Best tools for a brand new Wholesaler?

Question

I'm brand new to REI and I'm starting out focusing on wholesaling. I'm spending countless hours on trying to research which tools to use. Deal Machine,  Propstream, ListSource, Mojo Dialer, CallRail, Google Voice, Carrot, Lead Propeller, CRM, Podio, etc etc.

Being brand new, I'm trying to learn what all these things are to begin with lol. Then, how to use them, and which are best for me at this point of the beginning stages while keeping the following stages in mind (I'll worry about scaling for long term goals later). Then finally decide which brand to go with lol.

It's a headache and I know none of these things are required to close my 1st deal, but efficiency and results are HIGH priorities for me and I'd like to make my 1st deal using the same methods I'll use to make my 10th and 11th deals. So I'm willing to do the research/work now to create a system that will generate results and optimize the work I put in.

All that being said,  I'd appreciate suggestions on what tools would be ideal to start with. Preferably a CRM, phone system for cold calling, inbound calls, texts, or VM drops (whichever works), lead generation website, D4D or list generation tool, and follow up system. I'd also prefer everything to be integrated together but if having separate individual tools that specialize in their own categories will yield better results,  I'll sacrifice convenience for performance.

Sorry for being so long winded lol. Just wanted to paint the picture of where I'm at and what I'm looking for as clearly as I could. I appreciate and thank everyone in advance for all the help.

Jerryll Noorden · Answer

You need to scale accordingly.

If you do not have an abundance of money like most of us, you need to first focus on getting one deal first.

To do that the first thing you need to do is make sure your business is legal and in good standing with your state. Get all the admin set up so you don't get in trouble.

Then you need to hire a receptionist and a acquisition manager ASAP.

Since you can't  hire them without any money, here is why we start with  a website. You need to get your first deal in.

Most people wing this and go the "easy" way. They think DMM is just sending mailers, get calls make a deal. They rather do shortcuts then analyzing what actually works and make a deal.

So you will do the website route.

Get a website, make it credible and make it awesome. Of course there are specific strategies to use to accomplish that.

But regardless.. use the next 3 weeks to really make your website into something amazing.

Then while you work on all that, you stop going to Starbucks, McD, stop buying crap you so not need. It is your mission to save up $2K to $3K in the 30 to 50 days.

While you are saving you do some simply cost/deal calculations for PPC and for Facebook ads.

This will let you know EAXCTLY how much money you need for any of these marketing venues to reliably get your first deal.

Now once you have that money you will turn on marketing. Make sure you have read on Wholesaling and you understand how it works, you have studies how to do your cost of repairs and you know how to run good comps and you know the basics of B&H investors and house flippers.

With this knowledge you know what your backend buyers costs are, what they are after, you know how to run the comps and determine your fee and thus offer based on the back-end buyers numbers.

Now you make them an offer. You ONLY make an offer that works for YOU.. if the seller does NOT agree to that offer you walk away you find the next lead. If you do this right, you should get your offer accepted because if they truly are motivated  and need/want to sell their house an other investor is not magically going to offer them more, and if you explained that them  the right way, they will know it. So IF they are motivated they WILL accept the offer.

Once you have the offer accepted you will sell that contract within hours, not days. Why? Because you offered the right amount and that deal WILL work for all cash buyers and they will fight each other to buy that contract.

You them made your first deal.

Do 2 more like this and then hire a receptionist, and an acquisitions manager.

Then when you do 3 to 5 deals a month you can start looking into a good CRM.

I would recommend Infusionsoft hands down!

Miller McSwain · Answer

To give you another perspective, I'm fairly new as well and just started putting my tools together. I don't know that the tools I am using will be the best in the long-run (time will tell), but these are the tools that I'm using, or will use, and my experience with them.

1. Data source (List Source and County)I've pulled one list from list source thus far (equity data) and plan to get more data from my county (probate, pre-foreclosure, etc)

2. Data cleaning (self-written program)To clean data (fix addresses, names, etc) I wrote a Python program myself. I'm an engineering student, so I have experience with this sort of thing. But if you don't know how to program, I'm sure there are services out there that do this sort of thing. I've heard of REIsift, but I'm sure there are others.

3. CRM (Podio)I started a Podio Premium account a couple of weeks ago and have been working on setting it up. Premium is $24 a month (cheaper than most RE CRMs that are already setup). Premium allows you to automate a lot of tasks like grabbing pictures of the property from Google, bed/bath info from Zillow, and lots of other things.I primarily chose Podio because, with Premium, I can do a lot of the automation coding myself and customize Podio to my needs. Other RE specific CRMs can probably do everything you need but at a higher cost.

4. Dialing software (smrtPhone)I haven't bought this yet, but I think this is the provider I am going to use for dialing. smrtPhone allows for direct integration with Podio. Once set up, I think I'll be able to call leads directly from links in Podio and sync call logs between smrtPhone and Podio. The other dialer I considered is Mojo, so that may be a good option as well.

I will also need to select a mailing service and eventually a VA service for cold-calling, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

I hope this provides some insight and good luck!

Miller McSwain · Answer

@Anthony C PalacinoI have not. I've heard of people finding VAs on onlinejobs.ph and upwork.com . These could be good starting points. Also, there are probably more expensive VA services that have already been trained to Cold Call. Finding some of those may also be a good option.

Kevin Smith · Answer

Thank you sir!

Scott Bottomley · Answer

@Kevin Smith

I sent you an inbox message. Building an entire system before you’ve tried any outreach can be a recipe for disaster/expensive

Anthony C Palacino · Answer

@Miller McSwain,  Did you locate a good VA service for cold calling?

Kevin Smith · Answer

Thanks for all the input! To simplify, I'm not looking to have a full fledged business before starting. Just tools to start with but not just any starter tools.

For example,  I want to call to find motivated sellers and put a phone number on bandit signs that isn't my personal number. I could use a free Google Voice number but I don't think I'll be using that for any extended length of time. So I'd rather use a tool that I'll continue to use past the 1st deal or 2. I don't need a VA or receptionist, but something more advanced than a personal Google Voice line.

Then just a few tools of that substance in other areas. Propstream seems to be one.

Thanks again!

Patrick Jackson · Answer

@Kevin Smith good start is a system that you have the flexibility to grow with your business. You will get a gazillion responses and it can become overwhelming. My motto has always been build your business operations first and bring on the resources, tools etc that accommodates you at that time and place. Your business model will change and so should your resources. Subscriptions services have little flexibility to allow customization for growth and some have god awful monthly fees.

Best tools for a brand new Wholesaler?

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