All Forum Posts by: Chris Feltus

Got you covered. Tis the season (almost). I think I am going to love this mold, more leverage to negotiate a better offer.

Not to disrupt from the OP, but @Travis West I was looking at a house today and discovered mold on a few of the walls. What do you think it might be, the same Aspergillus/Penicillium or Cladosporium type molds as in the original post?

For the type in this of mold in the photo, what might be a conservative $ psf estimate for mold remediation? Thanks

Pig tail the ends, should pass inspection & wont require you to rewire the house.

@Georgia H. Hang in there, getting that first property is often the toughest part and a big struggle.

It took me 6 months to find my first property. And I let several fall through my fingers prior to that due to not enough experience at the time. I was getting frustrated , disheartened and discouraged. I was working so hard, and receiving nothing in return. Some months I received zero leads, yet I continued to mail. Commit to being consistent and persistent and you will find properties. Do whatever it takes, get a second job if you have to that will contribute towards marketing. If your current budget is too high and unsustainable, scale it back to something that is, the key again is being consistent. And once you get your first closing, take all the money you can and pump it back into marketing as @Lamar Cannon suggested.

I just want to take a second and make sure you are structuring your marketing campaign correctly. From the onset you need to try. You cant create motivation, but you can try to filter your lists such that there is potential for it. Some "red flags" can potentially be: code violations, out of state absentee owners, probate, inheritance list etc. Also make sure you are filtering for equity. You can use list source LTV ratio as a rough approximation or use deed date 15+ years back (this is what I personally use). Because remember you need equity & motivation to get a good deal on a property typically.

The next most important factor is to set a mailing schedule such that you touch on the same lead list multiple times throughout the year. Personally here is what I do after I have generated a list.

The number of leads I pull from the list is dependent upon what my monthly marketing budget is. For example if I can afford to spend $1,000 per month on mailers (you don’t have to start here) that’s roughly 3,000 post cards.

Continuing on the above example, then you break your large list, into 3 groups of 3,000 leads. Group A, B and C. Then for the whole year I continue to mail these groups rain, sleet or snow. The mailing schedule might look like this

Group A – Jan 3,000 cards
Groub B – Feb 3,000 Cards
Group C – March 3,000 Cards
Group A – April 3,000 Cards
Groub B – May 3,000 Cards

Also keep in mind a sellers motivation will change through time. They may not be motivated or even call if you mail them in January. However, by the 4th mailing come September they may very well be motivated and your message will have been received by them 4 times.

Drive for dollars if you can, its great and only costs you time and gas money. I wrote about it in depth on the BP blog Driving for Dollars guide.

After that first property, it seemed like momentum really started to pick up for me. I get calls from postcards I sent out months ago, the marketing will build on itself. Hang in there, you can do this. All the frustration and hardship is SO worth it in the end. Keep at it.

Sorry for the long post, truly hope it helps.

@Windie G. Welcome to the forums. There is a lot to learn, but that doesn't mean you can't get started today taking it one step at a time. I would recommend focusing on a few key pieces of the puzzle right now. They are:

• How to determine ARV or After Repair Value. Whats the house worth when it is sold in retail condition? I wrote a blog article on this precise subject here
• For determining ARV You will need MLS access to pull accurate comps (comparables). You can gain access by becoming an agent yourself, family that is an agent, networking with local agents in exchange for leads you can't work. There are also some services that provide MLS access for a monthly cost without being an agent, but I find using the MLS to have the best results. Red Fin.com also has MLS data for sold comps in most metro areas. They do a fairly good job at getting most of the comps, but its not perfect. They also do not include rental comps.
• Next determining repairs or ERC (Estimated Repair Costs). Begin networking with local investor friendly contractors. See if you can meet them on site for some rehabs in progress. If the property needs foundation or roof work bring the appropriate contractor if you can, offer to pay for their time. Walking through a low's / home depot can give you a general idea of costs as well. Additionally, ask if they can provide you with a sheet that gives general estimates. For instance, generally here in North Texas you can expect $3-4 per sq ft for paint and flooring. You can find investor friendly contractors at local REI groups.
• Knowing how to do all the above is a good start, but to start finding deals you will need an active marketing campaign. Figure out what groups you want to target (for instance probate, absentee owners etc). @Sharon Vornholt has some great articles about this on her blog for instance here. The key to having a successful marketing campaign is to set your budget, no matter how large or small, and commit to mailing every month rain sleet or snow, calls or no calls. There is a direct correlation between the amount of times you mail a list and the amount of quality leads you find.
• You will also need to generate a list in which to mail. A common suggestion here is to use List Source .com. Personally, I prefer querying my local appraisal district myself, but you will need some basic database skills in access in order to do so.

Hope that helps give you some sense of direction, best of luck.

@Sharon Vornholt

Use the TREC 1-4 Residential Resale form. I did a brief walkthrough of how to use the form Here. You can download the full form from here. Make sure to provide the sellers disclosure notice of property condition (only properties excluded from this are estates and REO's), and if the property is built prior to 1978 you must include the lead based paint addendum. You can find all of these forms mentioned on TRECs website www.trec.stste.tx.us/forms

Fairly certain they reverse amortize to estimate equity. However, just because the property indicates there may be a lot of equity on paper doesn't necessarily mean its reality. For instance, they could have refinanced and pulled the cash out a week ago.

To make things simpler, I just use a rough estimate based on deed date 15+ years back for equity.

Partnered with another wholesaler in the area who has a much larger database than my own. And when I said today, I should have revised that to "just now".

Wholesale deal - today - 2 hours.

This is far too general. In my market $10 psf will likely only cover cosmetics such as paint and flooring, fixtures, doors, windows etc. What happens when the property needs a new roof? That's at least another $3 psf, what happens if it needs moderate foundation work, thats another 3-4$ psf at least. Uh oh, the foundation is swelling, there is a good chance there is a under slab leak, that's another 5k gone.

What would have happened you tried to budget this on $10 psf ? You would have a junk contract.

I hope you see where I am going. It is one thing to be conservative and overestimate the repairs needed on a given property, and quite another to try and blanket every property with an arbitrary $10 psf rule.