBO on Craigslist/Zillow.

2. Purchase the house cash, do a minor flip, paint, and replace carpeting. Have a realtor put it on the MLS.

Which way would you suggest?