Calling All Wholesalers (and Wholesaling Critics)!

[Rowan Yearwood]

Hey BPers!

I will be purchasing my first rental property in September which I'm very excited about. It'll be a SFH that will be owner occupied for about a year or so because I am not made of money (yet) and can't come up with a 20% down payment. Since September is such a long way from now, the idea of wholesaling has been very appealing to me for the past couple of months. I set my start date with wholesaling to February 15th (to avoid analysis paralysis) and even with all the research I have done, the perfectionist in me is freaking out about how this will go. People say that RE investors get a bad rep because of the greedy ones among us and from what I've seen/read it's even worse with wholesalers.

I want to go into this the right way and I know that I will make mistakes in the beginning and that's ok. I just want to hear from you all what I can do to help YOU. At the end of the day, that's all I believe a wholesaler does... bring an opportunity to light for the flipper/landlord and bring a motivated seller out of a bad situation. I believe you should be able to do both without anyone coming out at a loss. So, if there's any reason you won't work with a wholesaler, any bad experiences you've had when working with one, or anything you haven't seen that you wish wholesalers would do, please drop a comment!

Wholesalers! For all of you guys out there who understand the idea of not giving the service you wouldn't want to receive, what have you been doing that works for you?  Is there anything you would have done differently when you started out? To partner or not to partner (that is the question)? As an experienced wholesaler, how long have gone without closing a deal when actively searching? Do you think wholesaling with a RE license is necessary? 

P.S. 

I'm too organized for my own good so to show you guys how much effort I'm trying to put into doing this right, here's my growing list of things to know/complete before my start date:

1. Create a fixed cost and/or 70% rule spreadsheet
2. Make a "property viewing" sheet for when I visit the property
3. Create a list of target zipcodes
4. Research different companies to get an idea of repair costs in the area
5. Create a marketing campaign with a schedule of when to do what
6. Come up with a written strategy for finding cash buyers fast
7. Make a list of nearby title companies
8. Start written market research for each zipcode

To answer the questions you're probably thinking right now: Yes, I do this with pretty much everything and yes, I do usually get it done in timely fashion.

- RHY