All Forum Posts by: Cam Harris

The numbers:

3 BR/1.5 BA SFH in good neighborhood with an in-ground pool

Sale price: $80K

Estimates renovation costs: $35K

ARV: $175K to $185K

Essentially the owner is an older gentlemen who was working on getting the property renovated but health issues have prevented him from putting the time and work into it. If he can’t sell the home in the next 30 days, he’s just going to sit on it for another year and see if his health has improved then.

I got into wholesaling as a side hustle to help pay off student loans faster (which has been a success!) but because the income generated was going directly into an obligation, I don't currently have the cash on hand to cover a down payment for a hard money loan. On the flip side, because the feds haven't reported my student loan payments yet, I don't have the credit score to qualify for an FHA loan.

I still want to get in on this deal because it is such an opportunity though.

My idea is to approach the seller again and offer a joint venture where we leverage the home to secure a renovation line of credit. At that point, I would oversee the renovation and do much of the work myself (this home is about 30 min from where I currently live). When the home sales, we split the proceeds 60/40. This would net him approximately $105K (more than he would receive now) and leave me with $70K. I would also cover the line of credit and interest. So I would net somewhere around $30K (significantly more than simply wholesaling the property and roughly the same as a fix and flip if I were to get a hard money loan but without the down payment)

I expect the time to market to be approximately 6 months.

Would love feedback from some of the more experienced investors.

I’ll try to keep it short...

This would be my first deal so no current assets to leverage. There’s a condo unit in a high demand area that’s up for bank owned foreclosure auction and will go for way below value.

Estimated auction purchase price of $135K. No deferred maintenance, but with some minor cosmetic upgrades (paint, hard wood, dishwasher installation) the unit would easily go for at least $195K or rent for $1500/mo.

Because the property is already in good condition, the turnaround time would be less than 12 months.

My question: is it even possible to find a private lender that would finance the full auction purchase price given the abundance of upside, minimal risk and quick turnaround? If not, how could this creatively be financed to prevent putting money down?

Thought this might serve as some inspiration/motivation for investors who are struggling to remain competitive or source leads in a crowded market.

Our CEO joined CNBC today for a segment and story on what we are calling the National Home Team Deal Finders Network (https://www.nationalhometeam.com/deal-finders-network/).

Basically, we are recruiting Uber/Lyft/DoorDash drivers to scout potential leads for us. They submit properties they run across through an app, and if we close the deal, they get paid $500.

This is one of the strategies we are using to source deals in the 20+ markets in which we are active. And it’s working really well. So far, we have about 150 drivers signed up who have submitted 2200 leads collectively. We close 1 deal for every 150-180 leads submitted. We plan on a huge expansion of the Deal Finders Network in the coming months - and we plan on closing many, many more deals because of it!

CNBC article and segment can be found here (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/07/home-flippers-hire-uber-lyft-drivers-to-find-edge-in-housing-market.html)

What are some of the strategies and innovations you’re using as the market gets more crowded?

I’ll admit - I’m new to the real estate world. I’ve spent the past 7-8 years in politics - as a campaign manager, operative, and consultant. And ironically, one of the biggest mistakes I’m seeing new investors make is the SAME mistake new candidates make when they decide to run for office.

They get ahead of themselves. Jump in the deep end before learning to swim. And don’t build out the basic things that 1) give their campaign credibility and 2) ensure that everything they do going forward has maximum impact.

You wouldn’t believe how many candidates launch their campaign without having a campaign website... 🤦‍♂️

But think about it.. how many new investors start hawking deals without a system in place to process, tag, organize, and leverage leads?

How many new investors start throwing money at Facebook ads without even learning how to install a Facebook pixel on their site?

That’s why - if you’re a new investor - you need to think about your timeline just like you’re a candidate running for office. On every campaign, we spend the FULL WEEK before our public launch making sure that all of our ducks are in a row.

Website? ✔️ All social media pages live? ✔️ Do we know exactly how we are going to manage email signups, new donors, or potential volunteers? ✔️

Take a week... a FULL week... and make sure your online marketing isn’t cutting any corners. Because believe me - you’re just leaking time and money if it is.

A few task Ideas for this one week push to build a better “operation” than your competitors:

- Learn how to do an SEO audit on your site; find some good keywords, and optimize your content to snag organic leads

- Speaking of leads, make sure that your lead gen systems are 1) automated and 2) defined. When Rob from Tampa signs up for our newsletter, he automatically is tagged, uploaded to our email management service, and receives a personalized “thank you” for signing up.

- I can’t stress this one enough. Install all of the necessary analytics tools on your site and figure out how and when you’re going to review that data.

- Decide how you’re going to get relevant data from Point A to Point B. Then test It - You don’t want to have a potential sellers email address in one database and cell number in another. Your conversion rates will suffer if they are.

I get it - you get into this and you just want to find deals. But trust me when I say ... taking a FULL WEEK to do nothing but perfect your business’ Standard Operating Procedure will pay dividends in the long run.

A long list of buyers and a scalable process for identifying sellers is one of the most profitable things you can have in this business. The only way to gain those is to put in the work up-front to save yourself from having to figure out how to fit that part of your marketing strategy in.

If you’re unsure about what you should be focusing on during this one-week “campaign launch,” let me know. Always more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Nice!  Just make sure you have a solid setup for your Analytics/Pixels/Tags as well! Not only will that give you additional data on your leads, but it will let you remarket, build lookalike audiences, etc. 

Your approach to marketing should be a lot like your approach to wholesaling itself - you have to cut through the noise and get creative.  The first thing you need to do, however, is lay the foundation.  Make sure you have a website, start branding yourself.  Put all the tools in place that you'll need (a good email marketing platform that allows you to automate, a solid and sleek lead generation flow, a concerted SEO strategy, etc).  A lot of people will just go out and start buying ads, but if the systems aren't in place first, a lot of leads (and money!) will fall through.