All Forum Posts by: Cornelius Garland

I disagree strongly with this and I'm going to assume you haven't wholesaled, correct? I've been part of many 7-figure wholesaling operations working as a partner and marketing director, and while there are not a lot of them, there are several companies operating at a high level. One operation I worked with invested $40k monthly in their marketing and I was responsible for allocating these funds efficiently. Additionally, wholesaling is merely one exit strategy. Honestly, the majority of flippers I work with wholesale plenty. They cannot flip every deal or pass them to an agent because the margins are too thin on a 3% commision.

This type of rhetoric really discourages individuals who may not have the starting capital from a trust fund to jumpstart their rehab or rental investing operation.

In short, a very lazy answer Nick.

Yes, I closed several virtual deals in the Tampa MSA. However, I would say that recently haven't targeted the area just because the median sales prices are so high. Much of the distressed inventory with equity was turned over from 2018 - 2022 and then prices started increasing. This is causing several investors to compete for a small cohort of properties.

Thanks, Andrew. I target a combination of distressed owner occupants and absentee records. I have targeted filters on them and try to stick to homes that were purchased for less than $100,000 and with over 10 years of ownership. I also eliminate homes sitting on over a half an acre lot since these are usually in the rural part of town or affluent properties on a golf course, lake, etc.

I use IDI data primarily and have a contract with them. I've been rocking with them since 2019 and it's the best data on the market, in my opinion. Feel free to ask me any other questions on here. I love talking about data and marketing!

Hey @Banjelsn Ambriz, check out Kind Skip Tracing or a tool that uses IDI data. IDI is really the best but Kind can get you by. Both of the aforementioned services have over 97% hit rates with less than 2% of these being wrong numbers. For LLC searches, I've found that IDI is really the only one that can find accurate registered agents and contact information for them.

If you want to find relatives and do a deep search, check out findtheseller.com. They use TLO data and are accurate as well. You'll get a comprehensive report of relatives and known associates.

For the free route, check out familytreenow.com. I found the addresses are very accurate but the numbers can be hit or miss. It's worth a try and you can also locate relatives, which I've found are accurate on the site.  

 There we go! A human answer. Dylan is a real person.Lol

False. It defeats the purpose of the forums by posting Chat GPT content. If they wanted that type of content on Bigger Pockets then they would just integrate AI. If you’re creating content to get clients, which you are, then that’s a very lazy way to do it. 

 Tell me you used Chat GPT without telling me you used Chat GPT...

I know what it feels like just starting your wholesaling journey. You look around and feel overwhelmed. You see the “We Buy Houses” billboards on the interstate and hear radio ads from big flipping companies. And you start asking yourself:

“What’s the point? How can I compete with these guys? Why would a seller ever choose me over them?”

Here’s the truth: while those companies may have more resources and experience, they also operate very conventionally. That’s where your opportunity lies—by doing what they overlook.

When I first started, I didn’t have deep pockets, but I had two things those bigger companies didn’t: hunger and urgency. I was working as an intelligence contractor at Fort Bragg while launching my wholesaling business. What I didn’t know when I took the job was that they planned to deploy me. One deployment with the Army was already enough for me—I knew I couldn’t go through it again. That reality lit a fire under me. I had to make this business work before they shipped me out, and that motivation gave me an edge many established investors simply didn’t have.

And that’s what I want you to understand: if you want it badly enough, you can make this happen. The first year in wholesaling comes with a lot of growing pains—buyers snaking deals behind your back, losing money on marketing, sellers backing out last minute. It happens to everyone. It’s a rite of passage. But each setback teaches you how to become sharper, stronger, and more resilient.

So how do you gain an unfair advantage over bigger competitors? Here are three ways that worked for me:

Tip 1: Get Your Hands Dirty
Back in 2016, I contracted a deal in downtown Charleston that dozens of people were chasing. I ordered a manual skip-trace report with over 100 phone numbers of relatives and associates. My partner and I called every single one—multiple times—until we finally reached the seller’s son. By coincidence, he was stationed at Fort Bragg, where I worked. I met him during my lunch break, built rapport, and he introduced me to his mother, the actual seller.

She was going through foreclosure and couldn’t even bring herself to enter the house after her husband’s passing. We helped her clear out personal belongings, comforted her through an emotional process, and stalled the foreclosure process by getting a Power of Attorney to communicate with the foreclosure attorney and bank until we found a buyer. That deal paid us $15,000—our biggest assignment at the time—but more importantly, it saved her from foreclosure and gave her peace of mind.

Now ask yourself: would a big company with acquisitions managers and VAs “punching the clock” have gone through all that? Probably not. That’s where being willing to get your hands dirty gives you the advantage.

Tip 2: Go Where Others Won’t
When I started, I focused heavily on a neighborhood in North Charleston called Union Heights—a place most investors avoided and labeled a “war zone.” Instead of competing in crowded areas, I flooded Union Heights with direct mail. Nearly every property had title issues, but our attorney specialized in cleaning them up. We averaged $3k assignments per lot, and many sellers owned multiple lots. We averaged 2 - 3 closings per week over a 2-year period. This neighborhood, alone, sustained my wholesaling company for years and we had ZERO competition.

Over time, we wholesaled about 1/6th of the neighborhood to one developer. He accumulated nearly 100 lots, mostly from us, and transformed the community with new construction. That area, once written off as blight, is now one of Charleston’s most up-and-coming neighborhoods.

Would a large “We Buy Houses” company fight through 100 title issues and heirs property disputes? Maybe once or twice, but not at scale. That’s where smaller wholesalers can shine.

Tip 3: Market on Weekends
Here's a strategy I used early on that made a huge difference: I marketed on Saturdays and Sundays. Most big investment companies only call or text Monday through Friday. Same with lead-gen services and VA companies.

But weekends are when sellers are home, relaxed, and near their phones. Yes, I worried about being an annoyance, but the trade-off was clear: I could reach people no one else was reaching. For the first three years, weekend marketing gave me higher connection rates and more leads than sticking to weekdays alone.

In Summary
Yes, you can compete with larger operations, even in big markets. But you can’t do it by copying their playbook as they’ll always have more resources and systems. Your advantage is in being unconventional, staying hungry, and doing the work others won’t.

Stay motivated. Stay persistent. Your breakthrough is coming. The only way you fail is if you quit.

For sure. I use REI Reply. You can get Twilio pricing with no mark up. Was $.0075 per outbound text and they recently increased it to 1 cent per text, which is still a great price. Let me know if you have any other questions.

My apologies for the confusion. I'll clarify, Drew. I started texting around 2019; however, it wasn't my primary marketing channel and I wasn't doing a ton of volume until early-2022. Due to market saturation, I stopped in late-2022. 

I started again in October 2023 after the 10 DLC regulations went into effect. It essentially gave us a blank slate to work with as it eliminated all foreign marketing companies from texting because you need an American LLC to become compliant. At the same time, most domestic investors were lost on how to get their accounts compliant, so this eliminated over 90% of the investors who were texting sellers.

After a year break, I started back again and now it's my primary marketing channel. Please let me know if you want me to elaborate.