All Forum Posts by: Jordan Solomon

@Grant Rothenburger  Right, I know I have to get that number (the repair cost estimate) somehow, and know that no one is going to do that for free, but to me the issue is are you paying for that service BEFORE EVEN MAKING AN OFFER? If so, it seems like it would be easy to be badly in the red before even getting a house under contract (in addition to, obviously, the marketing costs). Hope that makes sense. Thanks!

Hi. I actually upgraded to Pro membership primarily to be able to ask this one question in the Pro forum -- that's how important it is to me! What I'm interested in doing, for several reasons (most importantly the difficultly of my home market) is so-called virtual wholesaling -- wholesaling outside of my area. I know that there's some discussion of this topic on BiggerPockets, but one specific issue I don't see being addressed as much as I would like is the repair cost issue when you're wholesaling virtually and therefore can't actually walk the house.

I know the general answer is "get boots on the ground," but that, I think, still leaves a lot of questions. It seems like if you need someone to go to the house and take a look at it, that's something you would have to pay for. The problem with that, as I see it, is that the repair costs are part of what determines your offer amount (the whole 70% minus repair costs thing). It seems like it would be very difficult to pay someone to do a repair estimate just to know how much to OFFER on a property, especially considering how so many offers get rejected in this business. Please understand that I'm perfectly willing to give back some of my profit by paying for such a service if I already had the property under contract with a good chance of closing, but again, the problem here seems to be in the order of the events -- you need the repair estimate before you can put it under contract.

So, for those relatively few who do engage in virtual wholesaling, or at least those who know about it, how do you solve this conundrum? Do you actually pay every time a seller just expresses potential interest in doing a deal with you, or have you found a feasible way around this? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thank you!

@Account Closed

I actually went through just about the same exact thing with Kayleigh a couple of months ago regarding their non-phone support phone support. To be fair to Kayleigh, I know she doesn't call the shots there and is just doing her job -- this is on Ross Hamilton, himself. But one thing that hooked me in when deciding to purchase their "Really Flip" product was the idea that there were real estate experts there I could call at any time and ask real estate questions. That is a blatant lie. Yes, you can e-mail someone (basically Kayleigh) with customer service or tech support questions, but that's hardly the same thing as actual real estate questions. Actually just about EVERYONE offers some kind of customer service or tech support by e-mail -- that's hardly a special feature of Connected Investors. Furthermore, once I signed up, I was told, in his introductory materials, that I would be receiving a call for a one-on-one strategy session. Yet, it never happened, and when I asked about it, sure enough, Kayleigh said it was no longer available. 

And that's not even all. Their "Value App" is just the opportunity to PAY for a value report, something which I'm pretty sure Ross never mentioned in his webinar. Maybe it's reasonable that people should have to pay for such a report, but it's still something that should be made clear BEFORE people buy. I also find their Repair Estimates app very unclear. I did e-mail Kayleigh about it, but, sure enough, the answers were very evasive. 

Is Connected Investors a scam? I don't know. There might be ways to benefit from what it has to offer, but what I feel comfortable saying is that they engage in a LOT of false advertising (notice I don't say "misleading" or "deceptive" -- saying you offer phone support when you don't is just plain-old "false").

@Account Closed I don't think it was really a "jab," but I do think investing outside of one's area (and wholesaling is, I think, kind of investing) requires more knowledge than what you're making it out to be. I mean, investing itself isn't easy, and doing so outside of one's area even more so. So while I don't consider it a "jab," I don't agree with you, and this is something I do see on BiggerPockets from time to time. For example, discussions on how to find private money with comments like "just talk to everyone you know about what you do." I don't agree that that's that easy, either. 

Quite frankly, using your logic, David Greene could have skipped his book and just said "find a contractor to do good work and don't let fear get in the way." And on some level that's true! But it still didn't preclude him from writing a valuable book on the subject.

@Account Closed Well, I think the process is probably a bit more complex than just that, so I still think there is a need for some serious literature on the subject.

@Tim Ivory Glad to see this thread finally received another response. The funny think is that I had never heard of "Virtual Wholesaling for Dummies" (I was hoping it was a real Dummies book!). That said, yes, the reviews aren't particularly impressive, so I guess it's still a topic that could use better coverage.

This question was actually inspired by the new BiggerPockets book by David Greene about long-distance investing. As those of you who read it probably know, the book doesn't really pertain to wholesaling as opposed to rehab and buy-and-hold. Which is absolutely fine, obviously, but does raise some questions for those primarily interested in wholesaling but who want to do so long-distance. 

Here's my specific question. The book makes it clear that an agent is one of the most important members of one's long-distance real estate team. But since almost all wholesaling seems to involve off-market properties, not properties listed on the MLS, using agents doesn't apply. How does one deal with this problem? That is, who fills this role instead when wholesaling virtually? I guess another way to ask this is this: how does one work long-distance real estate investing when going after off-market properties?

Hope you, Brian (or at least someone), is still watching this thread.

You probably don't remember, but I actually brought up the subject of long-distance WHOLESALING (which the book doesn't really go into) at the webinar you did last month. I had asked you if long-distance wholesaling is even possible, which you and Brandon both agreed it is, but obviously didn't really have time to go into detail.

Here's my specific question, though. The book makes it clear that an agent is one of the most important members of one's long-distance real estate team. But since almost all wholesaling seems to involve off-market properties, not properties listed on the MLS, using agents doesn't apply. How does one deal with this problem? That is, who fills this role instead when wholesaling virtually? I guess another way to ask this is this: how does one work long-distance real estate investing when doing after off-market properties?

Thanks!

@Daniel Paloscio Okay -- really good to know. Thanks so much!

@Daniel Paloscio Actually, I did take a look at marketlikeawholesaler.com and have a couple of questions. First, is there any way to, like with Listsource, gets the leads themselves without the letters (as in doing that part myself), or are they only sold together? Also, does it allow you the ability to select very specific criteria like Listsource, or are they just preset general lists (like general absentee owners, etc.)? Thanks again!