All Forum Posts by: Guy Olds

@Edrin Shamtob  I don't know why you would want to buy out of California when there are so many places in California which cash flow though house prices are stretching that a bit. 

Here are the cites that I know about in SoCal where you can cash flow (and there may be others) parts of Bakersfield, Lancaster, Palmdale, Hemet, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree.

I'm a wholesaler in the Inland Empire and occasionally run across cash flowing properties in Hemet, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree. Let me know if you're interested. I can put you on my buyer's list.

@Pratik P.  You seem to have lost track of the other investor website builder I mentioned. In addition to Investor Carrot there is Lead Propeller. They are somewhat similar and somewhat similar priced.

Since you are a wholesaler, don't forget that you will need or at least want at least 2 sites. One for sellers and one for cash buyers. If you optimize for sellers will cash buyers find you or will they find your content relevant for them. And vice a versa. 

Also the people at Lead Propeller (i.e. Danny Johnson) has a CRM called REI Mobile that works directly with their websites.

As for your mailing questions, I do my own probate mailings in house and it's a horrible time suck. But I do my 2,000 postcard mailings through yellowletters.com. They're down in Bakersfield and they do a good job for me. Small postcards are only $.43 a piece. All I have to provide is a spreadsheet with my mailing list and all mail merge elements. Then either design my own postcard or pick one of theirs. Now you have time and money left over.

@Richard Yerger  Probate is not a national law. Although the intent of probate is similar, every state has different probate laws and within each state probate is managed differently by each county. You need to research what goes on in your state in regards to probate law.

As for needing a real estate license, you don't need a license to buy probate property unless that case needs to come before a judge - most don't.

In California, where I'm from, you do not need to be licensed to buy probate property if the PR has Full Authority because the sale of property then becomes a standard sale and anyone can do a for sale by owner in a standard sale. This may be true for most states.

Yes you can wholesale a probate sales contract provided no realtor is involved. Realtors make it difficult to wholesale. But you have to be aware of wholesaling restrictions and laws in your state. There are some very big wholesalers in Florida so it must be legal there.

@Pratik P. If you are an expert at building websites and an expert in onsite SEO then by all means build your own website. You will save yourself $20-$30 per month for the hundereds of hours need to accomplish your goal. But remember you must have a blog if you want to attract anyone to your website. And Wordpress is a very easy way to set up a blog and is Google friendly. Don't know how Squarespace website works but you must believe it will get you onto the first page of Google because of your own personal SEO and website ability.

On the other hand, if you are like most of us, myself included, we would prefer to get to page one of Google by working with real estate investor friendly website makers who know how to get us investors to the top of the rankings. We still have to work at it but the platform is ready to go. 

I use Investor Carrot  but Lead Propeller could work just as well. I'm sure there are others.

And SEO takes years to learn because it's constantly changing. I say just leave it to others. You're a wholesaler not a website designer or SEO tech.

@Kevin Eggleston  Podio is a very malleable CRM. You can set it up in a way that perfectly suits the way your business is set up. In fact, you can set it up in a way that is just like the way you think. 

When I had someone set up my Podio for what they thought was great for their wholesaling business it just didn't work for me. I'm constantly revamping each App weekly sometimes daily as new issues come up. 

While it's great to try to find out how the big guys do things but you have remember that Sean Terry sets his up for a 10 person team.  The set up will be very different for a solo wholesaler like me. 

In the Podio App store there is a free setup of multiple Apps for real estate investors that you can change and revamp to your hearts delight.

@Greg Leach  @Mark Pedroza  As for Mark's comment that probate purchase agreement will be required, that is not true, I believe. Only realtors are supposed to use the CAR (California Association of Realtors) purchase agreement. And since you want to buy the property without a realtor you are not required to use their purchase agreement. You can use any purchase contract you want. Just make sure it does what you need it to do. 

If a realtor lists a probate property they will require that an offer comes in on the 9 page CAR contract and the multi-page probate addendum. If a probate property is being sold under Limited Authority and thus needs court confirmation any offer must be on the CAR contract plus the probate addendum because there is a realtor involved.

If you are buying a probate property or a property that doesn't need to be probated you can use any contract you choose if a realtor is not involved.

Greg, you just need to make sure that at some point you are talking to the family member who has the legal right to sell the house if that's what the family wants to do. Oh and you should know that most probate houses that get sold get sold through realtors because they aren't distressed situations.

@Hendrick B.  My biggest problem with big national guys like Sean Terry is that they aren't in your local market. And that's even though Sean Terry's podcast is awesome and you should be listening to all of podcasts from number 30 to the current ones.

My recommendation is a local SoCal investor and instructor. He knows what works in our market. I took his course 5 months ago and now I'm working as a wholesaler. PM me and I'll give you info about his upcoming course. I'm not shilling for him and get nothing if you sign up.

@Amitpal Gill  Yes a formal white letter can work though it depends on the market. From reading posts in forums those letters can work quite well. But, if you live in a highly competitive market that white business letter just won't work. Then you have to find a way to stand out. In the Pittsburgh area I think plain white may do fine to start. Though you can always throw in a fancy envelope every now and then as a test to see what the results are. 

@Amitpal Gill  As you will eventually find out, motivated sellers in probate are more limited than you imagined and they involve the more complicated problems in real estate but it is doable if you know what you're doing.

First, you will be writing to the executor or administrator (known as the personal representative or PR) of the estate. They have to have the power to sell the property without court confirmation. You also should make sure that there is property in the estate. 

There could be many heirs needed to approve the sale. You will need to mail to the PR's consistently for up to one year. And I've never heard of yellow letters working in probate but then I haven't heard of everything.

Probate is a very small niche. You need to figure out what their problems are. Cash is a result not a problem.

@David Jarvi Yes Joshua Tree AirBnB and VRBO's are killing it. But then those are glorified rentals not flips.