Good suggestions, Eric.
It's been a long-standing problem that wholesalers inflate ARVs, so I've done a lot of thinking on ways to solve it. That's why we put a system in place for members like you to leave feedback on the ARVs. At the bottom of each listing, you'll see a discussion area that says, "Use this discussion to communicate with the seller or to make comments on the ARV, repairs, asking price, and more. Your comments will be visible to all members." This gives you a place to voice your opinion for all to see, so I hope that you're using it.
The problem that we've seen is that it's difficult to get most investors on our site to engage in ways that will help other investors who are pursuing the same deal(s). For example, if Sally sees a property that has a good ARV and great repair numbers, the last thing she's going to do is rate/comment those numbers to be accurate and say that it's a great deal. She'll stay quiet and call the seller directly in hopes of working out a deal to purchase the property. After all, she wouldn't want to encourage competition and possibly lose the deal. In addition, some investors would be motivated to mark the deals that they're interested in as having a bad ARV or repair numbers in an effort to scare off the competition. This is unfair to the wholesaler.
So at the end of the day, it goes back to using ARV and repair numbers as a starting point, not facts, and then doing your own due diligence. And like I mentioned, we do still have the comment area below each deal to voice your opinion.
