All Forum Posts by: April L. Williams

I've read many opinions on this topic, but I would like to get everyone's opinion on BP that has been a wholesaler as to what you feel is the best way to find properties? I know some wholesalers send out mass emails, postcards, yard signs, cold calling, word-of-mouth, etc? I've also heard of wholesalers purchasing properties on auction. From my own personal readings/searches, I have found that it appears that REO's are the best route to go if purchasing properties online as it's the least amount of hassle. Has anyone found this to be true?

I have not signed up for BP Pro yet, but intend on doing that very soon. However, I'm trying to save as much money as I can right, learn as much as I can, before spending funds I don't have, which leads me to my next few questions. 1.) Does BP have wholesale contracts on its website you can use? 2.) If BP contracts are already reviewed by an attorney per each state, then do I really need to hire an attorney? 3.) Can you gain access to BP wholesale contracts with Pro membership? 4.) Is their a good place/resource I can go to in order to learn how to add clauses to a contract depending on the type of wholesale entered into? 5.) Are there any wholesale contracts on BP that were not available that you had to find elsewhere? 6.) Lastly, are their any wholesale contracts on BP you would DEFINITELY recommend??

Thanks in Advance, 

April

If I do not have any capital other than $30,000 in credit cards @ 0% for 15 months, do I really need to get a hard money loan to put a house under contract?? For the last 3 months I assumed (up until this past week) that as a wholesaler the process was: 1.) get pre-approved for hard money loan; 2.) find the house on auction & purchase with my credit card; 3.) call up hard money loan lender to get the funds to pay for the property; 4.) find a buyer & sale property to them.   However, I keep reading posts/internet searches where people are saying you do NOT need a loan of "any kind" to purchase a property as a wholesaler, that you simply "put it under contract". Ok, how does that exactly work?? If you send out tons of marketing materials to potential sellers, find a seller, make cash offer, then how can you possibly pay that seller cash-in-hand if you don't get it through hard money lending?

If you offer cash-in-hand to a seller, are you expected to pay that money right there on the spot...or within so many days, and if so, how much later down the road? And, if you don't have to give a seller cash, for say 2 weeks and you don't find a buyer within that 2 weeks, then are you still stuck with having to buy that house from the seller without any funds?? 

And, if you purchase property on auction, most auctions expect payment within 1-2 days in full or you lose the money you've already bid, but yet hard money lenders take up to 2 weeks to get approved....?? Do hard money lenders give you money up front before going to auctions??

As you can see, I've got bits & pieces I been trying to put together to come up with a strategy, but need a little help. It's frustrating when people assume you are letting your fear get in the way of "just doing it!" But, to me, jumping into a lake without knowing how to swim is not too bright. As my mother used to say, "I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday".....:)

I'm not into rentals, I do wholesales.  But, this does affect me if I have buyers afraid to enter the rental market and/or getting out of rentals. Personally, I could be wrong, but really think our government does not know what to do about this issue and have basically put this off on landlords to deal with for 4 months in the hopes all this COVID stuff will blow over, biding them time to figure out what to do when that 4 months is up. If anything, at least make tenants pay 2/3 of the rent to at least cover the costs to landlords so they don't have to get rid of their rentals. At least, that's what I would do, if I were in a position to be able to hold my assets and ride this out.

I have many years experience in accounting, bookkeeping, and doing tax returns for personal/small business. However, I do not have any experience when it comes to real estate accounting, which I know can be an entire different ball of was. I was looking at using QuickBooks Online, which I've used in the past. Does anyone on here have any suggestions as to any bookkeeping software they use and/or if you've used QuickBooks Online for your real estate investments? Since I already use Excel spreadsheets, I was hoping to continue to use my spreadsheets (for the time being) on a cash method system. I only need to track wholesales (which is probably what I'm going to be doing), so it won't be like I'm needing to keep up with rehab projects or anything complex at the moment. And, one more question, if anyone can answer this by chance. I have a significant amount in start-up costs I need to write off, which I know you can only write-off up to $5,000, for which the rest has to be amortized over (I think) 3 years, but I'm just wondering, in the eyes of the IRS, when is an investment business considered to be "up and running" so to speak in which start-up costs are then considered to be expenses on the Schedule C for a single-member LLC? Would the "start up date" of your business be considered the actual start date on your Articles of Organization? And if so, then would "start up costs" be considered anything prior to that start-up date on your A&O?? I tried looking this up with the IRS, but really could not find an answer that was affirmative. Thanks~April

Okay, I'm sure most have heard this scenario before, and although I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, I attended a "so-called" seminar 6 months ago to learn about real estate investing. I won't even mention how much money that cost me, as well as the late nights pulling my hair out, and chasing people down to do their job that's supposed to be "helping" me...lol....which brings me to the present. I feel I've learned a lot "about" real estate, but still not exactly sure what "area" of real estate I should take for my particular situation. I have very limited capital through credit cards, which I wasn't too crazy about, that I was told was my best option. I just want to be smart in my investments moving forward. I have high credit scores. I currently work from home, but not enough left over at end-of-month to put into my investment business. I've been told that hard money lenders are the way to go, but just skeptical because I've been given sales pitches the last 6 months, instead of training. My goal is to make real estate investing my new career and way of life, to possibly leave my job one day and do it full-time. However, I need to get some capital raised. Given the current situation, what type of real estate (wholesale, flips, rentals, etc.) would you advise someone like me to get into in order to keep snowballing my capital?? I'm not so much concerned about creating a steady income right now, as I live very meager and don't need a lot. I'm more concerned with creating as much money, as aggressively as I can, but in a smart way. Any suggestions/advice?? Thanks in Advance~April