All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Barredo

Hello BP Family,

I would like to call some lawyers up and try to align myself with one of them for use in the future.

What type of question should I be asking to find out if they are a good fit for me and my business?

To fill you in on me (which will help you get an idea of how to answer) I'm a new wholesaler who plans to do assignment contracts in my deals. I also hope to find the occasional Sub2 or seller finance to begin acquiring my own cash flow generating rental properties.

Anyone from Tennessee? I'm currently buying a house and we're closing with a title company but can you also close with lawyers in this state?

Thanks for your help everyone. Happy Investing - as they say on the podcast.

@Rick H.

I appreciate your sentiment. "We all have moments of frustration" so am I not allowed my moment?

I am reading and reading but I take education and information wherever I can take it. Is BP a waste of time for me or something? I never said that I'd get all of my knowledge in threads.

How am I the one that makes people offer to help and schedule appointments and then they break it? How about this, if you seasoned investors don't really have time to help a newbie out than how about you all not waste our time with promises of coaching and educating us and then leaving us hanging. I'd say that is probably the #1 reason for so many failed statistics in this game.

I get it though, sometimes it's easier to beat up the guy that is just trying to share, right?

This post was just me venting for a sec.

@Jeff B. you're right, I dropped the emotion at 8am after posting this and my morning workout.

I got a stack of books, audiobooks on the ready, podcasts downloaded, and friends in the local REIA. I'm on the right track doing everything you already mentioned about education.

I hear a lot of you old cats preaching about education education but the message of BP is (at least I hear it constantly on the webinars and podcasts) is that you can't wait until you know it all because you never do.

I'm not going to allow myself to wait until that magic moment when I have exactly the right amount of education before I make my move. I'm 36 years old and I want to see my life change before I 65 or what's the point?

@Steve Haight The first guy is a broker who emailed me about helping with analyzing deals. We met at a local REIA and he offered to basically answer any questions I had a long the way and help me analyze any potential deal I brought to him and possibly buy it because he "is buying everything he can". He blatantly said he would coach me as long as I did the leg work, he would answer questions. He analyzed one deal, which I admit was pretty much a stretch of a deal, and then went dark. The second guy, a wholesaler, offered to help me build a buyers list. I said okay though I remember reading a lot that a person shouldn't need help with a buyers list. He then offered to basically train me in wholesaling, from showing me how to find cheap sources for bandit signs, to getting me cheap lead lists, and sending me training recordings of him closing deals and making offers to listen to. He offered all of this. I was like a kid on Christmas meeting Santa for the first time. As a newbie once, I'm sure you can see how enticing and awesome this would be and how pumped I was. Well, Friday was the last time we really connected. I sent him a long email stating that I don't expect anything from him and never did but if he were to really help me out I'd split all profits 50/50 with him as long as he was offering up some kind of help. Oh yeah, he initially asked to have access to a buyers list when I created it and of course I said sure. He wants to move into my county and would like to have me as boots on the ground and of course I said, "SURE!!!"

He gave me homework to do, probably to test my commitment, and I got it done in less than 2 hours. The homework was call the probate court and find out how to get a list. Done. Then to find a plastic wholesaler and get prices on bandit sign material. Done. Then to watch a video on systematizing wholesaling businesses sent to me in an email. Done. So it's not like I was procrastinating.

He went dark after responding to the email and saying he'd call me Monday. I've sent a text, voxer message, and an email just to see if he'd bleep on the radar. Nada.

It's okay though. I purchased a list on my own. Screw the discount. I'll mail it myself by the end of the month. I got some great advice from BP members on how to approach it on the cheap. I'll go the probate court and mail that list. I've uploaded my D4$ leads in Podio to track that. I don't need no stinking mentor. I got an invite to join the KnoxREIA where I will learn and connect with flesh and blood people. So BOOM!!!! OOH-RAH! I make things happen, Devil-Dawg.

Seriously though. Thanks for the responses. I just lifted weights and hit the punching bag so I feel much better.

The unlicensed assistant thing sounds interesting. Tell me more, por favor?

@Jay Hinrichs

I'm getting my license in January (that's when I start). 

What I meant by lawyer is when I get to closing I'll go through them. 

Again, these guys came to me. I don't know if you missed that but they reached out to me and offered to guide me. I was just doing my thing "trolling" bp when they sent me emails. 

But I got what you're saying. 

okay, I've been positive Pete for weeks upon weeks, I'm a US Marine and aggression comes natural do this was coming eventually (hope you don't mind but we all need to vent sometimes).

Why in the Hell are people so unreliable? ! I didn't go out of my way asking these people to mentor me or coach me. In both situations they came to me and asked to help me with something specific and then offered to help even more than originally planned. In short, they offered to be my coach and to be available. Then in both situations these guys made appointments with me to do this or that (usually the initial conference about how we would approach everything) and they go dark! 

It's not like I'm begging them for help. I'm not chasing them with texts or calls every thirty minutes all day. So what the Hell? 

Is this normal for real estate investors who make their lively hood on being dependable to act towards everyone or am I the butt-end of a joke that everyone else is in on but me? Is this what I have to look forward to in this community? 

And the funny thing is both these guys are established and licensed. They're professionals! At least on paper. 

With that being said, screw it. I'm not waiting on them to give me sound advice or fill in the blanks. I'm diving in head first and taking action solo. I'll call a lawyer and keep him up to date in case I see trouble in the water. At least he knows he'll get paid and shouldn't jump ship. Then again I offered to split my earnings with those "mentors" and look what happened. 

And I know you're out there. I see your posts! 

Okay, I'm done and fine now. 

I just bought a list off of Melissadata and it has a message that says "one-time rental use only".

What does that mean, exactly?

Also, I noticed that on listsource I had one list of 2,000 people for like $400, a list for a 1,000 at just a little less, than a list for 600 for only $104. Why such the drastic difference? It wouldn't accept my credit card, anyway so I went with Melissadata. A much larger list than I wanted but it at least accepted my card.

As always, thanks for your help.

@zachary tetley

Thanks a lot. Just message me. 

Does anyone have an opinion about La Follette's market?

I have a motivated seller and she and her husband inherited a 3/1 SFR, 1443sqft on a .5 acre lot off of S 25W Hwy right off of I75 about an hour north of downtown Knoxville.

If the addition meets code, it's actually a 4/1.

The tax records says it's got a TMV of $43,500 and a realtor I know gave it an ARV of $80-$100,000.

The absentee owners live out of state and have already had a horrible experience with nightmare tenants and they don't want to deal with it anymore. She gave the inside of the home a rating of 5 out of 10, and told my partner it needs wiring so I'm going to guess that it needs a gut job.

I haven't been up there yet because I am afraid to take it on as my first wholesale because of where it is. I don't know the market and my last trip up there showed me a small rural town with very little growth. However, considering her desire to get it under contract by next week makes me think I could probably get this house for dirt cheap.

Any rehabbers or landlords in Knoxville have an opinion on the subject? I don't want to leave this woman hanging but I was supposed to call her last night and here it is almost Thursday evening and I haven't contacted her. I don't want to say no if it's a good deal but I don't want to get her in a contract and then let her down, putting her right back in her original position.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Allison B.

I want to attest to two things:

1. Everything you typed is correct and I a D4$$ and in 3 weeks created a mailing list of 60 absentee owners and 30 owner occupied homes. I have mailed out to them once already. Total cost for that has been less than $30 (yellow paper pads for yellow letters, pens to handwrite them, envelopes, and stamps, as well as a one month subscription to Intelius.com to find out weather these people are deceased or alive and if they have email addresses and phone numbers incase I get the courage to cold call).

2. The power of networking on BP is unbelievable. I recently connected with a very successful wholesaler, who I'll keep anonymous because he may not want me to call him out in public, through commenting on forums and reaching out with questions. He has literally taken me under his wing and has already committed to paying for my bandit signs, creating a training program for me to follow, gave me actionable homework, bought my first mailing list and is basically going to invest in me until I get that first deal. I'll pay him back as we move forward for what he will spend and the best part is he hasn't even asked for me to split the total fees I collect with him (though I totally would if it does come up later). He just wants me to share my buyers list with him once I have a substantial collection of buyers on it (which he is also going to show me how to do).

He doesn't realize it yet but he just got himself a committed and loyal trainee that will turn partner/colleague for life. Or maybe he sees it but hasn't brought it up yet, idk.

Point being, I've committed financially and mentally to this investment track just a month ago and though I haven't made a deal it has been amazing how quickly I have connected with people that have offered up help.

I am 100% sure that I will close a deal or two or ten by the end of the year. Next year looks so exciting to me. Big things are going to happen.