All Forum Posts by: Donald Robers

@Canesha Edwards - Thank you for the clarification.  As I said above I have not explored this area of RE and so I spoke more as a buy and hold type.  As I find myself saying often on this site, I appreciate your insight and expertise!

I would.  But I have never attempted to wholesale.  The cost and time it would take you to get an inspection on every property you consider would be a problem.  Either learn the major defects to watch for yourself or partner with someone who does. 

@Account Closed

Experience will help you a lot.  @Canesha Edwards knows a lot more about her field than I do (and at present you do).  Look up her posts to see what she thinks about some of the questions that you have about wholesaling.

For example, she has the ability to walk a property and make an informed opinion about possible problems.  I can not do that and right now neither can you.  But you must learn or you will spend a lot of money getting a professional inspection on each property you are interested in buying.

It can work like that as long as that is what is in the contract that you enter into with your seller.  The Offer To Purchase contract is basically you telling the seller what you will do to buy his property.  The seller can either accept your terms, reject them, or counter-offer terms of his own.

@Account Closed - I think I know what you are getting at.  Some of the "nothing-down" proponents used to , and may still, suggest that you give a seller the choice of several different scenarios for the purchase of their property.

For example you could offer full payment in cash, a larger payment with owner financing, a lease option, or any other combination of concessions and rewards to entice the owner to sign.

Thing is, I do not know how well this would work for you.  From your posts you seem to want to wholesale, which pretty much means that you want to tie up the property and then assign it to a 3rd party to get your money.  Inherently this is a short-term process so a lot of the low or no money options will do you no good.  This multiple offer approach would also work much easier in a "kitchen table" setting where you could sit down with the owner and present the offers side-by-side.

I would certainly not advise you to just shotgun multiple offers at different prices.  As @Matt Crusinberry pointed out, you will lose credibility in your ability to close any deal.

@Account Closed - Ideally you have educated yourself in enough of the basics of construction and local property values to give an informed offer.  If the inspection turns up any unapparent defects you modify your offer accordingly.

@Darla Smith I have seen many different payment schedules.  The main idea is to give the contractor an incentive to complete the work within a reasonable time frame.  In your agreement you should allow a minimum initial draw (for material and manpower) and then subsequent payments at the completion of various stages of the job.  Final payment after all work is completed and inspected.

Be more or less flexible in your terms depending on the contractor's local presence, reputation, and years in business.

I would think that a seller would be more scared of a custom, obviously pro-buyer contract than of your standard state-approved contract modified with your contingencies.  Given that you do intend to close the transaction you can specify time until closing, earnest money (or lack thereof), inspection period and financing needs.  As long as you make the contract assignable ( by signing it Your Name OR ASSIGNS) you have a contract that is pre-approved by the RE regulatory body of your state.

Whether wholesaling itself is legal or ethical in your state is another discussion.

I have never attended a RE training seminar but I have read enough on BP to distill a few cautionary principles to keep in mind :

1. The person who introduces themselves as your adviser, coordinator, group leader or consultant is a salesperson.  They are not there to give you knowledge, they are there to get your money.  Use the same filters and barriers you would use if approached by a salesperson in a car dealership or the appliance section of a retail outlet.

2. Never give out financial information or identity metrics at one of these events.  See point # 1.  You have no idea where your information could end up.

3. Just because a seminar is named after or endorsed by a celebrity does not mean the methods being touted are the ones used by said celebrity.  It just means they paid to use the name/reputation.

4. If you find yourself tempted to purchase additional levels of training remember that the "special, limited, early-bird, one-time" offer is going to be heavily discounted by the end of the seminar.  Do not be among the first sheep to flock to the sign-up table.  You may not avoid being fleeced but you might avoid slaughter.

5. You may have to dig for this information but if you find that the sponsoring organization is based in Utah walk away.  I am sure there are many fine businesses in that state but it seems to be the cesspool that breeds most of these GuruFests.

@D.J. M. Also check the HOA rules to be certain that using your property as a rental is even allowed. Many HOA communities limit the number of rental units either because a renter is viewed as less committed to the community than an owner or due to the reluctance of some banks to finance property in high renter-to-owner ratio communities.

Be especially careful if you plan to do short-term vacation rentals or something like AirBnB.  Otherwise cooperative HOAs sometimes draw the line at these "transient" rentals.