All Forum Posts by: Kevin Scott

@Liz Cole @Ruth Bayang 

Although I don't know of any case law in Washington there is a major problem with realtors assigning contracts.  Note that it isn't your issue as a buyer.   They are creating an ethics issue which is completely against anything that nar stands for.  If they are telling the owner they will buy the house knowing they can get more for it (by assigning) they aren't fulfilling their obligations as a realtor.  They skirt this by saying they aren't trying to represent the owner but this is really just semantics.  Realistically they should just buy the property completely (not assign) letting the owner know if they listed they would get more, but if they don't want to bother listing (some people really don't care) then buy it close on it and resell it (wholesale).  It would eliminate the grey area and only cost them a little more.  

My guess is nothing will happen at least for a while but at some point the regulations will be more specific and stop allowing this.  Possibly for assigning altogether unless the buyer can prove they went into it intending to truly purchase the property.

I just passed on a deal on l st a wholesaler tied up after I gave the owner an offer and told him to see if the wholesaler (or other investor) could offer more.  He offered 5k less and the guy signed after feeling forced even though i told him what id pay was higher.  Lot of shady stuff the wholesaler did including threatening to sue the owner, but bottom line deals are found in the area. 

The one your talking about was probably a duplex my team was involved in.  We have quite a few pop up here and there so let me know if you want to chat about what in particular you are looking for.

If you plan on doing this even with the really good and important feedback from @Brian Pulaski @John Thedford @Jay Hinrichs   then at least put up a larger earnest money deposit like 500 or better a 1000 and if you don't sell it be ok with losing that money.  IF you aren't willing to risk that then don't tie anyone's property up.  You can do serious damage to someone's life if you fail to close just because you don't have a buyer even if its only for a week.  Ive bailed several people out of situations where they had a "cash buyer" that failed and only had a week until foreclosure auction because of it.  

The truth is you really should take the members mentioned aboves advice.  If you want to wholesale, that is fine but don't do it if you can't close.  Instead of looking at out clauses take some time to learn how you can actually buy the property.  Get some hard money lined up as a backup and if you don't have down payment money get a second person to go in with you as the down payment provider. Or some other creative way to make the purchase work.  Go ahead and try to sell your contract, hopefully you do, but if you can't sell it then you will be able to close.  

This will help you keep your offers reasonable as you might need to take the property down or at least lose a decent amount of earnest money.   If you want a real out clause you could actually tell them you will be using private money and not bank money but it still needs to get approved. 

Just a side note. --

This is the kind of stuff that will eventually start getting fined or worse.  At some point the regulations will get tougher and everyone will blame the government, forgetting that they were the cause of the need to regulate.  When enough people get screwed (unintentionally sometimes) by people claiming to buy with cash and not closing, then something will be done about it and the only people to be blamed are the fake wholesalers and scammers not the government.

I'm not directing this at you @Ryan Kittrell  I know your just getting started and trying to learn as much as possible.  

@Angel-Ty L. said it perfectly as far online paid ads.   Been doing online ads for years and facebook is definitely worth looking at.  

As far as my bread and butter, that would and probably always will be direct mail.  Everything I do revolves around that first then the other forms of marketing are all supplemental.  If your strapped for money then networking and hitting the phones or door knocking makes sense.

I would attend. Your posts about facebook are spot on.  If you are that detailed in a post I would guess you would put out a pretty good webinar

Try timberland bank, Brandon sent me in that direction.  Depends on what you're looking for really though.

I used to use mytracks then switched to birddogg (I think it was called) after a while I created an app through my small team that monitors my sites and crm it took like 3 weeks and cost a few grand, worked well had all the features of mytracks mixed with birddog but eventually I just found mailing to everyone with equity in the area worked best and scrubbing the list with the usps vacant house database worked way easier.  No driving etc.   Sure there are a  few that might still slip through but not as much as people would lead you to believe.

Here's the thing.  There is a misunderstanding of 475.43 stated above. (This of course is an opinion but most states have similar verbage including Washington State which I've given this same response) It does not forbid assigning contracts.  Sure the intent should be to close and its probably best to just close first and resell (wholesale) at a discount if that's what you want to do instead of selling full retail.  But there is nothing in that law that says you can't assign.  It actually gives rules to abide by if you want to assign your contract.     

"however, this section shall not apply to irrevocable gifts, to unconditional contracts to purchase, or to options based upon a substantial consideration actually paid and not subject to any agreements to return or right of return reserved."    

The however gives you right to assign.  Similar to Washington.  Contracts become unconditional at the point where conditions have been met.  To avoid any confusion just make the contracts unconditional from the beginning.  This shows full intent to close.  If you don't close just forfeit your earnest money.  

Sure intending just to assign your contract is should be considered brokering but anyone can get a loan these days for a property that is under contract at the right price so having the means to close is easy to prove.  Its the intent.  The law hasn't gone so far as to punish someone that thought they could close by not allowing them to assign their contract if everything goes bad (that hurts the seller and buyer) or for that matter it still allows someone who decides to sell their contract for a better price on occasion that they have a strong network.

The main thing is that people that wholesale (this is what they should call themselves vs wholesalers) should always have this as an option.  They should buy intending to close but if they have a quick option so to sell their c

how long were they there. That's what matters.   Then with that info you can get some better.