All Forum Posts by: Jim S.

@Terry Na Before trying a seminar I would suggest trying either an REIA meeting in your area or even just a more casual meet up. Both of these will provide better networking opportunities with less people trying to sell you something.

@Tua Toiaivao Your idea of doing "hustle methods" before spending tons of money on marketing isn't a bad one as a way to get started and get your feet wet, but I don't think that with the current market conditions you're going to have much success with deals that are listed on the MLS for the reasons others have listed above.

My suggestion would be to look for off-market properties as that is where you're going to find more motivated sellers which is really what you need to be looking for as a wholesaler.  You mentioned driving for dollars- have you had any success with that?  At least in my market (Northeast Ohio) you would have better luck with that than with trying to buy properties already listed with an agent.  What about bandit signs?  I'm not a big fan of those but I know they work and are certainly less expensive than a direct mail campaign.  

If none of these ideas work, you may need to just bite the bullet and sink some money into marketing.

@Dardine Eduardo Soto Wow. Fantastic summary of the way to approach things. The good news about the internet and Bigger Pockets is that there is a MASSIVE amount of information about REI. Of course that's also the bad news! Too much information overload and purchasing 10 books and heading in 20 directions at once will leave you more confused than when you started.

One piece of additional advice I might add from a semi-newbie- read and listen to all that you can but by all means don't actually start investing until YOU are ready.  In other words just because don't have time to waste, don't rush it.  Over and over I see people giving newbies the advice to "take action" and "just go out there and get a deal."  This is good advice for some people, but not everyone.  I fall into the category of people who like to at least have a solid idea of what I'm doing before I try to do it.

Best of luck in you REI journey.

@Scott Anderson My situation is a little different from yours.   I've previously funded some deals for other investors so I currently have the necessary capital to fund my own deals. Since branching out on my own, the areas I'm starting with are wholesaling and fix & flip so I'm really not working with an agent either but rather finding off-market deals on my own.  

However, the best advice I can give you with regard to getting funds is to meet with 4 or 5 banks in your area.  I know that in this day and age you can do banking with someone anywhere in the country but I'm old school and still like to do business face-to-face.  Usually one or two of these will stand out as either having a slightly better rate or will just seem more of a "fit" for your situation.  They'll be able to provide you with pre-approval so that you can feel secure in putting in an offer.  By doing this, you'll also know what amount of loan you qualify for which will allow you to not make offers on properties that are out of your price range.

Hope that helps you at least a little bit.

@Eva Mackowski  Google voice is free and will forward right to your existing cell phone.  It has it's own separate voice mail so you can have a different, more businesslike greeting.  You'll also be able to place outgoing calls that will show up on caller I.D. as coming from your google voice number.

As @Mitch Messer said, it's not all that necessary to have a website initially as a wholesaler, but if you want to go that route, GoDaddy is pretty reasonable and fast & easy to set up a decent looking website.  Down the road you might want to move to something a little more sophisticated like Carrot.

Best of luck to you!

@Scott Anderson

In the past I've funded some deals for others but now I'm striking out on my own so I'm a bit of a newbie too from this angle.  

I'm looking for deals and then based on each individual situation deciding whether to fix & flip or wholesale to someone else.  My long range plan is to also do some buy and holds but right now I'm trying to get my feet wet and since my previous experiences were with fix & flips that seems to be the logical place to start on my own. 

If I find something I want to fix & flip I'm either going to fund the deal myself or depending on the price tag, I have pre-approval for higher amounts.  If I find a deal that I would prefer to wholesale I'll either find a buyer and double close (no assigning of contracts) or if I can't find a buyer in time to meet the closing date I'll close on the deal myself and then work on finding a buyer.  I feel it's really important to not leave the seller holding the bag just because I can't find a buyer (that's also a nice quick way to trash your reputation) so one way or the other I'll make sure the home gets purchased.

You're right about no amount of reading being enough to get you really ready to start but I know that in my case it definitely helped my confidence level when I started having conversations with those in the know to at least in theory (if not practicality) having a fairly thorough understanding of how this whole thing works.

@James Dean-Howell I know that a lot of people on this board & many other places recommend jumping right in to avoid analysis paralysis and for some folks that's good advice.  

You can only read so many books, take so many courses, etc. before you kind of hit a wall. After all, you're never really going to get your REI career launched just sitting behind a computer all day. Many people have done it this way and been phenomenally successful. However since you are looking to house hack and not just trying to find a buyer to assign a contract to, you definitely want to have funding in place or otherwise you're just spinning your wheels so I would recommend getting that together right away.

There's probably no way to avoid that initial feeling of "Oh crap- my phone is ringing, what do I do now?" so letting the calls go to voicemail to give you time to do a little research before you talk to them is probably a good idea.

Best of luck in your investing career!

@jeremy Hostetler Giving your realtor the benefit of the doubt, it still seems to me that at bare minimum he should have kept you in the loop as to what was going on (the listing agent wasn't returning his calls) and also let you know the possible reasons why (multiple offers, etc.).  Just because there maybe was poor communication from the listing agent doesn't mean that your realtor shouldn't have been replying to you in a timely manner.  The property management gig isn't 24/7 so at some point in the day or evening he should have been able to let you know what was going on.

@Alec McGinn In my opinion, it's really best for all parties involved if you have the necessary funds/financing available so that if you aren't able to find a buyer in time, you can just close on the contract yourself and then look for a buyer.  As @Russell Brazil said, if you can't fulfill the contract it's fraud.  I know that this is a really grey area and there are a ton of posts here on the forums regarding what is legal and moral when it comes to wholesaling, assigning contracts, double closings, etc.  If you haven't already done so, you would definitely be doing yourself a favor by reading these posts and also googling to find out what the laws regarding wholesaling are in your state.  It's a lot more complicated than the gurus would have you believe.

Under no circumstances should you put escape clauses in the contract that lets you out of the deal just because you can't find a buyer or find financing.  If you do that you are doing a major disservice to the seller and giving the wholesaling business a bad name.  

I've literally spent hours reading on this topic and I'm really convinced that the best option (both legally and morally) is to just take title yourself and then find a buyer. 

Good luck with whatever path you choose to pursue!

@Daniel Zamora  A few books that I've read on the topic and liked are below.  They were recommended by someone on BP a while back.  

The Art of Wholesaling Properties- Aram Shah

The Real Estate Wholesaling Bible- Than Merrill

Flip- Nick Ruiz