All Forum Posts by: Chris Feltus

Hey Larry Nelson

Its normal to be nervous on your first couple meetings. The most important piece of advice I can impart is to to relax and be yourself and actually listen and to genuinely care for their situation. Most other investors bidding wont bother (assuming your in a situation with multiple bids).

When I first started this business I would go on appointments with unmotivated sellers on purpose just to build experience and work on establishing a rapport with people. By the end of these meetings they would be telling me stories about when they grew up in the house, or gossiping about the neighbors across the street. That's where you want to be. Going on meetings with unmotivated sellers quickly built my confidence up and allowed me to succeed when I encountered genuinely motivated sellers.

Beyond that make sure to continue to follow up with them from time to time if they reject your initial offer, whether by phone, email or snail mail. Situations change over time, and you want to be in front of them when it does.

As to what to bring here is what I would recommend
-Comps (two piles if possible sold that establish ARV and cash "as is" sales). You can use the "as is" sales to justify the price you are offering if they give you a hard time.
-Flashlight
-Contracts, Check for Earnest Money, Cash for option fee
-Your business cards & your closing title agents business cards
-Clipboard
-Offer sheet for them to keep

Let me know if I can offer you any more assistance, best of luck Larry :)

Shequann Burrwell You need to know the ARV (After Repair Value) and ERC (Estimated Repair Costs) BEFORE you put anything under contract. These two variables together are the basis for your offer on the home. Thus they are incredibly important in differentiating between what is a deal and what is a dud.

Otherwise, if you just go around locking up properties and figuring out repairs/ARV after the fact you are going to end up putting properties under contract that are not deals at all. You will tarnish your reputation with both sellers (if you are unable to close on their property) and buyers (if you market non-deals). If you don't have properties that are deals, then what value do you bring to the table as a wholesaler?

Other than that the order you listed is about right, but of course different things can crop up on a case by case basis from contract to closing (for instance cloud on title such as delinquent taxes etc.)

If you are just getting started get to know some local contractors with investor friendly prices. Here are some ideas: Pay them a flat rate to quickly go through and analyze the repairs on a given subject property (typically $50-$100). Don't lead them on and take advantage of them by doing continuous detailed repair estimates for free. Take contractors out to lunch and pick their brain, additionally email contractors and asked for their detailed itemized spreadsheets/PDFs for pricing, labor and materials. Follow up on any deals you close and make sure your end investor made the margins they expected to or better and see if they will let you walk through the property and let you know what they rehabbed and how much it cost. Its not a bad idea to walk through your local Home Depot or Lowe's and start to price items out either.

That should help get you started.

Great post Jerry Puckett. You mean to tell me there isn't a magic list out there full of home owners looking to sell RIGHT NOW?

At the end of the day its just like he described, look for various "red flags" indices that may indicate motivation in some form or another. Whether that comes in the form of probates or code violations.

Doug R. It can only benefit you. Not only will you have access to accurate comps from your local MLS, but it will give your sellers additional options. That last point cannot be overstated enough, people love more options.

They can either choose to do a quick cash sale, or list it it as is in an attempt to get more money. With your license you will throw away less leads and make more money plain and simple.

In regards to regulations, its all about disclosure.

Dan Shoemaker There is a local company here in DFW that provides a MLS service that queries directly from NTREIS (primary MLS here in DFW). The product is called Property Analyzer Pro. I used this service prior to becoming a licensed agent and it is fairly accurate. However, I occasionally encountered errors during usage such as properties not showing up that I knew that had recently sold or slight variance of the final sales price of a home.

Alternatively, Metrotex board of realtors provides associate level access to the MLS for a quarterly fee here in DFW. However, it is not full agent level access and does have some limitations.

Please note the tools mentioned in this post are specific to DFW. I do not have any recommendations for a nationwide product.

Seth Williams Thanks Seth, I appreciate the feedback. SEO tends to be a nebulous a concept. I intend on creating a series of blog posts in the near future that explain the intricacies of SEO in simple terms. Just stating what you need to know without going overboard with extraneous details.

Scott Meredith

To clarify links posted on your youtube videos do not qualify as backlinks. They are flagged as nofollow. Nofollow links do not increase page rank and aid SEO like backlinks do. For a link to be considered a “back link” it must be flagged as dofollow. You can check the status of a link with various firefox SEO extensions, or by simply right clicking on the page and and selecting “view page source” it will show the HTML code of a page. If the link has dofollow it is considered a backlink.

This is not to say that quality youtube videos won’t drive traffic to your website. But it will be through natural click through rate, because your video was informative and of high quality. In the case of youtube all links are categorized as nofollow and do not help increase page rank for organic searches. In other words, no it does not help the overall SEO of your website; however, it can lead potential visitors to your website if they stumble upon your video. In addition, your youtube video can rank independently of your website. So its possible to rank on the front page with both your primary domain and a youtube video.

Here is an illustration I put together to help explain this concept.

Tim Mclaughlin

Check the sticky at the top of this forum, there are many great resources to look over there.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/54108-buyer-s-list-how-to-

Tyler Thrash

The MLS or Multiple Listing Service, is simply a database that brokers use to exchange information. It provides comparables or "comps" that allows users to evaluate property.

There isn't a single MLS system, it is all based on your locality. Some major metropolitan areas might use a single MLS system while others might use several. For instance here in North Texas the primary MLS is NTREIS.

Zillow/Trulia and these other sites are providing general values for markets and subdivisions. These are based on a computer algorithm and not necessarily indicative of what a given property is actually worth.

If you are looking to gain MLS access here are some ideas:

-Some Realtor Boards will allow you to get basic MLS access with some limitations for quarterly membership fees.
-Befriend a realtor
-Become a licensed yourself

Nichole Gabriel
Its not as hard as you think it is to get access. Simply ask for associate access in exchange for dead leads you receive. Once you start your marketing campaign many leads you receive will not be of any use to you as a wholesaler. If they are looking for a traditional retail transaction simply forward that information to the agent you are corresponding with. Some might even give you their direct login information to use.