All Forum Posts by: Joe Cantanzriti

@Amanda Moore I'm not a wholesaler, however lead capture and follow up are pretty universal concepts.. so my question/suggestion to you would be this: I am assuming you are at least receiving some amount of phone calls from your marketing which tells you that you have at least some level of an interest to sell from property owners. Though you haven't been able to close on one yet, have you been following up with the leads after your initial conversations? For example, someone calls in and you chat with them to find that they may not be interested in selling right then at your price for whatever reason, however over the next several months their motivation may change so a follow-up system should most certainly be in place to touch base with them again and again.

On top of that, be sure you are finding 'why' they called in the first place because your main goal should be to solve their problem before all else as this will inevitably lead to closing deals.

@Douglas T. I think you nailed it on the head already... differs from lender to lender for sure... my experience has been that it needs to be 12 months of rental income on your tax return so it would depend on what month you start renting it. Would this be your only verifiable income? You should be able to secure a 50% LTV mortgage with no problem with really pretty minimal income showing I would think.

Craigslist is a great source for deals for sure..... a good place to start is in the rental section, you have a whole list of rental property owners at your fingertips who may be interested in selling. Just go down the list and call up every rental listing that appears to be a non-institutional owner or a property obviously managed by a professional management company. It's a great way to fine tune your phone skills as well, you never know when you might catch a landlord at the right time where they've had enough of that property or maybe another one. 

Also you can check out some other areas of craigslist too that could lead to a potential deal.... garage sales or estate sales posted on craigslist could mean a future home that will need sold as well. 

Get a realtor out there to get a price opinion on it, it's free and gives you a place to start. Depending on where you bought of course you may be in an area where a distressed property is very desirable to an investor that the realtor may know. Would be an easy place to start... of course if you could get it into the BP marketplace with more details and maybe some pics that would be an even better place to start.

I wouldn't think you're going to find any luck negotiating the fees when they're piled up that high at this point but certainly doesn't hurt to ask.

@Josh Sartori  This sounds very interesting.... this bank is allowing you to do make up 15% of the down payment with sweat equity? That's pretty awesome! I would think you could easily just use a scope of work template as @John Rogers mentioned which I'm sure you have a version of roughed out anyways for yourself internally to know what your getting into. Fill us in on some more details if you could. 

@Ryan Pounds At 15 your posting on a Real Estate Investing Forum, that's a huge step in the right direction right there my friend. You're certainly the youngest person I've run into that has an interest already in real estate so congrats right there on the foresight to know where you want to go. You're already in the right place to have the help you are requesting, just keep hopping into these forums and ask questions, read posts and comment and as @Mindy Jensen mentioned, you'll find yourself in communication with local investors who you may be able to do some work with & for over the next couple years to really get your feet wet in the industry. Also if you havent already go over to the Bigger Pockets podcasts and start at episode #1, listen to them all. I'm a soon to be Chicago resident so with your excitement about the industry already, I'm sure I'll be running into you down the line. 

Silas Lee I would say your realtor friend has made a great point, the aggressive marketing that the best wholesalers do would certainly generate a great deal of leads as a realtor since most realtors aren't doing hardly any marketing, especially to the properties that a typical wholesaler would be marketing to. Just because you have your real estate license doesn't mean you have to go out and show houses all weekend to first time home buyers either. You can get your license and stay focused on the investment side and only work with investors as you would a wholesaler. Plus you have the major added benefit of selling these homes to your investors and then for those who are rehabbers/flippers, you could also list their rehabbed homes for sale retail and make your listing commission on that end as well.

@Jon Crocilla I'm about to be moving to Chicago within the next month or so currently focused on the move and getting management in place for my properties here in Ohio before I leave but once I'm settled I'll be jumping right back into the market. 

As far as how to get your potential deals out there to the public, just start being present on BP and become part of the community. 

Mike Cumbie Great Answer. . I've certainly been there and unfortunately it's not that agents are ignoring or avoiding potential buyers, it's just that there 1 serious one for every 20 that are interested in looking. The more serious you can possibly be up front with your Realtor, the better chance you have of a prompt response for the deal properties. Get them your Proof of Funds, pre-approval or whatever else you can to prove you've got the money and are ready to move on the deal. But I still think this brings up something I personally believe strongly in, which is to get your real estate license as it will prove to be invaluable when getting started because of situations like this. I'm not saying you should always represent yourself but for starting out its a great tool to have in your toolbox.

@Eric La Pratt  I have been wondering the same thing.... I'm about to be a Chicago transplant and all I've heard from everyone here in Youngstown is how bad Chicago is with all the shootings and blah blah blah. However I've been there several times in the past few months and have driven and walked around to start to get my bearings and from my naive view of the city so far it seems that it's quite obvious where there is heavy crime and where the fringe areas meld with the "up & coming".... though I realize it's not as simple as that of course when you're talking which investment property to buy from another. Still many many years of learning the Chicago dynamic ahead for me but it's been an interesting experience beginning my neighborhood evaluations. Calling the police department seems to be a great plan though as opposed to getting the varying opinions of some realtors and those who don't actually invest in those areas and just watch the evening news in fear.