All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

@John Thedford, just because your complaint was legally sufficient doesn't mean anything. That means you followed the rules in filing and presented the evidence. And maybe you actually do have a case against an unscrupulous wholesaler. But the real question is:

What are you trying to gain?

Are you really trying to help people? Or are you trying to discredit wholesalers in order to try to get that listing business in your state?

Why the F are you all over this site then? You are participating in a hotbed of illegal activity. No one was counseling anyone to violate FL law. You aren't even responding to all of the points.

Ask them if a person has a property under contract, with clear language to tell the seller that they intend to look for an end-game buyer and that they will make middle person money, does it give them an ownership interest? Chances are it does, if all of the language is disclosed and ethical.

Wholesaling is a sketchy business, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people who do it the right way, with and without a license. And spending all your time focused on FL RE and law when it's 1 of 50 states is asinine.

@John Thedford you are aware there are 49 other states, right? Here are some questions to ponder that would become relevant in fighting your "turning in" of wholesalers and the cease and desist. I was a practicing attorney in FL for more than 10 years.

1. Does a contract to wholesale a property, when signed legally by both parties, convey an ownership right in the purchaser?

2. If yes, then they would be a quasi-owner, with a signed contract, who can market the property. Especially if, within that contract, it was clearly stated that they would be wholesaling the house thereby giving the seller notice that they would be marketing it and also would be in the seller's best interest if the wholesaler had an out clause.

3. When saying emails are marketing, does the broadly apply to all emails? Does an email signature at the bottom of an email constitute marketing? The answer is likely no.

You like to quote yourself and your business dealings as gospel, but where is the proof? And what are you trying to gain by trolling Bigger Pockets, a site that touts wholesaling for unlicensed agents as a career-building opportunity, for so-called scammers. Wholesaling does have bad people in it, so does hard money lending, but you won't find me trolling all your hard money posts. There is also an inherent conflict in many deals between RE agent and hard money, especially if you have ever lent to one of your deals.

If you are cold calling someone off a list you built online, they have already received our cards. No one on Earth wants a cold call and reliable numbers are WAY harder to get now with everyone using cell phones and not answering their home phone. Any other means would be more successful. Cold calling is dead. The only way to cold call effectively is to highly curate a list and then vet it through other means to make sure you have the potential of a conversation about real estate when you call.

@John Thedford, you need to calm down and stop spewing your garbage in every forum. I am a former attorney, a licensed real estate agent in NJ. You quoted FL law. I am not in FL. I run an on-market real estate agent business and an off-market property acquisition business that discloses on all postcards that I have a real estate license. Wholesaling does not have to be done as a licensed agent. Sellers are permitted to sell their real estate however they please. Private sales are commonplace. You are targeting a percentage of wholesalers that do use bad tactics and illegal means to defraud homeowners, but there are many of us who know much more than you and practice our business in open and forthright ways to all parties involved.

You absolutely can send out emails about off-market properties. Do you think there is prohibition in the United States against privately marketing real estate? Sellers do not need a license to sell or post their home on Facebook. What about a friend of a seller who tries to help them by posting their FSBO listing? Whatever problems you have with wholesaling, you don't need to dump it into every forum like a psychopath who has been scorned by one deal too many. There are plenty of ethical wholesalers who aren't violating any laws by becoming a middle person for a sale.

What you are spazzing out about is private citizens acting as if they are real estate agents. As long as you clearly identify your role in the transaction, disclose the wholesale price and original price, and be very clear about how the transaction works off-market, you are not violating your requirements under state law for real estate. In some states, the regulations are different, but nothing can prevent ethical wholesaling.

You aren't paying attention in all of these forum blasts to who is talking, what their background is, and how they are responding. So do everyone a favor and stop. Enjoy your business however you want, but stop reverse trolling because you have an issue with wholesaling.

If you want to wholesale, one of the most important skills you will need to develop is working with existing tenants. They can either make your deal impossible or pleasant. You will often have to make side deals with tenants if the plan is to get them to go and you will have to build a relationship with them to gain access. They will be scared they are getting evicted and rightfully so, so you have to explain how this would work. They may not like it. But if they will be difficult, then it won't be worth it unless the deal is so good that you and the subsequent assignee are fine, sight unseen, which is rare.

I agree with @Joe Villeneuve, you would get a lifetime ban from me. 60k offer on 100k after 2 weeks on the market would only be viable if the listing was severely overpriced and you were offering with the comps. What are the reasons for your lowball? Is it a private seller or an REO? If it's an REO you are really wasting your time.

If you want an easy CRM just to manage contacts and sync emails and set tasks, log meetings, etc. Hubspot CRM is free and easy to set up and use just to keep investors in. Podio is best used when you have an off-market mailing business going that can be automated into the program. Podio has many features for investors, but until you have an excess of leads and property options, it's probably not necessary.

Your equation starts with the seller, not the buyer. What does he or she want? Not how much, what is he or she going to use the sale to do? Move, deploy into other investments. You need to know the seller's motivation to properly frame a deal for yourself and for a future buyer. There is no wholesale rate, sellers want the most money they can get or they want you to help them solve a problem. If you can't do either or don't know either, there is no deal and no way to be a middle person to a subsequent sale.

Your first issue is trying to wholesale something off the MLS. That won't happen. If it's on the MLS, all of your buyers have the same access as you do so there is no purpose to a middle person in the equation

Your second issue is that to effectively wholesale you need access to funds, whether you eventually deploy them or not. I won't show my off-market properties without a proof of funds. On-market I don't really care because there is a lockbox. Off-market, there are usually occupants involved and you only get a few bites at the apple without screwing up the deal so you only want qualified buyers in there.

First, you need to check your obligations under your state's real estate law for disclosure. If your entire plan to buy involves then listing the properties on-market your brokerage may want a cut or may not enjoy that you are doing that. Many states require your off-market acquisition letters to disclose that you have a real estate license. I don't understand the lure of listing their distressed properties. The entire backbone of the wholesaling industry is built on not listing properties because they are distressed. Wouldn't you make more money buying a distressed property and then wholesaling it? What property owner who is in trouble wants to pay your listing fees? None.