All Forum Posts by: Adrien C.

Hi Bertram- welcome to BP. Where in Indiana are you looking to wholesale? 

it's a short sale so mortgage holder needs to approve and probably not likely until it's listed and there was a good faith effort to sell it for more. Owner can pay the difference but if he had the cash, he probably wouldn't be in this situation. 

Google has a mapping app. Upload excel and it pins the properties. You figure best route. It's free. Microsoft Streets & Maps does the same but it will calculate the most efficient route from a specific starting point. It's not free. 

motivation is situational and zero percent related to length of ownership. You could have a property purchased a year ago in cash by a wannabe flipper. Not knowing enough, they jumped into a property and couldn't handle the total scope of repairs. Now very motivated to get out from under this. Or someone who purchased a turn key 4 yrs ago and is burnt out or whatever and wants out fast. Plus divorces, inherited properties, job relocation, etc. none of those circumstances correlate to length of ownership. 

I'd suggest on your next list to limit by equity % instead. That way when you find a motivated seller, there's room to get a good deal. 

no, this is the only one. Sorry 

please do lots of research and ask lots of questions to experienced wholesalers who are doing it honestly and correctly BEFORE you even approach a seller. Have a huge buyers list and exit strategies and contracts all set up BEFORE you talk with a seller. It's a fun career when you do it correctly and with integrity. 

The problem with newbies is they don't learn how to do it before doing it. I tagged "wholesaling" a week ago because I want to learn the proper way to do it. I can't tell you how many times new post with a title like "help, have contract- now what" or something along those lines. No buyers, no cash, and no exit strategy but hey, at least they have a seller. They think it's an easy way to make money and get into REI. But it's not and next month they're chasing the next rainbow while serious wholesalers have to deal with their manure.

Put your ducks in a row. Learn how to do it. Get your paperwork in place (contracts, PAs, etc). Have a title company set up to close. Have a freaking buyers list. ETC. ETC.  Do your due diligence before you even talk with a seller. 

Rants over- back to learning. 

thinking about it, I was equating vacant house and absentee owner to being the same. I'm on the list I got for my rental property. I'll still target the vacant owners.

Check out NW Indiana- the forgotten Chicago suburb.  It's a great place to invest because we get the Chicago money (several towns are bedroom communities for Chicago commuters) plus the low taxes and friendly landlord regs. I've never had an issue with my rental because people jump the border for the better schools (vs south Chicago suburbs) yet lower cost of living. The only downside to investing in IN is alcohol sales; you can't buy on Sunday.

Howdy- I am a wholesaler. I love the hunt of finding a good property. One thing I do is drive for dollars. I drop my kids off at school at 8am and don't have to be at my office until 9am so I drive up and down the neighborhoods.  I know the 2 towns I'm targeting very well so I pick neighborhoods to drive on garbage day. It helps to confirm a vacant house when they have overgrown landscaping/grass plus no garbage out. I can usually find 8-10 houses per drive. On Fridays, I schedule a half day at work and use the rest of the day to look up records to find the owner. As much as I like the hunt, I realize it's not the most efficient use of time/resources. Today I purchased a list (vacant homes, in/out state owners, 60-100% equity). The list had 270 addresses in the two towns (total population about 40K). The initial list was at 1200 before I added in the equity factor.

I searched the addresses I gathered from driving to the list and out of 25 in this town, not one showed up. Is this because the house isn't really vacant or is it because the house probably doesn't fit the equity parameter I set? Do you think it's still worth the time to track down the owner and mail letters?

Thanks for your input