All Forum Posts by: Brian Wheeler

Hello, I am wondering if anyone has any good cold calling scripts they use when getting in contact with property owners to see if they want to sell their buildings? 

You can defenatly try. Make sure if you look for a partner that they have two things, 1. skills that you don't have or can do better than you and 2. The same vision and goals.

@April Molina My suggestion would be to try both of them out and see which method works best and stick to that. My issue with buying leads (I have bought leads and still do) is that they are not always 100% correct. Some of the information is outdated and is a dollar wasted. However, you can reach a wider audience of potential sellers. The thing I like about finding my own leads is that you will learn a lot about your market or any new market you plan to target. You can see first hand the structure of the neighborhood and the vibe you get from it. Don't forget you can see that ugly house on the corner that has potential. Again, there are pros and cons to each so you should test both out and see which one works best for you and stick with what works.

@Alex Kamunyo the truth is no one is ever "ready" for their first deal. Until you get your first project done, you won't be prepared for all of the ebbs and flows that come along with it. By waiting until you "feel ready," you will add the time it takes you to get your first deal done.

Since you are in college, you have a tiny bit of time left. My advice to you would be to start networking with other flippers in your area and let them know that you are getting started. Real estate is a people business; you will be surprised at how much investors want to help each other. Let the investors know that you know nothing about flipping, but want to learn. Find someway to bring value to their investments (your engineering degree for example) either by providing some financial equity or sweat equity. It will allow you to work side by side with them and see how the whole process works.

@Melissa Delgaudio my advice would be to STAY AWAY from auctions at all cost. There are a couple of reasons for this. First off, most auctions you cannot walk through before you start bidding, so it is purely gambling (unless your luck is supernatural you won't last.) Second is that, if in fact, you do get to walk the property you will be bidding against other investors. This will severely reduce the profit in the deal, where you make money in real estate is finding those quality properties at a discount and add significant value. Auctions so against my investment strategy so I would stay away from them, that is not to say you can't find deals as there are people who have success with them, but they are few and far between.

@Jonathan Roveto there are pros and cons to both. The pro with having an additional business with your own real estate investments is that you can save a ton of money on repairs by having the service done in house (especially with property management.) You also get the advantage of an extra flow of income by others using your service. The con is that it will add more to your plate to get this additional business to become profitable, you may or may not be able to continue your investments the way you want because you will take your focus off to create this new business. I would suggest that if you are seriously thinking about starting another business that you have someone who you trust and is competenet to run one end of the business so that you can focus on starting up another. Make sure that your first flow is stable enough to the point where you don't have to pay attention to it anymore and that it can run on its own without you being active in it. 

@Jarvis Davis my answer would be that it is 100% up to you and how they help you reach your goals. If you want a big payout every 3-6 months and have another job then flip, if you want checks coming in every single month then you should apparently rent. I am a commercial guy, so I like the income stream. Obviously, the big difference is that commercial properties will give you a larger monthly income. It depends on your goals and what you want to get out of real estate and then structure your investments that way.

@Ivan Enriquez it all depends, what size and font your signs are and where you put them are all factors that determine if your signs get noticed in the first place. If someone is really motivated, they will call on anything that has "sell your house fast." Where you are located has a huge impact as well, when I used bandit signs the leads were not that great, a couple here and there peaked my interest, but were not solid. It is tough to qualify bandit sign leads, but that's not to say they don't work. Your municipality could also be strict with bandit signs and might: take them down, give you a fine if they see you putting them up, call you to try and give you a fine or all of the above so you should check with your city first. Since you are strapped for cash, having enough signs is going to cost you a couple hundred bucks. You probably have friends in college so my suggestion would be to find the ones who have delivery jobs that are constantly going to different neighborhoods. They see all the houses on the block and can give you addresses for the individual type of property that fits your criteria granted to explained to them what to look for. Give them $500 of your profit, and everyone is happy.

Hope this helps, PM me if there is anything else I can do.

I'm going to assume that you are asking if you should pursue them before they go to auction...in that case, of course, you need to. That is the sellers last week to try and save what little money they have left before it is auctioned off, so the motivation should be through the roof. You need to be quick though, and you should have already walked the property and lined up the buyer that is ready to sign, once the property goes to auction you will be bidding against other investors and your chance at getting that property at a discount enough to wholesale is virtually 0. Hope this helps, PM me if you have any more questions.

Depends, some people have almost 0 expenses as they have friends and family going out and bringing them leads and paying them at the end. If they give them $500 per deal they close and close 10 deals a year and make an average of $5,000 you could factor a 10% expense ratio. When I was wholesaling full time my average rato was around 13-15%  because I just hustled and had others find leads for me. Amazing what offering others a fee for finding a property can do. What are you currently doing for lead generation and what target expense ratio are you aiming for?