All Forum Posts by: Adrienne Bryson

I personally don't care for the concept of a "pitch".  Many of the sellers you will be working with are dealing with tough situations and approaching it like a sleazy used car salesman just isn't tactful.

It's not the pitch that gets the deal, its your relationship with the seller.  Establish rapport by having a conversation and actually caring about the person you're dealing with (and please do remember that this is a person not a paycheck).  Listen to what their needs and concerns are, why the house is a burden to them and why they're looking to sell it.  Then use that information and approach it like you're helping them solve a problem, rather than like you're a sales[wo]man trying to snag a deal.  In this conversation you can explain to them that you are part of a team of investors, that this team buys houses "like yours" and help solve problems.

Like Tayler said, it's best for you to let the seller name their price and work from there.

If you go to the "Education" drop down menu, then to "Guides", there are various guides that will at the very least help you understand the process and figure out what your next step should be.  First read Ultimate Beginner's Guide, How to Start Wholesaling, and How to Analyze Deals.  And if you're interested, How to Become a Real Estate Agent.

Then (also under Education) go to "Blog Topics" and click "Wholesaling". The "Starting out in REI" and "Marketing" blogs should also be helpful.

Basically this entire site is extremely helpful haha  

 I think you'd be adding unnecessary steps into the process for no real reason.  If you already have a buyer's list, you should have already gotten that information from your buyers. You should already know not only what types of deals they're looking for (fix & flip, commercial, raw land, etc), but also what areas they prefer to buy in (and which areas they absolutely will NOT buy in), what their price ranges are, what level of rehab they are comfortable with, how they will be financing their purchases, how often they buy, if they're open to seller financing, how much profit they're looking to make per deal, their desired cap rate or ROI, how many units or how many beds/baths, etc etc etc.

You should ask every potential buyer all those things when they first ask to be put on your list.  This is a more efficient strategy than either finding deals and scrambling to find buyers, or adding additional legal red tape which only increases the amount of time it takes for you to get each deal.  The name of the game is efficiency.  Wholesaling is already low yield strategy so the goal is to decrease the time, money, and effort put into each deal.

Go back to your buyers and get all this information FIRST before you do any more shopping for potential deals, so you can avoid wasting any more marketing dollars (and time and effort) on potential deals that will never get bought.

I don't know how successful you'd be posting "WE BUY HOUSES" ads... just because there are so many of them.  But hey, doesn't cost you anything so it's worth a try!  I'd say just post as often as you can, every few days or so, to stay afloat in the sea of similar ads.

Post in the housing section and in the "real estate services" section.

A lot of people use the search feature on craigslist rather than just browsing by section.  So make sure you have "buzz words" in you post and especially in your title so you show up when people are looking for you!

Do a search for the various topics you're curious about (yellow letters, yellow letters vs post cards, listsource, etc).  Tons of great info in the blogs and forums and plenty of people sharing their actual response rates!

@Angela Brown connect with me and I'll share what I use

Just a stab in the dark here.  Is it an area where a housing development would work?  Perhaps you could reach out to some developers...?

Talk to some well established wholesalers and investors in your area and they can tell you.

Just "hanging around" BP you'll get a pretty good idea where the investors are.  Read through the local forums, you should see more "chatter" about certain areas than others.  Set up keyword alerts for Massachusetts or browse through members that live there and check out where they are.

Yes as Dustin said you can search lead list sites for properties bought for cash and that will also give you a good idea where investors are.  You can even narrow it all the way down to zip code and really target the most active areas so you don't waste marketing dollars on "dead zones".

First, to answer your questions:

1. Getting a property under contract is exactly what it sounds like.  You and your seller sign a contract detailing the purchase price and terms you agree on.  In general there is no money involved in this part it's literally just signatures (except earnest money, but most wholesalers either don't put any earnest money down or put a relatively small amount like $20-$500).  There are purchase contracts in the file place.  Go read through them to get an idea what you'll be dealing with.  I recommend seeking legal counsel when it comes to actually drafting a contract to use.

2. Yes you can get an REO under contract. But banks will not allow contract assignment so your best bet is back to back closing. In other words, you buy it, then resell it.

Some personal notes:

Go ahead and get that notion of wholesaling with no money out of your head.  It's a lie.  You have to put something in to get something out.  True, you can technically wholesale with little money, there's certainly less money needed than to actually invest.  But nothing in this world is free.  At the very least you'll need money for marketing.  Lots of people spend thousands of dollars just sending out their first mailer.

On that note, it is very possible to spend very little and be successful ("very little" being a relative term; obviously $500 is pennies compared to buying a $6MM multifamily, but if you are unemployed and struggling it can seem like an impossible amount).  HOWEVER like I said you have to put something in to get something out.  You will have to put in a lot of time and effort in order to save money.

When you say you "can't actually afford to purchase anything"...are you sure?  There are plenty of ways to buy without having $200k cash in hand.  What happens when you get a contract and don't have/can't find a buyer?

House hack!  Buy a small multifamily so you can still get traditional financing, live in one unit and rent the rest.  Best of both worlds.  You will get a "permanent" residence AND passive income.  Buying a house just to live in is a waste of money unless you have really good reason to need a detached single family...and I say this as someone who bought a primary residence first and now wish I had used my down payment on my first investment instead!