All Forum Posts by: Alison M.

Surpised no one has answered this. My first-tier list of top buyers is about 35-50 people. My next tier is 200-300. If I still have the property after that then I go to the local REIA meeting lists, which exposes the deal to thousands.

I try very hard to sell what I have to my first- or second-tier lists, which are made up mostly of people I have at least met.

I spent 20 years in IT creating and digging into industrial-strength databases for all sorts of purposes. Because of that I've never found a canned CRM I wanted to use, and I don't want to code my own. Instead I use a different kind of CRM system that I designed using a kanban board. Kanban is a productivity/project management tool and was developed in the 1950's at Toyota.

Think of a kanban board as your on-line deal whiteboard with columns for stages of the deal, and entries under each column. I use Trello - www.trello.com a free, simplified on-line version that allows you to build your own boards in about 5 seconds.

In Trello I created columns for stages of the deal: Called, Qualified, Walk Through, Offer, Contract, Close. In each column I have a card (like a virtual index card) with all the info I could ever need about the seller, the house, etc. The cards themselves have a lot of built-in capabilities to let you share with your team, set times and due dates, label in colors, and more.

The best part is that as the deal progresses through my deal pipeline I merely drag the card from one column to another depending on what's happened. I can see all my deals in play in one glance, see where they are in the pipeline, and can drill down as needed to see the details on any single deal. Nothing falls through the cracks, contact info is never lost, and I don't have to map fields, modify labels, run reports, do Db maintenance or conversions, or anything else to get the info I need.

The only thing I haven't done with Trello is import my entire mailing list so that I can have my universe of possible prospects available. However every caller and lead gets a card, and it makes following up very easy since I can see everything in a single top-level view.

@Aaron Mazzrillo , I think the question is "how do you buy so many properties so fast and not run into debt/income ratio problems or limits on how many you can get financed?" I think many people would be interested in your answer to that!

Thanks all for your speedy feedback, it's helping. A couple more clarifying points on this particular situation:

--it is a very hot tear-down market and there are at least 5-6 other developers working on new construction homes within a .25 radius, all paying in the same general price range for similar lots.

--there is a bit of room for me to bid up over the competition's bid and still have a good shot a wholesaling the deal.

@Karen Margrave I appreciate your feedback because I know you are a developer and can wear that hat, and because OC is probably not too different in price points and competition than suburban DC.

@Brock Siebert and @Jerry W. , you've convinced me that there is no way to do my option #1 in a way that will stand up to the "billboard" test, so I am dropping that!

Any other suggestions?

@Account Closed - How does this work? Not familiar with offering cash in order to get the contract. Is that like a non-refundable EMD?

Also, non-refundable EMD or no, I don't think this seller would pick my contract if someone else is bidding higher than I am.

@Jerry W. Jerry I appreciate your comment about fraud etc. It felt that way to me which is why I posted in the first place. Your other point noted - if I outbid him, will I have outbid everyone in my market and then have a dud on my hands? Don't want to do that. I'd much rather create a win-win for all at a lower but still reasonable price.

Also, not sure what you mean by "or even see if he will give you a bird dog fee and let him bid to find it."

Part 1 of the sentence - I know what he would pay from previous discussions with him, and his current offer is close to the top of his range. It is also is close to the top of the range for other developers working in this town so I think the seller will be getting a good deal even as the price stands now, certainly if it goes up.

Part 2 is what I'm not clear on - "let him bid to find it." ?

Thanks, Alison

Hi all, I could use some advice from those who have been in this situation.

I am trying to get a particular parcel under contract with an out of town seller. My goal with it is to wholesale it to a developer in the same town who I already know.

I find myself in a bidding contest with one other entity, and I have good reason to strongly suspect it's the developer I want to wholesale to! I am sure the seller doesn't know we know each other, and I don't think the developer knows I'm the competition. Everyone is acting in good faith so far, as best I can tell.

So - what would you do in this situation? My thoughts are that I can:

1. Keep bidding and hope to be the last person standing, then wholesale to someone else since I will have beaten my client out of the deal;

2. Contact the developer (who I want to work with in the future) and clarify if it's him, and if so negotiate a finder's fee to get out of the way so he can get the lot before the price gets higher;

3. ????

Thanks!

David, I have been able to do that in DC but it's not an automatic thing. Be sure your contract includes a contingency that you can negotiate the taxes down as a condition of closing.

@Dev Horn , it's clear what "Mr.X" is doing - he's eliminating all the REI competition in DFW and setting up the "Bubbas" to do it! (And btw - it's pronounced "somb*tch" in the part of Texas where I lived - .)

J., I see you're in Brooklyn. Even in the big metropolis of NYC there must be real estate investor groups, meetings, etc where you can network and meet hard money lenders who will help you build a track record. There may even be some here on BP. A POF letter can make it much easier to get deals under contract, assuming it is valid and current.

As for EMD, most investors I know only put a small amount of money down on a property. The rationale is that if you're making many offers each week you can't afford to be making big EMDs. For wholesale deals I don't even make a deposit until I have a ratified contract, and no one has ever commented on it.