All Forum Posts by: Joseph Ziolkowski

Hey TX,

Ok, here's what you do. After you do your marketing, find a willing seller, and get a contract signed, you take the physical contract to your title company or attorney (best to have one lined up before you market) and have them run a title search on it. The title has to be clean or you can't proceed with the deal. As far as earnest money goes, for a wholesale deal with a private seller, ten bucks should do it. You would state the amount in the contract, and drop off a ten dollar check with the title company for "earnest money" to be put in escrow. Now if you're serious about this, you would already have some buyers lined up. I'm sure you've seen plenty of articles and posts about how to do that on BP. Then it's simply a matter of matching the property to the right buyer and you're off to the races. Even if you don't have a buyer, you can still market the property properly and get the job done as long as it's a good deal. Hope it helps. If you want a copy of the assignment contract, just colleague request me and I'll give you mine fo FREE :D

Hi JC,

You can certainly buy cash if you buy right. Definitely educate yourself. 150k is a great starting point, but like some others said, even if you're buying single family houses, and even if you buy them right, with the rehab you'll likely need to do that 150k will dry up quick.
Wholesaling is a good way to learn how to buy right and figure basic repair costs. Plus it would help you build more capital nearly risk-free, and most importantly, the networking involved will help you to build the relationships that you will need to really stretch out your starting capital. Private lenders, contractors, attorneys, etc.
Also, if you plan to be a landlord, I would put forward that you only really have 100k to purchase and rehab, because you will need a reserve. If you spend all of your nest egg on property, and you suddenly have 3 out of five vacancies, and 2 of those 3 trashed the houses/units, you're wrecked and broke. So much to consider. Like some of the others said, this is a business. If it isn't treated as such, you're setting yourself up for disaster. Just food for thought.

Definitely check the sticky, as well as the gazillion other posts about this. Just offhand, if you're first starting and on a budget, I would suggest

1.Bandit signs (18x24) Handwritten(cheap)

2. Ads on Craigslist/Backpage/Kijiji, etc.(free)

3. Postcards (somewhat inexpensive)

4. A classified ad in a local paper (a little pricey)

5. Drive-by's (If you see a dumpster in front of an obvious rehab, stop inside and chat up the owner/crew)

6. Have a realtor pull comps for you for all of the cash sales in your farm area for the last 6 months. Pick a price that you feel represents investor pricing and go up to that. Then get the names of the buyers and contact them. (free, but I gave my realtor a starbucks card to thank her)

7. Call every For Rent sign that you see. These are likely landlords. If not, maybe they will be willing to sell at a discount (free and kills 2 birds with one stone)

That should get you going. Hope it helps!

Hi Dan,

If you are already acting in the capacity of a bird dog on these particular deals, and your investors already think that, it might tick them off if you took it a step further and basically scooped them on the contract. In the future, to be a wholesaler, just do the stuff you already do, plus get the property under contract. Simple as that.
As far as finders fees being illegal, that isn't exactly true. What the others were saying is true, however. It's all in what you call it. If you are a serious bird dog, and treating it like a business, you aren't "finding properties" for people per se. What you are doing is selling information. As a bird dog you are an information broker. Companies sell lists all the time. Your lists are just short, specific, and comprehensive. You follow? Hope it helps!

Hi Mark,
I use bandit signs to market for buyers even when I don't have a deal. Make at least some of them outrageous like Brian said. For example, on one of them I wrote, "Rehabbers/Landlords, Crazy Deals On SFH, CASH ONLY. But then on another one, I wrote, "I'm Selling My Little Brother! CASH ONLY!
3/2 SFH Needs Repairs, Appriased:180k
Asking:100k"

Switch the numbers to fit your area's values, of course, but that's a pretty good ratio to use. Just over 50% ARV after repairs. Hope it helps!

What I would do is get a sheet of yellow legal paper (letter-sized) and write on there something to the effect of:

Dear (first name)
My name is (your name).
My wife/brother/etc (their name) would like to buy your house on (address). My phone number is ###-###-####. Please call me back.

Sincerely,
(you).

Write that in red ink, and use a thank-you card-sized envelope to mail it. That will likely get it opened. This isn't my trick, I learned it from someone else, but it works. Hope it helps

This is truely awesome! It's great to know that stuff like this actually happens on this site. Nick's right, of course. I've never seen this happen anywhere else. Keep making BP the best site of its kind Josh!

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Great point James, thanks! Glad to see this thread revived. You can never know too much about propert valuation!

Samuel, good for you man! It's always so good to hear about a first deal. How exciting! I know I'm not the first to say this, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your service. You guys are the best of us.