All Forum Posts by: Cody Lee

"Hi, [homeowner's name], my name is Dakota. I drove by one of your properties and saw that it needs work. I'm a local home buyer and would love to make your house my next project. If you're even slightly interested in selling, please don't hesitate to call or text me back. I'd love to meet with you at the property and make a cash offer. You can reach me at _, again that's _. Thank you so much for your time, [homeowner's name]!"

I've done a lot of work with probates.

Probate accessibility varies a lot depending on county/state. Have you checked with the courthouse to see if you can access them? If not, there are companies out there that will send you probate data for a fee.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have if you're able to access probates in your area.

$3k for repairs is very low. I'd double check your numbers. If the house needs a new roof, paint, new carpets/flooring, updated appliances or anything like that, your repair costs are probably too low.

You also need to factor in closing costs. If your numbers are accurate, then you need to be much lower than the $82k asking price. At face value, this doesn't appear to be a deal.

I'd recommend using an online program like DocuSign and having them sign remotely.

Probate procedures vary state to state. Often times, you can find probate records by either searching online or physically going to the courthouse. If you have the homeowner's first and last name, they should be able to tell you whether or not a probate was filed.

If you're able to actually view any of the probate documents, try to find the executor's/personal representative's information. This person is court-appointed to handle the estate and often has jurisdiction over what happens to the house.

If a probate wasn't filed, you can try to check their obituary if you can find it and see if it lists any living relatives and then skip-trace them. There are lots of free resources online to help you find this info or you can pay a skip-tracing service to do it for you.

When I do wholesale deals, I put down earnest money when I open escrow on the property. EMD doesn't have to be a lot ($100-$500 in a lot of cases).

When assigning the contract, the end buyer will assume all of the responsibilities of the contract, including earnest money. The escrow officer handling the transaction should refund the earnest money to you at close.

I'd make sure the escrow officer knows to refund the earnest money you put down at close once an end buyer is in place. Some escrow officers may require a demand of escrow which they should be able to help you draft.

If there are back taxes, mortgages or other liens on the property, you can structure the contract to instruct the title company to prorate these costs from the purchase price at close.

Hi Jon,

Wholesalers will typically get a house under contract and then assign, or give ownership of the contract to another party, for a fee. This is illegal if not done correctly.

Russell is correct when he says that what you're describing is brokering without a license which is illegal. 

In order to legally assign a contract, you'd have to prove that you have the funds to buy the property and also demonstrate that you have bought properties in the past to establish good faith.

If you put a house under contract while having no means or intent of buying it, then that's fraud. 

You could try to partner up with a hard money lender and buy the property with little money down and then sell the property. 

You'd need to buy the property for significantly less than market value in order to move it quickly and avoid holding costs.

I'd also brush up on double closes and see if it makes sense for this situation.

Best of luck to you!

Hi Christian,

There are lots of lead generation sites out there. Prices vary greatly depending on quality of leads.

You can often get lists of tax delinquent properties or mortgage defaults for free or low cost from title companies and state offices.

You can find a plethora of lists from many different sources. When choosing a lead gen company, I'd check on these factors to make the best choice for you: cost per lead, how many people they send the lead out to, when the leads were last updated, quality of the lead, conversion rates, etc.

Marketing to certain niche groups like probates and vacant houses can also yield great results.

Good luck!

Congrats, William!

Do you ever market to probates? I've had success finding similar deals by reaching out to executors that don't want the property.

Congrats on the successful flip, Edwin!

If you're looking for your next project, I'd recommend checking out probates and vacant properties. Those niches have worked out well for me in the past.

Keep it going!